is a

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

released for the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

in 1998 exclusively in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. With a variety of photo retouching and image composition functions,

SmartMedia SmartMedia is an obsolete flash memory, flash memory card standard owned by Toshiba, with capacities ranging from 2 MB to 128 MB. The format mostly saw application in the early 2000s in digital cameras and audio production. SmartMedia m ...

storage card slots, and planned

64DD The is a magnetic floppy disk drive peripheral for the Nintendo 64 game console developed by Nintendo. It was announced in 1995, prior to the Nintendo 64's 1996 launch, and after numerous delays was released in Japan on December 13, 1999. The "6 ...

floppy disk compatibility, the game was intended to supplant Japan's small and reluctantly growing market for personal computers.

Gameplay

Gameplay consists of puzzles that the system constructs from images, encouraging

user-generated content User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...

. The player can compose a unique image using the included ''Mario'' series clip art, borders, fonts, and other graphics. The composition's layout can become a postcard, name card, poster, or a TV slideshow series. To facilitate such compositions, the user can optionally exchange

Exif Exchangeable image file format (officially Exif, according to JEIDA/JEITA/CIPA specifications) is a standard that specifies formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other system ...

images with any other

device via the two card slots on the top of the game cartridge. Images can be imported from a personal computer or camera and retouched into the game's compositions. Completed compositions can be exported to a personal computer, or

Fuji Fuji may refer to: Places China * Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan Japan * Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan * Fuji River * Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture * Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefectur ...

printing kiosk such as at a shopping mall. Four optional SmartMedia cards were produced separately and specifically intended for use with the game, preloaded with

themed graphics files: ''

Sylvanian Families is a line of collectible anthropomorphic animal figurines made of flocked plastic. They were created by the Japanese gaming company Epoch in 1985 and distributed worldwide by a number of companies. History Beginning and growth At the beginning ...

'', ''

Bomberman is a video game franchise originally developed by Hudson Soft and currently owned by Konami. The original game, also known as ''Bakudan Otoko'' (''爆弾男''), was released in Japan in July 1983 and has since spawned multiple sequels and sp ...

'', ''

Yoshi Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Yoshi debuted in ''Super Mario World'' (1990) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Mario and Luigi's sidekick. Yoshi is the title character of the List of Y ...

'', and ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

''. In 2017, a hobbyist modified the game to remove the severely limiting requirement of the now obsolete and deteriorated

cards.

Development

The game's development was a joint effort supervised by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

which contributed some character graphics, the prominent computer memory manufacturer Hagiwara Syscom for the game software, electronics makers Datt Japan and

Tokyo Electron , or TEL, is a Japanese electronics and semiconductor company headquartered in Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded as Tokyo Electron Laboratories, Inc. in 1963. TEL is best known as a supplier of equipment to fabricate i ...

for integrating the

slot into Nintendo's

Game Pak Game Pak is the brand name for ROM cartridges designed by Nintendo for some of their earlier video game systems. The "Game Pak" moniker was officially used only in North America, Europe, and Oceania. In Japan, as well as other Asian territories and ...

cartridge design, and printer maker Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. On December 2, 1997, ''Mario no Photopi'' was preannounced with optional compatibility with the

floppy drive at a time when the drive was expected to launch in March 1998. Compared to a

card's then-typical 2MB, the 64MB floppy disk was intended to hold a user's entire photo album and therefore further supplant the Japanese user's need to buy a less desirable personal computer and printer. The 64DD's drastic launch delays forced the removal of all 64DD functionality from the game. From September 30 to October 3, 1998, the game was publicly demonstrated at Hagiwara Syscom's booth at World PC Expo '98.

Release

The game was released on December 2, 1998 with a suggested price of . As a nonstandard cartridge uniquely containing the only SmartMedia interface to the Nintendo 64 platform, the cartridge has a model number of NUS-023.

Reception

At the World PC Expo '98 prerelease demonstration, Kumio Yamada of PC Watch expressed mistrust of the product's file format in favor of an open standard like

JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...

. He praised the convenience of the gamepad driven user interface for image slideshows and management, and he especially enjoyed editing custom photos with Nintendo's characters. In 2017, Jason Johnson of ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'' retrospectively called the game "one part

Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...

, one part ''

Mario Paint is a video game developed by Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsm ...

''". He said its obscurity makes it "a piece of Nintendo lore" and "something of a holy grail among collectors".

References

{{Mario puzzle games 1998 video games Nintendo 64-only games Nintendo 64 games Japan-exclusive video games Single-player video games Mario puzzle games Video games developed in Japan

Gameplay

Development

Release

Reception

See also

References