I've been deep diving lately into an insanely obscure feature Sony developed for the PS2 called Picture Paradise. Well, about as deep as the shallow end of a pool given how little stuff I can find on it.

Picture Paradise was developed so that anyone who owned the Sony cameras with that functionality could import photos into PS2 games. Which is certainly an interesting prospect.

I was able to find articles about the feature from IGN and DP Review with the former talking about demos that utilized the feature as well as printer functionality that I've never heard of before, while the latter went over stuff like what cameras would be compatible with it, as well as revealing that the first PS2 game to make use of this feature would be Monster Rancher 3.

Of course Monster Rancher 3 was how I was introduced to this feature given how I've been a lifelong fan of the Monster Rancher series. The functionality was fairly basic with it only being featured in a single accessory with the gimmick of being able to place photos on it. I've never gotten to use this feature myself considering I've never had any cameras compatible with it. Not even an Eyetoy would work since that's basically a fairly budget webcam. Not to mention how the game doesn't seem to have any way to take photos while the camera is plugged in. It just imports photos, so of course the Eyetoy wouldn't work with it.

So after noting how Monster Rancher 3 utilized this feature, I was curious to see if any other games used it. I figured there had to at least be more than one game that used the feature, but I had a lot of trouble finding any other games. That is until I ran into a list of games tagged with Picture Paradise in Mobygames.

There were only two games on that list, Monster Rancher 3 and Gekibo 2. I am at least familiar with the Gekibo games. They basically revolve around you going around taking pictures of ridiculous and crass things going on around you for a newspaper. Of course these games have only ever come out in Japan. Although I was able to find out that Gekibo 2 was planned to have a PAL release of some sort under the name of Polaroid Pete. That certainly would've been interesting to see. It would've made it the first game in PAL territories to make use of the feature since Monster Rancher 3 never released in Europe.

But besides all of that, from what I could find the main usage of Picture Paradise in Gekibo 2 is to put pictures of faces over the faces of the in game pedestrians. That certainly sounds interesting. I should probably play some of the game to dive deeper into all of that, but I'm not gonna be getting a camera compatible with Picture Paradise anytime soon, copies of Gekibo 2 are pretty dang expensive from what I've seen, and as far as I know I don't think PCSX2 is compatible with the feature. That's a massive shame, but not really much of a surprise given it's a completely optional feature for a couple of games.

I should also note that Gekibo 2 is also compatible with the printer connectivity the IGN article earlier covered. You could print the front page of the in game newspaper with one of the photos you took in it.

As cool as all of this is, it's no wonder it never really took off considering that when it comes to a gaming audience, it's not exactly likely that someone will drop everything for a Sony camera or printer just to make use of very minor features. Although this certainly wouldn't be the last we see of this kind of thing in gaming, or even just with the Playstation brand.

Although the Eyetoy was mainly based around motion controls, it does still serve to show you within the game. Then both of these would go on to evolve into the PS3's Playstation Eye Camera. I even know that there are games that use it in a similar manner to Picture Paradise like the PS Eye stickers in the LittleBigPlanet series. Except this time it's more based around taking pictures from the camera while the game is running instead of just uploading photos you already took.

That even reminds me of an unused feature from LBP1 where you're able to upload photos onto the PS3 and use them as stickers. This really hearkens back to how Picture Paradise worked. It's not known why the feature was never used, but it may potentially have something to do with copyrighted images and such, especially with how you could share your stickers via prize bubbles and such.

There's also stuff like how the 3DS utilized its built in cameras for games like Faceraiders or Chibi Robo Photo Finder, but that's exiting the scope of this whole thing. I just wanted to bring light to a weird feature for the PS2 that hardly ever gets brought up online.

Remember me in a simple way, not what I did or said When I think of you now, I just think of the day we met Don't forget me, like I didn't care Yeah, I stole from myself just to make you complete _______________ Yet another picture we took at our #Catradora photoshoot. ;////; I am so in love with those pictures, hope you don't expect anything else the next time :') but we had a blast there. My lovely Adora is @yumeeture Picture taken by @calssara ______________ #sheraandtheprincessesofpower #dramworksshera #sheracosplay #cosplayers #catra #adora #catraadora #pairing #couple #otp #gay #catgirl #catgirlcosplay #pictureparadise #catracosplay #selfmade #photoshoot #shera #sherareboot https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Ov8CsowPY/?igshid=9bh18tt9iice

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"Hey Adora...." ___________________ So after @yumeeture asked for it, here it is! Hope you like it ;3 Picture taken by @yumeeture 💜 ____________________ #catrashera #cosplayers #catgirl #sheraandtheprincessesofpower #dreamworksshera #dreamworks #catra #catracosplay #noellestevenson #gingerhazing #princessprom #promwear #suit #pictureparadise https://www.instagram.com/p/B84rnSwo6HI/?igshid=n1l5lnu5ws7y