The beginning of the 1990s heralded in a brave new world for gamers. The leap between the 8bit machines of the early-1980s and the 16bit machines of the late-1980s, paled, markedly, to the jump to 32bit machines.
The most noticeable leaps were obviously in graphics and sound.
Surround sound was a burgeoning market, the idea that not just films could envelope you in audio effects but games as well, sparked a revolution of sorts, and the worlds gaming press was littered with talk of pro-logic, Dolby surround and Q-Sound.
Likewise graphics: 3D was coming into its own, and into the home. After years in the arcades, proper 3D was now sat under your TV set.
…but graphics didn’t end there. There was another dream of an era: Full Motion Video. These new CD based games consoles could deliver video quality movie footage. More over, you could manipulate them. The phrase “Interactive Movie” was put to work and the 32bit era had begun.
This golden age of gaming, and it really was a golden age, also coined another concept: Adult based games. The manufacturers of games wanted to broaden gaming appeal. They wanted to promote that gaming wasn’t just for the little kids. Adult themed titles like Hell, Snow Job and to some degree games like Need For Speed and Killing Time, tried to broaden the appeal of gaming away from the teenager, to the twenty to thirty-something year old multimedia console owner.
While the game makers thought they were clear on what they meant by adult gaming, they meant serious gaming, the rest of us figured it was about naked chicks.
We were proved wrong.
Indeed, it wasn’t about naked women at all, it was about adult theme material like Hell and Snow Job. The term anti-climax has never been so apt.
Still, for 3DO owners there was a glimmer of smutty hope emerging from the land of the Rising Sun. And so, rumours of games featuring women in lingerie in full motion video swamped the bulletin boards.
Interactive nudie movies. Too impossible a dream to hope for?
...not for the Japanese.
With their usual keen sense of diligence, Japanese women the length and breadth of Japan were being convinced to strip for 3DO.
Hurrah!
There were, from this drive, a number of games of note, which while including the all important naked women; they were also reasonably entertaining to play. Twinkle Knights had you playing a card based game against a stripping opponent. Oneesan to Issho! Janken Paradise, had you doing a similar thing with Paper, Scissors and Stone and various other titles had young women scampering and giggling about in various states of undress.
Not least of these was the Virtual Cameraman series. And I shall cover Virtual Cameraman 1 today.
The game focuses on the idea of being an adult-themed photographer. A career choice more than one of us has considered I’m sure.
Initially you engage one of two women in conversation. Coxing them into a photo-shoot. There are two girsl to choose from. One girl is dressed like the oldest school girl in town. Don’t get me wrong, she is pretty, but she’s a pretty, slim, heavily made-up 29 year old, not a pretty 18 year old. The other women, my personal favourite, and something of a stark contrast to her counterpart, is a slut in a pink dress.
I’m not being harsh, or indeed unfair. She is obviously a likeable slut in a pink dress, and despite any understanding on my part of what she is actually saying, she genuinely seems like a nice person. Eye movement, gestures and her smile betray the fact, and transcend language, she is clearly a lovely human being, but the fact remains: she is a slut in a pink dress.
For a none Japanese speaker the conversation is trial and error. The questions you ask are labelled one to three and you have work your way through them figuring out which ones work and which ones don’t.
Once complete you then move on to the photo shoot. This is the main part of the game and is broken into three photo shoots per girl. The last photo shoot being broken into three separate parts itself.
The first shoot has you taking your chosen girl for a trip to town or a trip to the park. Now while the so-called school girl is up for a little playful tease, the slut is frankly out to impress. Using a few of her god-given-assets, if you follow my drift.
This introduces the main point of the game, which is to take good pictures of the girls while they parade about.
If, once the photo shoot is over, the girls approve of you photographic skills you will be awarded with enough points to progress. The reward of progression is increasingly less clothing. Not enough points and you get to wait for the long loading times to reset the game.
There is a trick to success on all the photo shoots. A trick I alone seem to know. And this trick appears no where else on the web. And that trick is this. Don’t look at the girls ‘thingies’. Harder than it sounds. Watch her face carefully. Sometimes she will blink and nod indicating she is ready for the photo. Press the A button immediately when this happens. Don’t be drawn to taking endless pictures of her butt. The temptation is enormous, I know, oh how I know, but take only pictures of her smiling face with eyes wide open. The game will try and throw you, with out of focus, or eyes being closed, but follow these tips for the win! (I said ‘tips’)
Once out of the park, it’s off to the studio. Hopefully, for the sake of the girls: where the heaters were.
The game continues on in the much same way: complete a photo-shoot successfully and you are rewarded with increasingly nude girl for you photograph. While the schoolgirl does indeed vamp it up so to speak as things move on, the slut, quite literally, streaks ahead. Well, in the 3DOkid lusting-o-meter anyway. It is a truth of my life that, no matter what, I have never grown tired of watching women in lingerie and stiletto shoes totter about.
And that’s about it. It’s simple fun and playable.
So why am I happy to talk about this? Virtual Cameraman being risqué, me being British and all? Well firstly, the game is relatively mild. The girls are naked, sure, but it’s not vulgar. It’s reasonably tasteful actually, somethings are always discretely hidden from view. And personally I think that’s for the best. Add to that the fact the game is fun, especially when compared with the like of VR Stalker and BC Racer which aren’t fun, and you are on to a winner.
At the end of the day, 95% of all games predominately focus on the human activity of killing something. And this seems natural, and acceptable. However, society seems to feel squeamish about men lusting after pretty women. Which is equally natural in my honest opinion, and in the really-real world more common than killing things. So to my mind being squeamish about games like Virtual Cameraman seems somewhat hypocritical.
My advice is to enjoy Virtual Cameraman – just cover the 3DO before you start.
Add to that the fact the game is fun, especially when compared with the like of VR Stalker and BC Racer which aren’t fun
Careful ... there is a VR stalker fan known to frequent these forums ...
A very complete review, but not sure if T2K will let you count a game you've already covered on your blog ... maybe cause it is different enough he will let you slide ...
C'mon you think I can go easy on you? If you can handle a ninja wife, you can handle a zing from a fellow 3DO fan.
Bust out 'Letter that overcame time' for a review. It would be fresh, and a couple people on the forum (myself included) would love to learn more about it.
Sorry Kid, I love you (not like that!!!!) but I am going to win this contest!!
Busting out incomprehensible Japanese games is not part of that strategy. It's a three pronged attack centred on violence, naked women and more violence.
1. Intimidation of my foe. (that's you)
2. Sun Tsu in the art of war talked of the "Fog of war", so I'm not telling you what I'm doing next.
3. Confidential.
Nice review, as usual Kid. It would be nice to see you guys post reviews here also when a contest is not involved. Also, to clarify, this is a new review. Just because he has reviewed it before, it has different content, which is just fine. Still, I am liking this as it's nice to see some reviews floating around the reviews section by someone other than me.
Don't worry T2K, we're not just hanging around for the contest. When the dust settles and I have bested the Kid I'm sure we'll both still post reviews here.
In fact ... maybe whoever wins this contest be it myself, 3DOKid, EmOneGarand or whoever could post reviews of the games won.
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... maybe cause it is different enough he will let you slide ...
