May 1st, 1998

• Ocean Tamagotchi
  I changed the batteries yesterday, but since I knew that I was going to be busy at the Spring Fling Thing
  (Read the Details in my Wedding Tam diary entry for today!)
  I kept the little guy tabbed.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  Grrr. The penguin is harder to raise than I thought.
  I still don't know how to do the health meter check: the instructions say to "Press LEFT or RIGHT key to select the HINT icon. Press ENTER key to confirm function." But... well.. it's like the attention icon on tams.
  So far, I've tried pressing mode, select, mode, select, select, mode (etc)... This works... sometimes.
  Usually it's just a poop (or as the instructions put it, "Your pet has dump."), but I wish I could figure out how to do it properly, in case of a sickness...
  So far, I've accidentally fed and scolded it a couple of times while trying to select this mysterious HINT icon.
  Oh, and as I awaited my bus to the restaurant where the Spring Fling Thing was taking place, I heard a beep as my penguin reset itself. I had to start over again... and I discovered (later in the evening, when I missed a bus) that I'd set the minutes wrong. Luckily, I managed to figure out how to fix the time ("Press the A [enter] key for 1.5 seconds...") but it was still rather vexing.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  My sister finally named the penguin. It is now officially named "Squishy" (sp?). Sometimes my sister puzzles even myself (although I suspect that usually, it's the other way around...)
  
  Squishy did pretty well today, although I left him alone for long amounts of time. When his happy levels drop too low, he shakes his head instead of doing little pli? in the middle of the screen.
  
  He continues to waddle towards some distant, unattainable mountain range, though, which I found kinda poignant...
  
  (Although this might have been the aftereffects of the Peach Cider I had last night... It's a funny thing, really. In Japan, the most famous "cider" is Mitsuya's Cider, a sickly sweet carbonated non-alcoholic drink, now available in Pink [strawberry, peach, and something] flavour. Apparently, in general parlance, Cider means "alcoholic drink that tastes pleasantly fruity until it hits the back of your throat and makes it feel all thick and hot like you're about to choke to death". Live and learn, I guess... In this case, learn to ask about the alcohol content of drinks before ordering. I dunno, "cider" just sounded less alcoholic... how was I supposed to know it'd be 7% alcohol, as compared to beer's 5%? Back on Topic.)
  
  Unlike Tams, you can't put these in Timer Mode to save energy... after a couple of seconds, it reverts to the activity screen. At 11 PM, the penguin flops down on the floor (at first I thought he was melting!) and you have to turn the lights out. When you do, you get a black screen with a semi-circle, then a small arc, then an igloo on a white background. I finally figured out that the white half-circle is the "door to the igloo" shutting.

• Ocean Tamagotchi
  I started up Mojo 3 today, with every intention of getting a kai-chi and then a Ningyo-chi. To this end, I tried to keep the discipline at about 50%. This failed abysmally, as Mojo 3 first beeped for attention and food and games, and each time refused to eat. This lasted for a couple hours each... Finally, it got to the point where he was obviously sick, yet refused treatment. I had no choice but to discipline again, bringing the total up to 10.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  I'm not sure if Squishy has changed size yet. My sister says that he's bigger now.
  Incidentally, this pet goes through 4 stages (the 4th stage has 3 adult forms to "choose" from), but there's no picture growth chart, so I don't know what the different forms look like.

• Ocean Tamagotchi
  Mojo3 was left alone during a 20 minute job interview, but he seemed okay aside from a drop to the floor and a sick skull, which I healed soon enough. However, he later needed medicine and wouldn't take it, so I had to scold again. I suspect that Tams have an inherent need for discipline, and that Mojo3 will continue to act up until his discipline is full.
  
  While waiting for his selfish call to end, I accidentally let him go to bed with no hearts whatsoever, and one water quality skull.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  
  Today, Squishy was definitely bigger. I once again accidentally scolded him repeatedly while trying to access the Help icon. At 3:30 or so in the morning, he beeped at me, so I had to fiddle around with the buttons and eventually flush his poop.

• Ocean Tamagotchi
  Mojo3 just transformed, at around 1:05 pm! I'd left the room to go pick up Becca the Mesuchi, whom I keep leaving in my bedroom. Then, when I came back, I saw to my horror... An empty Ocean Tam screen.
  
  In a few moments, though, a little Kingyochi swam on screen.
  
  I was shocked. This was the bad teenager! My experiments with Tamagotchi Angel aside, I hadn't gotten the bad teenager since... since... since the summer of '97 when I tried seeing what not flushing the poops and only feeding it candy would do to a gen 1 tam!
  
  The Kingyochi's minimum weight appears to be 10 grams. ...Yup, I just played a game to confirm that: it is 10 grams, minimum; quite a bit lighter than the 15 gram Ototochi
  
  
  More info to come. I guess I won't be able to get the secret character now... So I'm going to coddle it now, and try to make sure that it turns into the best possible character.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  Squishy remains the same size as yesterday.

• Ocean Tamagotchi
  Yesterday, I could have sworn I saw Mojo 3 swimming Backwards after a selfish call!
  
  He was sick at least twice yesterday, and got sick three times or more today. Each time he only needed 2 or 1 shots, but I suspect that these "illnesses" are the result of more missed Polar Bear attacks.
  
  His discipline is up to 100% today. I fed him his first snacks today, as I needed to shut him up in time for dinner. Despite my efforts, he beeped at me because of a Polar Bear attack. Oh, and he was paused for about 5 hours as I watched Sliding Doors, a pretty darn good movie reviewed in my mateable tamagotchi diary.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  Squishy is the same size as yesterday, and the day before. I'm pretty sure that his hungry, happy, and discipline meters decrease even when he's sleeping
  :(
  
  Oh, and in case people get the wrong idea about my May 2nd entry: I do not support or condone underage drinking. I myself thought it was just plain illegal to drink while underage, although I was recently informed that it's okay as long as your parents are there and it's in the privacy of your own home. Now that I'm well into my 20th year, and since I am told that 19 is the legal drinking age (at least, I hope it's the legal drinking age...) I have begun to take the occasional drink, but only rarely, on very special occasions. In my opinion, no-one should be allowed to drink until they are mature enough to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, whether these consequences are drinking/driving accidents, general stupidity and rowdiness, cirrhosis of the liver, bad hangovers, or making a fool out of yourself in public and/or humiliating your friends.
  
  Unfortunately, this means that a significant segment of the population would never be allowed within a 10 m radius of alcohol, but oh well.
  
  If you do drink, remember to have a handy sober lacky to drive you home, or take transit (this works best if you're a non-rowdy drunk, or are still sober enough to know where you get off or, indeed, how to get off). And try not to play with 4 button virtual pets while drunk, because that just gets frustrating. (I keep forgetting that for my VR Penguin, there's a left button, right button, enter button and cancel/clock button. Grrrr.)

• Ocean Tamagotchi
  Today, around 2 pm or so, Mojo 3 transformed into... a Taiyakichi!
  
  His minimum weight dropped to 8 grams, and his discipline dropped to 4 bars as well.
  
  He's fairly cute, although when he's happy he gets buck teeth. When he's angry, his eyes go all spacy and he sticks out his tongue! Oh, and after a selfish call I'm fairly certain that he swam backwards off of the screen. After that, though, he swam normally.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  Today, Squishie became what I think is his adult form. I think he spends about 3 days in each form. Although his happy meter was pretty low when I woke up, he was doing a jolly little dance.
  
  I hope to make an animation and a page for him later. However, today I have to go resume-peddling, and then bring in my contact lenses for cleaning, so it probably won't be today.

• A New Addition to the Family!
  Star Wars Giga Friends: Rancor
  I impulse-bought this one, after resisting the temptation for many moons. But today, I was carrying too much money, and next thing I knew I was relieving myself of 20 some-odd dollars. I named my pet Mookie.
  The charming thing about this toy is just how sick and twisted it is. It "needs to eat fat guards to grow, and shapely women to stay happy".
  
  As a non-shapely woman, I was rather offended by the suggestion that I might not be as pleasing to a ravenous monster as, say, Pamela Anderson. But to get back on topic: The game is even worse. A fat beweaponed guard is dropped into the Rancor's cage, and tries to stab the Rancor. You, as the "controller", make the Rancor lunge and back away.
  
  This game is sheer H#LL. I stayed up until midnight trying to get his happiness and health above 50 (each won game= 2 health and 2 happiness points. each lost game = -2 health and happiness points). But first, some background:
  
  After starting up the Rancor, I had to hide him in my room for a while. When I came back he was calling for me and apparently asleep. I turned out his lights.
  
  Later, upon re-reading the instructions, and noting that the call icon was still "lit", I turned on Mookie's lights, thus waking him up, and selected the Clean Icon (an amusing little stick figure appeared to cart off Mookie's huge, towering droppings). Then I tried playing the game.
  
  At first, I tried lunging non-stop. I assumed that the fat guard would eventually get tired, and would stop, allowing Mookie to eat him up. I was wrong. After a couple of lunges, the buttons stuck and no longer worked. Mookie got zapped and looked cross.
  
  Next, I tried backing away non-stop. Same result, only this time Mookie started shivering uncontrollably. Having read CountryMouse's Virtual Pet Diary, I knew this to be a sign that his health had dropped below 50.
  
  I played with him over and over, way past midnight, at times dropping as low as 20 health points. It was extremely frustrating; ever so often his discipline would go below 20, and since the guide said that that was the only time that you could discipline it, I had no choice but to yell at him, bringing his happiness even lower.
  
  Eventually, I discovered that the trick was to lunge at the guard when he had tripped and had his weapon touching the ground. A pattern that worked well for me (when the buttons didn't stick) was right-right-right-LEFT, R-R-R-L, chachacha-CHA. Finally, around midnight, I got Mookie to stop shivering and sent both himself and me to bed.

• Ocean Tamagotchi
  I slept in, and then left home for the mall at around 1 pm. As a result, I didn't have time to make an animation of Mojo 3. I regret this deeply now, as Mojo 3 called me repeatedly for attention before finally Passing On later this afternoon when I forgot him in my room while I checked my e-mail. I don't know if he left behind an egg, but I will start up the Ocean Tam again on Monday.

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  I finally figured out the life cycle of the VR Pet Penguin. It spends a life span of 9 days, 3 days at each stage. It has a maximum weight that it can become, which is always 3 kgs more than the previous day: yesterday he was a maximum of 22 kg, and today he's 25 kg. He does shake his head angrily if his happiness goes low enough.
  
  Oh, and my sister tried to make an animation of Squishy, but I don't know if she completed it.

• Star Wars Giga Friends: Rancor
  I managed to get all of Mookie's stats at 100 today! I played with him repeatedly, using the Cha-cha method (see yesterday's entry) and figured out how to raise the discipline. Apparently, all you have to do is teach him a trick, and get him to practice it on command.
  
  This part was actually the most fun. "bite" was an easy one: he "bit", so I gave him a reward (a "shapely dancing girl". At first, I thought that she was naked, sprawled on the floor and contorting herself, but when she dropped down the shute I realized that what I'd taken to be legs and a bottom were the head-tails of a Twillak from Star Wars.)
  
  "Claw" was also easy, and also gotten on the first try... but "roar" was hilarious!
  
  First Mookie made a tentative clawing motion. No good, so I selected the training icon again, withheld his "treat", and chose "roar" again. This time, he did some sort of funky, Elvis-shimmy. Next time, he "bit". finally, he spread his arms out, opened his mouth, and emitted two adorable cheeps!
  
  I discovered, however, that treats bring down his health by 1 point. Tricks, however, bring up discipline by 10 points. I think a meal or snack (whether supplied by me or by the guard who loses the Game) fill up 10 hungry points.
  
  Oh, and he lets me know that it's nap time by getting a thunder-cloud above his head. Overall, I think this game is adorably twisted. Now, if only they would come up with BeastWars Giga Friends... "Teach Megatron (tm) how to do such tricks as 'Yeeessss' [screen shows Megatron nodding] 'Noooo' [Megatron shaking head] 'Excellent' [Megatron doing that little Mr. Burns thing with his tiny Dino fingers] and 'Plots within Plots' [Screen shows all the Beast Warriors being blown up, then shows Megatron laughing]."

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  Squishie remains in good health. I believe that tomorrow will be The Day of Reckoning, when I will find out whether I raised him well or not. I really wish I'd made an animation of him first, though...
• Star Wars Giga Friends: Rancor
  Today has been h#llish, since I slept in 'til 11 (well, I woke up around 7-ish... then I went back to sleep, and got out of bed at 11 or so.) Mookie's discipline had gone down to 0, and he couldn't do any of his tricks. I had to re-train him!
  
  His health was sort of low (down at around 80) so I tried to see if I could make the doctor bring up the health. Just like before, the doctor's face appeared on the screen. The little stick figure approached Mookie with a needle. Then, rather unexpectedly, Mookie ate him.
  
  Mookie spread his arms out twice as if to say: "What!? What do you want me to do?!" and looked cross. His happiness went down a notch. His health went up to 81. Apparently doctors make for good eating.
  
  Later, I accidentally discovered that extra showers (besides the one-a-day that Mookie tolerates) make Mookie mad. He will grumble, the cloud will show up, he will take a shower, and then his happiness will drop two notches. This became a problem later today, as I managed to get all his meters up at 100 except happiness, which was at 98 no matter how many games I played! In the end, I resorted to feeding him dancing girls. Each "girl" brought his happiness up one notch. It also brought his health down one notch. Conundrum.
  
  I see-sawed for a while. I fed him a girl to make him happy. I played a game to make him healthy and compensate for the "girl" bringing his health down... which brought his happiness down, for some reason.
  
  Right now (11:25 pm) Mookie is asleep. His Hunger is at 100, his discipline is at 96, his health is at 98 and his happiness is at 100. To paraphrase an old saying, "If you try to keep all your v-pets stats at 100, you may succeed at fulfilling none...
  Except Hunger. That one's pretty much a no-brainer."

• Virtual Reality Pet Penguin
  This morning, when I woke up, Squishie was dead. Apparently, he died the "bad death", for the screen showed a big fat penguin saying "BYE BYE". His final stats were: 9 years, 28 kgs.
  
  My sister says that she can't take a shot at raising the Penguin Pet until Summer Vacation. I am thinking of "tabbing" (ie, putting the reset tab back in) Squishie for a while.

• Star Wars Giga Friends: Rancor
  Apparently, the Rancor needs to re-learn his tricks every day. It's a bit of a pain, but worth it, I think, just to see the "roar". Oh, and I decided to start up the relatively low-maintenance...

• Tamagotchi Angel I'm naming this one Gabriel. I spent the day waiting until it beeped to care for it (filling up the AP at the same time as the Hunger hearts). Unfortunately, I hatched it a little late at night, so it fell asleep immediately after transforming into a Maruten.

• Star Wars Giga Friends: Rancor
  This was my last day of pet-sitting, so I had to take our family friends' Shetland Sheepdog for a couple of walks. As a result, Mookie didn't get played with too much.
  
  The Shetland Sheepdog stayed with us well into the evening, so I wasn't able to start up my Ocean Tam today.

• Tamagotchi Angel Gabriel must have prayed for me at least twice today, because I found the resultant poops. However, I missed each time, so he spent the day at 0% deeds (despite my frantic tapping, I had lost a candy to the bat last night).
  
  In the afternoon, Gabriel surprised me by turning into a takoten. I could have sworn that last time I practiced Tamagotchi Autonomy (ie, letting it beep) I still got a kodoten. Oh well...

• Star Wars Giga Friends: Rancor
  Mookie turned 5 today... and he also became an Adult! I'd been under the impression that Giga Pets didn't change in physical appearance. I had noticed Mookie getting heavier, and his instruction guide had said that he would reach adulthood at age 5, but I thought they just meant his weight would level off them.
  
  This morning, I stared blearily at Mookie. "Hmmm..." percolated a thought through my brain. "Something's... different..."
  
  I tried feeding him, since his hunger had dropped below 20. He ate the "guard" as usual, and then...
  
  Mookie gave me this eeevil, devilish grin. Before, he had looked so innocent when happy... His eyes would be little bead-like jewels, as the little sun sparkled over his head. But now, there was this undefinable, indescribable aura of meanness about him... something about his eyes, and his long, long claws.
  
  I believe my sister summed it up thusly:
  "He's not cute anymore."

• Tamagotchi Angel
  Gabriel didn't appear to pray for me today, although I did catch him going out for a walk. When called back, he cowered in his little octopus-catching pot for a while before coming out again.
  
  He later transformed into a Pukuten. I really hope that this one doesn't turn into the Futago Tenshi...

• Tamagotchis, Gen 1 and Gen 2
  In the spirit of all-out insanity, I decided to have all of my Bandai virtual pets going at the same time (except Clan Maximus, the White w/ black buttons g1 tam. I'm giving that to a friend).
  
  So I dug out my Clear Green G1 Tamagotchi, and my Clear Pink G2 Tamagotchi. These actually look kinda neat when placed next to my clear orange Umi no Tamagotchi... almost makes me wish I'd gotten the Clear Osuchi and Mesuchi as well!
  
  I pressed buttons A and C and reset them. Then I realized that they were still on Daylight Saving Time, so I had to fiddle around with the timer.
  
  I named the Gen 1 "Gareth" and the Gen 2 "Kaylee" after the heroes of the upcoming movie Quest for Camelot, which is apparently based on the novel The King's Damozel. Both the movie and the book look interesting, although I'm willing to bet that the book will be far better.
  
  Among other things, the movie has a goofy looking villain with "BAD GUY" practically tattooed onto his forehead singing the following bit of clever lyricism to his captive...
  
  "I've got a plan/
  It involves you..."
  No slag, Sherlock. And here I was, thinking you were telling me this plan of yours just as a conversational gambit. "Hi, I've got this evil plan to take over England... So, what are you doing this weekend?"
  
  Goofy lyrics aside, the movie seems to have good, strong messages about the true nature of courage and strength.
  
  To get back on topic, Gareth the G1 tam is going to be kept at a constant 75% everything. His happiness and hunger will be artificially kept at 3 hearts each. I am hoping for another ginjirochi, but I think that I will get a maskuchi.
  
  Kaylee will be kept at 50% everything. I'd really like her to become Zukichi, and then Zatchi the Secret Alien character again... but somehow, I don't see that happening.

• Tamagotchi Ocean
  Mojo 4 was hatched tonight. He spent a bit of time paused as I ate dinner, but spent the rest of his time actively being a nuisance. I briefly considered keeping his discipline at 50% again (or trying to do so) but I quickly dismissed the idea as it would have driven me freakin' insane trying to be too complex with the raising style.
  

• Star Wars Giga Friends: Rancor
  I had a bit of a scare today, as Mookie's name disappeared from his stats screen for a while. But I soon figured out how to re-input the name.
  
  Oh, and I found out the following:
  
  - One guard will fill up 20 hunger points.
  - One Twillak is worth 5 hunger points.
  - A Twillak consumed during training as a "reward" doesn't affect happiness or health.
  - One game that's won will raise the hunger points by 10, the health by 2, and the happiness by 5.
  

• Clear Green Tamagotchi
  Gareth spent most of today paused. I cared for him briefly, then paused him around 9:30 or so, and unpaused him at 8:30 pm.

• Clear Pink Tamagotchi
  Kaylee also spent most of today paused. I think she made at least one hungry call... it's quite difficult to artificially keep a tam at exactly 2 hearts on each parameter... especially when you're busy trying to catch up on two weeks worth of diary entries... homework... three unfinished webpages... major fan-fictions... *sigh* I really need to learn time-management.

• Tamagotchi Angel Gabriel the Angel spent most of his time all alone and uncared for. I periodically fed him and played with him. He prayed for me once.

• Tamagotchi Ocean Mojo 4 spent most of the day paused.

Back to the Diary Index
On to Page 10

Home	V-Pets	PostPet	Boardroom	Guestbook

Tamagotchi, Tamagotch, Tamagotchi Angel, Angelgotchi, Tenshichi no Tamagotchi, Umi/Mori de Hakken Tamagotchi, Osuchi and Mesuchi, and all likenesses there of, are property of Bandai Japan, and are used without permission.

Images created using AniMagic.