Tamagotchi

• • Manufacturer: Bandai

  • Designers: Akihiro Yokoi and Aki Maita

  • Generation: 5th Generation Handheld

• Bits: 8 bit

  • Year Released: 1996

  • Units sold: Over 70 million (as of 2008)

  • Media: No external game cartridges or discs (Contains Pre-Programmed chip within console)

  • Summary: The Tamagotchi is a virtual pet that evolves depending on how you take care of it; it is the first virtual reality pet of its kind. The player can interact with the Tamagotchi through playing games, feeding, cleaning up after it, and even through discipline. Since the Tamagotchi is a simulation of a living thing the platform is active 24/7 and the player must continually take care of creature to keep it happy. If the Tamagotchi is neglected it may act out, change into a bratty or mean Tamagotchi, or even die. The platform is restricted to playing what it is programmed with; no extra software is able to be downloaded. Tamagotchis have been extremely popular since their release; they are considered to be a fad or "craze", but they continue to be popular today. The target audience of the Tamagotchi is mainly young children and preteen girls, however the craze has flowed over to young adults as well, mainly due to nostalgia. Since 1996, 44 different versions of the Tamagotchi have been released.

History

The Tamagotchi was born when Aki Maita, a data tracker for Bandai, was searching for a companion that she could care for that would work with her busy lifestyle and her little apartment. Somehow the idea came to her when she watched a commerical where a little boy tries to bring a turtle to kindergarten. Realizing the of her genius idea, she sold the idea of the first virtual pet to Bandai which developed based the Tamagotchi on her ideas. Maita then took prototypes to the streets of Japan for consumer tests and handed them out to about 200 high school girls whom "eyes instantly lit up" according to Maita. She used questionares to monitor the girls reactions and used them to finalize details for the product such as the key chain design, what colors were preferred, and packaging.

The name Tamagotchi is derived from the Japanese words "tamago", which means egg, and "tomodachi", which means

friend; so it literally means egg friend. It is also intentionally keeps the word "chi" in it which means cute or lovable in Japanese. The fictional story about the origin of Tamagotchis is that they are little alien creatures from the Planet Tamagotchi that crash landed on Earth. The Professor and his assistant, Mikachu, found them and built them egg-shaped protection cases so that they could survive on Earth. Mikachu then painted them to make them pretty and brought them to school starting the Tamagotchi craze.

When Tamagotchis were released they were a huge success. In the U.S. and Canada 15 Tamagotchis were sold every minute when they were initially released in 1996. However, most players were school children and the fact that Tamagotchis need to be attended to caused distraction in school and Tamagotchis were quickly banned in most schools. Since children were not allowed to bring them to school parents were saddled with them 6 hours out of every day. Parents were not exactly happy about this and this caused controversy around the Tamagotchi and many parents would not buy them for their children. This was more of an issue in America than Japan, most likely due to cultural differences in schools, families, and the consumer society.

In 2004, the first new Tamagotchi since 1998 was released re-sparking the Tamagotchi craze. The Tamagotchi Connection featured infrared technology that allowed players to connect with other Tamagotchis. The connection capabilities added many new elements to the game such as making friends, getting married, and having Tamagotchi babies. An even more important feature was included on the American versions, the pause feature. This allowed the player to pause the game, which stopped growth; this was very important as it eliminated the problem of children with Tamagotchis attending school and abandoning their Tamagotchis to die.

Tamagotchis continue to be extremely popular in worldwide. Bandai has announced the next Tamagotchi to be released sometime in 2010 is called TamaTown Tama-Go. The new Tamagotchi reflects Bandai's website TamaTown, hence the name. TamaTown Tama-Go will be slightly larger to accommodate the attachable characters and the advanced screen which has a four-grayscale display. This will be the first Tamagotchi to have anything resembling cartridges as the different characters will have special goods and Tamagotchis loaded on to them.

Hardware

Bandai releases no technical or hardware specifications on the Tamagotchi; the information is, apparently, complex and confidential. This is most likely because of the numerous copies of the idea of the virtual pet, such as Nano Pet, Giga Pet, and more recently the Pokemon Walker.

However, it is assumed that the screen is LCD with 1-tone grayscale color. The Tamagotchi has 3 buttons below the screen to play games and care for the Tamagotchi. Since the device is so small in size the it is assumed that it has an 8-bit, or less processor. It also has a reset button to reset the console if you want to start a new game, or if your Tamagotchi dies. The newer Tamagotchi Connection has infrared technology on the top of the device.