Me and my Tamagotchi


Me and my Tamagotchi, originally uploaded by Inkygirl.

Reminds me of an article written in Inquirer:

The Thing had more of a life than I did, and I didn’t appreciate it much.
...

My life as a negligent parent went smoothly until one weekend, when plans for a trip to the beach went absolutely awry. My brother and I missed our flight, while my two sisters were already at the resort. Panicking, I dug into my bag for my cellphone and was dismayed to discover that The Thing was nestled inside a pocket. Apparently, my sisters had forgotten it and asked my mom to pack it with my things.

So I spent a strange hour standing in line at the ticket counter hoping to get listed as a chance passenger and pressing buttons to feed The Thing. However, hours of neglect had rendered it ill, and two skulls were hovering over the shapeless mass onscreen. I zapped the skulls, fed The Thing sushi and ice cream, and cleared away its poop, but it was still looking listless. Panicking, I called my sister:

“Nikka, The Thing’s crying and no amount of food or play will appease it!”

“That’s because you have to praise it to make it calm down,” she said.

“Huh? Pray over it?” I was pretty sure I was losing my marbles.

“Praise it! You have to praise it!”

“Are you sure?” I looked over my shoulder, checking for eavesdroppers. An old lady with orange-tinted hair pretended not to look, but her ears were taut like a dog’s.

“Er, uh... good Tamagotchi! Coochie coochie coo, such a pretty little...”

“No, you moron, you’re supposed to click a little button that says ‘praise!’”


Read in full here.

tamagotchi life


tamagotchi life, originally uploaded by giapu girl.

Hmmm ... not turning out to your liking? What if we DID have a "reset" button?How many times would you have pushed it?

Mimitchi & Kuchipatchi


Mimitchi & Kuchipatchi, originally uploaded by WEBmikey.

These are Pez holders.

who?


tamagotchi, originally uploaded by Carol Esther.

Name each character!

Answers, top to bottom:
Orange thingy: Memetchi
Berry-like thingy: Ichigotchi
Black thingy: Gozarutchi
Smiley yellow thingy: Mametchi
Violet thingy: Violetchi
Green thingy: Kuchipatchi

Is that a Tamagotchi jet?


Is that a Tamagotchi jet?, originally uploaded by jenny_wong.

Yes it is! It is! Japan Airlines is using them for their marketing ... what a great reason to travel via JAL! They may give you a free 'gotchi onboard?

I read here that JAL has its own Entama line.

Got Tamagotchi?


Got Tamagotchi?, originally uploaded by jeffbalke.

Now why the hell wouldn't you know what a Tamagotchi is? This is a sign somewhere in the US ... are they banning Tamgotchis? Or maybe they are buying them?

Ichigotchi's happy stroll


a happy stroll, originally uploaded by mattzor.

Ever wonder what the Tamagotchi do in their free time? They're just like us. They need a breath of fresh air sometimes. Having to deal with a human pushing your buttons all the time can get on your nerves.

Preview of Tamagotchi movie!




Preview video of the Japanese Tamagotchi motion picture. The name of the movie seems to be "Tamagotchi: Dokidoki! Uchuu no Maigotchi!?" The new movie is being developed by Toho and is to be released in Japanese theaters 15 December 2007.

Tamashi-gotchi from Tama-zone provides the storyline:
Mametchi is creating some sort of time-travelling experiment in MameCity in Planet Gotchi, and the experiment goes all wrong leading to human girl Tanpopo teleporting into Planet Gotchi on a shooting star.

Now Mametchi and his friends Memetchi and Kuchipatchi need to find a way to get the girl successfully back to Earth, and at the same time they become curious of the Planet Earth and want to go there for exploration...

... also it seems that Planet Gotchi starts to get some kind of earthquakes and the citizens panic. Ok, who did gave Planet Gotchi a bottle of rice wine this time..?

A drunken Tama Planet?



A Tamagotchi movie that reveals why the Tamagotchis had to leave their planet and flee to the earth. Funny!

(Note: this is in Japanese!)

Tamagotchi Adventures



Did you know the Tamagotchis have a film? Here are their adventurous travels to and encounters on earth.

The full-length film was produced in 1997. I can't find any other information about the film as of yet but it is being shared on Youtube.

Free Tamagotchi Wallpaper


Who can resist this cute wallpaper?

Download it from Tamagotchi.com.

Quick, before they change it!

History


I've reposted an article about Maita Aki, the creator of the Tamagotchi. Just another day's work: A strange tale of how a craze was born written by Murakami Matsuko in AsiaWeek. An old post, yet good to know.

Here's a photo of Maita Aki, courtesy of Tamagotchifan.

MOTHERHOOD IS A THANKLESS task. Just ask Maita Aki, the creator of the Tamagotchi. The 30-year-old Bandai employee didn't get a promotion, a raise or even a bonus for giving birth to the craze that has swept Asia and the world. Even her husband's reaction was muted. "We don't talk about it at home," she says. "He just said gambatte [keep it up]."

Does she feel unappreciated? "No, it wasn't my accomplishment alone. I only came up with the idea, developed the concept and took charge of the marketing program. It also took a technician and public relations person to make it into a product," she says. Maita hatched the idea for a virtual pet about a year ago while watching a television commercial about a little boy who insisted on taking his turtle to kindergarten. Precisely how this spawned a computer game, Maita is at a loss to say. But as the Tamagotchi seed developed, she worked out what was needed to make it a mega-hit with teenage Japanese girls -- it would have to be a portable game that could be played anywhere, anytime. And, most important, it would be kawaii, or cute.

What separates the Tamagotch (as it is known in Japan) from other electronic gadgets is the human-like demands it makes on its owners. "It is dependent on you -- that's one reason it became so popular," the childless creator says. "I think it's very important for humans to find joy caring for something."

Last October, Maita took Tamagotchi prototypes to the streets of Tokyo's Shibuya district for a consumer test. She handed them out to about 200 high-school girls. "Their eyes instantly lit up," she reports. The inventor monitored their reaction over several weeks, and analyzed results of questionnaires they answered. With this, she finalized details such as color (white is preferred), chain design and packaging. By November, the Tamagotchi was on the market in Japan. To date, some 10 million units have been sold on the domestic market. Worldwide figures are not yet available. Is Maita surprised? Well, yes. "I never imagined it would get this big," she allows.

Her background hardly prepared her for domination of the world toy market. After graduating from college, Maita joined the ranks of Japan's "office ladies," working in the computer section of a Tokyo company. Thinking a job at toymaker Bandai would bring her closer to working with children, she joined the company's sales and marketing department in 1990. For the first two years she tracked and logged sales data -- a dead-end job for some, but not for Maita. "It was good training and it's where I developed an instinct for what will sell and what won't."

Now she is working on a new game that she hopes will become an even bigger hit than the Tamagotchi. "I have more confidence in my feelings now and trust my hunches about a product's potential," she says.

What's a Tamagotchi?


I decided to create this website for my daughter who is currently hooked on Tamagotchi! I'll be compiling resources about this cute little toy!

A Tama-what?
The Tamagotchi is a handheld digital pet. It is basically a small, egg-shaped computer with 3 buttons (A, B, and C) which you to select and perform activities such as:
  • Feeding
  • Playing games
  • Cleaning up after the Tamagotchi (yes, poopoo shaped like a Hershey's kiss)
  • Disciplining (like a child)
  • Checking its age, discipline, hunger, weight, happiness and other stat levels.
  • Connecting to the computer
  • Connecting with other Tamagotchi
What does Tamagotchi mean?
According to Bandai, the manufacturer, Tamagotchi literally translates to "small egg" as it combines:
  • the Japanese word tamago which means "egg"
  • the Japanese word chi as in chi-chei which means "small"