Pokémon Snap wasn’t born as a Pokémon game. For several years, its future developers worked on a photography project with no pocket monsters at all, intended for a Nintendo 64 peripheral that never found its audience. The story of this game, as told by interviews with its creators and the reference sources, is that of a recycled project that found its calling by changing its setting. This page traces it, from “Jack and the Beanstalk” to the print kiosks by way of the 64DD.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Originally, the project is called “Jack and the Beanstalk”, after the English fairy tale. It was entrusted to HAL Laboratory, which set it up on the second floor of a Nintendo building in Kanda, in the Sudachō district of Tokyo, according to Wikipedia. The team, called “Jack and Beans” and led by Yoichi Yamamoto, kept that name right through to the introduction and credits of the final game. The game was first unveiled in February 1995, a year before the Nintendo 64’s release in Japan, but no image of it was ever shown.
The project was meant for the 64DD, a console peripheral that read high-capacity magnetic disks and had a built-in clock and an Internet connection. According to an interview with Benimaru Itoh cited by Wikipedia, the game was to feature seeds that grew in real time thanks to the 64DD’s clock. Bulbapedia, based on a translation of interviews published in The 64 Dream magazine, adds that the team launched into three separate projects in 1995, including a photography game, before merging them in the summer of 1997. The inspiration came from the 64DD’s ability to read and write data, which made it possible to imagine sending photos to another medium in order to print them.
The Pokémon Turn
In 1996, Pokémon Red and Green came out in Japan. In 1997, the animated series began. When it became clear that “Jack and the Beanstalk” was going nowhere, the idea emerged of turning it into a Pokémon game. Satoru Iwata, one of the producers, explained in 2010 in “Iwata Asks”: originally, Pokémon Snap wasn’t a Pokémon game but a photography game whose motivation was unclear; the team asked itself what players would like to photograph, and the choice fell, somewhat artificially, on Pokémon. Masanobu Yamamoto, one of the character designers, initially took badly to part of his work being abandoned. He later acknowledged that the change had clarified the project’s direction and even “saved” it.
According to Bulbapedia, which cites the official guide to the event, the game was presented at Nintendo Space World in November 1997 as a 64DD title, with a release then envisaged around the time of the film “Mewtwo Strikes Back”; the announcement is said to have been made without the development team being informed beforehand.
From the 64DD to the Cartridge
The 64DD came out in Japan on December 1st, 1999, with only a handful of games, after numerous delays. Pokémon Snap, for its part, had changed course before that. In January 1999, the magazine Dengeki Nintendo 64 announced that the game would be released only on Nintendo 64 cartridge, as IGN reported in an article dated January 7, 1999. Wikipedia attributes this choice to the 64DD’s poor sales. Bulbapedia, based on a translated interview, gives three reasons: Nintendo couldn’t find a suitable time to release the game on the 64DD, Pokémon Snap had to come out before Pokémon Gold and Silver, with which it wasn’t compatible, and a 64DD game would have been the console’s only Pokémon title not released on cartridge. The game came out in Japan two months later.
A Handcrafted Production
To make several Pokémon appear on screen at once, the team had to use low-polygon models. It therefore couldn’t reuse those from Pokémon Stadium, which was being developed at the same time. The animations aren’t inspired by the animated series: Benimaru Itoh, the game’s graphic artist, acted out each Pokémon’s poses and attitudes himself, and other team members took over in his absence. The voices of Professor Oak and Todd were added at the last minute, with lines obtained during a recording session for the animated series.
For the player’s vehicle, the name ZERO-ONE comes from a Japanese soup bowl, the owan, in reference to the tale of Issun-bōshi, the tiny boy who goes down a river in a bowl. The game’s first level was originally set on a river, which had suggested this legend; “owan” is also pronounced somewhat like “01”. This anecdote, reported by Bulbapedia based on The 64 Dream, sheds light on the choice of a bubble vehicle on rails.
The Idea of Printing
From the very beginning, the team wanted players to be able to print their photos. Satoru Iwata suggested using a Transfer Pak, a Game Boy, a Game Boy Camera and a Game Boy Printer, but the result would only have been in shades of gray and at very low resolution. HAL’s hardware engineer, Masayoshi Tanimura, then printed the photos as stickers using a video printer: these stickers were well received by Nintendo’s business partners. This concept found its realization in the Pokémon Snap Station kiosks, described on the page devoted to the print kiosks.
Todd Before the Game
The hero already had an existence in the animated series. According to Poképédia, Todd appears in three episodes of the first season, including episode 55, in which Team Rocket hires him to “capture” Pikachu, believing he captures Pokémon, when he only captures them on camera. He is seen again later in the Johto League season, come to photograph Articuno. He also takes part in the Pokémon Adventures manga, where Professor Oak asks him to photograph the Pokémon of an island. In the game, he keeps his first name, which the player can choose to change. The game was also adapted into a novel in 1999, in the Pathways to Adventure series, according to Bulbapedia.
What Was Cut
Bulbapedia notes, based on The Cutting Room Floor, that Ekans was supposed to appear in the game before being removed in the end. A piece of music titled “Fantasic Horror”, planned for a level devoted to the Ghost type, was also cut, probably because there were only three Ghost Pokémon in the first generation, which wouldn’t have been enough to fill the course. A boss theme exclusive to that level wasn’t kept either. Reviewers at the time, for that matter, regretted the absence of nearly a hundred first-generation Pokémon: see the reception and sales page.
A Team Gathered Around HAL
The credits pair the best-known names at Nintendo with those of the HAL and Pax Softnica teams. Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Miki are producers; Yoichi Yamamoto, Koji Inokuchi and Akira Takeshima are directors. The music and sound are credited to Ikuko Mimori and Tadashi Ikegami. The spec sheet gives the details. Pokémon Snap is also one of the few games of its era whose credits list translation teams by language: two people for the French text, according to Bulbapedia’s list.
