:Digital Pictures
{{Short description|Defunct video game developer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{For|pictures created digitally|Digital photography}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Digital Pictures
| logo = Digital Pictures.png
| founded = {{Start date|1991}}
| founders = Lode Coen
Mark Klein
Ken Melville
Anne Flaut-Reed
Kevin Welsh
Tom Zito
| defunct = {{End date|1996}}
| hq_location_city = San Mateo, California
| industry = Video game industry
| products = Interactive movies
}}
Digital Pictures was an American video game developer founded in 1991 by Lode Coen, Mark Klein, Ken Melville, Anne Flaut-Reed, Kevin Welsh and Tom Zito.{{cite journal|date=June 2010| title = The Making of...| journal= Edge| issue= 215| pages = 111–113
}}
The company originated from an attempt to produce a game for the cancelled VHS-based NEMO game system. One of its first titles, Night Trap, was originally produced as a title for the NEMO, before being converted for use with Sega's new Sega CD. The mature-themed content of Night Trap made it the source of some controversy. Nevertheless, the title was a bestseller. Digital Pictures went on to create other full motion video-based titles primarily for Sega hardware, and are regarded as a pioneer of the interactive movie genre.{{cite magazine|title=Is This the End of FMV as We Know It?|magazine=Next Generation|issue=10|publisher=Imagine Media|date=October 1995|pages=6–7}} The company declined in the mid-1990s due to waning interest in full motion video games. Its final title, Maximum Surge, went unreleased and was later repurposed into a film called Game Over.
Full motion video games
The founders of Digital Pictures met in the late 1980s while working at a division of the toy manufacturer Hasbro originally called Hasbro Interactive and later renamed Isix. The Isix team developed a video game system called NEMO (a code name abbreviation for "never ever mention outside"){{citation needed|date=April 2020}} that used VHS tapes rather than cartridges, which allowed games to offer live action and interactive full motion video. They also developed a software prototype called Scene Of The Crime, which led to the production of two full-length titles, Night Trap and Sewer Shark.
After Hasbro executives declined to bring the NEMO system to market, closing its Isix division, key members of the Isix team purchased the NEMO software assets from Hasbro and later, in 1991, founded Digital Pictures. Digital Pictures converted Night Trap and Sewer Shark from their video-tape-based format to the Sega CD platform.
{{Quote box|quote=We're betting, ultimately, when there's an interactive cable converter sitting atop everyone's TV set, that something that feels like Citizen Kane (or at least Leave It to Beaver) will have more legs than something that feels like Mario or Princess Toadstool.{{cite journal|last=Zito |first=Tom|title=Dispatches |journal=Next Generation|issue=3|publisher=Imagine Media|date=March 1995|pages=106–7}} |author=Tom Zito |width=50%}}
Throughout the 1990s, Digital Pictures continued to design interactive full motion video games for the CD-ROM format. Steve Russell worked for the company for a time.{{cite magazine|title=The Next Generation 1996 Lexicon A to Z: Russell, Steve|magazine=Next Generation|issue=15 |publisher=Imagine Media|date=March 1996|page=40}} Several celebrities, including actors Steve Eastin, Corey Haim, Debbie Harry, Yasmine Bleeth, R. Lee Ermey, and Dana Plato; sports stars Scottie Pippen and Mike Ditka; and musical acts INXS, Kris Kross, C+C Music Factory, and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, appeared in Digital Pictures games.
In 1994, when the company was on its height of its popularity, Digital Pictures signed a partnership with Acclaim Entertainment whereas Acclaim would bought out a stake in the company and enabled Acclaim Distribution to handle its titles.{{Cite news |date=September 1994 |title=Acclaim And Digital Pictures Agree |pages=163 |work=GamePro |url=https://retrocdn.net/images/e/e0/GamePro_US_062.pdf |access-date=September 22, 2023}}
Controversy
In the early 1990s, Night Trap was singled out by numerous interest groups and by U.S. senators Joseph Lieberman and Herbert Kohl as evidence that the video game industry was marketing games with graphic violence and other adult content to minors. Concern about Night Trap and several other games such as Mortal Kombat helped to bring about the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board video game rating system.
Decline
By the late 1990s, consumer interest in full-motion video games, which accounted for the majority of the company's profits, was in decline. After the collapse of the company, its assets were acquired by Cyber Cinema Interactive. The new company intended to re-release the games for DVD but that never came about.{{cite web|url=http://www.flashfilmworks.com/d-maximum.htm|title=Maximum Surge|work=flashfilmworks.com|access-date=November 5, 2019}} The only actual production for Cyber Cinema was the direct to video film Game Over – also known as Maximum Surge Movie. It used footage from an unreleased video game called Maximum Surge as well as clips from other Digital Pictures games. Although the film boasted stars such as Yasmine Bleeth and Walter Koenig, they only appear in the segments that had been pulled from the FMV sequences of the game, which suffer from lower image quality than the original footage.{{cite web|url=http://www.8-bitcentral.com/blog/2012/gameOverMovie.html|title=Digital Pictures Unreleased FMV Game, Maximum Surge, Went To DVD As Game Over|work=8 Bit Central|date=November 5, 2012|access-date=November 5, 2019}}
Re-releases
Flash Film Works later acquired the rights to some of the games. They remastered and re-released Double Switch and Quarterback Attack for iTunes and Google Play in late 2016 before partnering with Screaming Villains and Limited Run Games to release PlayStation 4 remasters starting in 2018 with Double Switch and 2019 with Corpse Killer.{{cite web|url=http://www.flashfilmworks.com/games/games.html|title=William Mesa Presents Flash Film Works|work=flashfilmworks.com|access-date=November 5, 2019}} Screaming Villains separately re-released Night Trap and Ground Zero Texas (two of the games not owned by Flash Film Works) through Limited Run Games.
Games developed
List of games developed by Digital Pictures and all subsequent releases of the games either by them or successor companies.
| class="wikitable"
! Title ! Cast ! Date of release ! Format ! Reference |
| Citizen X
|Sharee Gregory, Charley Hayward, Peter Kent, |2002 |{{cite web|url=http://www.gooddealgames.com/Publishing_SegaCD_Citizen%20X.html|title=Citizen X for the SEGA CD|work=Good Deal Games}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/citizen-x/|title = Citizen X – Hardcore Gaming 101}} |
| rowspan="8" |Corpse Killer
|rowspan="8" |Vincent Schiavelli, Jeremiah Birkett, Bridget Butler |rowspan="2" |1994 |
| Sega 32X |
| rowspan="3" |1995
|3DO |
| Macintosh |
| Sega Saturn |
| rowspan="2" |2019 |
| Microsoft Windows |
| 2020 |
| rowspan="8" |Double Switch
|rowspan="8" |Corey Haim, Deborah Harry, R. Lee Ermey, |1993 |
| rowspan="2" |1995 |
| Windows 95 |
| rowspan="2" |2016 |
| iTunes |
| rowspan="2" |2018 |
| Microsoft Windows |
| 2019 |
| rowspan="3" |Ground Zero: Texas
|rowspan="3" |Steve Eastin, Leslie Zemeckis, Scott Lawrence, |1993 |
| rowspan="2" |2021 |
| Microsoft Windows |
| rowspan="5" |Kids on Site
|rowspan="5" |Larry Grennan, Scott McClain, Robin Joss |rowspan="3" |1994 |DOS |
| Macintosh |
| Sega CD |
| rowspan="2" |2022 |
| Microsoft Windows |
| Make My Video: INXS
|INXS |1992 |
| Make My Video: Kris Kross
|1992 |
| Make My Video: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
|Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch |1992 |
| rowspan="4" |Maximum Surge
|rowspan="4" |Yasmine Bleeth, Walter Koenig, Michael Champion, Andy Hirsch |rowspan="4" |N/A |3DO |
| Macintosh |
| Sega Saturn |
| Windows 95 |
| rowspan="10" |Night Trap
|rowspan="10" |Dana Plato, Tracy Matheson, Debra Parks, |1992 |
| rowspan="3" |1994
|3DO |
| DOS |
| Sega 32X |
| 1995 |
| rowspan="2" |2017 |
| Microsoft Windows |
| rowspan="2" |2018 |
| PlayStation Vita |
| 2022 |
| Power Factory Featuring C+C Music Factory
|1992 |
| Prize Fighter
|Jimmy Nickerson, Manny Perry, Billy Lucas, Ben Bray |1993 |
| rowspan="5" |Quarterback Attack with Mike Ditka
|rowspan="5" |Mike Ditka, Keith Neubert, Peter Kent |rowspan="2" |1995 |3DO |
| Sega Saturn |
| 1996
|DOS |
| rowspan="2" |2016 |
| iTunes |
| rowspan="2" |Sewer Shark
|rowspan="2" |David Underwood, Robert Costanzo, Kari G. Peyton |1992 |
| 1994
|3DO |
| rowspan="3" |Slam City with Scottie Pippen
|rowspan="3" |Scottie Pippen, Keith Gibbs, Malcolm Ian Cross, |1994 |
| rowspan="2"|1995
|DOS |
| Sega 32X |
| rowspan="5" |Supreme Warrior
|rowspan="5" |Vivian Wu, Richard Norton, Roger Yuan, |rowspan="3" |1994 |3DO |
| Sega 32X |
| Sega CD |
| rowspan="2" |1996
|DOS |
| Macintosh |
| What's My Story?
|Jill Wright |1996 |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.mobygames.com/company/digital-pictures-inc Digital Pictures] at MobyGames
- [https://www.sega-16.com/2008/03/developers-den-digital-pictures/ History of Digital Pictures] at Sega-16
{{Digital Pictures}}
Category:Companies based in San Mateo, California
Category:Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Category:Video game development companies
Category:Video game companies established in 1991
Category:Video game companies disestablished in 1996
Category:Defunct video game companies of the United States
Category:1991 establishments in California
Category:1996 disestablishments in California
Category:Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area