Game Boy Color Receives Real-Time Video Streams via Raspberry Pi Pico

Just four days ago, ChromaLock, a well-known YouTuber, shared an intriguing new hardware venture on his channel. This time around, he introduced us to a modified Game Boy Color that can play videos through its original link cable. This fascinating setup works thanks to a Raspberry Pi Pico and some custom software fine-tuned for the job.

Typically, simpler videos achieve higher frame rates, which translates into surprisingly smooth and clear playback. Compared to the traditional Game Boy Camera add-on, even a basic USB webcam performs admirably. However, most videos work best in monochrome, given the Game Boy Color’s limited palette of just four colors, which makes it tricky to render more complex visuals on its modest 160 x 144-pixel display.

For those looking to try this themselves, ChromaLock has made the software tool available—it’s called CGBLinkVideo. You can find it on GitHub, where it uses a mix of custom and open-source code. But there’s a catch: while the software compresses video to 1 Megabyte per second, the link cable only supports a maximum of 64 Kilobytes per second. This means the video frames are severely compressed, leading to frequent frame drops or glitches. Despite this, the video playback surprisingly still works quite well.

In ChromaLock’s complete video, he not only showcases video playback but delves into the challenges he faced working with the Game Boy Color’s limitations. When played in grayscale or monochrome, videos can hit a smooth 60 FPS, but if you switch to color, it’s a much choppier experience at around 12 FPS.

They also tried streaming some video games. While original Game Boy games didn’t fare too well, modern high-resolution games like Doom Eternal were especially problematic, as the Game Boy Color’s outdated low-res screen struggled to display them meaningfully.

ChromaLock’s main aim with this project seemed to be proving that he could stream the iconic Touhou Project music video “Bad Apple” on a Game Boy Color. The original video was already monochrome, making it feasible to reach 60 FPS. However, the streaming method does introduce noticeable dithering.

Every now and then, it’s exciting to see how someone can push the boundaries of old technology in new ways. And in this case, ChromaLock has provided quite the captivating experiment for the gaming community.