The Game Boy Color was an 8-Bit system that debuted in 1998 nearly a decade after the original Game Boy. Given the technical limitations of that era, few would have believed it was possible to create 3D images with a Game Boy Color. And yet nearly three decades after its release, a fan modder has successfully done so.
Danny Spencer created real-time 3D images on the Game Boy Color and shared a blog post (via PC Guide) where he explained at length how it was done. The short version is that Spencer had to come up with a workaround for the Game Boy Color’s inability to calculate 3D graphics. His solution was to include the completed calculations and convert the resulting vectors into spherical coordinates.
For the purposes of this demo, Spencer only created a 3D model of a teapot and a Game Boy Color. It’s not a full-fledged game, but it works and it allows players to manipulate a 3D image from all angles in real time. In addition to the video above, a browser-based playable demo is available on Spencer’s blog that utilizes a Game Boy Color emulator.
Spencer acknowledged using some AI for certain aspects of this project, but insists that it wasn’t used to create the algorithms, lookups, or 3D assets. He also detailed a failed attempt to get AI to optimize the new code using Claude Sonnet 4. However, Spencer found that he had better results using his own code than he did while experimenting with Claude.
Last fall, No Starch Press published Game Boy Coding Adventure, a guide to creating old-school Game Boy games using the same tools that developers had at the time. In 2024, ModRetro released the ModRetro Chromatic, a modern handheld console that can play Game Boy Color games while recreating aesthetic of the older system.