1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to text Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:16,960 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,639 Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and I love all things tech and it 5 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:23,600 Speaker 1: is time for a classic episode of tech Stuff. That 6 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: means it's Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. The episode we're about 7 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: to listen to originally published on March eleventh, two thousand thirteen, 8 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,960 Speaker 1: and it's titled tech Stuff Cleans Up after Digital Pets. 9 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:42,479 Speaker 1: So let's sit back and listen to this classic episode. Today, 10 00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about digital pets. This actually comes 11 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: to us courtesy of a listener suggestion. Uh, and digital pets, 12 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 1: virtual pets, This is an idea that that really kind 13 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: of got. It's it's heyday in the nineties, especially in 14 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: the United States. But what we want to talk a 15 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: little bit about the rise of digital pets and then 16 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:05,960 Speaker 1: the fall of digital pets, and and sort of some 17 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: other surrounding topics that that tie into what all of 18 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: this digital pet malarchy means. Yeah, exactly, and Uh, Before 19 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:17,399 Speaker 1: we get into specifics, I want to talk a little 20 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 1: bit about some general features that you would expect in 21 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,039 Speaker 1: a virtual pet. Now, first of all, it's it's virtual. 22 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: It's non actual living thing, right right, and sometimes called 23 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:28,640 Speaker 1: digital pets rather than virtual pets because you know, they 24 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to be. I mean, there are web 25 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,320 Speaker 1: applications that where digital pets live, but some of them 26 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: are physical three dimensional objects. Yeah, yea. And so we 27 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,319 Speaker 1: kind of we've been very very loose with our definition 28 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: in the sense that we feel there are some toys 29 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: and uh products out there that have influenced the process 30 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: of virtual pets, uh and the evolution of virtual pets. 31 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: So some of the stuff we're gonna talk about today 32 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: they aren't really a virtual pet in the strictest definition, 33 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: but it's important as far as the development goes. In general, 34 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:06,560 Speaker 1: a virtual pet tends to have certain features that uh 35 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: that let it seem kind of similar to an actual 36 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,080 Speaker 1: real life pet. For instance, it usually will respond to 37 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: you calling for it. Uh. There's some sort of command 38 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:20,520 Speaker 1: that you use to call it, whether it's vocal or 39 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 1: it's a button you press on a on a game 40 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,800 Speaker 1: controller or on a on a little physical device that 41 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: brings it to you. You have to care for it. 42 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: You have to feed it and clean up after it. 43 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: If it falls sick, you have to you have to 44 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,160 Speaker 1: take care of it, right. Usually you can train it 45 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 1: to do various things. It maybe to perform a trick, 46 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: or it might be to eviscerate someone else's virtual pet 47 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: in the case of certain games that will cover Also, 48 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: there's usually some form of way to reward the pet, 49 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:57,680 Speaker 1: either with treats or toys. Sometimes the element that allows 50 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,079 Speaker 1: you to give treats or toys is an extra element 51 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: within the whole virtual pet where that you pay real 52 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: money to get access to virtual treats, right right, Yeah, 53 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: you know a lot lots of these virtual pets are 54 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: one time purchase kind of thing. You either buy the 55 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,239 Speaker 1: hardware or you pay for a subscription for a life subscription, 56 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:20,120 Speaker 1: and you get that thing for you know, as long 57 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:22,959 Speaker 1: as you care to play with it, and others are 58 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: ye monthly subscription, or you have to continue buying into 59 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: various little accessories and other products in order to continue. Yeah, yeah, 60 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:35,080 Speaker 1: you're you're really building out the pets life. It's very 61 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 1: similar to the way a lot of games are are 62 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: running now, where you have an in game purchase to 63 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:42,720 Speaker 1: to give your character either a different look or sometimes 64 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 1: an actual advantage and gameplay. Uh, many of those ideas 65 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: really got their start in the virtual pet world. Um. Also, 66 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: they usually have some sort of a feature there that 67 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:59,280 Speaker 1: allows you to have your pet meet other pets. Right, yeah, yeah, 68 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:02,240 Speaker 1: that that's a relatively i guess, relatively recent as of 69 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: you know, Save two thousand and five. But yeah, but right, 70 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: the earliest development exactly, the earliest ones didn't necessarily have 71 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: that that feature in them. You couldn't get a a 72 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: some pets to meet other pets until we started to 73 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: build in that that capability, either in the hardware or 74 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: in the software. But it usually meant that you could 75 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: have your pet make friends with another person's virtual pet. 76 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,720 Speaker 1: Sometimes you could have your virtual pets breed, and then 77 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:32,839 Speaker 1: you would get little tiny versions of your virtual pet 78 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:35,560 Speaker 1: that would have features of both the mommy and the 79 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: daddy virtual pet. Jon Strickland explaining how the birds and 80 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,640 Speaker 1: the bees virtual birds and the virtual beads bees work. Look, 81 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:46,599 Speaker 1: when a virtual dog and another virtual dog virtually love 82 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:51,359 Speaker 1: one another, it's very special. They trade some code and 83 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:56,200 Speaker 1: then you get virtual puppy. Yeah. Anyway, these are all 84 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 1: basic features that you would find in virtual pets, so 85 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:04,039 Speaker 1: that that's sort of the overall kind of definition. But 86 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:06,839 Speaker 1: to really understand the development, we have to go back 87 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:10,400 Speaker 1: a ways. And and Lauren, you have an interesting place 88 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 1: you wanted to start. Yeah, I want to talk about 89 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: pet rocks. I think that that would be a very 90 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:20,479 Speaker 1: early I mean clearly analog not digital versions virtual pet 91 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:25,039 Speaker 1: Those debuted in nineteen seventy five at pop which is 92 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:28,480 Speaker 1: approximately sixteen dollars in the current economy, which is actually 93 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 1: what is say, for example, time go chi cost. So 94 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty interesting, but so essentially sixteen 95 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:37,640 Speaker 1: dollars in our current currency to buy a rock, to 96 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,600 Speaker 1: buy irack. Yeah, and this this was created by Gary Doll, 97 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: who was a California ad executive, and brilliant sold more 98 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,280 Speaker 1: than five million of these critters in less than six months. 99 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:52,760 Speaker 1: It's like a rock with googly eyes. So, so, Lauren 100 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:55,920 Speaker 1: n you remember those days, right? Oh? Yeah, that was 101 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,039 Speaker 1: seven years before I was born, Okay, so I was 102 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: around nineteen seventy five was also the year a little 103 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:07,840 Speaker 1: movie called Jaws came out, a fantastic documentary. It's also 104 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: when a certain tech stuff podcaster arrived on the scene. 105 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: That would be me not not not me, So I 106 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:19,720 Speaker 1: don't really remember I just know I was there anyway. Yeah, 107 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,160 Speaker 1: pet rocks. So so there we go. There's there's a 108 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:26,719 Speaker 1: a non living pet, and it was mostly a gag 109 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:30,200 Speaker 1: gift kind of thing, but it lays the groundwork for 110 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:33,560 Speaker 1: this idea of a pet that's not really alive. Yeah. 111 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:35,320 Speaker 1: I also wanted to point out actually that in a 112 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:39,320 Speaker 1: V seven that was when CA nine debut on dr Who, 113 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:42,279 Speaker 1: which I think is also probably an important reference in 114 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: the entire I mean, especially if you've seen an eyebo, 115 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: I think that they're pretty obviously inspired by the canine 116 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: bucket of bolts. So so yeah, so the idea about 117 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: this kind of of course in science fiction, stuff like 118 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:58,159 Speaker 1: this has been talked about for you know, since the 119 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:04,159 Speaker 1: days of Asthmov's uh robot and I seen the body 120 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:08,000 Speaker 1: electric stuff like that. Yeah, and do Android stream of 121 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:14,040 Speaker 1: electric sheet. So yeah, these are again the building blocks 122 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: that will lead to virtual pets. A company called Worlds 123 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: of Wonder introduced a toy that was, depending upon how 124 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 1: you played with it, very entertaining or terrifying. That would 125 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:32,320 Speaker 1: be Teddy Ruxman. I firmly found them terrifying as a child, 126 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: sexually Teddy Teddy Rouxman it was an interesting idea. It 127 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:40,040 Speaker 1: was a toy that would read, quote unquote read stories 128 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: to children. The stories would be on a cassette tape. 129 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 1: Some of you may not know what a cassette tape is. 130 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:49,720 Speaker 1: I remember them, but a cassette tape, all right, So 131 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: it's it's magnetic tape. And usually, like on a regular 132 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: audio cassette tape, you have two tracks on either side 133 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: of this this tape, and it's usually used for stereo, 134 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: one tracks for the left speaker and once for the right. 135 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:07,680 Speaker 1: Now with Teddy Ruxpan instead, one track was audio and 136 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:11,600 Speaker 1: the other track was a series of directions for the 137 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: Teddy Bear. Well, it's really just the mouth. The limbs 138 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: didn't really move, but the mouth would move in time 139 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:23,119 Speaker 1: with whatever was playing, So that way it would follow 140 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 1: the directions and seemingly talk to you and read out 141 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:31,120 Speaker 1: the story. This meant that if you wanted to do 142 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:35,000 Speaker 1: something a little wacky, like I don't know, put your 143 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: Black Sabbath cassette tape in Teddy ruxpen, he would not 144 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: suddenly start rocking out because the mouth there was no 145 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: directions for the mouth to follow. Okay, so so the 146 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: mouth wouldn't move. He would still play. Oh no, you 147 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,600 Speaker 1: could play you play Black Sabbath through a teddy Ruxpan. 148 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,360 Speaker 1: There's nothing stopping you. You essentially have a teddy Ruxpan 149 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 1: shaped boom box. But but it wouldn't like start screaming out. Okay, 150 00:08:57,840 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 1: well that's I guess that's I mean, I'm you know, 151 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 1: Ward knows I tried um. But yeah, yeah, that was 152 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 1: again teddy Ruxman not a virtual pet, necessarily, not in 153 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:09,640 Speaker 1: the same sense that we're talking about, but again lays 154 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:14,640 Speaker 1: the groundwork this idea of a a a synthetic creature 155 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,599 Speaker 1: providing some form of companionship, and it appears to be autonomous, 156 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: right right, and again very loose illusion. In this case. 157 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:25,040 Speaker 1: You you pick up pretty quickly that it's following a 158 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:29,240 Speaker 1: very specific uh script which was based upon whatever was 159 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: on that cassette. Um Worlds of Wonder, by the way, 160 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:36,400 Speaker 1: ended up going bankrupt. I think in nine the the 161 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: ownership of teddy Ruxman has passed through several hands, including Hasbro. 162 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: So it was one of those toys that kept on 163 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:45,920 Speaker 1: going even after the company that launched it went away. 164 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: Now the next year, in six we get our first 165 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:55,960 Speaker 1: actual virtual pet, and this was for a computer platform 166 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,959 Speaker 1: called the Macintosh. So yeah, two years after the mac 167 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:03,840 Speaker 1: Nintosh launches, Remember they had that amazing nineteen eight four 168 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:06,840 Speaker 1: commercial that was in the Super Bowl. That really amazing, 169 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,040 Speaker 1: one of the best commercials ever made. In my opinion. 170 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:12,640 Speaker 1: I never owned a Macintosh, but I love the commercial anyway. 171 00:10:12,679 --> 00:10:17,800 Speaker 1: The the Macintosh program Puppy Love debuts in nineteen eighties. 172 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:21,360 Speaker 1: Six is Tom Snyder Productions release, and Puppy Love was 173 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 1: essentially a little a little animated puppy dog that you 174 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:29,400 Speaker 1: could play with on your Macintosh. Very limited uh features 175 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: on that, but again was one of the first examples 176 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:37,000 Speaker 1: of a virtual pet. Now we go ahead of year 177 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:40,960 Speaker 1: to nineteen eight seven and the Nintendo Entertainment System gets 178 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 1: a release of a Japanese role playing game, and I'm 179 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 1: going to butcher the pronunciation. I apologize to Lauren, who 180 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:52,320 Speaker 1: actually knows how to pronounce Japanese words. But Macgami Tense 181 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:58,600 Speaker 1: was the RPG, and it included a game play element 182 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:02,280 Speaker 1: where you could capture demons and then you could train 183 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: those demons to fight for you so that you could 184 00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:08,200 Speaker 1: use the ones that you've captured to help protect you 185 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:11,719 Speaker 1: in other battles. This is a gameplay element that we 186 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 1: would end up seeing used in other types of virtual 187 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: pets in the future, and lots of other games as well. 188 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:19,400 Speaker 1: I wouldn't necessarily count something like Pokemon is a virtual 189 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 1: pet application, but but it definitely has that game element. Yeah. 190 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:28,080 Speaker 1: I include Pokemon mostly because, again it has some elements 191 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 1: of a virtual pet. Although if you're mostly looking to 192 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:36,600 Speaker 1: try and maximize your your your group of of Pokemon 193 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,400 Speaker 1: so that you can have the best chance of winning 194 00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:44,360 Speaker 1: any particular battle, that's not a great message for a 195 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: person who wants to own a real pet. Yeah, like 196 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,559 Speaker 1: vic message that's no, that's that, it's not that is 197 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,480 Speaker 1: not what the SPC I think would would want to write. 198 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:56,920 Speaker 1: But then again, virtual pets let us do these sort 199 00:11:56,920 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: of things. I mean, these are all cartoony, like the 200 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:03,880 Speaker 1: Pokemon or the cartoony creatures that don't necessarily have a 201 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:08,680 Speaker 1: a counterpart in real life. Some of them are obviously 202 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:11,320 Speaker 1: modeled after real animals, but others, if it's modeled after 203 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:13,880 Speaker 1: a real animal, I have not seen it. Yeah, I 204 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:15,880 Speaker 1: don't think I want to see some of the real 205 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,600 Speaker 1: animals that those things are modeled on. Right. Well, then 206 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:24,240 Speaker 1: in two we had the game Dragon Quest five Hand 207 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,600 Speaker 1: of the Heavenly Bride, and that also allowed players to 208 00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:30,280 Speaker 1: capture monsters and use them to fight in their battles. 209 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:33,320 Speaker 1: So again that same sort of gameplay element, it's starting 210 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,560 Speaker 1: to starting to become pretty popular. It was an interesting idea, um, 211 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,080 Speaker 1: but it's still not really a virtual pet in the 212 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:42,520 Speaker 1: sense that we think of, where it's just really the 213 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 1: whole purpose is to take care of an artificial creature. Uh. 214 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 1: But in a company called p F Magic hits the 215 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:57,720 Speaker 1: scene and releases a program called Dogs that's d O 216 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:02,319 Speaker 1: g Z. They would year later release Cats see a 217 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:06,400 Speaker 1: t Z and then eventually release Pets p E t 218 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:10,360 Speaker 1: Z and uh. And this was really where the virtual 219 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:14,760 Speaker 1: pet idea started to blossom, where we started to see 220 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 1: some of those elements we talked about the top of 221 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:19,880 Speaker 1: the show, the things that really make a virtual pet, 222 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:22,800 Speaker 1: what it is, what kind of platform with Windows Originally 223 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 1: it was originally a Windows based thing. So if you 224 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:31,240 Speaker 1: for those of you who remember Windows back in there, 225 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:33,079 Speaker 1: there were people who would have like this little dog 226 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,440 Speaker 1: would wander onto your screen and start to play with 227 00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:39,000 Speaker 1: your cursor and things like that. It was very cute 228 00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:42,400 Speaker 1: and um, but this was an actual full program where 229 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,400 Speaker 1: you would be able to adopt a puppy or later 230 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: on a kitten, and after a few days of real time, 231 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: so you know, you check on your little puppy eer 232 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,439 Speaker 1: kitten each day. After a few days, maybe three or 233 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 1: four days, the puppy your kitten would grow into a 234 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:03,800 Speaker 1: fully four adult version of whatever animal it was, and 235 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:06,680 Speaker 1: you would continue taking care of it, so you would 236 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:09,240 Speaker 1: play with it, you could train it, and you could 237 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:14,240 Speaker 1: even breed your animal with other animals. Starting with I 238 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: think it was Pets three, because you know, they released 239 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:21,680 Speaker 1: updates as they as they built out the game locally 240 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:25,120 Speaker 1: on your own computer asum or was this over email email? 241 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:28,560 Speaker 1: You could email a copy of your pet to someone 242 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:30,840 Speaker 1: else and you would still keep yours. This is like 243 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 1: you suddenly cloned your pet. But you could email a 244 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: copy of your pet to someone else and then they 245 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 1: could say, oh, this dog, he's very cute, FIEFI is 246 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,760 Speaker 1: gonna love him, and see if Fife and the other 247 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,640 Speaker 1: dog would, you know, have a little puppy love going on, 248 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: and then you end up with a litter of virtual puppies. Yeah, 249 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:54,680 Speaker 1: like like you do. That's like like it happens. Um Yeah, 250 00:14:54,800 --> 00:15:00,600 Speaker 1: So originally these were all designed on hand drawn uh 251 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: kind of designs like like that's the line drawing style. Uh. 252 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:09,640 Speaker 1: So they weren't photo realistic or anything like that, but cartoony. 253 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: But it meant that if you wanted to, you could 254 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:15,280 Speaker 1: actually really tweak the look of your pet, because it 255 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 1: wasn't outside the realm of most people's abilities to go 256 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:23,680 Speaker 1: and draw in a new shape for their pets body 257 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:28,480 Speaker 1: or a different coloration. But eventually, as that as time 258 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 1: went on, and we'll get back into the timeline in 259 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: a minute, but by two thousand and six, uh, the 260 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:38,480 Speaker 1: the company had abandoned the line drawing approach and went 261 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: for a more quote unquote realistic look where you could 262 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:46,760 Speaker 1: end up changing textures, but you couldn't remodel your pet. 263 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:49,240 Speaker 1: It was going to always be the same basic shape, 264 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:51,840 Speaker 1: but you could tweak it a little bit, just not 265 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:54,880 Speaker 1: as much as you could in earlier versions of the program. 266 00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:57,360 Speaker 1: But this is where we see the idea of the 267 00:15:57,400 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: virtual pet really take off, and it ended up being 268 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: fairly popular, a few million copies sold, so not not 269 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:08,000 Speaker 1: like a crazy success, but it showed that there was 270 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:12,280 Speaker 1: a market there that people were interested in getting a 271 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:18,080 Speaker 1: virtual companion kind of a weird idea at the time. 272 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:21,880 Speaker 1: Some would say a weird idea today that it's not 273 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:26,840 Speaker 1: necessarily something that has has gained widespread acceptance. I don't know, 274 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,040 Speaker 1: but there's yeah, there's there's, As we will talk about later, 275 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:31,000 Speaker 1: there are certainly enough different models of this kind of 276 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 1: thing out there that there's you know, and and they've 277 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: they've done medical research about stuff. You know, people who 278 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:39,080 Speaker 1: are perhaps lonely and don't have so much access to 279 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,600 Speaker 1: as much human interaction as they as they need. There 280 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:47,360 Speaker 1: are lots of robots meant for keeping people companion. Yeah. 281 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:49,320 Speaker 1: In fact, we'll talk a little bit about them. I 282 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:52,200 Speaker 1: have some information about one of those robots, but we'll 283 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:54,360 Speaker 1: we'll save that for towards the end of the discussion 284 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: because that that really it ends up building on a 285 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: lot of these concepts we're talking about early on, and 286 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: we're about to tackle the biggest name I think as 287 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:05,359 Speaker 1: far as virtual pets go. It's the name I always 288 00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:08,240 Speaker 1: think of whenever I think of virtual or digital pets. 289 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:10,920 Speaker 1: But before we get into that, let's take a quick 290 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 1: moment to thank our sponsor. Okay, now, Lauren, when I 291 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:26,680 Speaker 1: say digital pet, is there a particular brand name that 292 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:32,080 Speaker 1: leaps to mind. Tom there you go, Tomagchi launched by 293 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:37,600 Speaker 1: Bandai in Japan. That is correct, and from what I understand, 294 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,119 Speaker 1: tomagochi is the correct spelling. I always heard it as 295 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:42,040 Speaker 1: tom gachi when I was a kid, but I think 296 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:43,959 Speaker 1: that that's probably just because we had no idea what 297 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:47,120 Speaker 1: we were talking about. It's an Americanized pronunciation. Sure, sure, 298 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:52,760 Speaker 1: the word does come from from a much McAll partmanteau. Okay, 299 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,000 Speaker 1: of the words tomago, which means egg in Japanese and 300 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,919 Speaker 1: the English were I'm familiar with it from sushi. From sushi, yes, well, 301 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,199 Speaker 1: and in sushi it's usually meant to um, meant as 302 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,639 Speaker 1: a shortened form of tamaga yucky, which is that sweet 303 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:11,840 Speaker 1: egg omelet. But look at the brain on Lauren. Wow, 304 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:13,840 Speaker 1: she did not know I was going to say sushi either. 305 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:16,840 Speaker 1: All right, Okay, so tamago what's the other one? And 306 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:20,280 Speaker 1: the English word watch, which when you kind of translate 307 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:26,080 Speaker 1: into the Japanese foreign loan word alphabet katakana, it sounds 308 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: a lot more like oachi. Alright, So it's egg watch, 309 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: which I would immediately assume would be an egg timer, 310 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,320 Speaker 1: not a digital pet, not at all. But it is 311 00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:37,280 Speaker 1: a digital pet. But but they but they were egg 312 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:40,640 Speaker 1: shaped and they did the origin of these little creatures 313 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:43,200 Speaker 1: would be would look like a little egg, right, So, 314 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,160 Speaker 1: so so you would go out and you would buy 315 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,880 Speaker 1: this essentially look like a key chain that had an 316 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: egg shaped plastic case there with a little screen on it. Yeah, 317 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:59,400 Speaker 1: and that would allow you to hatch your virtual your 318 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:01,359 Speaker 1: digital pet it. So you have a little egg on 319 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:04,000 Speaker 1: there that you would have to uh, you know, press 320 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:07,240 Speaker 1: a button which essentially started a timer that would let 321 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:12,560 Speaker 1: the the Toma gauchi. No, hey, there's a player. It's 322 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:16,760 Speaker 1: time to start creating a pet for this person to 323 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:20,040 Speaker 1: interact with. And then um, you would end up using 324 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:21,920 Speaker 1: I think it was like three buttons. Yeah, it's a 325 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,200 Speaker 1: little three button interaction. So you would use those three 326 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,879 Speaker 1: buttons to do various commands depending upon what your pet 327 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,359 Speaker 1: needed and whether or not you were a good person, 328 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 1: because it would be things like, you know, feed your 329 00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:35,360 Speaker 1: pet or clean up after your pack, because they would 330 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:39,679 Speaker 1: leave little digital poos, get very upset if you if 331 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 1: you didn't. And I say all this hypothetically because I 332 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:45,359 Speaker 1: never actually owned when did you ever? Actually I did 333 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:50,560 Speaker 1: not own. I didn't own one. Did you mistreat someone 334 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:57,800 Speaker 1: else's Tomaguchi. I'm taking the fifth mostly because I can't 335 00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,760 Speaker 1: remember excellent. Now, I'm not the kind of guy who 336 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: whatever I can't, I can't mistreat creatures in a video game, right, 337 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:10,640 Speaker 1: like if there's a video game, all right, tangential. I 338 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,000 Speaker 1: I apologize for the tangent. But this is an example 339 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 1: of how I think the game Red Dead Redemption. You're 340 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:21,959 Speaker 1: you're playing a cowboy in the waning era of the 341 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:25,439 Speaker 1: cowboy era, right this is the days the train is 342 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:28,480 Speaker 1: taking over, the cars are starting to happen, so the 343 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:32,399 Speaker 1: day of the Cowboys. At an end um, there's an 344 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:36,520 Speaker 1: achievement you could get for killing all the buffalo in 345 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,879 Speaker 1: the game. There was a certain number of buffalo, and 346 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: after you killed a certain number, you would get this achievement. 347 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:44,960 Speaker 1: That was the last achievement I got because I could 348 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:51,640 Speaker 1: not bring myself buffalo. But we'll get into the discussion 349 00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:55,800 Speaker 1: about that about actually, uh developing an emotional attachment to 350 00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:58,520 Speaker 1: a digital creation, which is kind of crazy when you 351 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,200 Speaker 1: think about it, like just from a like crazy from 352 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,119 Speaker 1: the sense of that's so like I would never have 353 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,879 Speaker 1: imagined it until it happened. Sure, I don't know, I 354 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,000 Speaker 1: mean you know as a kid. I mean I had 355 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 1: I had a whole stable full of my Little Ponies, Okay, 356 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:13,119 Speaker 1: I was. I was that guy when I was like 357 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:17,000 Speaker 1: six and um, and they all had very individual personalities, 358 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: and I was extraordinarily attached to these toys. So you know, 359 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:22,720 Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, just building on that if if, 360 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:26,560 Speaker 1: if and those things. Those things didn't move except my imaginations, right, 361 00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:29,399 Speaker 1: I can see how something that does move to a 362 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:32,119 Speaker 1: certain extent, does I mean that? That being said in fable, 363 00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:34,960 Speaker 1: I'm the guy who kicks all the chickens, so well, okay, 364 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,480 Speaker 1: I've been there, annoying, I've kicked the chicken or two. 365 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:40,720 Speaker 1: You know. Also, also, it's very possible, Lauren, that some 366 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:43,359 Speaker 1: of our listeners out there could be Brownies, and maybe 367 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:46,600 Speaker 1: they also have their own collections that could rival your 368 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:50,600 Speaker 1: own childhood one. They probably could. By the way, I'm 369 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:53,200 Speaker 1: not speaking down to anyone who likes My Little Pony 370 00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:56,520 Speaker 1: that was created. The latest version My Little Pony Friendship 371 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,080 Speaker 1: is Magic, was created by the same people who create 372 00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 1: power Puff Girls, which I love, which is yeah, so 373 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,160 Speaker 1: no judgment here, yeah yeah, getting back to yeah, yeah, 374 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:06,080 Speaker 1: so you could you could feed them, you could clean 375 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:07,960 Speaker 1: up after them. If you didn't clean up after them, 376 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:10,439 Speaker 1: they could actually get sick, and then you would have 377 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:13,960 Speaker 1: to really take care of them. And also Tomagotchi, unlike 378 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,200 Speaker 1: a lot of other other digital pets, the digital pet 379 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:20,520 Speaker 1: and tomagotchis could die. Yeah, you didn't take care of them, 380 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:22,680 Speaker 1: or I think in the American version it was they 381 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: sort of turned into the little digital angels and kind 382 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,359 Speaker 1: of flew back to their home planet because they were aliens. 383 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:30,000 Speaker 1: Or yeah, they went into a little digital ufo and 384 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:32,480 Speaker 1: flew away. But but the point was that if you 385 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:35,960 Speaker 1: didn't take care of them, they would leave. And and 386 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,560 Speaker 1: in fact that became something of a problem because it 387 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:41,639 Speaker 1: took you had to take care of him about twice 388 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:43,800 Speaker 1: a day, sure, and in the early stages way more 389 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,159 Speaker 1: often than that, about once every six hours or so. 390 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:48,560 Speaker 1: I think, so, yeah, you've got this thing, and it 391 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:50,480 Speaker 1: could make noise, it would beat at you when it 392 00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:54,919 Speaker 1: was really not doing so well or not happy. Happy 393 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,239 Speaker 1: being a weird term, because we're talking about following a 394 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:00,520 Speaker 1: certain protocol, which meant that kids would to have to 395 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,119 Speaker 1: whip these things out and take care of them throughout 396 00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:05,920 Speaker 1: the day. And then if they were in school, which 397 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,760 Speaker 1: became a problem in the United States certainly. Yeah, And 398 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,600 Speaker 1: so in the US you had stories of schools that 399 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,880 Speaker 1: would ban these things outright and say, don't bring them 400 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: to school because they are a distraction. You're not learning, 401 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 1: you are instead paying attention to a little digital pet, 402 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:24,119 Speaker 1: and you need to have your attention directed toward your 403 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:27,920 Speaker 1: schoolwork and um. And in fact, a lot of sources 404 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:30,919 Speaker 1: that I've read have essentially credited the fact that the 405 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:36,600 Speaker 1: United States school systems often outright banned these things for 406 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:39,520 Speaker 1: the downfall of the virtual pet industry in the US, 407 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: that that virtual pets, digital pets didn't really become as 408 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:47,240 Speaker 1: big a deal as they could have because the school 409 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,840 Speaker 1: systems banned them. So, uh, there you go. I Toma 410 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,479 Speaker 1: Gotchi what not only was the genesis of the digital 411 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,000 Speaker 1: pet craze, but in the United States at least, was 412 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,639 Speaker 1: also the death of it. But going on their arm, 413 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,119 Speaker 1: other ones to talk about besides Tamagotchi. Also in two 414 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 1: thousand five, they updated the line because it had pretty 415 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,120 Speaker 1: much gone forgotten. But there were a lot of people 416 00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:13,480 Speaker 1: who had nostalgic fondness for the Tamagotchi line. Well, it 417 00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:15,840 Speaker 1: never really went away. Actually, there there there have been 418 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:19,119 Speaker 1: a several several generation updates here and there. I mean, 419 00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:21,240 Speaker 1: they were still pretty big in Japan from what I understand, 420 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: so um but but yeah, they came back with with 421 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,879 Speaker 1: an infrared yes connector port. Yeah, the Tamagotchi connection. This 422 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,880 Speaker 1: this is what allowed the Tomagotchi version to have interactions 423 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,200 Speaker 1: with other people's tamagotchis. Because before it was pretty much 424 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:40,720 Speaker 1: just you know, your pet was confined to its own egg, 425 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:44,320 Speaker 1: to its own egg, that was the extent of its universe. 426 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,960 Speaker 1: But then with the infrared uh feature, it would allow 427 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 1: your pet to visit other pets and they could get 428 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:53,600 Speaker 1: out of the egg once in a while. And eventually 429 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,600 Speaker 1: around two thousand and eleven, two thousand twelve U Tama 430 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: Go which introduced these little separate figures that you can 431 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,879 Speaker 1: plug into here Tamagotchi, uh, those those were introduced, and 432 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,280 Speaker 1: also Toma Town, which was a website thing which as 433 00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:13,199 Speaker 1: of February six has shut down. Uh So, so again 434 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:17,000 Speaker 1: the struggle for the digital pet continues. I just want 435 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:19,360 Speaker 1: to mention some of the characters that you could have 436 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:24,600 Speaker 1: in Tomagotchi. Keeping mind, uh, your your digital pet would 437 00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:28,720 Speaker 1: go through stages in its life, so there'd be uh 438 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,959 Speaker 1: a young stage, teen stage, and then an adult stage. 439 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,679 Speaker 1: So these kind of apply to different stages. But you 440 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:38,880 Speaker 1: could have Madoruchi, which was a spoiled brat who would 441 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:43,160 Speaker 1: like to roll around a lot. There was Kinakamachi, which 442 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,240 Speaker 1: like to jump around a lot, and the picture I 443 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:48,159 Speaker 1: saw that had a giant bump on its head with 444 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,520 Speaker 1: a little bruise marks, so apparently that not very safe 445 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:54,879 Speaker 1: when he jumps around. There was Itchy Gotchi, who was 446 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,919 Speaker 1: a dancing maniac. There was Mimici, which was apparently the 447 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:02,719 Speaker 1: most popular of all the Tamagotchis supposedly had a genius 448 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: i Q of two hundred, loved math and writing. Uh. 449 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: There was Takachi, who was naughty, impatient and chatty, and 450 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:15,399 Speaker 1: Golza Rucci, who wants to be in ninja. I like 451 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:22,160 Speaker 1: your Japanese pronunciation. But yeah, so you know, as as 452 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,119 Speaker 1: of the height of their popularity, um, they're supposed to 453 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:30,360 Speaker 1: have sold one per second in Japan and over seventy 454 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:34,720 Speaker 1: eight million sold as so so certainly think also also 455 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:39,200 Speaker 1: recent news for for Tamaguchi um as a Valentine's Day 456 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:43,280 Speaker 1: this year to celebrate sixteen years of business. The company 457 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:47,399 Speaker 1: announced a free Android app called Tamagochi Life, which stands 458 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:52,280 Speaker 1: for Love is Fun Everywhere. Of course it's an acronym 459 00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,960 Speaker 1: can life. No, No, that would be ridiculous. That don't 460 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:59,480 Speaker 1: be silly. Um so yeah, so so so Tamagochi lives on. Wow. Alright, well, 461 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,640 Speaker 1: moving on to some of the other virtual pets, right, yeah, 462 00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:04,879 Speaker 1: because because around the same time, you know, everyone was, 463 00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,280 Speaker 1: I mean, this was such a craze that everyone had 464 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:12,320 Speaker 1: to jump on. Yeah. There were some people who criticized Banda, 465 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:16,600 Speaker 1: saying that the Tomagotchi really catered more to a female 466 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:21,679 Speaker 1: audience to boys, which is where Dimon digital monsters released 467 00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:25,439 Speaker 1: by Bandai Digimon uh similar life cycle to Tomagotchi, but 468 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,360 Speaker 1: they were also designed so that you would raise them, 469 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,000 Speaker 1: train them, and battle them with other other people's digimon. 470 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,000 Speaker 1: So there you go, there's the boy, right the So 471 00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:40,480 Speaker 1: apparently girls want to nurture and raise a pet and 472 00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,840 Speaker 1: boys want to train a killer monster. I don't know 473 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:45,919 Speaker 1: if I could, if I could get a really cute 474 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,680 Speaker 1: little little tomagouchi and and fight it with other really 475 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,280 Speaker 1: cute tomagouchi, that sounds like the best game to me, person, 476 00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,680 Speaker 1: really really cute, deadly fights. I have nothing to say 477 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 1: about that would be that would be great. We see 478 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:02,320 Speaker 1: the introduction of a toy that made people go bonkers 479 00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 1: when it came out, the Ferbi. Now, um, Ferbie is 480 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:10,560 Speaker 1: not not a digital pet in the sense of these 481 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: other ones that are software. This is a This is 482 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,639 Speaker 1: more like a kind of a robot, so closer to 483 00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:21,520 Speaker 1: the Teddy Ruxpin model than the Tamagotchi model. And the 484 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,359 Speaker 1: original one would speak in this language called Furbish and 485 00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:29,440 Speaker 1: would gradually learn quote unquote learn English. It would really 486 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: just incorporate English into its vocabulary over a set amount 487 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,800 Speaker 1: of time. But later models introduced in like two thousand 488 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,640 Speaker 1: five and two thousand and eleven had uh more features 489 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 1: that would let it converse with people. There was some 490 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,760 Speaker 1: voice recognition stuff that was introduced um and they had 491 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:49,719 Speaker 1: they had motion sensors. They could tell when you were 492 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:51,600 Speaker 1: touching them or when you picked them up and moved 493 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:55,160 Speaker 1: them around. Right, Yeah, yeah, there were I remember when 494 00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:57,760 Speaker 1: they came out because I remember how people went went 495 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 1: really bonkers over them. Like there's certain toys that I 496 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:06,280 Speaker 1: can remember people really going crazy for the first one 497 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,640 Speaker 1: I can remember with that happening would be Catch Patch Kids. 498 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,520 Speaker 1: So that's the classic from my childhood was Catch Patch Kids. 499 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,160 Speaker 1: And then you had things like uh, Furby Teddy Ruxman 500 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,240 Speaker 1: actually was really popular when it first came out. Furby 501 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:24,400 Speaker 1: another great example. Um, and of course there's always Beanie babies, right, 502 00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:28,200 Speaker 1: But getting back to virtual pets, that's when we get 503 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:32,800 Speaker 1: to a web based virtual pet. That's pets, right, yes, 504 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,240 Speaker 1: neo pets. There's a virtual pet website. So you would 505 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,719 Speaker 1: go and you would create an account, you would adopt 506 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,400 Speaker 1: a virtual pet, and you could buy virtual items for 507 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:45,760 Speaker 1: your pet using virtual currency, and you could earn currency 508 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: through participating in various things on the website, whether it 509 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:52,959 Speaker 1: was a game like a quest or something, or you 510 00:29:53,000 --> 00:30:00,000 Speaker 1: could actually purchase virtual currency using real, cold, hard cash, 511 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,640 Speaker 1: as many thirteen to seventeen year old certainly certainly have 512 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,320 Speaker 1: on the internet. In Yeah, and this this was actually 513 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,560 Speaker 1: created by two British students, originally just for other students, 514 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,800 Speaker 1: and it was picked up by a market research expert 515 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 1: who then sold it to MTV Viacom for a hundred 516 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,960 Speaker 1: and sixty million dollars. Not a bad turn. Yeah, and 517 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,640 Speaker 1: it was they originally thought it up in n but 518 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,080 Speaker 1: it took about two years of research and development to 519 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,600 Speaker 1: really build out the capabilities of the site, which launched 520 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,080 Speaker 1: in ninety nine. Um and it let you customize pets. 521 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 1: You could choose you had like up to I think 522 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:37,760 Speaker 1: there was something like fifty four different pet types you 523 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:39,600 Speaker 1: could choose from, and then once you chose the type, 524 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:43,040 Speaker 1: you could actually customize the pet further. You could compete 525 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:46,320 Speaker 1: in the battle dome if that was your desire, or 526 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:50,160 Speaker 1: you could do little quests and games. Um and Neo 527 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,360 Speaker 1: Pets still going. Yeah. Yeah, The last numbers I have 528 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:55,520 Speaker 1: out it were from two thousand six, at which point 529 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,600 Speaker 1: it claimed over a hundred million users and a hundred 530 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: and fifty million individual pet Yeah. Kind of crazy. Um 531 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,760 Speaker 1: and uh. I think that neopets was also one of 532 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,080 Speaker 1: the first ones that really incorporated advertising. Since it was 533 00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: web based. It could have you know, a McDonald's quest 534 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:11,640 Speaker 1: or or you know, or you could you could purchase 535 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:16,280 Speaker 1: branded food or or toy items for your digital toy 536 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,600 Speaker 1: items for your digital pet. Yeah. Originally they used banner 537 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:23,200 Speaker 1: ads on their website, but then they were That was 538 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,520 Speaker 1: one of the first instances of in game advertising where 539 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,800 Speaker 1: the advertisements were worked. Like you said, into the virtual 540 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: world Neiopia. As I recall, yes, yes, and uh and yeah, 541 00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 1: you could end up encountering stuff that was specifically branded 542 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,160 Speaker 1: for a particular company. You could even purchase stuff like 543 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,360 Speaker 1: you were saying, um, yeah, and as I recall, Neo 544 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:48,840 Speaker 1: Pets even got some flak for that, about the fact 545 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,160 Speaker 1: that they were using branded stuff within the world of 546 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 1: Neo Pets. But the response was, everything that is branded 547 00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:00,880 Speaker 1: is clearly marked as an AD. It's not being uh, 548 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,760 Speaker 1: it's not being presented as just an element of the game. 549 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,760 Speaker 1: All right, Well, I don't know. I think the part 550 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:08,080 Speaker 1: of the controversy was that for for a while, you know, 551 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 1: it would have this this little tag at the bottom 552 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:16,360 Speaker 1: of a page like this page contains advertarial content, but 553 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,520 Speaker 1: every page had that morning So, you know, especially when 554 00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,280 Speaker 1: you're dealing with young kids who don't know the differences 555 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: between an AD and content, it's that's not a problem 556 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: just with kids, you are, You're very correct. I yes, 557 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:30,800 Speaker 1: I'm not going to say any more sentences on that. 558 00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: Hey guy, guys, my tamagotchi died. I need to go 559 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:40,120 Speaker 1: flush it down a digital toilet while I'm in the 560 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: morning process. We're going to take a quick break. Let's 561 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,760 Speaker 1: move on to nineteen. Another thing that happened in my 562 00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,680 Speaker 1: favorite virtual pet of all time. I didn't own this 563 00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:00,440 Speaker 1: virtual pet, but holy Kell, what a weird concept. The 564 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:07,080 Speaker 1: Saga Dreamcast releases a special game called c Man. Extremely 565 00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:09,720 Speaker 1: special this this game and I don't have any notes 566 00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:12,440 Speaker 1: on this, so I'm I'm just speaking from the kindness 567 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:16,000 Speaker 1: of my heart. Um. This game was narrated by Leonard Nimoi. Um. 568 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:19,840 Speaker 1: Uh you know a k A. Spock and um it 569 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,080 Speaker 1: was a classic spot Zachary Quinto Spock right right, Zy 570 00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,880 Speaker 1: Quinto is an entirely separate human person um. But so 571 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:28,880 Speaker 1: so you would you would have this little fish thing 572 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:34,440 Speaker 1: larva egg and it would it would spawn and kind 573 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 1: of developed this weirdly human face, and it would talk 574 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 1: back to you like it was. It was like a 575 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,680 Speaker 1: little fish teenager. It would it would stay really very angry. 576 00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:46,000 Speaker 1: Leonard Nemore things are you? And and and The Dreamcast, 577 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:48,000 Speaker 1: if you don't remember, had a little port that you 578 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:51,800 Speaker 1: could plug various things into on the controller, like, for example, 579 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,160 Speaker 1: in this case, a microphone, so you could talk to 580 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,360 Speaker 1: to your C Man, right, yeah, you could, you could. Uh, 581 00:33:57,360 --> 00:33:59,600 Speaker 1: it would actually ask you when your birthday was, and 582 00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:01,560 Speaker 1: you would tell it when your birthday was, and it 583 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:04,160 Speaker 1: would give you information about other things that happened on 584 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,280 Speaker 1: that day in history. So you get a little trivia 585 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,040 Speaker 1: with your ce man, and you would you were supposed 586 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,000 Speaker 1: to interact with your ceman at least once a day, 587 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,239 Speaker 1: or else it would die. And if you continue to 588 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:21,360 Speaker 1: interact with it, it would possibly like you. But it 589 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:25,040 Speaker 1: always was a little snarky. It was pretty sark um. Yeah, there, 590 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,440 Speaker 1: even even if the c man wasn't outright hostile, it 591 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:31,920 Speaker 1: would still be a little Most of mine were hostile. 592 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:33,560 Speaker 1: But but I don't think that I took care of 593 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,480 Speaker 1: mine nearly as opposition, because they remind me of terrifying 594 00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,520 Speaker 1: love crafty and horror. I think you've established what your 595 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:44,400 Speaker 1: your your your capacity to care is already in this podcast. 596 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:48,680 Speaker 1: It's no surprise that your seaman went bad. But yeah, 597 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,399 Speaker 1: as you would care for the seaman, it could meet 598 00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 1: other seamen. That's a terrible thing to say, and then 599 00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:01,799 Speaker 1: they would end up spawning and you would have evolving 600 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,839 Speaker 1: sea man where eventually it would turn into like this 601 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:08,319 Speaker 1: frog like thing and be still with the creepy human face. Yeah, 602 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:14,280 Speaker 1: it's fantastic. Um. Yeah, The Seaman Too was actually released 603 00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:16,600 Speaker 1: in Japan in two thousand seven. Can't imagine why it 604 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,920 Speaker 1: didn't make its way over here. That was for the 605 00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:24,880 Speaker 1: PlayStation two. Obviously, the Dreamcast was long different, so sad 606 00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:27,160 Speaker 1: about that. We will have to do a full episode 607 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:30,799 Speaker 1: about the Dreamcast at one point, but yeah, it would. 608 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:35,000 Speaker 1: You know, that's kind of a crazy virtual pet thing. 609 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:37,359 Speaker 1: It was weird because it had an attitude. I mean, 610 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,480 Speaker 1: it wasn't like cute and cuddley. It was weird to 611 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,680 Speaker 1: look at and it acted in a very bizarre way. 612 00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,120 Speaker 1: So it was like, how do you nurture something that 613 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:49,600 Speaker 1: is that unusual? Unusually? Uh, the appearance is unusual and 614 00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:53,319 Speaker 1: then its behavior is inexplicable. Also, none of I mean 615 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:55,200 Speaker 1: not you know, I don't have any children, but I 616 00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:57,879 Speaker 1: suspect that if I do, none of them will sound 617 00:35:57,960 --> 00:35:59,960 Speaker 1: quite so much like Leonard Nimoy right off the bat. 618 00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:02,239 Speaker 1: Probably not. You have to really train them for that, 619 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,000 Speaker 1: so the next I have. I mean, there are other 620 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:08,440 Speaker 1: virtual pets that that came out around that that era, 621 00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:12,240 Speaker 1: But two thousand five was the next fairly big success. 622 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,000 Speaker 1: I was when Nintendo releasing in ten dogs, right, Yeah, 623 00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:16,920 Speaker 1: it was that originally for the DS. It was for 624 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:21,880 Speaker 1: the d S. Yeah, nintendose. As I know, I butchered 625 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:23,839 Speaker 1: that one. I was so confident going in and then 626 00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,960 Speaker 1: it just fell apart as it was leaving my lips anyway. 627 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,600 Speaker 1: So yeah, you use the touch screen interface and the 628 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,680 Speaker 1: actual built in microphone on the DS to interact with 629 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:36,120 Speaker 1: your virtual dog, So you could give it commands of 630 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:38,840 Speaker 1: verbally and it would follow them. Well, if if it 631 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:40,839 Speaker 1: was a well behaved dog, it would follow them, well 632 00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,680 Speaker 1: trained dog it would follow. You would have to scold 633 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,720 Speaker 1: it if it did not right, And you could link 634 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,879 Speaker 1: the DS with other other ds is, so if other 635 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:51,359 Speaker 1: people hadn't intin dogs, you could you know, have your 636 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,919 Speaker 1: dog visit other dogs. So again it really went back 637 00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:58,480 Speaker 1: into this whole model that we were talking about. And 638 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:00,839 Speaker 1: there are other examples as well. You had one that 639 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:05,840 Speaker 1: was an upcoming example. Yeah, there's well, you know, there's 640 00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 1: still a lot of a lot of web application virtual 641 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,960 Speaker 1: pets out there. Webkins are tremendously popular. These are stuffed 642 00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:14,840 Speaker 1: animals that have little access codes, so you go online 643 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,360 Speaker 1: and you interact with a digital version of your stuffed animal, 644 00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:20,920 Speaker 1: um and it's it's pretty ingenious and evil actually because 645 00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:25,239 Speaker 1: it sells um not only virtual accessories for this thing, 646 00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,520 Speaker 1: but when you buy physical accessories for your physical toy, 647 00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,640 Speaker 1: you can plug the codes into the Internet and get 648 00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:36,319 Speaker 1: virtual stuff too. So it's it's terrific marketing actually. UM. 649 00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:39,960 Speaker 1: Stuff like that Foo Pets Sue beta in back in 650 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,480 Speaker 1: two thousand six was a big thing. UM. I may 651 00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:45,400 Speaker 1: or may not come back to that later because we 652 00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:50,160 Speaker 1: have an awesome note about virtual pet zombies uh um. 653 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:54,920 Speaker 1: But the interesting one that I had what Hatch, Hatch, 654 00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:58,239 Speaker 1: Thank you Hatch. Yes, this is this is an upcoming 655 00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:02,160 Speaker 1: iPhone app. UM. You can sign up for the beta. 656 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:06,120 Speaker 1: It's it's it's supposed to come out spring sometime. We 657 00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:08,080 Speaker 1: are recording this in February and as of right now, 658 00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:10,799 Speaker 1: it doesn't have a date. And as of now, if 659 00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:12,600 Speaker 1: you go to the Hatch website, you can just pick 660 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,719 Speaker 1: which little egg you want and and it'll send you 661 00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:18,920 Speaker 1: an email with a with a certificate of adoption. I 662 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:21,560 Speaker 1: know this because I've done this, okay, so I don't 663 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:23,719 Speaker 1: have an iOS device that I could use with this, 664 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,640 Speaker 1: Otherwise I would hope secretly that mine would turn into 665 00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:30,359 Speaker 1: the clover Field Monster, because I love that documentary that 666 00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:33,120 Speaker 1: that is a terrific documentary. I'm not sure that I 667 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:35,000 Speaker 1: want to hang out with you anymore and I want 668 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:37,880 Speaker 1: to control that. That makes two A Brooms documentaries that 669 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:41,799 Speaker 1: I've I've I've mentioned in one podcast. Pretty soon, it's 670 00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:44,680 Speaker 1: gonna be hard not to mention a documentaries. He will 671 00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:47,440 Speaker 1: rule the Key universe. And I actually, out of all 672 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:49,560 Speaker 1: these virtual pets, the only thing that I ever owned 673 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:51,680 Speaker 1: that was similar to this, there there are these toys 674 00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,560 Speaker 1: called the Cube World Digital stick people, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. 675 00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:58,960 Speaker 1: So there are these plastic cubes. They have magnetic contacts 676 00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:02,760 Speaker 1: on on four so it's the cube. The forward facing 677 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,399 Speaker 1: side is a screen that has a little digital stick 678 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:08,040 Speaker 1: figure in it that behaves a certain way depending upon 679 00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:12,400 Speaker 1: that that figures occupation or main hobby. So for example, 680 00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:14,719 Speaker 1: you might have one that has a dog, and so 681 00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,600 Speaker 1: all the activities of stick figure does involves a dog 682 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:20,680 Speaker 1: in some way. You might have one that's an office 683 00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:25,040 Speaker 1: worker or a janitor or whatever. And the interesting thing 684 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,120 Speaker 1: was not only would they behave a particular way within 685 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:30,040 Speaker 1: their cube, and you could pick the cube up and 686 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,120 Speaker 1: shake it and that would actually make the figure fall 687 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:34,359 Speaker 1: over like there was an earthquake. Or you could turn 688 00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,640 Speaker 1: it on its side that make the figure slide because 689 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,080 Speaker 1: gravity had changed. Ter You could also put two of 690 00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,880 Speaker 1: these cubes together with their magnetic context, and then the 691 00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:50,200 Speaker 1: two different stick figures could visit would interact. Yeah, more 692 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,239 Speaker 1: often than not they would fight, but sometimes I get 693 00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:55,239 Speaker 1: along and you could actually stick I think it was 694 00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:59,120 Speaker 1: up to it was three or four. It might be four. 695 00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:01,920 Speaker 1: I think you could stuck up four together, uh, and 696 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:04,760 Speaker 1: how in either horizontally or vertically and have them interact 697 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:07,120 Speaker 1: with each other. And then you could even make blocks 698 00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:09,319 Speaker 1: of these cubes like grab a whole bunch, and then 699 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,399 Speaker 1: you'd have like essentially an apartment of these little stick figures, 700 00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,520 Speaker 1: all behaving in various ways. They were pretty limited in 701 00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:17,520 Speaker 1: what they would do, and you could play games with 702 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:20,960 Speaker 1: them as well. The games were usually pretty limited, but 703 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,719 Speaker 1: it was a cute idea. And so yeah, I had 704 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:27,840 Speaker 1: four of those, and they they're a little wacky, not 705 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:30,320 Speaker 1: not terribly sophisticated compared to some of the other virtual 706 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:32,719 Speaker 1: pets we talked about. But this this has kind of 707 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:39,360 Speaker 1: led to this um this uh market of creating virtual 708 00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:42,840 Speaker 1: creatures for people to have real companionship, things like the 709 00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:47,560 Speaker 1: Ludo bots, which are play robots that's artificial human companions 710 00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:51,840 Speaker 1: like Ibo or Pleio, the little robotic dinosaur. We have 711 00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:54,719 Speaker 1: an article about how Pleio works on how stuff works 712 00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:59,160 Speaker 1: dot com. It includes pictures of a Pleio that has 713 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:04,640 Speaker 1: been slightly taking apart. I believe it was kind of 714 00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:07,680 Speaker 1: traumatic for all of us. Tracy actually wrote that. Our 715 00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:10,759 Speaker 1: our site director, Tracy Wilson wrote that article, and I 716 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:15,800 Speaker 1: remember hearing gleeful cackles and seeing lightning and hearing thunder 717 00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,040 Speaker 1: all from her office as she was working on that article. 718 00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:23,000 Speaker 1: True story. Uh. Then there's also Pero, which is a 719 00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:26,680 Speaker 1: therapeutic seal robot. I saw this at I want to 720 00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:29,560 Speaker 1: say it was a c e S several years ago, 721 00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,919 Speaker 1: and I also saw it at Japan Fest in UH 722 00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:36,760 Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia one year. But it's a robotic seal 723 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,360 Speaker 1: that's meant as a companion for senior citizens because in 724 00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:44,120 Speaker 1: Japan in particular, they have a rising problem of an 725 00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:48,120 Speaker 1: aging population. People are having fewer children, which means that 726 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:53,000 Speaker 1: the population is growing older. The percentage of population entering 727 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:56,040 Speaker 1: their their senior years is growing each year. And uh, 728 00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:58,400 Speaker 1: and there's a very real problem of how do you 729 00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:02,480 Speaker 1: provide companionship for those people so that they have a 730 00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:07,920 Speaker 1: positive outlook. And the Pero Therapeutic Seal robot is kind 731 00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:09,799 Speaker 1: of a way of doing that, and it builds within 732 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,200 Speaker 1: it a lot of these concepts of the virtual pet 733 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:16,560 Speaker 1: that so it responds to you. It uh, it purrs 734 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,480 Speaker 1: or moves in very nice little ways, and it's it's 735 00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:23,400 Speaker 1: it's an absolutely adorable robot. I mean, you look at 736 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,200 Speaker 1: this thing and you can't help but then yeah, that 737 00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:29,239 Speaker 1: looks cuddly. But yeah, before we sign off, I want 738 00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:32,160 Speaker 1: to talk about this zombie thing. I want to hear 739 00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:34,880 Speaker 1: more about the zombie thing, right right, so so on, 740 00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:37,160 Speaker 1: I have no idea how to pronounce this, either sue 741 00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:40,959 Speaker 1: beta or soap beta. Yeah, it's it's. It's a website thing. Um. 742 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: They had back in two thousand nine. It was on 743 00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:46,720 Speaker 1: Valentine's Day. They had a love epidemic and when players 744 00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,600 Speaker 1: signed on on on this particular Valentine Today, they found 745 00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,040 Speaker 1: out that every every little critter in this universe had 746 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:56,719 Speaker 1: been infected by some kind of love virus. Which if 747 00:42:56,719 --> 00:42:59,319 Speaker 1: anyone else here seeing the documentary Stacy, which is a 748 00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:02,960 Speaker 1: Japanese horror film, um, you will you will perhaps have 749 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:06,359 Speaker 1: have already ideas about this. But yeah, uh, and and 750 00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:10,759 Speaker 1: this virus would slowly turn these creatures into into these 751 00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:15,560 Speaker 1: kind of gory, undead zombie things, and and people wound 752 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:18,520 Speaker 1: up really digging it. They they wound up keeping their 753 00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,279 Speaker 1: characters as zombies. You could you could eventually cure it 754 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:26,160 Speaker 1: by by applying something called La Morris syllium, which which 755 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,000 Speaker 1: I am I am enchanted by. I think that is 756 00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:33,000 Speaker 1: terrific um. But but yeah, so you know, there's there's 757 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:34,959 Speaker 1: a little bit of a darkness to a little little 758 00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:38,880 Speaker 1: dark corner there, which again I think that I don't know, 759 00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:40,239 Speaker 1: you know, you know, some of the stuff is so cute. 760 00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: While I was doing research, I ran across um a 761 00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:46,120 Speaker 1: couple of pages for the current Tamaguchi line, and I 762 00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:50,560 Speaker 1: was honestly terrified by the sheer cute level. And I 763 00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:52,759 Speaker 1: know that I'm not in the demographic anymore, so, so 764 00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:55,560 Speaker 1: I get that it's not aimed at me, but but 765 00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:58,279 Speaker 1: just the amount of giant eyes with sparkles in them, 766 00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:01,960 Speaker 1: I was why why did they barkle? So it's at 767 00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:05,200 Speaker 1: that's what it is. It's and look it up, kids, 768 00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:08,040 Speaker 1: it's it's all. It's all very strange to me. You know, 769 00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:11,240 Speaker 1: it's there's when when they were doing some initial research 770 00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:13,120 Speaker 1: with ferbies, um up at M I T. I think 771 00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:15,439 Speaker 1: that M I T helped develop the ferbies, or kids 772 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:17,239 Speaker 1: at might helped develop it, and so so a lot 773 00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:20,680 Speaker 1: of the research around it was done by those folks. 774 00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,120 Speaker 1: But you know, kids kids said that they realized that 775 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:27,279 Speaker 1: the ferbie wasn't alive, but but that it was a 776 00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:29,120 Speaker 1: little bit alive in a furby kind of way, not 777 00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:30,840 Speaker 1: in a human way, not an animal way, but in 778 00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,719 Speaker 1: a ferbie way. So it was like a new definition 779 00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,839 Speaker 1: for life in the sense of well, it's it's more 780 00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:41,120 Speaker 1: than something that's inert, but it's not something that's organically living, 781 00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:45,720 Speaker 1: right right. And one of the Frederick Kaplan, who's worked 782 00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:48,759 Speaker 1: with the IBOW team at Sony in Paris, was saying that, uh, 783 00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:52,360 Speaker 1: you know, these creatures, paradoxically are not designed to respect 784 00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:55,360 Speaker 1: Asimov's second law of robotics, which is that a robot 785 00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:59,120 Speaker 1: must obey human beings orders. They're designed to be autonomous 786 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:01,880 Speaker 1: and to have their own goals, their own wants, their 787 00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:05,480 Speaker 1: own needs, and to disobey you sometimes because pet, like 788 00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,200 Speaker 1: a real pet would yeah, yeah, because I mean with 789 00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:11,520 Speaker 1: those behaviors, you end up developing this relationship. If it 790 00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,920 Speaker 1: always did everything you said, that would probably become fairly 791 00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:19,480 Speaker 1: boring fairly quickly. You know. It's it's that that process 792 00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:22,839 Speaker 1: of teaching your pet and nurturing your pet that ends 793 00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:27,439 Speaker 1: up being so rewarding from UH an owner perspective. Sure, 794 00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:29,600 Speaker 1: there has to be a positive feedback loop of you 795 00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:32,440 Speaker 1: doing something that has an impact on the pets life 796 00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,719 Speaker 1: and the pet therefore having an impact on yours. It's 797 00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:37,799 Speaker 1: it's it's interesting, and you know, they're like we said, 798 00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:41,120 Speaker 1: there's a lot of scholarship on the matter, although to 799 00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:43,600 Speaker 1: be fair, the scholarship did kind of died down simply 800 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:46,920 Speaker 1: because the trend didn't really you know, sustain itself in 801 00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:50,640 Speaker 1: the United States anyway. But I expect we'll probably see 802 00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:52,720 Speaker 1: more of that. I mean, especially as you talk about 803 00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:55,719 Speaker 1: the development of things like artificial intelligence. We're going to 804 00:45:55,800 --> 00:46:00,320 Speaker 1: see more toys that are incorporating some form of AI 805 00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:02,600 Speaker 1: in them, and they'll probably follow a lot of the 806 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:07,000 Speaker 1: same features that digital pets established. And so yeah, it's 807 00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:12,080 Speaker 1: an interesting, interesting subject. And that wraps up this classic 808 00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:16,160 Speaker 1: episode of tex stuff and all the silliness that ensued. 809 00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:18,680 Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you have any 810 00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:22,840 Speaker 1: suggestions for topics for future tech Stuff episodes, why not 811 00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:25,840 Speaker 1: get in touch with me. Use the social media outlets 812 00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:30,640 Speaker 1: that we have all been forced to join, Twitter and Facebook. 813 00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:33,520 Speaker 1: The handle for both of those is text stuff hs 814 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:41,160 Speaker 1: W and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text 815 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:43,840 Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 816 00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:46,800 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i 817 00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:50,160 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 818 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:51,160 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.