Inspiration, like a bad cold, comes in the most unexpected and unexpected time. It happened to Japanese pedagogue Aki Maita, who got the idea for his most famous creation from something that looked weird like a thorn from his childhood years. As a child, Maita wanted a pet, but her family wasn’t too keen on it and she was never able to grant her wish. The result: As an adult and hand in hand with Bandai and Akihiro Yokoi, the creature’s “father”, he shaped one of the most famous toys in history: the Tamagotchi.

If you were a kid in the late 1990s, you probably have owned one as well as knowing what Tamagotchis is. There was a time before that smart phones colonize all the pockets and when the Game Boy hits hard it’s nearly impossible to walk through a square or a schoolyard and not encounter a group of kids with their heads bent over a Tamagotchi, size and shape of the eggbright colors and three small buttons that, every two times, make a metallic beeping sound, reminiscent of ’80s arcade machines.

If you went to one of those kids and asked what he was doing – in the ’90s it was almost an alien not to know – he would most likely tell you that he was looking after his pet. I can’t play. Not hooking up. Or at least not just that. And in a way, they were absolutely right. Tamagotchi, fulfilling Maita’s childhood dream, was nothing more or less than that: digital pets the things you have to take care of and the things you need to feed, care for and even pamper during illness and cleaning. All about four weeks.

“The Tamagotchi Effect”

Like a real pet, the Tamagotchi behaved in one way or another depending on how you treat it. Supposedly the character was an alien you just “gathered” from an egg and you are responsible for patiently caring for him until he returns to his planet or moves on to a better cyber life. He was so attached to you that if you didn’t take good care of him, he could get sick or die. It had such a wild attraction at the time that psychologists began using the term “Tamagotchi effect” to refer to this strange bond between a person and a machine.

How did tamagotchis come into our lives?

And most curious, What happened to them? Are they still with us?

To answer the first question, we need to go back roughly thirty years; Just as Akihiro Yokoi has the first idea—again with unexpected inspiration—he takes his turtle for a ride when he sees a TV commercial in which a mother scolds her son. Why not, thought Yokoi, head of the Wiz firm. The other key piece in the story is Aki Maita, a pedagogue who in the 1990s decided to sculpt a device to help people experience what it’s like to care for a pet.

The third protagonist is Bandai, the main toy manufacturer in Japan, who enjoyed resounding and unexpected success in the US with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the early ’90s. Together, the team polished and shaped the concept and device that would become the first Tamagotchi. Tamago (egg) and Wow (To watch)Although there are theories as to where the last part of the name came from. uocchi (take care of).

Although – in detail Smithsonian Magazine— initially its creators suggested that the device be a watch, in the end they chose a model similar to a keychain. They also developed the concept and how Tamagotchi should interact with users. Once they had the final piece, they are said to have handed out 200 copies to teenagers in Tokyo’s Shibuya district to study the players’ reactions. The finale was broadcast in Japan. November 23, 1996 and six months later, in May 1997, it was introduced to stores in the United States and Europe.

With a small monochrome pixel display, metallic beeps and a demanding character, this plastic egg was a huge success. Although initially the commercial strategy focused heavily on girls, the game has captured a large user base. Just half a year after it arrived in toy stores in Japan, five million units had been sold. And it could be more, as you remember New York Times: There were people camping in front of the shops at night to buy one.

Continental jumping wasn’t too bad either. Within three years, the 96 edition had sold nearly 40 million copies and showed Bandai the golden egg-laying juicy goose – or, directly, the golden egg – Tamagotchi. Its expansion was just as perfect as the origin of these pixelated characters. By 2011 they had already launched 35 different versions It had nearly 78 million users worldwide, was replicated in mobile apps and console versions with the advent of Tamagotchi Plus, and even inspired a number of TV shows and movies in 2007.

What was the reason for such a “pull”? While such an implementation will largely depend on the game’s appeal, much of Tamagotchi’s success is explained by its cost. The selling price in Spain ranged from 2,000 to 3,000 pesetas, ie just under 20 euros at current exchange rates; To the US and Canada, it reached a similar amount between $15 and $18 in May 1997. In short: a decent amount designed to make it a mass product, far from the exorbitant fees of other electronic games like the Atari 2600 or Nintendo’s Game Boy.

Not everything was great in the creation story of Yokoi and Maita. Apart from the “Tamagotchi effect”, the new toy and its features created a deep discussion and also received significant criticism. For example, Tamagotchi dying and leaving a tombstone was something the parents didn’t particularly like and even forced them to resort to more “sweetened” versions outside of Japan, such as the character’s return to his planet. “It creates a sense of loss and grieving process“Andrew Cohen, a psychologist, New York Times in 1997.

At the summit, a cemetery, a small area in Cornwall, was established for these plastic eggs. Some teachers and even public officials were not convinced of how they could influence children or their time left behind. It may seem surprising today, but in those days the debate was very lively: Did it promote responsibility among the little ones and teach them to care for their pets as Yokoi intended; Or did the constant attention that the game requires distract them from their lessons? Could his “disappearance” affect a child that much?

If Tamagotchi was somehow predictable, it was about how he answered a universally applicable maxim in business and fashion: there is no success that does not change forever. It didn’t happen with other toys like the Game Boy. It didn’t happen with the next big thing in the industry, the Furby. It didn’t happen with Digimon, another of his adaptations. And it didn’t happen with the creation of Bandai. tamagotchi fever It doesn’t have much to do with the levels it reached between the 1990s and the early 2000s, but it’s certainly far, far from disappearing.

Today, a quarter of a century later, Tamagotchi still has a community of unconditional fans, and its essence has managed to adapt to new tastes and resources. Bandai Mamco Forever offers an app called My Tamagotchi Forever with over five million downloads on the Play Store; and the Japanese company continues to market an updated version with a camera for selfies, a full color display, touch buttons and the ability to connect with other virtual pets, among other innovations compared to models from two decades ago.

Options are not missing exactly in 2022. If you’re one of the nostalgic gamers, you have the original releases on Amazon. If you choose to adapt your childhood game for new times, you can upgrade to the Tamagotchi Pix version or even the Tamagotchi Smart model, which was released in November last year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the toy’s release to the Japanese market. – the ironies of life – Akihiro takes back Yokoi’s original idea to give it the shape of a clock. Three years ago the company also released Tamagotchi On, and some of its essence in caring for digital creatures can even be seen in the new Niantic game Peridot.

What is clear is that the digital pets that sweetened our childhoods with beeping sounds in our thirties are still alive and kicking. And to show you a button: in March 2021 Bandai claimed it had already accumulated… more than 83 million the number of units sold.

Pictures | Andrew Russell (Flickr), Katy (Flickr), and Tamagotchi (Bandai)