I just won this on eBay, does anyone have information about it?

[Motscoud]

Hi there, long time lurker (I used to read posts on this forum when I was a kid back in the V3-V4 era) first time poster.

I recently won a 'Digital Pocket' Tamagotchi, from my eye-balling at it's copyright dates and it's design I can tell that it's a vintage era gotchi, but that's about it.
Does anyone have info on it? I'd like to know something about it's release, programming, tamas available and minigames (I mean it has a D-Pad and Face buttons that remind me of a GameBoy so I'm sure it has something unique there.)

Many thanks!

 

[Knighttchi's Ballad]

All I could dig up about this is from Tama Zone, the other notable Tamagotchi forum, where a user wrote:

I've got a Tamagotchi Digital Pocket coming in the mail too. I'm quite excited about this as from the booklet in the picture depicted it's a handheld picross game. You know the puzzles where you shade in the number of squares on the side?

So, it is probably more of a gaming system than a Tamagotchi and there have been a few vintage systems like that, such as the Tamagotchi Mame game. Bandai made quite a few spin-off products alongside of Tamagotchis, which is where the Digital Pocket fits in (it's great that some devices have the name printed on them so that you don't need the packaging to identify them). Beyond that, you're just going to have to experiment to see what it does. As it looks like one of those generic hand-held gaming devices, it might have a few generic arcade games on it but probably uses some tamagotchi character sprites, like the Mame game.

 

[Motscoud]

All I could dig up about this is from Tama Zone, the other notable Tamagotchi forum, where a user wrote:

So, it is probably more of a gaming system than a Tamagotchi and there have been a few vintage systems like that, such as the Tamagotchi Mame game. Bandai made quite a few spin-off products alongside of Tamagotchis, which is where the Digital Pocket fits in (it's great that some devices have the name printed on them so that you don't need the packaging to identify them). Beyond that, you're just going to have to experiment to see what it does. As it looks like one of those generic hand-held gaming devices, it might have a few generic arcade games on it but probably uses some tamagotchi character sprites, like the Mame game.

Huh that's super interesting. I never knew Bandai made Tamagotchi themed LCD games that weren't virtual pets haha.
I'm definitely excited to get this in the mail.

If I remember I'll take photos/videos of it in action, because there is nothing on it online outside of the forum post you mentioned.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Funnily enough, this came up in a status-update here on TamaTalk recently! Obviously, those aren't very easy to find, though - it's a bit of a bugbear when they end up covering useful information, because it then gets lost.

Congratulations on the auction-win - it looks to be in nice shape! I love learning more about the many spin-off products and merchandise items that Bandai made and licensed, since some of them are quite unusual, so I'll be looking forward to seeing your documentation of the device once you get it.

 

[Motscoud]

So it's just arrived - here's some info I've been able to gather from my first hour or so of tinkering.

Startup. Features a P1/P2 Era Egg by default - this can be changed by pressing the B button, the device will beep and let you pick between a ‘Spotted Egg’, a ‘Black Egg’ or ‘Obaketchi’. I am currently unsure on what these options do, but I believe they have different puzzle sets between them.
‘A’ will enter you into the basic game. Game. On the ‘A’ button being pressed, you’ll be given two choices in English, Easy or Hard. For the time being (until I get better at Picross) I tend to pick ‘Easy’. After this you are given the choice of ‘Play’ or ‘Hint?’. ‘Play’ will start you on an empty Picross field, while ‘Hint’ will draw two lines, horizontal and vertical - position changes per puzzle.

The Puzzles themselves.
From my experience so far they mostly seem to be a collection of sprites from P1/P2 Era Tamagotchis as expected.
The gameplay is standard Picross, although the display did confuse me at first. The top column of numbers refers to block placement on the ‘X’ axis instead of ‘Y’ like I had thought, and vice-versa on the side column of numbers.
The puzzles are timed - Easy mode puzzles are ~45 minutes in length - however time is taken off with mistakes. ‘A’ will confirm a selection, and place a ‘block’ in the tile grid, if it is correct the device will play the P1/P2 era ‘Select’ sound effect, if it is incorrect it will use the sound effect used when your Tamagotchi loses in a mini-game in the P1/P2 era devices. Aside from this, there is an options button. Pressing that will take you to a pause menu with a large question mark. Up and down on the D-Pad will adjust the device’s contrast (which is very very useful, as by default it's hard to distinguish between the half-full 'incorrect blocks' and the full correct blocks), while left and right will put you through the top menu being ‘Sound’ - Turns sound effects on and off - ‘Play’ - Resume Play - ‘Give-up’ - Quit your current puzzle.

I'll take some photos in the evening and do a proper write up when I can.