Game Boy Printer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Game Boy Printer, known in Japan as the Pocket Printer (ポケットプリンタ), is a thermal printer accessory released by Nintendo in 1998. Nintendo ceased manufacture in 2003.[1] The Game Boy Printer is compatible with the Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, and Game Boy Color systems and is designed to be used in conjunction with the Game Boy Camera. It also prints images from compatible late-generation Game Boy and Game Boy Color games (listed below). It runs on six AA batteries and uses a special 3.8 cm wide thermal paper with adhesive backing called Game Boy Printer Paper. One package of printer paper came with three rolls, including one roll of white paper, one roll of pale yellow paper, and one roll of pale blue paper. In Japan, a bright yellow Pokémon version of the Game Boy Printer was released which featured a Poké Ball-style feed button.
At one point, Amazon sold a CD-ROM with a parallel port cable for connecting a Game Boy to a PC and using a regular computer printer to print Game Boy Camera photos and pictures from compatible Game Boy games. This cable has since been discontinued, but hobbyists can still make their own cable for uploading images to their computer.[2] A Game Boy Printer emulator is needed for the Game Boy to interface with the PC once linked via cable.[3] The Game Boy Printer Paper has also been discontinued, and rolls of the real thing which still produce a reliable image are getting harder to find.[4] However, regular thermal paper, such as the kind used for POS terminals can be cut to the proper width and used successfully with the Game Boy Printer.[5]
The system will print a test message reading "Hello!" if it is turned on while the feed button is held. According to the manual, this is used to test if the printer is functioning properly. To get around using six AA batteries for the printer, a single 9V battery can be used if wired properly, since the printer runs on 9 volts DC.
[edit] Games with Game Boy Printer support
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[edit] Game Boy Printer paper
A roll of the American Game Boy Printer paper came in blue, yellow or white and had a width of 3.8 cm. A typical roll had 390–400 cm of length. When a picture printed from the Game Boy Camera, it would print with a .5 cm margin above and below the picture and print the picture at a 2.3 cm height. This would give the total of 3.3 cm height per picture. The Game Boy Printer paper refills boasted up to 180 pictures per roll. With the math the typical roll could only take 118 pictures. The paper is now hard to find; it could be substituted with a 1.5 inch wide thermal paper without repercussions on the printer.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=1920497
- ^ "Game Boy to LPT Cable diagram". Ziegler.Desaign.de. July 17, 2009.
- ^ "Game Boy Printer Emulator". July 17, 2009
- ^ "Game Boy Printer Paper discussion". Flickr. July 17, 2009.
- ^ "Make your own Game Boy Printer Paper video tutorial". YouTube. July 17, 2009.
