I recently revived my old Tamagotchi Connection V1 toy (which I was certain had died from so many drops on its early years) by plucking the battery out of the Tamagotchi mini (which I still don’t like) but plan to revive anyway.
Tamagotchi Square offers some tips from translations of two Japanese books providing hints for raising Tamagotchi Plus (the Japanese version of Tamagotchi Connection). The books are Bandai's Tamaplus Raising Guide (Japanese title is 'Kaettekita Tamagotchi Plus Suku Suku Sodatekata Guide') and the Bandai Playing Book (Kaettekita! Feb 24, 2007 When your Tamagotchi beeps but at least one of its hearts in hungry and happy are full, give it a TIME OUT. This will increase it's training by one bar. If it's crying or sulking, give it a PRAISE. This will also increase one bar. The Tamagotchi (たまごっち, IPA: tamaɡotꜜtɕi) is a handheld digital pet, created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai.It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and May 1, 1997 in the rest of the world, quickly becoming one.
Not only was it alive and kicking, it had retained its data since the last time it stopped working. As mentioned in a previous post, my tamagotchi never made it past the baby stage nor returned to its home planet. As an adult, I decided to try again.
I will be documenting my Tamagotchi’s progress in the form of a log. Useful information (extracted from the official manual) will be supplied as well. As always, I will update as I progress.
V1 Guide (Incomplete)
Care Guide
Health Meter: Screen #1: Hunger/Happiness bar. Screen #2: Training bar. Screen #3: Growth Stage [ (white) girl (black) boy ] /Weight (marked as LBs) /Name is displayed here. Screen #4: Gender/Generation shown.
The health meter is very useful to determine your Tamagotchi’s needs at a glance (specially if it doesn’t beep at you) and keeping track of their weight (as too much can lead to sickness) and too little means refusal to play even when unhappy.
Feeding: An essential care icon packed with two options.
Meal: Essential meal shaped like a rice ball? (don’t quote me on this) One meal= +1 Food +1LB
? Note: Sometimes Tamagotchi doesn’t refuse food even if all the hearts are full) leading to weight excess.) Sometimes it is necessary to feed it if it is underweight so that it will accept play time again.
Snacks: Yummy treats shaped like a candy. One Snack= +1 Happiness +2LBs
? Note: Feeding the Tamagotchi too many snacks will increase its weight by 2 LBs and might lead to sickness.
Toilet/Flush: Cleans away the virtual pet’s mess (no matter the excess.)
? Note: Not cleaning away the pet’s mess (after a few hours/days/minutes -seems random) can lead to sickness. At the baby stage, the Tamagotchi’s mess may be accompanied by sickness by default.
Play Time: Interactive games for your Tamagotchi and you!
Dance: (Difficulty: Easy) Copy the Tamagotchi’s movements using the (A) (B) and (C) buttons in the patterns shown to succeed.
Mini Guide:
Failure to complete turn 1: -1LB= Okay (Crying animation)
Completing turn 1: +1 Happiness -2LBs = Good (A quick, easy way to raise happiness and subtract weight.)
Jump: (Difficulty: Medium-Hard) You must press the (B) button at the right time to cross over an obstacle. The speed increases with each stage but doesn’t become crazy fast.
? Note: If the pet is too close to the obstacle, it will miss and the ‘fall flat on its face’ animation will play.
Mini Guide: (W.I.P)
Key: Stage 1-2 (Completing Stage 1 and failing at stage 2)
Stage 1-2: +Happiness -0LBs = Okay (Crying animation)
Stages 1-5 = Good
Discipline: This care icon is used to increase training and progress (if done correctly) will show on the health meter. Discipline is a bit tricky. At a glance, you have Option A) Time-Out Option B) Praise.
Time-Out: Tamagotchi refuses to eat even though it’s hungry.
Beeps at you even though it is happy/full. ( If it has +3 Happiness and you filled out a 4rth heart and the ‘attention icon’ is still lit up, use ‘Time-Out’.
Refuses to play even though it is unhappy (tricky). Tamagotchi will refuse to eat if it is underweight. Don’t punish your virtual pet over this! Increase its weight and if it still refuses to play (rare) use Time-Out.
When a ‘Time-Out’ is applied correctly a ‘crying’ animation will be shown in the screen (baby, child, ) accompanied by beeping and the training bar will increase. The attention icon will turn off.
? Note: If instead of ‘Time-Out’, you mistakenly use ‘Praise’, no animation will take place and the attention icon will fade but no progress will be done in the training bar. If you use ‘Time-Out’ after, the Tamagotchi will beep at you and become angry but the training bar won’t progress.
Praise: This action is to be taken when the Tamagotchi displays a random ‘crying’ animation in the screen, often accompanied by a beep. When applied correctly, an animation will trigger showing a ‘shining sun behind a smiling Tamagotchi’ and the training bar will progress.
When used incorrectly, no animation will take place and no progress will be made toward training.
Communication: I doubt I’ll be able to experience this as my tamagotchi was released in 2004 and we are in the year 2018 so instead I’ll quote from the official manual:
Known as Infra-Red Communication (Using IR Sensor) will connect to Tamagotchis together. Push the (B) button to select the Communications icon and a ‘Stand By’ screen will be shown. Position the two Tamagotchi top to top (basically, with the Infra-red bars facing each other) and push the (B) button to start communication.
You can play games together or exchange presents and even develop relationships.
Exchange Presents: One of the Tamagotchi may drop a gift after a successful connection. ( Check Friend List section to use present.)
Playing Games: Tamagotchi will automatically play after selection. Playing games improves happiness and increases chances of winning at future games.
Balloon Game: First one that pops the balloon wins.
Eating Game: First one that eats everything wins the game.
Developing Relationships: If two Tamagotchi become partners (romantic) , the female Tamagotchi will leave two eggs on the screen (one for each screen) and the second generation of Tamagotchi starts!
Friend List: Allows you to check your Friend List and Presents received.
Friends: Shows the list of friends you’ve made and allows you to delete old friends.
? Note: A max of 50 friends is allowed.
Presents These can be worn or played with (depending on the character)
? Note: Not all presents can be used by your current Tamagotchi character (which means they are randomly generated)
Known as Friendship Level: Increases with the more connections you make. Acquaintance > Buddy > Friend > Good Friend > Best Friend > Partner
Pause
Pausing the tamagotchi won’t stop the clock from running but it will stop the growth process. When the virtual pet is put in pause mode, it will be shown below the frozen character.
Hold the (A) button and without releasing, press the (B) button. Repeat these steps to unpause.
Mute/Turn off Sound
This setting is especially useful when trying to take care of your virtual pet in an environment where sounds are undesirable or distracting (school, college, work, near bed time; baby sleeping, etc.)
Press and hold the (A) button and (C) button simultaneously. Use the (A) button to scroll between ON/OFF and use the (B) button to set the setting. Repeat the steps outlined above to unmute/turn the sound back on.
Resetting Stage
Reset
If your tamagotchi is glitching (Health meter not going down; strange screen artifacts) or you simply want to try again, push the button located on the back with something small (end of a paper clip) and apply light pressure. A series of beeping noises will indicate success.
The ‘hatching egg’ screen will present itself but the reset is not complete. Push the (B) button and you’ll be presented with 2 options: Download or Reset . Choose [Reset] and you’ll be taken to the Set-up Screen. Once that’s finished, you’ll be able to hatch a new Tamagotchi.
Download Your Data
A Tamagotchi’s data is preserved as its last major event and while it is not perfect, it’s much better than starting from zero! You might want to download your data after changing batteries, for example. This is still known as the resetting stage.
You will be presented with the egg hatching screen, as outline above and must press the (B) button to proceed. This time, choose ‘Download’ to restore the Tamagotchi from its last major event.
Tamagotchi Connection V1 – Log (Gen 1)
Note: This log will be moved to its own post (and linked for reference) once generation 1 is complete.
Day 1 – 09/10
I was taken to the start-up screen (after a quick reset) where I set today’s date and time 09/10 and my birthday 11/05 (but you can celebrate the tama’s birthday as well! This is pure preference, of course.)
Next, I was greeted by a tiny pixel egg which took a few seconds- minute to hatch. It resembles a baby chick and explodes dramatically from its egg shell!
Gender revealed it was a girl and I named it Namy.
Years:O Weight: 5LB Growth Stage: Baby Hunger/Happiness:0/4 Training: 0
I started by feeding it. While the 2 options supplied are meal and snack, they both resemble a baby bottle. One is white and the other black.
+4 Meals / +4 Games
Too much exercise for a baby! It’s weight dropped to 6LB and I wasn’t allowed to play any more games.
A hunger heart dropped with every passing second so it requires constant feeding and attention (as it doesn’t always beep)
The first smelly poop on screen was accompanied by an ominous skull. (It was instant!) +1 Toilet +2 Medicine (as the first dose wasn’t enough)
Once the tiny gal was taken care of, it got hungry several more times.
It then beeped at me and I expected to see a brand new bag of poop to pickup but instead I was met with the ‘crying’ animation.
As I haven’t played before (and hadn’t glanced at the manual yet) I had a choice to make. From my experience when it is full/happy but still beeps at you, it means it’s being naughty but the crying animation didn’t exactly fit. I took the risk of using [Praise] and this was the correct choice to make as a happy animation triggered. (+Praise +1 Training)
Seconds later, it beeped at me again as it had gone to sleep so I turned off the light. This must have been Flash taking a nap because it literally lasted 10 seconds and it was awake once more.
I continued to feed it and play games with it again and then it beeped at me one last time.
At first, I thought the screen was glitching and that time had finally caught up with the toy but it turns out it was changing appearance. It is now at its Marutchi(?)/Child(?) Stage, I believe.
Years:O Weight: 10LB Growth Stage: Child Hunger/Happiness:4/4 Training: 1
At this stage, it is not as prone to attention as in the baby stage. At first, as minutes ticked by, I thought it had glitches as hunger/happiness remained full.
After an hour or so, it beeped at me even though it was happy/full (+1 Discipline/Time-Out.
I expected to see the ‘angry at you’ animation but instead the Tamagotchi was in tears? Training bar progressed so that indicated I did good but I even second guessed myself.
Finally a hunger heart dropped! Okay, not glitching. It was fed +1 meal and then it beeped at me one last time.
It had gone to bed (9pm) and it was asking me to turn off the lights.
Day 2
Years: O Weight: 15LB Hunger/Happiness:3/4 Training: 2
Namy woke up at 9:00 AM (and I managed to feed it +1 meal before catching some more zZZ
When I woke up, Namy was waiting for me with 3/4 Hunger 3/4 Happiness.
+1 Meal +1 Dancing Game
Beeped at me to show me her accomplishments: 1 Smelly poop to clean (+1 Toilet)
Beeped at me again. Seemed fine at a glance but had 3/4 Happiness. +1 Snack but the ‘attention!’ Icon wasn’t going away.
Praise? Big mistake. Namy needed a time-out so no animation triggered but training did not decrease. I gave her a time-out immediately after but besides her ‘beeping’ at me in anger? 0 progress made toward training. Thankfully? No training progress decreased.
Tamagotchi Connection Training Center
One thing I’ve noticed? It won’t beep at you (even when it needs something) so you need to be on the lookout for dropping hunger/happiness bar.
A quick look at the screen revealed one smelly poop (yet it still didn’t beep at me) I love the little animation it does as it moves away from the screen non-subtly as if saying ‘Ew.. it smells, please pick it up!’ Almost as if it wasn’t the one that did it in the first place.
It then started crying! +1 Praise (The poor gal was feeling sad/lonely) +1 Training (Training is now at 3 bars)
Namy’s health meter revealed hunger 2/4 happiness 3/4 (+2 Meals /Weight: 15LB
+1 Dancing Game (Weight: 13LB)
+1 meal +1 Snack (4/4 Happiness/Hunger Weight: 16LB)
Beeped at me even though it didn’t need anything. This was my time to redeemed that failed ‘praise’ action I did earlier. This time the scolding was successful! +1 Discipline/Time-Out +1 Training (Training is now: 4 bars
Day 3
Years: 1 Weight: 22LB Training: 4
Beeped at 8am to go through the evolution progress (while it was still sleeping) and then immediately asked me to turn off the lights.
—- Basically how it went down in my head —
Me: it evolved yay! Wake up already—
Namy: I did the thingy, now let me catch some more zZZs.
Me: oh.. okay
—-
One smelly dropping (though it didn’t beep at me)
+1 Meal
Tamagotchi Connection V5
+1 Game(-1LB) (21LB)
Namy started doing this quirky lil’ animation where she would run across the screen and fall flat on her face.
I received a beep minutes later and the tamagotchi was facing away from the screen with smoke coming out as if ‘puffing out’?
+ 1 Discipline/Praise
She’s back to her sunny self!
Training: 5
Another smelly poop
Animations: Whistling, falling flat on its face, dancing?
Attention icon lit up but it was just prancing across the screen?
It was in need of severe scolding!
Attention icon lit up again but Namy just wanted to feel loved so— Discipline/Praise.
Current stats 4/4 hunger/happiness
Tamagotchi Connection Training Program
Training: 7 Years:1 Weight: 22LB