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Piposh () is an Israeli media franchise that started as a series of comedic point-and-click Adventure game developed by Guillotine and published by Hed Arzi Multimedia for Windows. Based on an eponymous actor-turned-detective who embarks on several adventures solving murders, the titles include Piposh, Piposh 2, Halom SheItgashem (spin-off), and Piposh 3D: HaMahapecha. An English version of Piposh entitled Piposh: Hollywood was published in 2002. The series, which began in 1999, was created at a time when the Israeli video gaming industry was at its peak, particularly in terms of adventure gaming, and served as a notable example of a work targeted specifically at the young local market, with aspects such as inside jokes relating to Israeli culture. The games became very popular within Israel, although never becoming financially successful, and its developers struggled to live off the proceeds.
Piposh evolved into a franchise, with a television series, a comic book, and a soundtrack being created. The series continues to have a dedicated fanbase, and Piposh conventions have been regularly held as a way for fans to celebrate the games together. While the titles have often been criticized for their amateurish visual style and clunky game mechanics, they are looked at fondly by critics who see Piposh as a source of Israeli pride and a key milestone in the advancement of the local industry throughout the 21st century. A reboot of the series was released in April 2021.
The plot of Piposh follows the quirky adventures of its main character, flawed actor Hezi Piposh and "morbidly tactless guy in his attempts to reach Hollywood and make it big". In the first game, he boards the wrong boat and has numerous antics, including being caught up in a murder. He can interrogate characters, break into their rooms, and accuse them of murder. In Piposh 2, Piposh finds himself trapped on an island populated by dwarves, who help him assemble an aviation device to escape. Halom SheHitgashem is focused on eight strange acquaintances who are invited to the castle of an eccentric man. Piposh 3D revolves around a political revolution that ensues because the entire country decides to become vegetarian, replacing meat with tofu.
Despite having no experience in the video gaming industry, the team went to work and after nine months of development, released In the Interest of Ratings (בתככי הרייטינג), a title which focused on the incompetent detective Elimelech Egoz (voiced by Moshe Ferster), who goes on holiday at the fictional Nofei Hadera Hotel only to be greeted by a bizarre murder case. The game contained intertextuality, inside jokes, irony, and cynicism. In the Interest of Ratings received negative reviews in the press, including in Internet Captain (קפטן האינטרנט), the technology/multimedia branch of the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz, but it received positive reviews in youth-oriented newspapers. Ultimately the game was relatively popular, though it was not financially successful. Nevertheless, it led the duo to decide to try to develop a second video game, which would become Piposh, under their new development company Guillotine (גיליוטין).
After a year and a half of development, Piposh was released; it became a hit among teenagers and sold 6000 copies over a period of one year in retail sales, and would ultimately sell or over 7000 copies. They achieved this without reducing the original selling price. Haaretz asserts that many thousands more probably illegally pirated it. The game reached 5th place on the sales charts, and for a few weeks was competitive with the best-selling games from abroad. Some of Piposhs royalties were donated to the animal rights and welfare organizations. The game originally had text and voice-work in Hebrew, though a few years later it was made available in both English and Russian, and due to its success Guillotine was able to distribute the games to the United States and Russia. Due to the title's low minimum requirements, it was able to be played on computers with weaker processing power. The game was deemed an adventure gaming success aimed primarily at the local market, having been developed independently, almost underground. While not officially a Piposh title, In the Interest of Ratings has a link to the series; within Piposh, the main character – a flawed actor – claims to have played Egoz in the previous game.
Piposh 3D was the series' first foray into 3D graphics, after using traditional animation for the previous games; this title was directed by Roy Lazarowitz. By this point the developers had grown tired of their distributor and sought to use Indogram, which represented fewer games and could therefore invest more time into each. It was developed using the A5 engine, which Guillotine had purchased specifically for this title. 2004 saw the English release of Piposh entitled Piposh Holywood, which was to be published by The Phantom after Phantom Entertainment bought the distribution rights electronically. Ynet noted that if successful, it would have been a notable achievement for the industry, seeing the first Israeli video game released on console, but noting the unclear outcome of this venture. Guillotine had aimed to translate their first Piposh game to break it into the international market, but the text and dubbing translations became an astronomical task due to the original game having a badly-constructed programming interface. The foreign adaption of the first game is known worldwide by its English title. The games were not intended to meet the technological standards of the global industry, particularly in terms of graphics. They were not targeted at a worldwide audience, instead appealing to Israeli teenagers who were not necessarily gamers, but who wanted immature content with cultural references they would understand. Haaretz contends that despite the development team tapping into the minds of local youth, the rampant pirate copying phenomenon prevented them from making a living of their games.
Piposh saw numerous opportunities for franchise expansion over its history. The team gave up a NIS 20,000 offer by Burgeranch to distribute the games because they were vegetarians. Soon after the release of Piposh, the duo started creating a weekly comic section in the local youth newspapers Rosh 1 and Maariv LeYanar, and also created a comic book which was published by Hed Artzi, released under the title "Piposh and Other Vegetables" (פיפוש ושאר ירקות) which could be purchased from the official Guillotine site. They also lectured to youth at an animation and comics festival at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. In 2000, the developers thought of porting Piposh to mobile phones, having already set up documents such as an instillation guide, but this never came to fruition. A spin-off television series named Batheshet Moav (בטשת מואב) – ten episodes in length and about five minutes per episode – first aired on the Beep channel in either 2001 or February 5, 2002. A previous concept for the show – where viewers could interact by choosing which of two outcomes they wanted to watch – was offered to Fox Kids. While Fox wanted to sign a contract, Guillotine refused as they did not want to give up the rights and the artistic freedom, for instance they would be censored from using the swear word קיבינימט and from mentioning that Piposh's father drowned in the Yarkon River. An album featuring music, interviews, and other content entitled At the Piposh Tavern was released by Guillotine and the Tag Group in 2004. A fourth game (excluding the spin-off) was to be released but this was eventually cancelled. Running until at least 2004, 'Piposh Congresses' have been held as national meeting for all the fans of Piposh and Guillotine. The developers sold an "I'm Pipposi Proud" game package, which included 5 game discs including the first three titles, plus a demo of Piposh 3D and a disc with rare files and documents.
On May 7, 2008, on Israel's 60th Independence Day, all Guillotine games were re-released free to download on the Internet. By this time, it was impossible to get the games anymore, as there were no orderly backups. The Gluzmans noted that the games were unplayable unless the player had a Windows 95 computer, and commented "I felt that I had to do this, in order to save the game from falling into the abyss". Tal Dinovich, a fan of the series who had volunteered for years on the site and answered phone calls from stuck players, helped locate all the game files and create updated versions that would work on Windows XP. The brothers noted that it was strange to revisit these games after having not touched them since the series ended in 2003. While he had since moved on from the series, Roy and Renan did create a Facebook group for the fans who had grown up with the series and wanted to reminisce. According to Calcalist, the series released 7 games, 4 of which are available for free download. As part of the campaign, the brothers aimed to print special nostalgic shirts, as this was a common fan request.
In December 2008, a group of Piposh fans, believing that it had died prematurely, started a campaign to create a new chapter of the series and started looking for volunteers. The game, to be developed through their company Sellotape (סלוטייפ) was entitled Piposh 2.5 and the Stolen Vase. The official website of the project wrote that while the developers were unable to reach the quality level of the official games, they hoped to emulate it as much as possible. Their aim was to "remember, save, and enjoy" the Piposh series. The plot, taking place immediately after Piposh 2, saw the protagonist try to find the magic 'vase of life' that can be used to resurrect characters that died in the previous game. The producer/director was Ben Werchizer, the artist/designer was Daniel Avdo, the music and dubbing producer was Itay Jeroffi, and the writer was Shahar Kraus; they were looking for professional programmers in Director or Flash as well as voice talent. Their site contained a "build your own character" minigame from the series as a flash game, and a forum dedicated to the resurrection of Piposh. The project was discontinued around 2010.
Video game archivist and founder of the Movement for Preservation of Games in Israel Raphael Ben-Ari got in touch with the series' creators and detailed the story behind its development process and in a documentary film. The documentary was uploaded to YouTube on Ben-Ari's Oldschool account. Ben-Ari believes the work boosted the Piposh community in Israel and introduced the series to many new people.
In 2015, Renard was given the "Half Life" award at the 2015 GameIS Awards due to his work on the series having a "significant impact on the short history of the Israeli gaming industry", thereby helping it to flourish.
During this time, Piposh was surrounded by a loyal fanbase who held onto the franchise even while no games were in active development. Writing a game quote in one of the Piposh Facebook groups would be met with relevant written responses and memes, and links to legally download the games. Over the years, the large community of fans who love and reminisce over the series "ran Facebook groups, organized events and constantly asked for a new game".
Haaretz deemed it ultimately a failed initiative to establish the Israeli video gaming industry, despite its significance. Vgames deemed the series "the most daring attempt to create computer games for Israeli audiences only". In 2001, Ynet asserted that the few games of Israeli origin such as Piposh were "quite negligible in terms of scope and technicality", and were "not close to being competitive in the global market", but in 2003 the site saw the series as a source of Israeli pride. The site would later come to feel that the series offered some of the most "bizarre, funny and hallucinatory quests" to come out of gaming, noting that the first title is widely regarded as a cult game, and that many peculiar moments from the series are etched into the minds of players. Bikorate thought Piposh 2 surprised with its "witty and satirical jokes about Israeli society".
The Hebrew site Eser, despite having sympathy for Israeli game developers, who are "forced to work in almost impossible conditions" when compared to their American and European colleagues, gave Piposh 3D a scathing review; while calling its premise amusing, and noting that the patient Piposh fanbase would overlook its inferior graphics the site felt the game was very bad, likening it to a "singer singing without makeup". Ynet criticised 3D's graphics and interface, though noted its humour and charm might make up for the experience. Ben-Ari feels a sense of patriotism toward the game as a piece of video gaming software that is proudly and unabashedly Israeli. Factor thought the series attempt to enter the 3D market was an "utter failure". Even though Walla thought Piposh 3D was a bad game, it thought the game looked like a masterpiece in comparison with Dangerous Vaults, a Lara Croft parody that forces players to have sex with animals.
When news of a fan-made Piposh 2.5 was brought to Nana 10, the site made an emotional appeal to its readers, hoping to attract anyone who could "help this promising project take shape", while hoping it would be the first of many. Meanwhile, 2all.co.il wished the developers success.
Noting a recent campaign to name a road in Israel "Lara Croft street", Nana 10 hoped that soon there would be a "Piposh street" to honour the series. The paper believed Piposh to be possibly the most successful and profitable Israeli computer gaming project, deeming Guillotine a champion of the local industry. Makorrishon deemed Guillotine a "stubborn pioneer" due to persisting with making a game in Israel, though noted that despite their bravery, the company did close down a mere 6 years later. Looking back at the games in 2008, the brothers were impressed at how the humour held up, and noted ultimately that Piposh is "not a game of technology, but of people, behavior and relationships". Comedy Children listed the original title as the only Israeli entry in an article entitled "The Most Funny Games".
According to Gadgety, the games have "earned cult status among Israeli players". Calcalist deemed it "most important series of games - well, the only one - that was done in Israel in this millennium". Additionally, it argued that the series' humor combined the nonsense of LucasArts and Sierra with the experimental weirdness of Channel 2. Renard and Roy have said that "what Piposh is good at is being crazy, being delusional and telling a good story with an emphasis on humor and Israeliness".
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