photography video game

The first known photography game is Nessie, designed and programmed by Tom R. Halfhill for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1984 and converted to the Commodore 64 by Charles Brannon. The C64 version was published first in 1984 in COMPUTE!'s Second Book of Commodore 64 Games as a type-in program. The Atari original followed in 1985 in COMPUTE's Atari Collection Volume 1.{{cite web |title=Nessie |url=http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-nessie_3681.html |website=Atari Mania}} The accompanying article describes the concept:

{{blockquote|text=The game was inspired by a TV documentary on Loch Ness which recounted the hundreds of attempts to photograph the monster. Almost all of these attempts have failed; there exist only a few controversial photos showing parts of fins, shadowy shapes, and blurred figures. The game simulates some of the difficulties faced by would-be photographers of Nessie.}}

In Nessie, the player has a camera with a 20-exposure roll of film and multiple lenses to choose from. The goal is to get a clear photo of the Loch Ness monster and not be fooled by other creatures in the water such as fish and eels. After taking 20 shots, the film is developed and can be reviewed.

In Gekibo: Gekisha Boy, released in 1992 for the PC Engine, the player controls a reticle representing a camera viewfinder moving over the screen. Another early photography game was the 1995 full-motion video game Paparazzi!: Tales of Tinseltown, although the limitations of the FMV format meant players had little control over what they photographed.

The 1999 game Pokémon Snap for the Nintendo 64–a photography game in the Pokémon universe using rail shooter mechanics–sold well and was critically acclaimed. It inspired other safari and scuba diving photography games such as Endless Ocean (2007), Afrika (2008), Beyond Blue (2020) and a sequel New Pokémon Snap (2021).{{cite web|url=https://technology.inquirer.net/101099/new-pokemon-snap-nature-photography-in-a-world-of-wonderful-monsters|title='New Pokémon Snap': Nature photography in a world of wonderful monsters|date=19 June 2020|accessdate=6 May 2021|website=Inquirer Technology|archive-date=6 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506085622/https://technology.inquirer.net/101099/new-pokemon-snap-nature-photography-in-a-world-of-wonderful-monsters|url-status=live}} Pictures from Pokémon Snap could be copied from the cartridge and printed at branches of Blockbuster Video,{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/blockbuster-pokemon-snap-station/|title=The Bygone Glory of Blockbuster's Pokémon Snap Station|first=Cecilia|last=d'Anistasio|date=16 January 2021|accessdate=6 May 2021|magazine=Wired|archive-date=6 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506205730/https://www.wired.com/story/blockbuster-pokemon-snap-station/|url-status=live}} while players of Firewatch could have the photographs on their in-game camera "developed" and delivered to their home.

In survival horror, the Fatal Frame series (also known as Project Zero) debuted in 2001 and turned photography into an attacking move. Players are tasked with photographing aggressive ghosts, with well focused and composed shots doing more damage. The series has six instalments including one augmented reality game, Spirit Camera, that uses the real camera on the Nintendo 3DS. Phasmophobia and the Outlast series are other survival horror games that give players cameras but no weapons; the aim is to record the monsters and escape without being killed.{{cite web|url=https://gamerant.com/photography-games-like-new-pokemon-snap/|title=10 Photography Centric Games Like New Pokemon Snap|first=Josh|last=Davison|date=26 April 2021|accessdate=8 May 2021|website=Gamerant|archive-date=8 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508075536/https://gamerant.com/photography-games-like-new-pokemon-snap/|url-status=live}}

Several games with photojournalist protagonists implemented photography sidequests. These include Beyond Good & Evil (2003), Dead Rising (2006) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). The Touhou Project series games Shoot the Bullet, Double Spoiler , and Violet Detector use photojournalist protagonists to combine photography and bullet hell mechanics, with points awarded for the number of bullets in a photo.{{cite web|url=https://www.mobygames.com/game/double-spoiler|title=Double Spoiler|accessdate=8 May 2021|website=Moby Games|archive-date=8 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508073510/https://www.mobygames.com/game/double-spoiler|url-status=live}}

Snapshot (2012) and Viewfinder (2023) use photography mechanics to change the level itself. Photographs taken in one part of the level can be pasted elsewhere in order to create new paths and objects.{{cite web|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/take-a-picture-then-walk-into-it-in-this-must-see-game-tech-experiment/|title=Take a picture, then walk into it, in this must-see game tech experiment|first=Jonathan|last=Balding|accessdate=6 May 2021|website=PC Gamer|date=4 January 2020 |archive-date=6 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506093645/https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/take-a-picture-then-walk-into-it-in-this-must-see-game-tech-experiment/|url-status=live}}

The genre saw a resurgence in the 2020s with the release of independent games such as Sludge Life, Eastshade (which applies photography game mechanics to landscape painting), Shutter Stroll, Umurangi Generation, Nuts, and Season. These fuse photography mechanics with the walking simulator genre to produce slow-paced games, often with environmental themes, as a response to the fast-paced and violent nature of shooter games. An earlier predecessor in the same vein is Infra, from 2016, in which the player character is a structural engineer doing survey work. The camera can be used to photograph either decaying infrastructure in need of repair, or documents connected to a background story about corruption.

• Virtual photography, screenshots of video games as an art form
• Purikura, a genre of arcade games involving photography

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite book |last1=Halfhill |first1=Tom R. |title="Nessie" in "Compute!'s second book of Commodore 64 Games" |url=https://archive.org/details/COMPUTES_Second_Book_of_Commodore_64_Games_1984_COMPUTE_Publications/page/n247/mode/2up |date=1984 |publisher=COMPUTE! Books|isbn=0-942386-64-7 }}

{{cite book |last1=Halfhill |first1=Tom R. |title=Nessie: A non-violent game for Atari |url=https://archive.org/details/ataribooks-computes-atari-collection-vol-1/page/n59/mode/2up |date=1985 |publisher=COMPUTE! Books|isbn=978-0-942386-79-0 }}

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• [https://halfhill.com/nessie.html Tom Halfhill's Nessie page]

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Category:Video game genres

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