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[November 2022] After Dogo-4.5 went
off to pastures new at 29, I set that aside. Then, some weeks
later, I was handed yet another cyber pet, another red one, but
different. The
screen was blank but as soon as I pressed a button the display
came alive and I was presented with poo to clean up and a live pet
to make well, feed and play with. Meet EVE, I didn't know how old
she was already:
This is another unbranded-pet, not
an official Tamagotchi, and other than the unhelpful A, B, C, D
labelling of the four buttons there are no other markings. I found
my way through the menu system to discover the name EVE. A
particular feature of this device is that everything on the screen
is presented in double-pixels.
 A & B scroll through options
D selects that option
D, when on the main screen, displays the time.
C returned to the previous screen
In games A and D choose left or right.
There are a couple of games; being
a cat to catch a ball, and a rocket ship avoiding the oncoming
ships.
There is a menu option, displayed
as an open book icon, where
When you clean up poo a happy
chicken is displayed...
A couple of days later I was
suddenly presented with a variety of animals to choose from.
Seemingly EVE had passed on. I somewhat randomly selected a sheep
and then on the next screen the name JIM was already present. The
next screen allowed me to set the time (although I'd never found
the clock before). One thing I have now realised is that the pets
arrive fully grown and likely don't grow, plus they just move
across the screen, there is no different animation to them, just
like how it's not your pet that you see being fed, playing the
games, or cheering when you make them happy... a budget pet with a
budget design team. Maybe I'll play this thing for a while now...
[September 2022]
After Dogo-03 froze to death (literally, the thing froze) I reset
the thing but since the clock was wrong I took the batteries out
and put them back in thinking the option to set the time would
present itself, but no, that was unnecessary and I think holding
down Enter whilst on the clock was the way forward. So
technically, Dogo-04 was never born, and therefore Dogo-4.5 was
next!
I'd clearly figured out
how best to look after these pets by now, after Dogo-03 got to 16.
Dogo-4.5 surpassed that (without crashing) and he became a good
companion with me taking him on a couple of trips like I had done
with my previous Tamagotchis.
Dogo's Day 24 involved a walk up
Snowdon, but the weather was too bad at the top,
and my fingers too cold to handle and photograph Dogo-4.5 there,
but he thankfully survived the trip!
At 29 days though the
sad thing happened...
I was visiting family
and we had even talked about how well Dogo was doing and joked
that he might last to 100 at this rate if the screen could fit
those digits... but shortly thereafter he beeped and I took him
from my pocket to find the curtains had gone down. Surely I hadn't
neglected him?
No, I had kept him
well fed and played with.* I could press the Enter button to
reveal the happy Dogo, but then the curtains would just go back
down again... he had evidently passed away as a happy Dogo, which
is kind of sad, but satisfying at the same time. Perhaps 29 days
is the limit for these?
*After a certain age the chasing
after the ball game becomes too challenging - you have to press
left or right accordingly to catch the ball in that direction, but
once old the dog can't quite keep up with it, but thankfully it is
still kept happy from trying. The guessing left or right game is
the alternative, but it takes longer to play so I tended to avoid
that, although again, even if you don't win the dog is still kept
happy, but perhaps only half as much as winning it (so you have to
play twice as many rounds).
[August
2022] It had been over 18 month since I parted with my last Tamagotchi, but then an unofficial "Tamagotchi", a virtual
pet/cyber pet, found its way into my possession.
This one is labelled as a "My Doggie"
and is branded "CEDAR" according to the sticker on the back.
Clearly a cheap knockoff, the
battery compartment had no labelling to indicate the orientation
of the batteries, but luckily I paid attention to the worn out
ones that were in it (luckily no battery leakage). With a pair of
new LR44s the thing beeped into life with that red LED flashing
too with each beep.
Sadly Dogo-01 only lasted for 3
days before saying "bye bye":
I tried again, and did worse (with
Dogo-02) at 2 days.
Dogo-03 fared much better. This
is him at age 4 and then 8:
I discovered that once on the
'scales' screen I could go left or right to view three different
health screens in turn, but with the foreign script I have been
slowly figuring out which each refers to.
 |
 |
 |
|
How obedient* |
Feeding** |
Playing*** |
*There is an option to tell the dog
off. I'm not sure when it's appropriate to do this because the dog
'beeps' and then poos from time-to-time. It also leaves paw prints
across the screen sometimes; at first I didn't realise these were
paw prints but either way I decided this was what I would tell the
dog off for. If you don't tell the dog off for anything it loses
obedience and then it gets what appears to be a face on either/or
both sides of the screen - ignore those for two long and the dog
will leave. So it seems I have to occasionally tell the dog off
for nothing!
**At first there are two meal
options: a plate of food and a drink. When the dog grows the drink
is replaced with a bone. I guess dehydration isn't an issue.
***There are two games; the
annoying left or right one, or a chase after the ball one where
you have to mash the L or R buttons accordingly to get to the ball
in time.
Dogo-03 celebrated his 15th
birthday (each day a cake appears).
But just before turning 16, he woke
up and I had to rush to feed him, play a game with and clean,
because he'd gone to sleep the day before before I'd had chance...
and then he sort of... died. But not died died... the system
crashed/froze! Here is Dogo-03 stuck on the screen:
Bye-bye Dogo-03
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