Raspberry Pi Pico Enables Live Video Streaming on Nintendo Game Boy Color

Just a few days back, ChromaLock, a well-known YouTuber, shared an exciting new video on his channel. In it, he dove into a fascinating project where he ingeniously modified a Game Boy Color so it could play videos using its classic link cable. He accomplished this by utilizing a Raspberry Pi Pico along with custom-developed software that is tailored to manage this unique task.

Now, when it comes to video playback on this setup, simpler clips tend to enjoy better frame rates and surprisingly smooth visuals. The clarity is impressive, especially when you consider a basic USB webcam feeding into it, as compared to the conventional Game Boy Camera. However, most videos work best when displayed in monochrome, given the Game Boy Color’s limited palette of just four colors. This simplifies the processing on its modest 160 x 144-pixel screen.

The brains behind this operation is a program called CGBLinkVideo, which ChromaLock has generously made available on GitHub. It’s built upon various open-source applications. When processing video, it compresses it down to 1 Megabyte per second. But here’s the rub—the Link Cable can only handle up to 64 Kilobytes per second. This means the video ends up being highly compressed. Hence, you’ll notice dropped or split frames more often than not, but nonetheless, the video does play.

In ChromaLock’s full YouTube video, he doesn’t just show off the final product. He gives viewers a comprehensive rundown of what it took to get around the Game Boy Color’s hardware limitations. High frame rates are achievable, touching up to 60 FPS in grayscale or monochrome. But if you’re aiming for color playback, expect it to cap at around 12 FPS.

He even tested game streaming with this setup. Streaming older Game Boy titles was markedly rough compared to playing them directly on the console. And forget about modern 3D games like Doom Eternal—the high resolution is too much for the Game Boy Color, rendering them incoherent on its pixel-dense display.

Ultimately, the catalyst for this whole endeavor seems to have been seeing the iconic “Bad Apple” music video from the Touhou Project streamed seamlessly onto a Game Boy Color. Given that this particular video is in monochrome from the get-go, achieving a smooth 60 FPS playback turned out to be a realistic goal. Though, expect some noticeable dithering, a side effect from the streaming technique used by ChromaLock.