Gerbiltchi
Well-known member
Here are two bootleg Tamagotchis I got off eBay back in 2006 or 2007. I haven’t been able to find any information about them online, so if anyone else has information about these Tamagotchis or the company that made them (TS), I would be interested to know! Anyway, I figured I’d post what I know about them for anyone who is curious about fake tamas. Also, thanks to user AceBun for mentioning her bootleg tamas, which inspired me to finally get around to posting about mine.
Pictures:
Link to instructions (not fully accurate): https://oi64.tinypic.com/abjltt.jpg
General Info:
1. Health meter:
3. Toilet
4. Train and Battle: For male tama, training is jumping over a river. For female tama, training is jumping rope.
5. Connect to another bootleg or to a Bandai tama via infrared port. Battle, send/receive gifts, or marry* (not sure if possible, but instructions say it is; I haven’t tested this yet).
6. Discipline: Read to or yell at your Tamagotchi. Both increase Discipline level on health meter.
7. Medicine: Every time the tama loses a battle, it gets injured or sick and needs to be healed with this icon.
8. Lights on/off
9. Activity that increases Happy level on health meter. Looks like soccer/football for a male character and dancing for a female character.
10. Slot game: Start with 100 points. You can win or lose points, but I don’t think they do anything. Once you exit that icon, points reset to 100.
*There is no attention icon, but it will occasionally beep if it needs something.
Video showing these features, excluding connection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eptSkyN4Zbs
Connecting to Bandai Tamagotchi:
I tested infrared connection with versions 1, 2, and 3. Connecting to the V1 and V3 does not seem to work, but it was able to connect to V2 tamas. I tested 3 different V2s, and they all connected to the bootleg one. Sometimes the V2 lets me use the Ver. 2 playmate option, and sometimes it tells me that I need to choose Ver. 1 as the playmate, so that’s a bit odd. Also, it often takes several tries before they successfully connect.
After connecting, the V2 friends list will either add a female version of itself as a friend (e.g. the V2 tama is a male Dorotchi named Torn and under the friend’s list, its friend will be a female Dorotchi named Torn), add a Marutchi named AAAAA, or add a Marutchi with the name of the V2 tama (in this case, a Marutchi named Torn). Also, the friend seems to always be female, even if the bootleg tama is male and even if the V2 is male.
The bootleg device does not have a friends list as far as I can tell.
Video showing fake connecting to real tama V2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AlN0kAmlLc
Old Photos from 2015:
Infants:
Children:
Teens (Tarakotchi is apparently a teen on these):
Adults:
Death screen:
I’ll add to this post if I realize I missed any other features.
I’ll do another video in the future once I decide to run both of my TS tamas again to show off the other connection options. I’ll test if it’s actually possible to have them marry when they’re adults.
Pictures:
Link to instructions (not fully accurate): https://oi64.tinypic.com/abjltt.jpg
General Info:
- The package includes 2 tamas and 2 zipper lanyards
- The devices seem to be modeled after a V4, with a similar antenna and screen background.
- The characters I’ve encountered so far are all from the V1.
- The plastic feels cheaper and lighter weight than that of a genuine Tamagotchi.
- They each require 2 LR44 batteries.
- The battery covers do not close all the way. This is the main thing I dislike about the fakes, but it’s not a huge issue.
- The instructions aren’t completely accurate. For instance, as far as I can tell, there isn’t actually a way to adjust the time, pause it, or turn the sound off, even though the instructions say you can adjust the time. Also, male and female babies look the same, rather than one being black and one being white.
1. Health meter:
- Age
- Weight
- User’s birthday
- Hungry
- Strength
- Happy
- Discipline
- DP: Battle points of some type. Starts at 20/20 and decreases after every battle.
- W (wins) and T (losses) in battle. Includes battles done through IR connection.
- Percentage: Win rate. I think this excludes battles done through IR connection; otherwise it’s inaccurate.
- State: Infant (baby), boyish (child), grown (teenager), senile (adult)
- Gender
3. Toilet
4. Train and Battle: For male tama, training is jumping over a river. For female tama, training is jumping rope.
5. Connect to another bootleg or to a Bandai tama via infrared port. Battle, send/receive gifts, or marry* (not sure if possible, but instructions say it is; I haven’t tested this yet).
6. Discipline: Read to or yell at your Tamagotchi. Both increase Discipline level on health meter.
7. Medicine: Every time the tama loses a battle, it gets injured or sick and needs to be healed with this icon.
8. Lights on/off
9. Activity that increases Happy level on health meter. Looks like soccer/football for a male character and dancing for a female character.
10. Slot game: Start with 100 points. You can win or lose points, but I don’t think they do anything. Once you exit that icon, points reset to 100.
*There is no attention icon, but it will occasionally beep if it needs something.
Video showing these features, excluding connection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eptSkyN4Zbs
Connecting to Bandai Tamagotchi:
I tested infrared connection with versions 1, 2, and 3. Connecting to the V1 and V3 does not seem to work, but it was able to connect to V2 tamas. I tested 3 different V2s, and they all connected to the bootleg one. Sometimes the V2 lets me use the Ver. 2 playmate option, and sometimes it tells me that I need to choose Ver. 1 as the playmate, so that’s a bit odd. Also, it often takes several tries before they successfully connect.
After connecting, the V2 friends list will either add a female version of itself as a friend (e.g. the V2 tama is a male Dorotchi named Torn and under the friend’s list, its friend will be a female Dorotchi named Torn), add a Marutchi named AAAAA, or add a Marutchi with the name of the V2 tama (in this case, a Marutchi named Torn). Also, the friend seems to always be female, even if the bootleg tama is male and even if the V2 is male.
The bootleg device does not have a friends list as far as I can tell.
Video showing fake connecting to real tama V2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AlN0kAmlLc
Old Photos from 2015:
Infants:
Children:
Teens (Tarakotchi is apparently a teen on these):
Adults:
Death screen:
I’ll add to this post if I realize I missed any other features.
I’ll do another video in the future once I decide to run both of my TS tamas again to show off the other connection options. I’ll test if it’s actually possible to have them marry when they’re adults.
Strange that the A and B buttons are switched, though. The manual actually seems to state that, and it looks like a regular V2 manual with the screenshots and part of the text edited to match the bootleg.
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