Cyber Pet Tumbler
By Rob Zwetsloot. Posted
Pets are a big responsibility. Thanks to the magic of electronics and computer chips, they can still be a big responsibility, but with only the upfront cost involved. Tamagotchis were all the rage in the 1990s (if you were a kid like Rob back then, who had many knock-offs), and keeping the little pixelated critters alive was a lot of work. It turns out creating one is worthy of a degree in electrical and computer engineering, as recent graduate Rhea Goswami tells us.
“We set out to create a handheld, portable game with fun graphics and an interesting premise,” says Rhea. “We wanted to have the ability for the user to take this wonderful contraption ‘on the go’ with them, and there was no better example of an ‘on-the-go’ game that evokes nostalgia like the Tamagotchi.”
There are four stats for the pet: weight, food (hunger), happiness, and health. Like the original toy, playing, feeding, and cleaning is required to maintain the correct levels on the meters.
“Of course, you may also interact with the pet by knocking it around its enclosure by physically tilting the device,” Rhea says. “If your pet slams against any wall too hard, it will look dizzy and its health will decrease. Tilt the egg to slide your pet around and watch it squish up against the walls.”
We don’t think we’ll be chucking this one haphazardly in a school bag then. It can also be switched off, and saves its state for the next time you turn it on, which also would have saved us some headaches as a kid.
Rob is amazing. He’s also the Features Editor of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, a hobbyist maker, cosplayer, comic book writer, and extremely modest.
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