Late Night Nitpickery: Anachronism in the world of Phoenix Wright

I've been on a "Point and Click" adventure kick lately. I started playing Phoenix Wright 2, which I got for Christmas. I enjoyed the stories enough that I moved immediately to Phoenix Wright 3, which I got when it came out for the Phoenix Wright keychain plushie. I REALLY got into the stories of the third game, but there was something that had been bothering me as I continued to play. Some aspects of the cases didn't seem right. I didn't expect things to be that different in the year 2016, but something about the dialog didn't fit with the assumed technological advances. Like Mr. Wright I did some investigating myself and found some perplexing paradoxes.

There are nearly no digital cameras: Pictures are frequently used as evidence. In nearly every case the camera uses film for its source and developed in the same way film is developed in the 90's and prior. Now I understand that pictures are still printed with the advent of the photo printers (I got mine in 2005). However there is frequent reference to film usage. In Phoenix Wright 3, one of the flashback cases, witness Melissa Foster (who we later know as demon bitch Dahlia Hawthorne) testifies with pictures she took with her camera. When Mia asks her about other photos on the camera she mentions that she ran out of film. Dahlia is most likely an amateur photographer and would have a camera that relfects that. In the year 2008 that's most likely a digital camera without film, let alone in the year 2012 when the case takes place. The only existence of a digital camera is one with pictures taken by the young boy Cody in case three of PW1 (the case with the Steel Samurai).



Security cameras also have film in them. One would think that in this day when we are making the transition now that the cameras would all be digital as well. After watching an episode of Las Vegas for a class and seeing all the security cameras completely digital in 2008, it would only make sense that the museum would have caught Masque deMasque and most likely caught him in HD. My guess is that it would be easier to spot and determine the identity of the "true" Masque de Masque in mid to late 20 teens.



I examined another case. In Phoenix Wright 3 one of the cases involves blackmail as a result of a genius programmer making a computer virus for the mob. Given the public awareness of computer viruses in todays day, it seems very odd that the vast majority of the people involved with the case (the judge, Maya Fey) have no idea what a computer virus is. Phoenix only has limited knowledge! How is that possible in that day and age? Furthermore, it seems a little odd that the computer virus is delivered on a CD. While it is uncertain what media will become the replacement for CD's surely people would more likely use a DVD, BD or a small jump drive. Given the severity of the crime it seems odd that something as obvious as a CD with the name of the virus labeled on it would be used.




I could be making a mountain out of a molehill, except that I found other references to technological advances that seemed obsolete even in present day. This is even more perplexing considering that these games were originally GBA games that came out in the early 2000's. An occasional cassette tape reference seemed grading, but more obsolete objects began to show up in the Phoenix Wright world. Aside from the clear statements from the developers, I wonder if the Ace Attorney series truly takes place in the distant future, when the technology suggests the games take place in the 1990's. It could be the result of me reading far into the details of this world I have grown to love, but this is the internet, the perfect place for nitpickery. Edgeworth would may not accept my evidence as valid enough in the court, but I have to at least wonder:

Did anyone else find this a little odd?