gameboy-view

We take a look at a Japanese website that lets you transform your photos into 8-bit, Gameboy-style works of art!

We all remember the Nintendo Game Boy. For many of us, this little 8-bit powerhouse was our first encounter with mobile gaming. From its original release in 1989, Nintendo’s little game console provided millions of people the world over the chance to enjoy addictive hits like Super Mario and Tetris even when they weren’t near a television.

Sure, in retrospect some of these games were just slightly-strange, monochromatic versions of their NES counterparts (Super Mario Land anyone?), but for many of us old folks who grew up then, the almost pocket-sized Game Boy was an essential companion on long car journeys and trips to visit boring relatives.

Personally, playing my dad’s Game Boy remains one of my earliest, and most cherished memories as a child, and I continue to enjoy playing Game Boy classics to this day.

▼ Thanks to my wife, who has 5 of them for some reason!

gameboys

Well good news for all of the hopeless nostalgists out there — an awesome new Japanese website offers you the chance to transform any image into a slightly green-tinged, pixellated, 8-bit works of art.

The website, which is called GB Pic, includes a very simple interface, which allows you to easily upload image files. To do so, just click the button at the top with the message “ファイルを選択” and select the image you want — it will be uploaded and immediately transformed into crudely-rendered 8-bit versions of the original. Imagine the possibilities!

▼ Self-Portrait

gameboy-portrait

The website also features a number of additional functions that allow you to adjust the contrast/brightness, as well as the filter color, so you can go for that “almost out of batteries, oh crap, do we have any double-A batteries, oh wait, I’ll just use the batteries from the TV remote” look. Try adjusting the sliders under the image to change the brightness, color filters, dot matrix and more.

▼And for good measure, I tried one out on a photo of my cat too!

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What are you waiting for? Get over there and try it out for yourself! And then you can try running the images through this service that turns rough sketches into crisp line drawings to see how they turn out!

Sources: RocketNews 24, GB Pic
Images: RocketNews 24, Nintendo Gameboy