WEBVTT - TechStuff Cleans Up After Digital Pets 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:05.840 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from house Stuff. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:16.840 What Guten tug mine Freunden. Hi there, guys, it's jovin 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.200 Strickland from tech Stuff and I am joining with my 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.320 wonderful co host in this great endeavor we call a podcast. 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.680 That co host is Lauren vocal Bomb. Hey. How you doing. Yeah, 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.680 I'm just fine. I have zero zero German for you, 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.160 aside from vocal bomb, which means bird tree by the way. Okay, 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.680 so we've already learned something and we haven't even gotten 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.080 on to our topic yet. Today we wanted to talk 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:41.440 about digital pets. This actually comes to us courtesy of 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.839 a listener suggestion. Uh, and digital pets, virtual pets. This 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.960 is an idea that that really kind of got it's 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.440 it's heyday in the nineties, especially in the United States. 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.480 But we wanted to talk a little bit about the 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.520 rise of digital pets and then the fall of digital pets, 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.920 and and sort of some other are surrounding topics that 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.959 that tie into what all of this digital pet malarchy means. Yeah, exactly, 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.440 and Uh, before we get into specifics, I want to 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.760 talk a little bit about some general features that you 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:15.840 would expect in a virtual pet. Now, first of all, 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.200 it's it's virtual. It's non actual living thing, right right. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:21.920 It's sometimes called digital pets rather than virtual pets because 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:23.680 you know, they don't necessarily have to be. I mean, 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:27.520 there are web applications that where digital pets live, but 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.360 some of them are physical three dimensional objects. Yeah, yea. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.040 And so we kind of we've been very very loose 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.640 with our definition in the sense that we feel there 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.800 are some toys and uh products out there that have 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:45.120 influenced the process of virtual pets, uh and the evolution 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:47.559 of virtual pets. So some of the stuff we're gonna 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.640 talk about today, they aren't really a virtual pet in 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.760 the strictest definition, but it's important as far as the 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.920 development goes. In general, a virtual pet tends to have 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:03.040 certain features that uh that lent it seem kind of 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.680 similar to an actual real life pet. For instance, it 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:10.400 usually will respond to you calling for it. Uh. There's 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.440 some sort of command that you use to call it, 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.960 whether it's vocal or it's a button you press on 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.120 a on a game controller or on a on a 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.200 little physical device that brings it to you. You have 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.120 to care for it. You have to feed it and 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.040 clean up after it. If it falls sick, you have 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.560 to you have to take care of it, right. Usually 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.120 you can train it to do various things. It maybe 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.480 to perform a trick, or it might be to eviscerate 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.000 someone else's virtual pet in the case of certain games 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:43.560 that will cover Also, there's usually some form of way 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:49.720 to reward the pet, either with treats or toys. Sometimes, uh, 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:53.040 the element that allows you to give treats or toys 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:56.799 is an extra element within the whole virtual pet where 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.960 that you pay real money to get access to virtual treats, 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.480 right right, Yeah, you know a lot lots of these 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.360 virtual pets are one time purchase kind of thing. You 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:10.000 either buy the hardware or you pay for a subscription 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.960 for a life subscription, and you get that thing for 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.120 you know, as long as you care to play with it. 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.600 And others are yeah, monthly subscription, or you have to 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.040 continue buying into various little accessories and other products in 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.399 order to continue. Yeah, yeah, you're you're really building out 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.639 the the pets life. It's very similar to the way 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:31.640 a lot of games are are running now, where you 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.560 have an in game purchase to to give your character 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:39.200 either a different look or sometimes an actual advantage. And gameplay. Uh, 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.800 many of those ideas really got their start in the 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.520 virtual pet world. Um. Also, they usually have uh, some 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.080 sort of a feature there that allows you to have 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.360 your pet meet other pets. Right, yeah, yeah, that that's 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.240 a relatively i guess, relatively recent as of you know, 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.160 Save two thousand and five. But yeah, but right, the 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.880 earliest onelopment, exactly the rear last ones didn't necessarily have 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.480 that that feature in them. You couldn't get a a 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.720 some pets to meet other pets until we started to 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.800 build in that that capability, either in the hardware or 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.160 in the software. But it usually meant that you could 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.440 have your pet make friends with another person's virtual pet. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.440 Sometimes you could have your virtual pets breed, and then 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:26.600 you would get little tiny versions of your virtual pet 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.320 that would have features of both the mommy and the 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.160 daddy virtual pet. Jon Strickland explaining how the birds and 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.400 the bees, the virtual birds and the virtual beads bees work. Look, 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:40.320 when a virtual dog and another virtual dog virtually love 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:45.120 one another, it's very special. They trade some code and 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.960 then you get virtual puppy. Yeah. Anyway, these are all 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.359 basic features that you would find in virtual pets. So 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.320 so that that's sort of the the overall kind of definition. 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.599 But to really understand the development we have go back 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.160 always and and Lauren, you you have an interesting place 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.559 you wanted to start. Yeah, I want to talk about 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:08.880 pet rocks. I think that that would be a very 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:14.840 early I mean clearly analog not digital virtual pet Those 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:19.600 debuted in nineteen seventy five at pop which is approximately 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.359 sixteen dollars in the current economy, which is actually what 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.800 is say, for example, Tom go Chi cost. So I 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.960 thought that was pretty interesting. So essentially sixteen dollars in 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.920 our current currency to buy a rock, to buy I rock. 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.760 And this this was created by Gary Doll, who was 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:40.080 a California ad executive and brilliant sold more than five 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.280 million of these critters in less than six months. It's 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:48.120 like a rock with googly eyes. So, so, Lauren, you 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.159 remember those days, right? Oh? Yeah, that was seven years 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.680 before I was born, Okay, so I was around nineteen five. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.280 Was also the year a little movie called Jaws came out, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.839 a fantastic documentary. Uh. It's also when a certain tech 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.600 stuff podcaster arrived on the scene. That would be me 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.640 so not not not me. So I don't really remember 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.119 I just know I was there anyway. Yeah, pet rocks. 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.040 So so there we go. There's there's a a non 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.080 living pet, and it was mostly a gag gift kind 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.520 of thing, but it lays the groundwork for this idea 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.720 of a pet that's not really alive. Yeah. I also 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.359 wanted to point out actually that in a V seven 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.440 that was when K nine debut on Dr Who, which 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.160 I think is also probably an important reference in the 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:38.400 entire I mean, especially if you've seen an eyebo, I 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:44.160 think that they're pretty obviously inspired by the canine bucket 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.720 of bolts. So so yeah, So so the idea about 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.400 this kind of course in science fiction, stuff like this 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.239 has been talked about for you know, since the days 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:57.640 of of Asimov's robot stuff stories. And I seen the 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.680 body electric stuff like that. So yeah, and now do 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.839 Android stream of electric sheet. So uh yeah, these are 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.279 again the building blocks that will lead to virtual pets. 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:15.120 In a company called Worlds of Wonder introduced a toy 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.880 that was, depending upon how you played with it, very 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:24.640 entertaining or terrifying. That would be Teddy Ruxman. I firmly 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:28.080 found them terrifying as a child, sexually Teddy Teddy Ruxman, 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.080 it was an interesting idea. It was a toy that 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:35.520 would read, quote unquote read stories to children. The stories 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.920 would be on a cassette tape. Some of you may 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.000 not know what a cassette tape is. I remember them, 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:44.680 but a cassette tape, all right, So it's it's magnetic tape. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.400 And usually, like on a regular audio cassette tape, you 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.800 have two tracks on either side of this this tape, 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.360 and it's usually used for stereo, one tracks for the 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.280 left speaker and once for the right Now with Teddy 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.080 Ruxman instead, one track was audio and the other track 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:07.600 was a series of directions for the animay Teddy Bear, Well, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.560 it's really just the mouth. The limbs didn't really move, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.640 but the mouth would move in time with whatever was playing, 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:19.000 So that way it would follow the directions and seemingly 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.080 talk to you and read out the story. Uh. This 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:27.080 meant that if you wanted to do something a little wacky, 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.800 like I don't know, put your Black Sabbath cassette tape 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.800 in Teddy Ruxben, he would not suddenly start rocking out 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.440 because the mouth there was no directions for the mouth 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:38.760 to follow. Okay, so the mouth wouldn't move. He would 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.760 still play. Oh no, you could play. You play Black 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.800 Sabbath through a teddy Ruxpan. There's nothing stopping you. You 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.880 essentially have a teddy Ruxpan shaped boom box. But but 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.240 it wouldn't like start screaming out. Okay, well that's I 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.320 guess that's I mean, I'm you know, Lord knows I 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:59.280 tried um. But yeah, yeah, that was again teddy Ruxman. 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.680 Not a virtual pet, necessarily, not in the same sense 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.160 that we're talking about, but again lays the groundwork this 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:09.880 idea of a a a synthetic creature providing some form 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.920 of companionship and that appears to be autonomous, right right, 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.920 and again very loose illusion in this case. You you 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.840 pick up pretty quickly that it's following a very specific 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.840 uh script which was based upon whatever was on that cassette. 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.040 Um Worlds of Wonder, by the way, ended up going 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.880 bankrupt I think in nineteen ninety the h The ownership 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.000 of teddy Ruxpan has passed through several hands, including Hasbro, 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:36.760 so it was one of those toys that kept on 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.960 going even after the company that launched it went away. Now, 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.000 the next year in Night six, we get our first 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.720 actual virtual pet, and this was for a computer platform 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:54.640 called the Macintosh. So yeah, two years after the Macintosh launches, 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.280 remember they had that amazing nine eight four commercial that 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.880 was in the Super Bowl that really really amazing, one 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.360 of the best commercials ever made. In my opinion. I 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.400 never owned a Macintosh, but I love the commercial anyway. 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:11.560 The the Macintosh program, Puppy Love debuts in nineteen eighties. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.120 Six is Tom Snyder Productions release, and Puppy Love was 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.680 essentially a little a little animated puppy dog that you 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:23.280 could play with on your Macintosh. Very limited uh features 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.680 on that, but again was one of the first examples 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.760 of a virtual pet. Now we go ahead of year 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.840 to nineteen seven and the Nintendo Entertainment System gets a 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.240 release of a Japanese role playing game, and I'm going 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.400 to butcher the pronunciation. I apologize to Lauren, who actually 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:47.200 knows how to pronounce Japanese words. But Macgami Tense was 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:52.640 the RPG, and it included a game play element where 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.280 you could capture demons and then you could train those 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.600 demons to fight for you so that you could use 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.120 the ones that you've captured to help protect you in 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.480 other battles. Uh. This is a gameplay element that we 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.840 would end up seeing used in other types of virtual 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.360 pets in the future, and in lots of other games 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.640 as well. I wouldn't necessarily count something like Pokemon is 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:17.320 a virtual pet application, but it definitely has that game element. Yeah. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.840 I include Pokemon mostly because, again it has some elements 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.640 of a virtual pet. Although if you're mostly looking to 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.719 try and maximize your uh, your your group of of 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.760 Pokemon so that you can have the best chance of 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:37.920 winning any particular battle, that's not a great message for 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.960 a person who wants to own a real pet. Yeah, 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.080 like vic message that's no, that's that, it's not That 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:46.960 is not what the s p c A I think 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:49.760 would would want to write. But then again, virtual pets 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:51.280 let us do these sort of things. I mean, these 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.880 are all cartoony, like the Pokemon or these cartoony creatures 0:11:54.880 --> 0:12:00.360 that don't necessarily have a a counterpart in real life. 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.040 Some of them are obviously modeled after real animals, but others, 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.439 if it's modeled after a real animal, I have not 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.839 seen it. Yeah, I don't think I want to see 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.400 some of the real animals that those things are modeled 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:16.680 on right. Well. Then inwo we had the game Dragon 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.240 Quest five Hand of the Heavenly Bride, and that also 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.400 allowed players to capture monsters and use them to fight 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.080 in their battles. So again that same sort of gameplay element, 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.920 it's starting to starting to become pretty popular. It was 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.839 an interesting idea, UM, but it's still not really a 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.199 virtual pet in the sense that we think of, where 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.360 it's just really the whole purpose is to take care 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:44.720 of an artificial creature. Uh. But in a company called 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:49.680 p F Magic hits the scene and releases a program 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.760 called Dogs That's d O g Z. They would a 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.360 year later release Cats see a t Z and then 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:02.360 eventually release Pets pe t Z and UH. And this 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:07.520 was really where the virtual pet idea started to blossom, 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:09.640 where we started to see some of those elements we 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.160 talked about the top of the show. The things that 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.959 really make a virtual pet, what it is, what kind 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.360 of platform with Windows Originally it was originally a Windows 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.880 based thing. So if you for those of you who 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:25.679 remember Windows back in UH, there there were people who 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:27.880 would have like this little dog would wander onto your 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.240 screen and start to play with your cursor, and things 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.600 like that it was very cute and um. But this 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.160 was an actual full program where you would be able 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:41.960 to adopt a puppy or later on a kitten, and 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.280 after a few days of real time, so you know, 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.800 you check on your little puppy your kitten each day. 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:50.600 After a few days, maybe three or four days, the 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.400 puppy your kitten would grow into a fully formed adult 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.400 version of whatever animal it was, and you would continue 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.120 taking care of it, so you would play with it, 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:05.000 you could train it, and you could even breed your 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.480 animal with other animals starting with I think it was 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:13.560 Pets three, because you know they released updates as they 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.800 as they built out the game locally on your own 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.320 computer assumed or was this over email email? You could 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.880 email a copy of your pet to someone else and 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.280 you would still keep yours. This is like you suddenly 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.400 cloned your pet. But you could email a copy of 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.720 your pet to someone else and then they could say, oh, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.200 this dog, he's very cute, FIEFI is gonna love him, 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.520 and see if Fifi and the other dog would you know, 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.120 have a little puppy love going on, and then you 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.560 end up with a litter of virtual puppies. Yeah, like 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.440 like you do that's like like it happens. Um. Yeah, 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:54.360 So originally these were all designed on hand drawn uh 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.440 kind of designs, like like that's the line drawing style. Uh. 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:03.400 So they weren't photo realistic or anything like that, but cartoony. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:05.320 But it meant that if you wanted to, you could 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.040 actually really tweak the look of your pet, because it 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:13.080 wasn't outside the realm of most people's abilities to go 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.400 and draw in a new shape for their pets body 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.200 or a different coloration. But eventually, as that as time 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:24.280 went on, and we'll get back into the timeline in 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.680 a minute, but by two thousand and six, uh, the 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:32.200 the company had abandoned the line drawing approach and went 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.560 for a more quote unquote realistic look where you could 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.560 end up changing textures, but you couldn't remodel your pet. 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.880 It was gonna always be the same basic shape, but 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:45.720 you could tweak it a little bit, just not as 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.640 much as you could in earlier versions of the program. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.080 But this is where we see the idea of the 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.800 virtual pet really take off, and it ended up being 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:58.200 fairly popular. A few million copies sold, so not not 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.760 like a crazy excess, but it showed that there was 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.000 a market there that people were interested in getting a 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.800 virtual companion. Kind of a weird idea at the time. 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.640 Some would say a weird idea today that it's not 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:20.560 necessarily something that has has gained widespread acceptance. I don't know, 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:22.800 but there's yeah, there's there's, As we will talk about later, 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.760 there are certainly enough different models of this kind of 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.280 thing out there that there's you know, and and they've 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.720 they've done medical research about stuff. You know, people who 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.840 are perhaps lonely and don't have so much access to 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.400 as much human interaction as they as they need. There 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:41.120 are lots of robots meant for keeping people companion. Yeah, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.080 in fact, we'll talk a little bit about them. I 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.960 have some information about one of those robots, but we'll 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.160 we'll save that for towards the end of the discussion 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.720 because that that really it ends up building on a 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.480 lot of these concepts we're talking about early on, and 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.080 we're about to tackle the biggest name I think as 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.080 far as virtual pets go. It's the name I always 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.960 think of whenever I think of virtual or digital pets. 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:04.680 But before we get into that, let's take a quick 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.000 moment to thank our sponsor. Okay, now, Lauren. When I 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:13.360 say digital pet, is there a particular brand name that 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:18.719 leaps to mind? Tom There you go, Tomagochi, launched by 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:23.639 Bandai in nine in Japan. That is correct, and from 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.439 what I understand, tomagochi is the correct spelling. I always 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.480 heard it as tamagotchi when I was a kid, but 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.280 I think that that's probably just because we had no 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.840 idea what we were talking about. It's an americanis pronunciation. Sure, Sure, 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:38.720 the word does come from from a much mca portmanteau 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.760 of the words tomago, which means egg in Japanese and 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.679 the English were I'm familiar with it from sushi. From sushi, yes, well, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.879 and in sushi it's usually meant to um, meant as 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:54.359 a shortened form of tamaga yucki, which is that sweet 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.560 egg omelet. But look at the brain on Lauren. Wow, 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:00.560 she did not know I was gonna say she either. 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.560 All right, Okay, so tamago, what's the other one? And 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.960 the English word watch, which when you kind of translate 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:12.359 into the Japanese foreign loan word alphabet kata kana, it 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:16.280 sounds a lot more like oachi. Alright, so it's egg watch, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.240 which I would immediately assume would be an egg timer, 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.040 not a digital pet, not at all. But it is 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.000 a digital pet. But but they but they were egg 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.360 shaped and they did the origin of these little creatures 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.200 would be would look like a little egg. So so 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.959 you would go out and you would buy this essentially 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.320 look like a key chain that had an egg shaped 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.680 plastic case there with a little screen on it. Yeah, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.800 and uh, that would allow you to hatch your virtual 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.040 your digital pet. So you have a little egg on 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.720 there that you would have to uh, you know, press 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.920 a button which essentially started a timer that would let 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:59.240 the the Toma gauchi. No, hey, there's a player. It's 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:03.480 time to start creating a pet for this person to 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.760 interact with. And then um, you would end up using 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.600 I think it was like three buttons. Yeah, it's a 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:10.880 little three button interaction. So you would use those three 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.560 buttons to do various commands depending upon what your pet 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.080 needed and whether or not you were a good person, 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.040 because it would be things like, you know, feed your 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.080 pet or clean up after your pet, because they would 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.159 leave little digital poos. They would get upset if you 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.440 if you didn't. And I say all this hypothetically because 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:30.200 I never actually owned When did you ever actually on 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:36.560 I did not own. I didn't own one. Did you 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:43.760 mistreat someone else's Tamaguchi? I'm taking the fifth mostly because 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.320 I can't remember. No, I'm not the kind of guy 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.119 who would ever. I I can't. I can't mistreat creatures 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.000 in a video game, right, Like if there's a video 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:58.760 game s all right, tangential. I I apologize for the tangent. 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.320 But this is an example of how I think the 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:07.119 game Red Dead Redemption. You're you're playing a cowboy in 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:11.000 the waning era of the cowboy era, right in days 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.280 the train is taking over, the cars are starting to happen, 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:18.560 so the the Day of the Cowboys. At an end um, 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.399 there's an achievement you could get for killing all the 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.520 buffalo in the game. There was a certain number of buffalo, 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.640 and after you killed a certain number, you would get 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.160 this achievement. That was the last achievement I got because 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:36.280 I could not bring myself for the original Buffalo. But 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.840 we'll get into the discussion about that about actually, uh 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:44.280 developing an emotional attachment to a digital creation, which is 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.040 kind of crazy when you think about it, like just 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.440 from a like crazy from the sense of that's so 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.040 like I would never have imagined it until it happened. Sure, 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:54.680 I don't know. I mean, you know, as as a kid, 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.040 I mean I had I had a whole stable full 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:58.840 of my Little Ponies, Okay, I was. I was that 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.720 guy when I was like six and um, and they 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.520 all had very individual personalities, and I was extraordinarily attached 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.160 to these toys. So you know, I mean, I mean, 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.280 just building on that if if, if and those things, 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:14.000 those things didn't move except my imaginations, right, I can 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.800 see how something that does move to a certain extent, 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:18.959 does I mean that? That being said? In fable, I'm 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:21.640 the guy who kicks all the chickens so well, okay, 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.080 I've been their annoying. I've kicked a chicken or two, 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.439 you know. Also, also, it's very possible, Lauren, that some 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.000 of our listeners out there could be Brownies, and maybe 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.320 they also have their own collections that could rival your 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:37.320 own childhood one. They probably could. By the way, I'm 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:39.920 not speaking down to anyone who likes My Little Pony 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.199 that was created. The latest version my Little Pony Friendship 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:44.840 is Magic was created by the same people who created 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:47.480 Powerpuff Girls, which I love, which is awesome. Yeah, so 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.880 no judgment here. Yeah, yeah, getting back to yeah, yeah, 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:52.800 so you could, you could feed them, you could clean 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:54.680 up after them. If you didn't clean up after them, 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:57.159 they could actually get sick, and then you would have 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:59.960 to really take care of them. And also Toma got 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.040 she unlike a lot of other other digital pets, the 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.720 digital pet in tamagotchies could die. Yeah you didn't take 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:08.760 care of them, or I think in the American version 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:11.440 it was they sort of turned into little digital angels 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:13.440 and kind of flew back to their home planet because 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:15.280 they were aliens or or yeah, they went into a 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.440 little digital ufo and flew away. But but the point 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:20.719 was that if you didn't take care of them, they 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.480 would leave. And and in fact that became something of 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:27.320 a problem because it took you had to take care 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:29.600 of him about twice a day, sure, and in the 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:31.800 early stages way more often than that, about once every 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:34.520 six hours or so. I think, so, yeah, you've got 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:36.520 this thing, and it could make noise, it would beat 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.240 at you when it was really not doing so well 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:43.000 or not happy. Happy being a weird term because we're 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:46.560 talking about following a certain protocol, which meant that kids 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:48.680 would have to whip these things out and take care 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.000 of them throughout the day, and then if they were 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:55.359 in school, which became a problem in the United States certainly. Yeah, 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.200