Game Boy Mini Camera Famicom styled label

For educational purposes only

What's in this repo and how to order

Included in this repo are two versions of the same label, both with two file formats: PDF ready to be sent to a print house and SVG for editing (with Inkscape for example - there are multiple layers in the SVG file for easier editing).

1. White as a background version "-white": while discussing with different print shops, I discovered that for the white letters (MINI CAM and DMG-GBD) some could not print white ink on black ink but would rather print a white background then black ink on top leaving out the black ink to form the letters (a bit like a stencil). This version should work off the bat with all print houses however the SVG file is trickier to modify
2. Standard version "-standard": the letters are shapes filled with white. Should also not be a problem for printing and much easier to edit the SVG file

I am based in France and couldn't find a suitable print shop in Europe for the labels. I had them printed through Jukebox (Canada):

• Matte gold
• Sticker dimensions are 42 x 37 mm (which looks a tiny bit too small IMO, see picture above)
• Ask for the yellow background to be considered as the gold sticker

Details on the build

Available on Reddit: Famicom Game Boy Mini Camera

Inspiration and process

Inspiration comes from the 14 Famicom Pulse Line cartridges that were sold in the early days of the Famicom. Their design is very sleek. I wanted to build a Famicom-styled Game Boy Mini Camera ever since Chris had shown the first pictures of his project. While finishing the build I thought a nice golden sticker would fit the design perfectly. I looked for scans of these labels and found Arcanthur's collection of Famicom recreated labels. I used them for reference, here is the label for Gomoku Narabe for example:

I then had to recreate the different parts of the labels to fit my needs, and did it using Inkscape:

• The black lines representing the Famicom Pulse Line: I manually traced them using Inkscape and the pen tool
• The white letters of the English name of the cartridge: provided the limited space I had, I settled for MINI CAM. I manually traced each letter from one of the 14 games, using the rectangle tool from Inkscape and applying rounded corners:
  • "M" (first) and "A" come from the MARIO BROS. label
  • "I" and "N" come from the TENNIS label
  • "C" comes from the "G" of the GOLF label that I later modified
  • "M" (last) comes from a modified "N" that I then mirrored
• The different text elements in latin alphabet: I wanted to be as close as possible to the real deal and used WhatFontIs to detect which font was used in the Famicom Pulse Line labels, this is what I found:
  • "Audiovisual": Nirmala UI Semilight font (directly available on Windows 11)
  • "©": couldn't find a suitable font so I manually traced it as well
  • "Nintendo": I imported the SVG from Wikipedia
  • "1998": corresponds to the release date of the Game Boy Camera - HomepageBaukasten Book font
  • "MADE IN JAPAN": HomepageBaukasten Bold font
  • "DMG-GBD": I wanted to keep the same nomenclature as in the Famicom labels that have "HVC-XX" with "XX" the game code and "HVC" corresponding to the Famicom console. I thus settled on "DMG-GBD" with "DMG" corresponding to the first Game Boy and "GBD" to the Game Boy Camera chip - HomepageBaukasten Bold font
• The two Japanese text elements:
  • Right of "DMG-GBD": On the Famicom labels it says ファミリーコンピュータ (Famirī Konpyūta - Family Computer), I naturally changed it to ゲームボーイ (Gēmu Bōi - Game Boy). However, finding the right font was tough, and only thanks to Fontendo did I manage to find the System-N font which is an old recreation of the original font. To get these letters: ゲームボーイ, you have to input ":N]-Ne". The ボ ideogram was missing two small signs that I added on Inkscape
  • Main Japanese cartridge name: Provided the limited space I had, I used Google Translate to translate Mini Camera and it gave me ミニカメラ (Mini kamera). I looked around for a resembling font and used the MOBO font

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to Nintendo and their engineers for all these years of incredible fun
• Christopher Graves for their awesome Game Boy Mini Camera project
• b_2_3_n for general advice