Smart 24in1 baby&pets clone log-(comments welcome)

[lunarsght]

First, a bit of background:

My first virtual pet was a gyaoppi clone named 'smart 24in1 baby&pets' I remember the day I got it vividly. I was 9 years old, and virtual pets had become all the rage in my school. Most of my friends had dinkie dinos or hittorikos or similiar vpets, and I wanted one so badly too.

Unfourtunately they were a bit expensive for my family at the moment, so I cried and begged to my grandma who always gave me what I wanted, bless her soul. So she gave me the money for it and I found the fabulous 24in1, it was new, shiny, and while all my friends had 1 pet in their toys, mine had 24 different pets to choose&play!

For once I became the trendsetter and my friends from wealthier families started to get this too. Ahh, the days we hid them in our pockets while at school, and when school ban got bad, I left it at home with my mother. I even taught her to take care of it when I was at school, with detailed drawings/explanations I drew just for her.

I played with this toy for many years, octopus and duck became my favourites. During this era, vpets became cheaper and I got other ones, including super gyaoppi 9in1, which had many similiarities to 24in1, 24in1 copied many sprites from super gyaoppi I later discovered. I lost my 24in1 as I went to college and graduated and was thrown to the life. My 24in1 got badly damaged since I left batteries in it and was not working any more. Eventually I lost it completely, too.

Now in my ripe old age of 36, I missed that part of my childhood, and got supergyaoppi relatively easy. Finding 24in1 was next to impossible, however, I found videos about it:

This is the original shell of it.

I searched the internet far and wide to no avail, found chinese bootlegs of this programming named 49in1, I shared my first experience here:
https://www.tamatalk.com/threads/fake-49in1-virtual-pet-my-cute-octopus-comments-ok.201130/
This program had %90 same as 24in1, however was very very inferior in most respects: pet had no growth till 10 years old, playing games/discipline worked wonky pet never got unhappy, you couldnt put it to sleep, there was no sleep bar, etc etc. Overall it was not a truly satisfying experience.

Months passed and to my surprise I found one link in a sellers site I never experienced before. It was 24in1, and had the same programming I know, but was in a...surprisingly cute Pikachu shell! It was from Thailand too! Huh? This was my only shot at it so I ordered it and waited...more than one month, some customs trouble, etc. and it reached to me. And joy oh joy, it is the genuine 24in1 programming!

The screen is a bit faded, but is good looking at an angle. Sound is low but usable. I noticed a few dead pixels in the middle as well, but knowing this vpet's age it is understandable. Anyway, here are all the pets:


Alien, Cat, Chicken, Dino, Duck, Frog

Horse, Panda, Bird, Butterfly, Crab, Fish

Monkey, Dog, Mouse, Beetle, Racoon, Penguin

Girl, Boy, Beauty Bug (a palette swap of Beetle? one palet swap is okay in a multipet as this!) Owl, Octopus, and finally Squirrel.

Experienced vpet owners should recognise 10 of these characters from super gyaoppi, alien, dog, cat, duck, frog, penguin, dino, chicken, panda and horse are direct copies from super gyaoppi 9in1 and 10in1 (horse)

Just seeing all those characters I know from childhood made me happy. After looking at them and taking the pictures, I started up the octopus-my childhood favourite.
When you start up the pet, it either comes from an egg or house. The birth screen lasts for 5 minutes. Birds and dino come from the egg, others come from the house.
Octopus comes from a house (technically baby octopi hatch from eggs and are just so adorable, I watched on youtube!)
the happy jingle of 'little birds fly' childhood song plays. so..nostalgic!


And a cute, tiny, baby octopus just birthed with happy birthday jingle. Oh joy!

 

[lunarsght]

As a newly born, octopus is very hungry! In 24in1, there are 8 food options, all the same for all pets.
Main foods are: bowl of rice, slice of cake, hamburger, fish.
Snacks: apple, sundae ice cream, lollypop
And water.

As a child, I found it hillarious that you feed slice of cake to a fish or alien or a human baby. heh.

Feeding bowl of rice.


As you feed the food, bites are taken until the food is gone. There is no feeding animation seperate for pets, which is understandable since it is such a big multipet.


Slices of cake next. Yum.


Then gave some water.


And hunger bar was filled a bit.

Now, as a newly born hapiness meter was empty, so I tried playing games. There are two games here, exactly the same as in that inferior 49in1 bootleg. One is a football game where you push two buttons to make your character to run and kick the ball. If it scores a goal, the pet becomes happy. I think it has to do with the frequency and rhythm you push the different buttons, I try to create a kind of musical note and it works sometimes. Maybe it is all random:

Start of the game.


I score!


And octopus becomes happy, winking and curling its tentacles. This is how 24in1 works, the main interaction is shown as the chosen pet's grown up form. Happy, unhappy and menowant animations are all based on grown up version of the pet. Which is HUGE for me, the inferior 49in1 had a generic blob for these animations, which feels lackluster.

I played a lot and won 3-4 times, lost 4-5 times also, when you lose, the pet gets angry as usual in other pets. I forgot to take picture of it, will show later.

But suddenly, the octopus refused to play more:

This was a surprise, I forgot how the pet works. Then I remembered and checked its meters:
Food meter had emptied! Playing games is tiring work and makes your pet hungry. If it is too hungry, it can't play.
So I did some more feeding, and tried the other game, which is catching falling eggs with a hat, by moving the hat with direction buttons. It is a long game and timing is very important. The buttons are in reverse so pushing left moves it right and vice versa, I found it hard to get used to it:

If you drop even one egg the game is lost. The game lasts for more than 30 seconds, but with careful timing it is doable. I won and my octopus's hapiness meter was full.


Here my jolly fat penguin from 9in1 and my tiny baby octopus 24in1 together. Cute photo!

As I type these, I checked and found my octopus's sleep meter was totally empty. When it happens the pet also refuses to play games. It does not go to sleep or wake up in its own, you need to turn off the lights and later turn on the lights to wake it up.


So I turned off the lights, and this is the screen I loved the most. It is like super gyaoppi's sleep screen, but the moon also inhales and exhales slowly as if snoring on top of city buildings, and it is just too cosy and relaxing just to watch:


I know it takes quite a long time fo fill sleep bar, so I will wait until tomorrow morning...

All in all, despite the device showing its age, it seems perfectly playable. And it is next to impossible to find this beloved 24in1 programming, so I am quite happy. I have had the worst day, work was too busy and hectic, weather was too hot, a shard of glass got stuck under my new sneakers and almost cut me too, etc. But my 24in1 made me happier.

 

[CricketBritt]

This is wholesome af. Thank you for the read!

 

[lunarsght]

You are very kind to say so.

After 10 hours of sleep the sleep bar was filled only two bars. I vaguely remember it requires 4 hours of sleep to fill a bar, and 4 hours of activity to empty it, though playing games might fasten up the process.

I played a few more games in the morning to ensure hapiness, and it got hungry again. We had breakfast at the same time.


Shortly after waking up, the pet cried for its first poop.

The famous poop truck from super gyaoppi comes to clean it up, the animation is a bit shorter, but still very nostalgic for me...

The shell is growing on me, I love pokemon, and still play pokemon go on my phone. The shell is the vintage old-style chubby Pikachu, and looks very cute. It can stand on its own feet very well, too! The chunky, soft corners are easy to grab and hold as well.

 

[lunarsght]

After 2 hours, a weather event occured and it pooped again:

Weather event is uniqe to gyaoppi pets, you need to equip your pet with hat or umbrella depending on the prevalent weather, or it may get sick. It is quite sunny in real life here, and it is the same for 24in1 land, so
I gave my octopus a hat to prevent it from drying out in the sun:


And it rejoiced:


You can see the two dead pixels clearly, right under unwkinging eye of the octopus. The screen is fainter irl, I edited contrast of this pictures to make it clearer. In perfect lightning it looks good but then the screen glares too much (it is not a flat screen but shaped like an old tv screen) so photos don't come out well.

I also checked and found sleep bar is only one left, I guess my playing games in the morning tired it out.

May have to put it to bed in the afternoon.

 

[lunarsght]

Okay, now a question for tamagotchi experts, when I push the corners of the screen firmly for a few seconds, the dead pixels come to life, and they stay online...until I push a button which causes them to go dead again. Tested a few times and it is always like that. Is it an internal loose screw thing?

As I predicted, the sleep bar emptied totally at about 12:30 am and I turned off the lights until 17.00 or so when I checked it had one bar filled, so I woke it up. Another weather event occured, this seems more frequent than super gyaoppi, and later the pet called for no reason at all....yep, time for first discipline lesson:

This filled the discipline meter by one.
Care has no effect on 24in1's pet growth, the pets follow the same pattern as they age. However I think the overall care may have to do with pet's longevity.

 

[lunarsght]

Here is the rain event, I gave my octopus an umbrella, even though it might have not cared for getting wet at all


Internal clock of the vpet counts only time spent when awake for aging, so it takes 2-3 days for the pet to age. Sleeping does not count. Today, I heard the 'little birds fly' happy jingle I so love again and I knew it grew up!


The head has elongated to look more like a squid, and tentacles are getting longer, too! I adore how it moves on the screen, curling its tentacles and sliding left and right.

Sitting on the couch with me, this is the second animation frame of its movement.


It's a whole 17 grams, too! Heh. The dead pixel comes alive sometimes. Number 7 is unreadable when the dead pixel turns off, as shown in the second picture. I realised that pushing buttons (especially the first two!) causes that dead pixel area to go off for a while, though it eventually turns on after half a minute or so.
I think that's completely okay for such a rare vintage toy. This toy is well loved and well used by the previous owner(s), every tiny scratch on the screen tells a story, I would like to think...


my virtual pet octopus and real life cat in the background

24in1 vpet is a slow burner, since the pet ages slowly, you can make it go to bed at any point so it is a relaxed gaming perfect for busy schedules, and is casual and fun to play. But the nostalgia makes it very endearing to me.

 

[lunarsght]

This pet has multiple calls happen at the same time, sometimes. Last night I found it called for poop, I cleaned it, but hte call sign did not go off. I checked status and saw my octopus was hungry, so I tried to feed it, but it refused turning its head. So I had to give discipline, and only then was able to feed.

And just minutes ago, a weather event (rain) and poop occured at the same time.


I start to understand the technicalities of this pet better in my wisened age. I made it sleep until three sleep bars are filled. When awake, it loses one sleep bar after 4 hours. However, if you play games to keep it happy, it tires out quicker. So what I planned, wait until the 3.30 hour mark, and then play games to make it happy. The sleep meter was going to drop anyway, this way it is more efficient to keep the pet awake for longer.

I think I also figured out the football game, after all these years. In the game you tap buttons to make your character walk to the left and eventually kick the ball. I always thought the rhytm and speed of button presses were important. In each game, it gives you two chances. I kicked the first ball:

And it hit the corner, which means (I think) my rhytm was slower than what it needed.

Because I missed, the octopus gets angry, but this does not drop hapiness levels.

A rare moment of no dead pixel! Can't do much against the lens flare, due to screen's shape.

Sometimes the ball goes way off to the high above the goal post, I think that means your rhytm was too fast. So since this time I missed by hitting the corner, I tried a faster rhytm this time and:

I won!

So if at first you miss by the corner, it means you were slower than what the game required, so try a faster rhytm for your second try. If you hit too strong and it flies too high above the goal post, it is the opposite: you were too fast, try slower at your second try. You only have two tries for the set rhytm the game wants you to know. After that you need to start a new round and the rhytm required changes.

My pikachu shell comes with no packaging or manual, so I asked a friend on instagram for its own 24in1 manual. He has a different shell, a dinkine dino shell, but it has the same 24in1 programming. The manual actually helped me to understand the football game:


This friend also found me another dinkie dino shell 24in1 for sale and I bought it, it will arrive in a few weeks, hopefully. I hope it has a better screen. My pikachu 24in1 is adorable but I have a constant fear it will die off since the device's age and it being so well-worn. Fingers crossed.

 

[lunarsght]

It grew to 2 years old this morning! Though I missed the 'little birds fly' song, that jingle is so nice.




Now the black blob phase ended, it looks like an actual squid, with a beak mouth even. Travelling left and right, feeling up with its tentacles.
I love this! ^_^

 

[CricketBritt]

I've loved watching it grow up! I could hardly discern what pixel was what when it was in a smaller stage, when the tentacles elongated and the neck raised, it became clearer, and it's final(?) Stage is super cute!!

 

[lunarsght]

@CricketBritt The form shown in the happy-angry screens is the adult form, yes; but it is not the final form, though it is very cute indeed. Its eyes seem like googles or big round glasses, and the tentacles curled under looks like a moustache or beard... Idk, it gives off a nice adorkable vibe to me.

If I remember from my childhood there is one final form after that adult phase. It became a really huge octopus (not squid looking) with one giant head and very long tentacles. Hopefully I will get it again after 25 years!

The baby form is blob-like most of the vpets and tamagotchis of that era, but it looked fairly cute too, IMHO. It has a round head, two eyes and four short tentacles, and is actually looks like a real baby octopus depicted in pixels. -just the colors are reversed, the body is black and eyes are white instead:



OMG that's a human finger, haha! Varying in size from that cutesy little blob to a kraken of legends, octopus/squids are very interesing animals. They are reputed to be very smart too, and can learn tricks even.

 

[decepticoncrown]

The baby form is blob-like most of the vpets and tamagotchis of that era, but it looked fairly cute too, IMHO. It has a round head, two eyes and four short tentacles, and is actually looks like a real baby octopus depicted in pixels. -just the colors are reversed, the body is black and eyes are white instead:

View attachment 10215

When I first saw this I thought you got an actual baby octopus to compare it to the virtual pet, haha!

 

[lunarsght]

Haha, I would love to own octopus, crab or jellyfish as real pets. But they are extremely difficult and expensive to care for. So I make do with google image and virtual pets (may do crab run next)

 

[lunarsght]

Finally 4 years old, mature form. It takes 1 week to age 4 years because like I said before, sleeping time does not count for aging.

photo taken under direct light

photo taken in darkness with camera flash on

Overall it has been smooth sailing with this pet. The most tricky part is juggling the sleep meter. It takes 4 hours to fill up a sleep bar, and 4 hours of awake time to drop one bar. However if you play games to keep it happy, it tires the pet and the sleep meter drops faster. Thus, if you are not careful the pet requires a lot more sleep than awake time to keep the sleep meter at least half full. If the sleep meter is empty the pet refuses to play and may get sick. Add the fact that sleeping time does not count for aging, this pet grows slowly.

It is enjoyable, does not require too much effort, and is ideal for those with busy schedules like me.

 

[lunarsght]

When I checked the 24in1 today I found the screen totally blank, buttons unresponsive. The device went dead. It was staying still on my drawer, there was no hit or impact.

A reset started it up from the beginning as normal, but my octopus was long gone, ofcourse.
Bummer, I always feared something like that could happen because the device is too old. I took out the batteries and will retire it for the time being. At least it looks so cute standing on its own pikachu feet!

I will wait for the other 24in1 in dinkie dino shell and hopefully, it will be in a better shape, and I will play with it. I am sorry I won't be able to show the final bigges octopus evolution here to you guys.

 

[KujoStar64]

I'm really sorry to hear the device went dead on you. The octopus is such a unique offering on these sorts of pets. I've still got the Gyaoppi (?) on my list for a future purchase for my little collection. Something about these older pets is just more appealing to me than any of the coloured-pixel Tamas ever could hope to be. The pixels on your vpet definately reminds me of the pixels on Gyaoppi, Hitorriko, and Dinkie Dino sorts of pets. I think I like these sorts of vpets the best, honestly.

 

[lunarsght]

Ah, thanks for the reply. Yes these old vpets have some sort of charm to them. I was bored so I wanted to start up this again, I very well know it may go dead again, but such is life. The fact that I can play this programming from my childhood again today is a small miracle to me. I have searched long and hard for this for a few years now. Though my enthusiasm is a bit damaged, at least until the new (better) 24in1 comes... I will try to play some more.

This time I will try alien. It is the first pet that comes up when you restart the toy, and I recognised that from the seller's pictures, that's how I became sure it was the programming I was looking for. This alien is the posterboy for this 24in1 !


This sprite is a copy from super gyaoppi 9in1 alien, but...I mean what really is this creature? As a child I thought it had a cap, some antennea like bugs going out of it, and it is riding a skateboard !?!?
Here, that's how I imagined it speeding on its skateboard, trying to blend in with cap on its head:

Nowadays I think that's not skateboard, the spindly things are his arms, it has thin arms like an insect...Ehh. Child me had a more vivid imagination, as it is the case with most adults.


0 year old baby alien is cute! It already has antennea thing going, so insectoid theme is there at the beginning.
Feeding and playing games, the alien goes 'destroy all humans with extreme prejudice!' when you lose a game

But when you win it becomes real happy and even glitters...I think.


I remember playing alien as a child, and it was right next to my bed when it aged to 1 year old...however I heard another childhood song jingle, one with a sad theme (can't remember the name of it) instead of the happy 'little birds fly'...it was game over song. The alien was saying BYE to me at 1 year old...That was so shocking to me because it was in perfect health, I was keeping it at perfect condition like all other pets I run on the device.

I don't know if my old toy glitched, or if alien is extremely temperamental compared to other easy going pets. We will see, if the device holds up that is.

 

[lunarsght]

1 year old, got visibly bigger; at least now I know it was a glitch in my old childhood vpet that it went 'bye' totally out of the blue.

 

[lunarsght]

Yesterday I was busy at work and it waited in my cupboard for 1-2 hours at most. Found it sick with a single poop, maybe I missed a weather event too? So the pet can get sick if you ignore it for too long and I remember my mother forgetting to put the pet to sleep one night, and I woke it had four poops, three sickness icons on top of each other, and was saying BYE, it was a 20+ years old octopus too! I may have thrown a childhood tantrum for that one, heh.

Anyway today just a moment ago, 2 years old:

Got even bigger, with a body forming and yes these are spindly arms in the evolved version like I predicted. Next evolution will be the iconic alien at 4 yrs old.

If I press the base of the screen, dead pixel area comes to life momentarily. The screen is really bad but it is still a small miracle to me that it works at all!
Still hoping my next 24in1 will reach to me safe and will have a better screen.
It is next to impossible to find another working 24in1 vpet, these things must have become extinct!

 

[lunarsght]

Today something strange is happening, since morning this was the 4th weather call in 6 hours; and all of them were rainy weather. This is a lot more frequent than the normal, and I can't help but chuckle as the real life weather around where I am is actually very cloudy today with a chance to rain; after two long weeks of blistering heat/sun! This is a coincidence but I find that quirky.

The screen is continuing to go worse, unfourtunately. The call and poop icons at the bottom of the screen go dead sometimes so when I look at it I see no icons even though the pet has poop! At this rate I really fear for it to go dead or unplayable in near future.