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Disney Toy Story |
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Disney Toy Story |
On Tue, 6 Jan 1998, James wrote:
I got a virtual pet for Chistmas which I didn't see listed on your page.
It is from the Disney Store and goes under the trademark of
'Virtual Friends (TM)' Here's some info about it...
Front cover of the package:
Disney's
Toy Story
VIRTUAL FRIENDS (TM) Space Explorer
* 3 different space creatures to care for: Alien, dog and bird
* Extensive life-like animation on jumbo screen with sound efects
* Special features: PAUSE function and BEST RECORD memory
* Play, excercise, and feed your intergalactic space friends
* Different excercises and activities for each space friend
* Play interactive target games to capture UFOs on radar
* Choose regular or power sleep time
* Watch out for the "CLAW", as it tries to kidnap your friends
* Batteries included
Back cover of the package:
VIRTUAL FRIENDS (TM) Space Explorer
Here's your chance to help Buzz Lightyear care for some out-of-this-world
space friends! Help an Alien, a Dog, or a Bird escape the evil CLAW, and
your new friend can spend up to 15 days on an intergalactic vacation in
Buzz's spaceship!
Remember, while on vacation you have to take good care of your Friend by
feeding them (but not too muc!), playing interactive games with them and
making sure they get plenty of excercise. Make sure they get clean air and
lots of oxygen in the space ship, and don't forget to check your friend's
health and happiness so they can have a great vacation with you and Buzz.
And when it is time to return to its home planet, your friend will board the
space ship and blast off to ... "infinity and beyond"!
The back also has 6 pictures of scenes from the game
[ The "CLAW" in action ] [ Target Game ] [ Spaceship blasting off ]
[ Happy Bird - dancing ] [ Alien - eating pizza ] [ Dog - rolling over ]
The toy is by 'Thinkway Toys (New York)' and manufactured in China.
-----------
The instructions are on the inside of the package and are quite long and
detailed compared to some virtual pet instruction's I've seen (I haven't
seen many though.. one went as far as saying "When you see this [Japanese
characters here] that means your pet is hungry" ... ).
The device is a keychain style virtual pet with a relatively sturdy-looking
chain and latch. It's shape resembles Buzz Lightyear's Space Ship (from the
movie "Toy Story"), about 7 cm tall, 5 cm wide (minus wings... plus wings
it is just over 7 cm wide) and just under 2 cm thick.
The LCD screen is 3cm x 3cm with the top and bottom showing the different
function icons and the 3cm wide by 1.5 cm wide region in the middle is a
29 x 16 pixel display.
There are 4 buttons, small but spaced wide enough apart for big fingers
to press them. The buttons are labeled as such:
[] [] [] []
Select > < Select Skip Enter
When you pull the tab to start the game (or hit the reset button on back)
you have to set the clock and choose between KG amd LBS. The screen displays
a cute opening animation showing the ship's air supply being filled and then
you'll see the 3 possible creatures you'll be taking care of.
[ 3-eyed alien from "Toy Story" ]
[ A 3-eyed dog with an antenna ]
[ A 3-legged ostrich-like bird ]
The CLAW (see 'Toy Story' for the reference) will come down and take two of
them at random ... the one remaining is the one you take care of.
The SELECT buttons scroll through the 8 function icons. The following is
a quick description of the functions (the instructions provided in the
package are more detailed)
Feeding [ pizza-shaped icon ] -- Obviously, aliens only eat pizza :-)
Each meal increases your pet's weight and adds one to it's "HUNGRY" level.
The pet won't eat if full. Extra uneaten food somehow contaminates the
air.
Sleeping [ sun-shaped icon ] -- Turn on/off the light for the creature
Should be turned off when sleeping otherwise it'll get sick.
Automatically turns back on when the creature awakens.
You can select 'SLOW' or 'POWER' sleep..
'SLOW' means the creature will sleep from 9PM to 7AM on the toy's clock.
'POWER' will accelerate the toy's clock by a factor of 60 (only when the
creature is sleeping) so it will only sleep about 10 min 'real time'.
Game [ target symbol icon ] -- Shoot down rebel UFOs. Use SELECT < >
to move the radar around.. when you see a blip on the radar hit ENTER
to fire. The blip doesn't stay in one place very long.
3 out of 5 hits and the creature's 'HAPPY' level goes up by one.
4 or 5 out of 5 and the creature's 'HAPPY' level increases by 2 units.
Air [ swirly-shaped icon ] -- You can select 'Filter' or 'Oxygen'...
Use 'Filter' cleans the air (you see specks on the screen when it needs
filtering). Use 'Oxygen' fills the air tanks.
Clock [ Clock with electrons orbiting it icon ] -- This is the 'pause'
feature. Turning this on will make the display show the word [STOP]
and will stop the toy's clock as well.
First Aid [ First aid cross icon ] -- Press this and a UFO-shaped ambulence
will zip by to help the creature (if it is sick). If it is NOT sick it
will shake it's head to say 'no' at you.
Mission Log icon [ Document shaped icon ] -- View two types of stats..
'PET' info and 'DATA' info.
- 'PET' info is Age, Weight, and 'Best record'.
- 'DATA' info is its 'HUNGRY' level (shown as 0-5 slices of pizza),
'HAPPY' level (shown as 0-4 happy faces), and HEALTH is shown as a
horizontal bar not unlike that for fighting-style video games.
Also mentions if the creature is over or under weight.
Excersize [ Space Bar-bell icon ] -- This differs with the 3 creatures:
Alien -- Catch space balls
Dog -- Catch flying saucers (frisbees)
Bird -- Jump hurdles
The more done in 15 seconds, the more health is added to the health bar.
Each time the creature excersizes it's weight drops and its "HUNGRY" level
goes down... also the air will need filtering faster.
Attention [ triangle-shaped icon ] -- shows up only if something is wrong
* When its HUNGRY level too low ... or over/underweight
* When its HAPPY level too low
* When sick (also, a '+' will appear on the screen)
* When air is dirty (also little specks will appear on the screen)
* When 1 1/2 of the 3 oxygen tanks are empty
* When THE CLAW appears
The Claw --
The claw appears from time to time to try to take away your creature.
To make it go away you need to play an win (3 out of 5 or more) the
target game. The longer you wait to play and win the game, the closer
the claw will get.
The instructions are generally pretty good but have a few minor deviations
from the game:
The instructions say:
"With each meal eaten your Frien's weight increases by 1 oz. (30 g.)
when the weight drops below 5 oz. (150 g.) it is under weight and the
attention icon lights up and beeps."
In reality:
The weight is displayed in pounds or kilograms. Each feeding tends to
increase the creature's weight by one kg (or 2 lbs.). Also... the
level for when a creature is over or under weight depends on the age
and may even depend on the creature.
The instructions say:
"The maximum age for any Friend in the spaceship is 15 virtual years (or
15 earth days)."
In reality:
Unlike some other pets I've seen, this one display's the creature's age
in days instead of pretending 1 day = 1 year. Besides... the premise is
that the pet is on vacation on the ship... who (besides retired people)
takes 15-year vacations.
The instructions say:
"The evil CLAW is always out to kidnap hungry or unhappy space creatures."
In reality:
That claw has a habit of coming randomly... even when the creature is
healthy and happy.
Notes about this virtual pet:
* It is futile to try to synchronise the toy's clock with real time.
The "PAUSE" feature stops the toy's clock. The "POWER" sleep feature
accelerates the toy's clock 10 hours in about 10 real minutes. And even
if you didn't pause or use POWER sleep, the toy's clock isn't very good.
Mine runs 10 minutes fast every real hour.
* The pause feature is a real life saver (for me and the pet) especially
since the time gets so out of whack. As I type the time is about 12:57 PM
real time but my pet's time is now 7:21 PM. A stick-on label on the
packages calls the pause feature a 'Parent and Teacher-Friendly' feature.
* There is no way to check the oxygen level without actually trying to fill
the tanks.
* The game is one of the better virtual pet games I've seen. It is actually
a challenge instead of a pure game of chance or a simple guess.. Still,
it would be nice if there were more than one game to choose from.
* The premise of the creature being on vacation would be perfect if it weren't
for one minor flaw... the creature is apparently growing and getting bigger.
The dog I had nearly tripled in weight. If it is only staying for up
to "15 days", why is it getting so much bigger?
* The creature displayed looks the same while on the ship. Although this is
consistant with the "15 days" hypothesis I'd like to see the creatures
change as they grow.
* I like the fact that they chose a little first-aid icon instead of a
hypodermic needle icon like some other virtual pets use. I'd prefer that
my children learn to call a doctor when someone is sick rather than to
simply inject someone with drugs when sick.
* If you press the first three buttons together you get a little easter egg..
The screen displays in two pages:
------------ ------------
| THINK | | (C) 1997 |
| WAY | | |
------------ ------------
* Too much fiddling with pressing multiple buttons actually caused a glitch
in my game resetting it and even erasing my 'Best Record'.
* The package refers to Disney's web site www.disney.com but I couldn't
find instructions for the toy at that site. I did find a picture of it
at store.disney.com Use the Gift Finder and select
to 'Toy Story'
to 'Toys'
to 'Child'
The toy pictured was a little different shape than the one I have.
The pictured toy is taller (or skinnier) than mine... has the display a
little closer to the top compared to mine... has a different color
keychain and buttons (my keychain is silver, my buttons are all red)...
and has the word 'Buzz Lightyear' across the front which mine lacks.
* This is the first virtual pet I've ever had so I can't do many comparisons
to others (I've 'babysat' a few others though... Nano-Kitty primarily).
It's a cute and fun toy but I think I'll be yanking it's batteries pretty
soon (or letting friends try it out).
* Ending:
I can only guess there are two endings to the game. Either the 'CLAW' will
snatch up the creature, or it'll fly back home in Buzz's space ship.
I've only had the toy since christmas .. the first alien I had got grabbed
by the CLAW in 2 days when I left it un attended while sorting pictures for
about 2 hours. The second creature I had was the one that got lost when
it was 9 days old after I experimented with pressing multiple buttons.
The third and current creature I have is the bird. So far I haven't gotten
to the space ship ending.
This page was created 8 January 1998
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