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

[Penguin-keeper]

Hello, who's this?

It's Bobbo the Game Boy Tamagotchi, who briefly appeared in my old log as a Marutchi, and then didn't show up again. I've just brought him back, and he's woken up as a Hashitamatchi. (Yes, this game mixes Gen 1 and Gen 2 characters.)

But how is he still alive, and only 3 days old, after all this time?! Simple: The Tamagotchi Game Boy game doesn't have a real-time clock. Instead, its time advances in a similar manner to games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and when the in-game time reaches night, you can put the Tamagotchi to bed and then fast-forward the clock in chunks until the Tamagotchi's wake-up time the next "day". This also means that, if you can't tend to it for a while, you can turn the Game Boy off and put the cartridge aside, and your current Tamagotchi will remain as-is until you pick it up again.

This game featured the debut of lots of elements that would come to define the much later colour Tamagotchis, and some that remained only in this game and its two Japan-only sequels. Things like a room where the Tamagotchi lives, naming the Tamagotchi, liked and disliked foods, praising, stress, being able to put the Tamagotchi on the toilet if you catch it when it's about to poop, and multiple games (which, in this game, have different effects on evolution - though, annoyingly, only the Sports Game causes weight-loss and it doesn't increase happiness), all started here, and things like being able to raise up to three Tamagotchis at once, in separate rooms, stayed here (well, here, and at least one of the Japan-only sequels to this game).

Since the Tamagotchi Game Boy game doesn't run in real-time and can easily be picked up for short or long play-sessions, I'll try to fit Bobbo (and any future Game Boy Tamagotchis) into my log more often going forward - sometimes, this game is more convenient when you're short on time to tend to a more conventional virtual pet, after all!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Bobbo, now four days old, has evolved into a Takotchi.

His favourite food is meat, and he outright refuses to eat carrots, which he absolutely hates.

 

[321Boom]

Awesome addition to the log! Something lots of Tama users haven't ever got to experience! Well done for including this also!  

 

[Mandymom]

I’ve never experienced it in it’s original Gameboy form, but I played it ALL the time on a website that hosted the rom for it. I even made an account just so I could use save states and not have to worry about losing the tab and losing data! Those were good times

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Awesome addition to the log! Something lots of Tama users haven't ever got to experience! Well done for including this also!  

Thanks very much! It's an interesting halfway point between the vintage devices, the Connection line, and the modern colour models, which has some interesting layers to how it plays and how evolution works, and even though its translation is fairly bad, it's certainly something that I would recommend to other fans.

The translation is mostly just sparse and minimal, but there are enough wrong word-choices that it can sometimes be a bit confusing (the "Stress" meter is translated as "Fear", for example). One particularly egregious example of this is that there is a menu that features an option called "Home" right above an option called "Exit". One would logically think that "Home" would save and quit and take you back to the main menu found on the title-screen of the game, and that "Exit" is to exit the in-game menu and return to the view of your Tamagotchi's room (or rooms if you're raising more than one). Not so - "Home" is a result of Bandai sanitising the concept of death in the English side of the Tamagotchi line by that point*, and it's short for "Send the Tamagotchi back to its home-planet"! Meanwhile, "Exit" is the save-and-quit option. "Home" really ought to say "Dismiss".

*This is in spite of the fact that this game contains the most unbelievably-downer death sequence of ANY Tamagotchi release, where you see the Tamagotchi die, see its spirit looking confused and upset about having died, and then see the Tamagotchi become an angel and fly away, all set to some incredibly haunting music. Japanese version here; Full version of the music here. WARNING: There is a flashing/strobing effect at the start of the death sequence, which complied with the epilepsy warnings and standards of the time, but which would probably be subjected to a flash-reduction patch if it were re-released today.

Translation issues aside, the game's solid and it's also got some really nice animations, which are a lot smoother than any released Tamagotchi model that I know of, old or new. I'll boot it up with its Super Game Boy palette (assuming that it has one - if it does, the Game Boy Colour should use it) the next time that I post about it in here, since that adds some colour, too (I generally just use the monochrome palette for games that were released pre-Game Boy Colour, hence the lack of colour in my photos so far).

Anyway, it's still not an expensive game to pick up, at this point in time (and nor are its two Japan-only sequels, though I've researched them and found that they probably have a bit too much text for my almost-non-existent Japanese ability - though chances are that it's just utilitarian explanatory text like in this one), and Game Boy hardware that can run original monochrome titles is also still easy to come by as well (be that official vintage hardware, whether original or refurbished or modified, or modern clones that are compatible with the original cartridges), so I'd recommend that people give it a look sooner rather than later, if they're interested in it. I'll happily do a run-down of what hardware can run the game, if anyone's interested.

I’ve never experienced it in it’s original Gameboy form, but I played it ALL the time on a website that hosted the rom for it. I even made an account just so I could use save states and not have to worry about losing the tab and losing data! Those were good times

A relative of mine had the Tamagotchi Game Boy game back in the day, so I knew it from way back when it was new! It stuck in my mind partly because of the novelty of a game that expanded on the virtual pet concept being released on the Game Boy (which was, and remains, my favourite handheld of all time), and partly because of the aforementioned haunting death-sequence. I've had my own copy for a while, but didn't have enough time for it before - I'm really glad that I've picked it up again now.

 

[Tacoburritotchi]

The translation is mostly just sparse and minimal, but there are enough wrong word-choices that it can sometimes be a bit confusing (the "Stress" meter is translated as "Fear", for example). One particularly egregious example of this is that there is a menu that features an option called "Home" right above an option called "Exit". One would logically think that "Home" would save and quit and take you back to the main menu found on the title-screen of the game, and that "Exit" is to exit the in-game menu and return to the view of your Tamagotchi's room (or rooms if you're raising more than one). Not so - "Home" is a result of Bandai sanitising the concept of death in the English side of the Tamagotchi line by that point*, and it's short for "Send the Tamagotchi back to its home-planet"! Meanwhile, "Exit" is the save-and-quit option. "Home" really ought to say "Dismiss".

(Wow. Stress=Fear?! No way.)

*This is in spite of the fact that this game contains the most unbelievably-downer death sequence of ANY Tamagotchi release, where you see the Tamagotchi die, see its spirit looking confused and upset about having died, and then see the Tamagotchi become an angel and fly away, all set to some incredibly haunting music. Japanese version here; Full version of the music here. WARNING: There is a flashing/strobing effect at the start of the death sequence, which complied with the epilepsy warnings and standards of the time, but which would probably be subjected to a flash-reduction patch if it were re-released today.

(Whaaaaat? Wow, it looks so depressing  )

Brackets by me.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

(Wow. Stress=Fear?! No way.)

Yeah.

I can kind of see how it ended up that way, as the translation strongly feels like it might've been one of those cases where a non-native English speaker was using a Japanese-to-English dictionary and made an incorrect translation choice. Bandai was not famed for putting high budgets towards Game Boy projects, let's put it that way.

(Whaaaaat? Wow, it looks so depressing  )

Going by the below video, I wasn't the only one that it made an impact on when I was a youngster!



This video gives a fairly good overview of the game, too.

 

[Tacoburritotchi]

Aah it's soo cute!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Aah it's soo cute!

Here's another worthwhile video about it;

 

[321Boom]

The translation is mostly just sparse and minimal, but there are enough wrong word-choices that it can sometimes be a bit confusing (the "Stress" meter is translated as "Fear", for example). One particularly egregious example of this is that there is a menu that features an option called "Home" right above an option called "Exit". One would logically think that "Home" would save and quit and take you back to the main menu found on the title-screen of the game, and that "Exit" is to exit the in-game menu and return to the view of your Tamagotchi's room (or rooms if you're raising more than one). Not so - "Home" is a result of Bandai sanitising the concept of death in the English side of the Tamagotchi line by that point*, and it's short for "Send the Tamagotchi back to its home-planet"! Meanwhile, "Exit" is the save-and-quit option. "Home" really ought to say "Dismiss".

Wow, yeah that is quite a terrible translation  Definitely agreed that Home could be understood as you took it, rather than that the Tama will go back it's Home planet  

*This is in spite of the fact that this game contains the most unbelievably-downer death sequence of ANY Tamagotchi release, where you see the Tamagotchi die, see its spirit looking confused and upset about having died, and then see the Tamagotchi become an angel and fly away, all set to some incredibly haunting music. Japanese version here;

OMG that's horrible  It really is depressing, and the music really sets the melancholic mood also.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Today, Bobbo entered a beauty contest.

He didn't do very well - though he did outrank a CPU Ginjirotchi, so at least there's that.

As you can see, I'm using the red palette today, which I picked after discovering that the Game Boy Colour doesn't use this game's Super Game Boy palette (apparently the Game Boy Colour doesn't do this - I had misremembered), and also because that's not my usual yellow Game Boy Colour...

... It's a spare one that I customised earlier today.

Wow, yeah that is quite a terrible translation  Definitely agreed that Home could be understood as you took it, rather than that the Tama will go back it's Home planet  

Exactly! Luckily, there is a confirmation screen after choosing "Home", which should hopefully clue in most users who are familiar with the Tamagotchi line that they should back out now, but even then I can see it still being misunderstood by non-enthusiasts - and understandably so, since most people remember their virtual pets dying, not "returning to their home-planet".




Yeah, I remember finding it absolutely miserable when I was a kid! As an adult, I find both versions of it interesting both because of how impactful it was, and as a look at how games get tailored to differing cultures even in cases where a game's localisation is otherwise minimal.

 

[321Boom]

Exactly! Luckily, there is a confirmation screen after choosing "Home", which should hopefully clue in most users who are familiar with the Tamagotchi line that they should back out now, but even then I can see it still being misunderstood by non-enthusiasts - and understandably so, since most people remember their virtual pets dying, not "returning to their home-planet".

That makes it slightly better that there is a confirmation at least, but yeah, I could imagine kids or non-enthusiasts making the mistake and still going ahead with it  This reminds me of the mistranslation in the ON's Hotel being Leave (i.e. Leave your Tama there, but most people thought it meant leave the hotel area), but with worse consequences cause you lose your Tama you've been raising! x_X

Yeah, I remember finding it absolutely miserable when I was a kid! As an adult, I find both versions of it interesting both because of how impactful it was, and as a look at how games get tailored to differing cultures even in cases where a game's localisation is otherwise minimal.

I truly could imagine. I'm an adult in my 30s and that was gloomy to watch, let alone being a kid!! Well, at least it'll give people incentive to raise their Tama properly, cause no one would like to see that scene multiple times!! It really is impactful as you're stating!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

That makes it slightly better that there is a confirmation at least, but yeah, I could imagine kids or non-enthusiasts making the mistake and still going ahead with it  This reminds me of the mistranslation in the ON's Hotel being Leave (i.e. Leave your Tama there, but most people thought it meant leave the hotel area), but with worse consequences cause you lose your Tama you've been raising! x_X

As you can see, Bandai has a looooong history of only offering passable translations for the larger markets outside of Japan!

I truly could imagine. I'm an adult in my 30s and that was gloomy to watch, let alone being a kid!! Well, at least it'll give people incentive to raise their Tama properly, cause no one would like to see that scene multiple times!! It really is impactful as you're stating!

It definitely gives you an incentive to do better (and when you have done better it gives the viewer a different context for the scene), and there's certainly a lot to dig into with this version once you have that incentive. For example, I learned that the Praise icon can be used after the Tamagotchi succeeds at the Sports game or Study game, which the game provides no cues for at all - there really is an expectation that you'll experiment with it all. I got Takotchi because of the Stress ("Fear") meter being high, in spite of having given perfect care throughout, and it turns out that praising for these actions is what lowers it and lets you get better evolutions.

Incidentally, speaking of the praise icon, using it when you catch a Tamagotchi who's about to poop on the floor is hilarious, because it doesn't just put the Tamagotchi onto a toilet, but it plays this jingle as they're sitting there that makes it sound like some sort of holy event! It's a nice example of the franchise's oddball sense of humour, and it caught me completely off-guard because my only prior experience with this feature was with the Tamagotchi Meets, where there is no such jingle.

 

[321Boom]

As you can see, Bandai has a looooong history of only offering passable translations for the larger markets outside of Japan!

Yeah haha, but still, something that could be overlooked to get to enjoy these little critters  I guess we could think of the translation errors as us learning the Tama's alien language, so we're bound to make a couple of mistakes  

It definitely gives you an incentive to do better (and when you have done better it gives the viewer a different context for the scene), and there's certainly a lot to dig into with this version once you have that incentive. For example, I learned that the Praise icon can be used after the Tamagotchi succeeds at the Sports game or Study game, which the game provides no cues for at all - there really is an expectation that you'll experiment with it all. I got Takotchi because of the Stress ("Fear") meter being high, in spite of having given perfect care throughout, and it turns out that praising for these actions is what lowers it and lets you get better evolutions.

Incidentally, speaking of the praise icon, using it when you catch a Tamagotchi who's about to poop on the floor is hilarious, because it doesn't just put the Tamagotchi onto a toilet, but it plays this jingle as they're sitting there that makes it sound like some sort of holy event! It's a nice example of the franchise's oddball sense of humour, and it caught me completely off-guard because my only prior experience with this feature was with the Tamagotchi Meets, where there is no such jingle.

Sounds like it's a learn-as-you-go process, which is good in a way, cause it encourages the player's experimentation and willingness to try new things to raise their pet better  Ah, awesome that you've figured out the Stress/Fear and Praise relation, unlocks further possibilities for you to get different Tamas, especially seeing that you can raise 3 at once  

 Haha the Meets/ON one's is funny enough with the party poppers, let alone with an added jingle lol  

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Bobbo is putting in an appearance on some different hardware today - a Game Boy Advance. This device has quite a dark screen compared to the Game Boy Colour, so unfortunately it's a bit difficult to get good photographs from it, but I'm doing this for a reason, which I'll get to at the end of this log-entry.

On a Game Boy Advance or a Game Boy Advance SP, using the L Button will let you stretch the picture to fill the entire screen, and you can put it back to normal again by pressing the R Button. I prefer the standard look rather than the stretched one, myself, since Game Boy games weren't designed to be stretched out like that.

Today, Bobbo entered a Knowledge contest. Though he cleared the first three sums, which are easy, he failed the first of the harder ones, thus losing the entire contest. So far, he's lost at every one that he's tried! (I didn't cover it in the log, but shortly after I picked the game up again, I entered Bobbo in a Race contest - he lost at that, too, unfortunately.)

I still don't know what the "Mine" meter is for. It seems to go up when the Tamagotchi tries new things, but not always, as far as I can see. By default, the "Fear" and "Mine" meters are unhelpfully hidden (which makes the raising and lowering of stress even more difficult to figure out) - if you want to see them (assuming that you even know that they exist in the first place), then you have to reveal them by using the method mentioned here.

Incidentally, I also learned that, in this game, you can scold a Tamagotchi for refusing food that they dislike, which will then cause them to eat it if you try to feed it to them again afterwards. This is handy if they're refusing to eat carrots, which add one to the "Life" (Hunger) meter without causing them to gain any weight, which can save you time if you don't want to deal with playing the Sports game in order to get them to lose weight after a meal.

Anyway, onto the reason why I'm using my Game Boy Advance today instead of one of my easier-to-photograph Game Boy Colour units: I wrote up a list of hardware that natively supports the Tamagotchi Game Boy game;

Official Hardware (Handheld)
Game Boy
Game Boy Pocket
Game Boy Colour
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance SP

Official Hardware (TV)
Super Game Boy (SNES)
Super Game Boy 2 (SNES)
Game Boy Player (GameCube)

Though I haven't yet gotten either of them to test with (though I do intend to if possible), the unofficial modern clones GB Boy Colour and Analogue Pocket should also support the game. Verifying that will have to wait until a later date, though.

The eagle-eyed will notice that there is one notable omission from the list: Even though the almost-keychain-sized Game Boy micro is part of the Game Boy Advance family, it cannot run Tamagotchi GB. Unfortunately, part of what makes the Game Boy micro so small is that it lacks the hardware that provides compatibility with Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games, and the cartridge slot won't even accept these cartridges, accordingly. That's a pity, as it's a really nice little piece of hardware, and its screen would be very nice for Game Boy titles.

Yeah haha, but still, something that could be overlooked to get to enjoy these little critters  I guess we could think of the translation errors as us learning the Tama's alien language, so we're bound to make a couple of mistakes  

Haha, that's not a bad way of looking at it! Though if we consider it from the perspective of the in-universe lore, then it means that Professor Banzo and/or Mikachu aren't that great at translation.

Sounds like it's a learn-as-you-go process, which is good in a way, cause it encourages the player's experimentation and willingness to try new things to raise their pet better  Ah, awesome that you've figured out the Stress/Fear and Praise relation, unlocks further possibilities for you to get different Tamas, especially seeing that you can raise 3 at once  

Yeah, it helps a lot! Credit to the Tamagotchi Wiki for shedding light on it - that was where I learned it from. I'm not planning on raising three at once anytime soon, though - I like how chill the game is when you're just raising one, since the game-design is quite time-respectful, which was necessary on systems like the Game Boy.

Haha the Meets/ON one's is funny enough with the party poppers, let alone with an added jingle lol  

Agreed. The jingle really is something else, though. Same joke, different execution, I guess!

 

[Tacoburritotchi]

I literally thought that Professor Banzo’s name was Hanzo.  

 

[Penguin-keeper]

New equipment? New equipment.

This is a Kongfeng GB Boy Colour - a hardware clone of the Game Boy Colour, which has pretty good build-quality, nice controls, and a surprisingly nice screen and speaker for its price-point (they go for about £30 to £40, currently). Though it has what amounts to a multi-cart built-in, which boots up if you power on the console with no cartridge in it (something that's of no interest to me at all), the real utility comes from the fact that it runs real cartridges - though, unfortunately, it seems to really hate my copy of Pokemon Blue, and will randomly cause it to crash every so often (both during the intro, and in-game), on the occasions where it will boot it at all.

The whole thing costs less money and time than the parts to modify a stock Game Boy Colour to have backlighting and a louder speaker, and aside from the aforementioned pickiness about Pokemon, the only trade-offs are a very slightly squat display (it doesn't share the same aspect-ratio as the real thing), a fake IR-port that's only there for show, and the fact that, in games where an audio-channel drops out for the sake of playing sound-effects thus "muting" part of the music, this hardware sometimes drops out other parts of the music as well, due to the speaker outputting the right stereo channel rather than the complete signal - however, the sound is otherwise pretty much perfect, and I would much rather have this little quirk than the horribly off-key sounds that so many other clone consoles have (as I'm sure that anyone else who's familiar with them would agree with ). For me, these trade-offs are worth it for what the hardware offers, and I'm really happy to have one of these in my collection; Like my others it already has its own place and use-case.

The only other quirk of note is that the clock-speed is slightly different to a real Game Boy Colour, though this is imperceptible unless you're running two of them side-by-side - which is how I learned that this is even a thing.

The GB Boy Colour is by no means a replacement for a genuine Game Boy, but it's a nice little workhorse that offers some nice features for a nice price. If anybody wants to learn more about this device, this video should give you a good idea of what it's all about;



Anyway, onto the log!

So, as is quickly becoming tradition by now, here's Tamagotchi GB running on this device, and I've picked a nice blue palette to match the hardware, this time (the GB Boy Colour offers the same palettes for monochrome titles that a real Game Boy Colour does, and they're accessed in the same way - by pressing certain direction and button combinations at the console's boot-screen). I think that this one looks particularly nice for this game, so I might use it again in the future.

Today, Bobbo entered a race - and he won, and he was delighted about that!

Alas, now that he's 8 in-game days old, I'm noticing that Bobbo's hearts are emptying a lot quicker than before - I'm sure that we'll be seeing the ultra-downer death sequence before too long...

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I received these three lovelies as gifts recently.

Tamagotchi Original Gen 2 - Sky - This shell goes beautifully with my Tamagotchi Original Gen 1 in the Sunset design. They make a lovely thematically-matching pair, and I'm really happy to have them both.

Angelgotch - I've never owned one of these before, and I'm looking forward to running it when I have the time. Though I haven't done anything else with it yet, I have taken off the back in order to remove the very old batteries and to replace the battery-door screws, due to the notorious softness of the screws on the later devices in the Tamagotchi line's original run.

Tamakaci Duck - A Gyaoppi duck, in combined keychain or watch form! I like the idea of virtual pet watches a lot, this one has a nice shape and a super-cute strap, and this device replaces the duck option that was lost when my Super Gyaoppi went missing and was replaced with an Octo-Pets, so this unit ticks a lot of boxes for me. There is some minor corrosion in the battery-compartment due to the original batteries having been in it for all this time (they were actually bulging and somewhat stuck as a result, which made removing them kind of scary!), so it isn't currently working, but it should clean up just fine because there's very little of it.

The Tamakaci Duck instructions, which are printed on the back of the box, also have this bit of brilliance therein;

I cracked up laughing. Making it even better is the fact that whoever censored this part of the instructions missed another instance of the exact same phrase in the next part, which was literally an inch away from this one.

And speaking of which, here's Bobbo!

As you can see, when you catch a Tamagotchi before it poops on the floor in the Game Boy game, the toilet appears in the same room, rather than them being taken to a separate bathroom as is the case on the colour models. The "holy"-sounding jingle for this, combined with the absolutely hilarious facial-expressions, gets me every time.

Bobbo also entered a beauty contest, but didn't win - the Ginjirotchi that he outranked last time beat everybody!

 

[Penguin-keeper]

As Bobbo is getting older, not only are his meters emptying more quickly, but now his stress-levels are rising much more quickly, too!

Still, not a lot has happened for Bobbo today (which is his tenth in-game day), aside from losing a knowledge contest at the very last question, so I decided to take a moment to show how cute the animations in this game are;

Here's Bobbo eating a slice of cake.

I've noticed that the consequences for feeding snacks in this game seem to have influenced the recent Gen 1/Gen 2 reissues - Bobbo got sick at one point during his in-game day for the past two days as a result of me feeding him only a couple of snacks, and it took quite a bit of effort to cure the ensuing sickness.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

I haven't had very much time for Bobbo this week, due in part to taking some time to properly organise my Game Boy games in a binder (trading-card pages that fit Pokemon cards are perfect for this!), which took up a chunk of free time.

Still, I finally managed to spend some time with the little guy earlier, and it was an uneventful in-game day today - Bobbo lost a race, and his meters continue to deplete more quickly, and he's pooping more often, right alongside this. There are no pictures this time, accordingly.