The Family Album of a Weird Little Ninja and a Very Fluffy Rabbit - Penguin-keeper's Virtual Pet Log

[Decotchi]

Basically, if you like the vintage Tamagotchis, you really can't go wrong with a vintage Digimon - they're pretty much siblings, after all. 

Good to know! I don't have any experience with Digimon but from your logs they seem really cute and I might just try one!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Good to know! I don't have any experience with Digimon but from your logs they seem really cute and I might just try one!

Hehe, thanks very much!

There's a recent remake, which is currently available on Amazon.com, which is roughly equivalent to the Tamagotchi Gen 1 and Gen 2 reissues, though it makes a few more gameplay changes than those do (such as having quicker growth times, and allowing you to raise two monsters at once on a single device). I've got one of those on the way, too, right now.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I really like how, even though the aesthetic and tone of the Digimon was intentionally "tougher" than that of the Tamagotchi, they still let it be cute at times. How adorable does Agumon look, all snuggled up in bed, here? He sometimes twitches, too, so it's not just the "Z"s that are animated, which is a nice touch.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Today, Agumon evolved into Greymon!

Please pardon the poop in the picture - he pooped right as I was setting up to take the photograph, so there it stayed. He looks most indignant about it.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to go for a Perfect form because that requires battling with another device, and I don't have a second one (yet). I also don't know if the recent Digimon remake can connect to the vintage devices, though I doubt that it can.

Still, I'm really happy with this outcome - it's the best that I can get without a second Digimon to connect to, and it's also the first time that I've raised one of these to adulthood (I never owned or got to borrow one back in the day, and I've only had the time to run my own unit once before, back when I first got it).

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I also don't know if the recent Digimon remake can connect to the vintage devices, though I doubt that it can.

Good news! I looked this up because I was curious about it, and it turns out that the anniversary remake devices can indeed connect to the originals! This makes me very happy, as it means that I'll now be able to get more out of both devices, without having to buy a third one - major props to Bandai for this, as it's very pro-consumer.

 

[Decotchi]

Please pardon the poop in the picture

I feel your pain! I retake my tama log photos constantly because they seem to enjoy pooping right when I'm taking photos lol. 

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Greymon's time as a warrior has come to an end.

Somewhat unsettlingly, in this version the grave twitches a little bit every now and then, giving it a spooky look that suggests that your monster might yet rise again.

I'm currently awaiting the arrival of several new virtual pets and some related items, so tomorrow I might resume running my Fairy Meets in order to pass the time until I get the new additions.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I've restocked my battery-stash at last, and I've put new batteries in my Fairy version Tamagotchi Meets, so...

... It's the return of Spotchi! Here she is marrying her one true love, Nejirobotchi.

The two had an orange baby boy, who I named Bottotchi. I wonder what traits he'll ultimately end up inheriting from his very weird family-tree? We'll see in a few days' time!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I don't usually post images of the in-between evolutions on my Meets, but I just had to share this one, because young Bottotchi has inherited his father's clockwork key, and when he's happy the little holes in it briefly change from round to heart-shaped. It's so cute.

Much to my delight, shortly after I took this picture, he evolved into a teenager who still has both the key and the inexplicable forest-green colour. I hope that he keeps those as an adult, as I think that they look really neat.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

So, what did Bottotchi, the cyborg son of a zit-head and a robot, grow up to look like?

A lot like his mother, Spotchi, it turns out! He's also inherited Nejirobotchi's eyes and clockwork key, and the forest-green colour that came from way back in Goblintchi's generation, too! I've rarely seen a Tamagotchi on this device retain the same colour for their entire life, but I'm really happy that this one did, because it suits him.

Sometime tomorrow, Bottotchi will be marrying the very fluffy Watawatatchi and what is either her cranial parasite or her living hat. Stay tuned!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Bottotchi has now married Watawatatchi, and the pair have had a lime-green daughter who I named Watbottchi. Very creative, I know.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I've got a BIG collection update to share, today, because I've just gotten all of these!

Here are the latest additions;

Tamagotchi Original Gen 1 (Sunset) - I don't usually buy multiple shell designs of a device that I already have, but in this case I had to make an exception because I liked this one so much!

20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini (Transparent Green) - As with the Sunset Tamagotchi Original, I made an exception to my usual approach and picked up the Transparent Green 20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini purely because I like the design.

20th Anniversary Tamagotchi Mini (Purple) - I picked up this purple Mini for a little custom project. I'll write a more detailed post about that later.

GigaPetsAR 2.0 Unicorn (transparent blue) - I originally intended to wait for the GigaPetsAR Penguin that was teased early on, but we're now two years on and there's still no sign of it, so I opted to add an unusual creature to my virtual zoo and picked up the unicorn version (though if they ever do release the penguin one, I'll definitely be getting it). This is the revised 2.0 release, with bug-fixes, better battery-life, a low-battery warning feature, and a new shell colour. The packaging for these is really well-presented, with one highlight being a 3D effect for the part advertising the mobile app, which also has the folded instructions housed underneath.

Digimon Original (transparent purple and yellow) - I like the vintage Digimon virtual pets, so naturally I had to pick up one of the remake versions sooner or later! I chose this colourway because my first Tamagotchi back in 1997 had a similar colour-scheme (albeit solid, rather than transparent), too.

Doraemontchi - A licensed Tamagotchi based on the Doraemon franchise. I've wanted one of these for quite a while. I'm not bothered by the minimal scuffs to the paint; I've seen far worse examples than this, and I have no complaints because I got this one for a good price.

MGA Bear clone - I really like the MGA pets, and I'm really happy to add another one to my collection - and featuring an animal that you don't often see virtual pets of, to boot! It also has a housing that I don't yet have in my collection, of a type that's usually used for dog virtual pets, and I think that it looks super-cute. I can't wait to find out what its three adult forms look like!

Tamagotchi Friends (Sapphire Gem) - I've wanted one of these in my collection for years, and this is the shell that I've always wanted the most, so I'm really happy to have gotten this one and I can't wait to give it a go!

Giga Pets Microchimp - I never used to be much of a fan of Giga Pets back in the day; I never owned one, but a relative did, and neither of us liked how they ran, since we found the gameplay-balancing to be a bit unreasonable. Nonetheless, I've always wanted to have a vintage Giga Pet in my collection, and the hilariously-named Microchimp was the one that I've always wanted above all others. With good guides available now (unlike back in the old days), I suspect that I'll be able to appreciate the vintage Gigas more today than I ever did during their heyday.

Giga Pets Compu Kitty - I got this one in a lot with the Microchimp. It's the later "pure" Giga Pets version, rather than the early(?) one that had Nano Pals programming in a Giga Pets shell.

Octo-Pets 8 in 1 Virtual Pet - This is basically an 8-in-1 version of the Super Gyaoppi 9 in 1, but without the duck option, housed in an unusual and cute shell. I bought it because my Super Gyaoppi unfortunately went missing and I was never able to find it again. I remember seeing these back in the 1990s and really liking the shell design, so I'm really happy to have this for that reason, too.

Nano Fighters Supreme Sumo - I got this one for a knockdown price because it's missing its battery-cover, which, on a Nano, is a bit more of a nuisance than on a Tamagotchi, since there's a piece of metal on the battery-door that's meant to connect the two batteries in order to complete the circuit. I'm going to have fun trying to get this one up and running again with what I have on hand.

Gotchi Gear Pet Pouch - Ringotchi - I stumbled across a seller on Amazon UK who still had a few new-old-stock Gotchi Gear Pet Pouches, featuring Ringotchi and Kuchipatchi, and I figured that the Ringotchi one would make for a nice small plush to add to my collection. This also comes with a slim Tamagotchi-branded lanyard.

Renamon plush - I've had a plush of my favourite Tamagotchi character, Tarakotchi, in my collection for a long time, but until now I couldn't say the same about my favourite Digimon character, Renamon, so here she is joining my crew, courtesy of San-ei. Outside of penguins, foxes are another of my favourite animals, and I also have an interest in the folklore, myths, and legends that surround them, which all play a big part in the designs of Renamon and her entire evolutionary line.

Gabumon plush - I like Gabumon too, and find the cultural reason for his name and design to be interesting and creative. I saw this vintage Play-By-Play plush for a very good price and just had to have him, so here he is.

I won't be trying to run everything at once, that's for sure!

I'll post an updated full collection photo later.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Ok, full collection shot! Here we go!

At this point, my current collection has far surpassed my original 1990s collection. I'm really happy with it, and enjoy it very much.

 

[321Boom]

That really is a nice collection!   Well done! Hope you'll enjoy your new additions  

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Watbottchi is all grown up, now! As you can see, she inherited her looks from her father, and her colouration and living hat from her mother.

I'm not sure who I want her to marry, yet - I'll figure that out later or tomorrow.

That really is a nice collection!   Well done! Hope you'll enjoy your new additions  

Thankyou so much. I'll certainly be running a couple of them in this log soon!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I decided to have Watbottchi marry Omechuptchi, in the end. They had a pale-yellow baby girl called Ricetchi. However, I've popped the batteries out of my Tamagotchi Meets for now, as I'm in far more of a vintage device mood at the moment.

So, it's time to introduce my Sunset-design Tamagotchi Original and my Octo-Pets to the log! This Octo-Pets had never been opened until I got it, so I've chosen to raise a penguin for its inaugural run, naturally.

I had hoped to start up the Octo-Pets at the exact same time as the Tamagotchi Original, but what happened when I went to set the time on both units left me with a little story to tell!

When I started up the Octo-Pets, it had no sound, and when I set the time it glitched out and reset! I hit the reset button and it immediately did it again, and I realised that if I gently held the upper part of the casing, where the speaker is, it would glitch out again. So, assuming that some screws needed tightening, I took the whole thing apart.

The first thing that I noticed was that the speaker (a small metal disc that's kept elevated from the rest of the circuit-board by a double-sided sticky-pad) was slightly off-centre, but I didn't think anything of it right away - after all, virtual pets are mass-produced products, and little variances like that are normal. After removing and tightening up all of the screws, however, I noticed something else about the speaker - it being off-centre meant that whenever light pressure was put on the case by pressing the buttons or even simply handling it, the metal from the speaker was making contact with a piece of solder on the board, thus causing the entire pet to short out and reset!

I carefully pushed the speaker and the sticky-pad that it sits on into the correct position, as marked on the PCB, and put everything back together again, and once I put batteries in and started it up, all was well - and it was making nice, loud sounds for the first time ever, to boot!

This Octo-Pets unit was only unboxed for the very first time mere days ago, as it had previously remained new and sealed since 1997, so this was a manufacturing error that had gone undetected until now. That's kind of amazing! The fact that I fixed it myself in order to get it working in the first place makes this particular virtual pet extra-special to me already.

And on that note...

... Here's a happy, healthy penguin hatchling just beginning his life!

The Octo-Pets is an 8-in-1 variant of the Super Gyaoppi 9 in 1 (Octo-Pets lacks the duck option). Those who are familiar with the Super Gyaoppi will notice that the Octo-Pets has four buttons instead of three. The fourth button is a nice quality-of-life feature - holding it down will cycle through the stats screens without you having to navigate to that part of the menu (in fact, if you have another menu option highlighted, it will leave that as-is while you view the stats, and you can resume what you were doing immediately after releasing the stats button).

Here's Marutchi, too, incidentally - just as cute and Kirby-like as ever.

It begins!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Marutchi and the penguin chick are now both fast asleep.

I absolutely love the sleep/weather animations on the Octo-Pets and Super Gyaoppi - they're very atmospheric for graphics made for a chunky monochrome dot-matrix LCD on a virtual pet from 1997.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Today, my little penguin chick saw rain for the first time!

And a little bit later, he grew into his next form, so I guess that he's a fledgling now.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Over on the Sunset Tamagotchi Original, Marutchi evolved into Kuchitamatchi, today. Also there's some poop...

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Oops! I accidentally missed taking a picture of another stage of the Octo-Pets penguin yesterday, because it was very similar to the one pictured above, just with some extra lines sticking out of his head so as to represent more feathers. It was so similar to the previous form that I simply didn't notice that it was different until just before he evolved again today.

So, on that note, here's how the penguin looks as an adult;

He's basically a punky-looking Rockhopper, or some other similar-looking crested species.