Delta Camera, an app that emulates the monochromatic photo style of Nintendo’s old Game Boy Camera, is now available in closed beta. A full release is planned for later this year, though you can gain beta access by contributing to the developer’s Patreon.
The Game Boy Camera launched in 1998 and was, for a time, the world’s smallest consumer-grade digital camera. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a “good” camera. It produced images with a 256x224 resolution and utilized a four-color pallet—four shades of gray, really. Still, there’s a certain charm to the Game Boy Camera that people have always appreciated, and the device remains fairly popular thanks toYouTubers and tinkerers.
Delta Cameraemulates the Game Boy Camera’s low-res monochromatic style but offers manual brightness, contrast, and exposure settings. It supports zoom, it’s compatible with the Camera Control slider on newer iPhones, and it contains some extra features, such as the ability to shoot panoramas. Interestingly, it also appears to use a software interface similar to the one Nintendo designed almost 30 years ago.
If the name “Delta Camera” sounds familiar to you, that’s because it was created by Riley Testut, the developer behind Delta Emulator—an app that lets you play classic Nintendo games on iPhone and iPad. Delta Emulator was one of the first retro game emulators to arrive on iPhone after Appleadjusted its App Store policiesin 2024. It’s also the flagship app of theAltStore, a third-party App Store alternative available in the European Union.
It’s worth mentioning that the original Game Boy Camera was capable of printing photos on the Game Boy Printer, which used thermal paper rather than ink. You could probably accomplish something similar with the Delta Camera app and aZink printer(which is just a souped-up thermal printer). It’d be a fun novelty, at the very least.
However, Delta Camera doesn’t appear to have any built-in minigames. While I doubt that modern users will care about minigames, they were a hallmark of the original Game Boy Camera.
The Delta Camera app will enjoy a wide release later this year. but you can gain beta access today by subscribing to theRiley + Shane Patreon. Subscriptions start at $3 a month.
