Recommended YouTube channels

- Is that a wristwatch on the right? -

Every now and then you'll see me post YouTube videos from myself or others here on the website. I like watching YouTube videos before or after buying a certain Tamagotchi to see what it's features are and if it's a Japanese version it's good to find out where certain things are and what they mean.

I have a few trusted channels I go to first whenever I want to watch a video about a Tamagotchi and figured I should share them with you guys.

AtlanticRaven <- Click here for the channel on YouTube

A woman who lives on a island (not sure where) which sounds to be a little remote from what she comments every now and then.

She has a huge collection of Tamagotchi's and mainly makes videos about unboxing them and showing their features. She has a gentle voice and good quality video's which is nice to watch and listen to. She also doesn't take forever to open a box (really, some people take 5 minutes before they even open the box). She corrects mistakes if she discovers them afterwards. She really seems to know her stuff and her channel is the first one I go to for checking out Tamagotchi's I'm considering to purchase or just received in the mail. Highly recommended if you want to watch a quick yet informing unboxing.

RaTamaZone <- Click here for the channel on YouTube

A guy who has again, a huge collection of Tamagotchi's.

The go-to channel if you want to know secrets about Tamagotchi's (hidden characters). Also great for looking at Tamagotchi items that are very rare, like TamaTama Market and the Tamagotchi game center. Also has video's which teach you how to draw certain Tamagotchi characters which is pretty cool. The quality of the video's is good although the volume of his voice varies sometimes from video to video but there's always your own volume settings which you can change to suit.

Recommended if you want to learn about special features, characters or Tamagotchi related items.

GotchiBR <- Click here for the channel on YouTube

I don't know anything about the person behind this channel.

In Japan there are animated TV-series about Tamagotchi. This channel has over 60 full episodes of the animated series. Eventhough I don't understand Japanese, it's rather easy to follow the storyline. It's meant for little kids, so it's very outspoken in it's animations.

You can see a trailer for the animated TV-series below:

MstrBlinky <- Click here for the channel on YouTube

This channel is from a guy which I guess is from my country, The Netherlands. I think this because he uses a store card for a Dutch grocery store in one of his videos.

MstrBlinky likes to show you how to modify or hack Tamagotchi's. Anything from changing the faceplate of you Tamagotchi Friends to changing the software of your P's. He doesn't always explain in great detail how he does certain things (mostly the software modifications), but he does usually share the files you need to do things yourself. The video's are clear and don't drag on. Sometimes there can be some annoying music running in the back, but I haven't heard him actually speak, so it's safe to just turn the sound off if you don't like the background music.



Do you have any YouTube channels I should really go and check out? Post them in the comments section below.

Update on Perotchi

- My cute little Perotchi -

As you can probably tell from the picture above, Perotchi has married and had a little baby! I married her to Kuromametchi.

She had collected all her stickers and during the weekend I have the time to take care of a toddler so I married her off this past weekend.

- So romantic -

You know how it goes: they have a few dates. Walk in the park in the moonlight and BOOM! there's an egg!

- Perotchi leaving after the baby goes to sleep -

It was also Perotchi's birthday that day. How fitting!

I'm really excited to see what this baby girl will grow up to be. I've had Mametchi and Perotchi so far and some really cute teens. I won't update the progress on this iDL every day, since it's kinda the same all the time.

If you are wondering what character my iDL is at this moment, you can always check the right upper menu of this blog to see what my current character is.

And just a small update on my Morino; it's in it's cocoon now! I'm checking the temperature and will pause him during the night when I'm asleep. I'm really looking forward to seeing him out of the cocoon. I made sure he was nice and fat and had everthing full when he went into his cocoon.

 - My Morino in it's cocoon -

The art of Tamagotchi hiding

- Just wondering how you're going to check on the ones higher up - source

I experience, and I'm sure a lot of you guys out there too, a lot of negativity for going somewhere and placing a Tamagotchi on the table. People not only think you're weird, some even find it rude. And I can't blame them. When I have dinner with my boyfriend or when I'm working at the office, my Tama's are either on pause or tucked away somewhere out of sight.

Now some of you still go to school and have many other reasons for having to hide their Tamagotchi's. We all know about the pencilbag. However, larger Tamagotchi's like the Friends or P's don't always fit in there.

I found a lot of inspiration about hiding Tamagotchi's on TamaTalk. For example:

- Wear it around your neck

- Place it in a pocket of your clothing

- Specially designed ducktape pencilbags with secret pockets (find out more by clicking here )

I'm the kind of person who will just pause them and leave them in my purse during meetings or lunch breaks and the like. If I were to go for these tactics, people would find me even weirder I think, lol.

I also saw some people talk about these pouches which would fit a P's or iDL perfectly: click here. Thanks to SakuraLove for pointing these out! Eventhough you're not really hiding them this way it's still pretty neat.

- This frog is soooo cute! -

Do you have any other ways to hide your Tamagotchi's? Tell me about your tactics on the comments below!

Debugging and modifying

- Opening a Tamagotchi Connection -

WARNING: Trying to debug or modifying your Tamagotchi using the tips and tricks in this entry is at your own risk! I did not test any of these methods or know how to fix certain issues. I just looked these things up on the internet.

Lately I have noticed a few videos on YouTube and some webpages where people explain how to modify or debug a Tamagotchi.

Debugging is when you find a way to enter a special mode on the Tamagotchi where you can actually choose what adult character you want and instantly get it. Sometimes this even gives you the ability to speed up time.

Modifying is when you insert certain hardware or software that is not from Bandai in order to make your Tamagotchi do things it would not otherwise be programmed to do.

Let's start with debugging. I got this process off pixelmood. Here, they explain how you unscrew two plates off the back of a Tamagotchi Connection and then use a pencil to rub on the little dot on the printingplate that says "debug" next to it. It works with multiple types of Tamagotchi's, but not all. The modern versions (P's and iDL's) need a modifying method to debug them. 

Then there are mods. The mod in the video below describes a way to download a game that will instantly give you 200GP without doing anything:

If you go to the YouTube channel of MstrBlinky you will find more video's of modifying  iDL's and P's.

You can also make custom backgrounds for older versions like the P1. The way to do this is again remove both plates on the back to reveal the printboard. You can then easily remove the background paper and change it for a different one. A step by step guide to do this can be found on Necrobones.

Again, all of this is at your own risk. I like my Tamagotchi's the way they are and don't like cheats. But it can ofcourse sprouse up your old Tamagotchi to where you like playing with it again.

Do you have any other good mod or debuggin tips? Share them in the comments below.

Unboxing the Tamagotchi Morino!

 - It has arrived! -

About a week after I ordered it from eBay it arrived: my Morino! All the way from Japan in just one week! I'm so pleased.

- Jep, it's from Japan allright! -

The Morino, for those of you who do not know, was also released in Japan in 1997. That makes this Tamagotchi 17 years old. It's a forest type Tamagotchi and has a touch function you need to use whenever it's in danger. 

- Still mint in the box -

There are two ways to hatch the Morino. You have two types of eggs you can choose from at the start. One will hatch a Tamagotchi that will always grow up to be the same adult. The goal is to make it as big as possible. The other one will go from baby to toddler. Then it will become a cocoon. At this stage, you need to control only the temperature of the room. Depending on this temperature (hot or cold) you will get a adult character.

- Package from the back -

It also has a type of screensaver function. After not touching it for a few seconds, the Tamagotchi can be seen flying in between two trees. When you touch a button, your Tamagotchi will appear back up close on the screen.

- The manual is in Japanese ofcourse -

After opening it up, I removed the two old batteries immediatly. Which is a good thing I did, because there was already a small amount of leakage from one of the batteries. Not enough to damage the Tamagotchi luckily.

- Fresh from the box! -

I already hatched my first egg and it surprises my how little care he needs right now in the first hour. I've only fed and played with him to fill up the meters once, and that was half an hour ago. Haven't heard a beep from him since!

I'm really happy to add this cool Morino to my collection. Now it's just waiting for my Angel and my P's!

- My very first Morino egg -

To pierce or not to pierce...

- Some of the pierces for the P's -

I am expecting my new Tamagothi P's to arrive any day now. For the P's it's possible to buy a so called "pierce". A pin like item that is sold seperately from the Tamagotchi which adds certain features like new games, other characters, food, items and locations.

You can check out this wiki to see what all the different pierces do.

Now I stand before the very important question: to pierce or not to pierce? The pierce I'm leaning towards is the one with the hearts, the Love & Melody.

- Love & Melody pierce -

I looked it up on eBay and the cheapest it goes for now is $50 USD. That's very steep if you ask me. It will provide me with a additional game, three food items, additional characters and so forth, but still. My P's itself was $53 USD. I could buy another Tamagotchi for the price of just this one pierce! 

Word on the forums is that the additional game is actually really hard to beat. I was mostly interested in it because of the additional game. Right now I'm running my iDL and man, are those two games getting old! But if it's a really hard game.... even for adults, I'm not quite sure I'd want to spend so much money on it. I don't really care about the extra characters or the wallpaper. New food items are nice but no reason to pay that kind of money for.

I guess I'm just going to wait and see if the pierces get cheaper and if I feel like I still want one after playing with my P's for a while. Maybe I'll buy it if I get tired of the standard stuff and want something new to explore.

If you have a P's, you can vote on the poll on the right if you have a pierce and if so, which one. You can also leave a comment below to tell me about the pierce(s) you got and how you like them. I'd really appreciate some advice on which ones to get or to avoid and the prices to pay.

Fun facts section

 - Did you know that the Chibi Tamagotchi is the smallest Tamagotchi in the world? It's 2/3 the size of a regular Tamagotchi and comes on a keychain. - source

I thought it would be fun to add a "Fun Facts" section to the blog. I'll search the web for fun facts you might not know about Tamagotchi's and place them in the special "Fun Facts" section on the right menu bar of the website.

If you have suggestions for a fun fact, please leave a comment below and make sure you also mention the source where you got the fact from. If a fact I post is incorrect, please let me know in the comments below as well.

Hope you like the new section!

- Did you know that in 1998, a special Tamagotchi was released after a populair Japanese comedian named Tamao Nakamura? It's called the TamaOtch and was only released in Japan - source

Tamagotchi battery challenges

- This is not the correct way to change the battery -

Our beloved little extraterrestrials cannot live without batteries. On the back of our little eggs therefore, are screws (mostly) which one can unscrew to remove and replace one or more batteries, depending on the type of Tamagotchi. Simple you say? Nay!

A few weeks ago I decided to hatch two of my beloved V's (V2 and V4). After many years of being in a drawer, obviously, the batteries had died as well as the Tamagotchi. The V's I own require these types of batteries:

I searched high and low, but most stores did not sell these types of batteries. I tried grocery stores, pharmacy and a bike store; but they were nowhere to be bought. A friend gave me a tip to go to a jeweler, since these batteries are often used for watches. Off I was to the closest jeweler. After searching for 20 (!!) minutes, the shopkeeper emerged and proudly presented me with a CR2032, unknown brand battery. "How much do they cost?" I asked. He answered (straight faced) with: "15 euro's per battery" (that's about 20 USD). I nearly choked and ran out of the store thinking to myself: "You've got to be kidding me!". Across the street from the jeweler was my favorite gamestore. What the heck, I thought, and asked there for the same battery. They told me that a general goods store a little further up the street should be selling them. Off to the general store I went.

I asked the clerk for the battery I needed. She calmly turned around to a shelve. Picked up a pack with 5 batteries of a well known brand and said: "That'll be 1 euro please." I couldn't believe it. One euro for 5 batteries whilst the jeweler just straight faced told me they were 15 euro's a piece???

It took me two days to get the batteries I needed and I nearly hugely overpaid for them as well. Just to get my sweet Tamagotchi's to beep and be happy again.

But then I got my new iDL. This one needs AAA's. Easy enough. I stack a whole bunch of those at home. Stress free you'd think.

- The back of my iDL e -

I had allready kept my trusted screwdriver I used for my V's at hand. Ready to start the challenge, when I noticed there was no screw to unscrew. There was a little press button. Even easier! I got my Nintendo DS stylus and started fiddling. ..... Uhm.... nothing's happening. Shouldn't it pop open or something??? After resorting to more drastic measures (a pen, as you can see unfortunately) and more fiddling I eventually managed to get it open and replace the batteries.

Another battery challenge victory!

Soon I will get my new Morino. This one requires the same batteries the old P1 and 2 needed. Which are these:

I have read on Tamatalk that these batteries can leak. Destroying your Tamagotchi without you being able to see this when you're buying it (when still in the box). I am holding my breath and praying to the TamaGods that mine will be fine. This is what that horror looks like:

 - A very scary sight for Tamagotchi owners -

Not a pretty sight. The first thing I need to do when the Morino arrives therefore is replace the batteries. However, one cannot use their trusted screwdrivers like the one we use for our V's. We'll need to resort to more specialized tools such as these:

Not only do I need to get these tiny batteries (which don't come cheap at 13 USD per pair), but I also need to buy a toolset of tiny screwdrivers just to open the back up. This Morino is getting costly!

Not only can the battery leak, you can also damage the Tamagotchi yourself. I have heard stories of people unscrewing their Tama and destroying the little screw by using too much force or the screw being so soft it just got all mangled up. When I told my boyfriend (who does a lot of mechanical work) about this, he advised me to put a little thin piece of cloth over the screw before unscrewing. This would protect to screw from getting destroyed. Handy tip for those of you who did not know!

I haven't received the Morino yet. But I have my old P1 and P2 which I will also release from their empty batteries as soon as my new toolkit arrives. I'm just hoping all my Tamagotchi's will be leak-free and beep at me again after replacing the batteries.

Pff.... battery challenges!

Update on Mametchi

 - Mametchi enjoying the view -

You probably haven't noticed because I had my blog set to autopost (pre-wrote the last few articles before I left) but I was on holiday last week in Germany!

I took Mametchi with me and we had a great time in the sauna:

- Mametchi relaxing in the sauna - 

And the bubble bath:

After a few days I had collected all the joy stickers and decided it was time for Mametchi to go on a date with a cute girl. They went to the park and out to dinner, basically had a good old time together and before I knew it: a egg appeared! It hatched soon after and Mametchi and his new baby girl played a game together. His baby got tired and fell asleep. He then left the house.

- The two lovebirds falling in love -

- Mametchi and his egg and after him and his newborn baby daughter playing -

 

- Momoirotchi calling me after Mametchi left -

-  Momoirotchi became Rolutchi! -

- And Rolutchi became Sabosabotchi -

And now, all grown up, I present to you:

- Perotchi eating dinner with her daddy Mametchi -

So this is where we are now. Perotchi just became a adult today so I'll be dragging her along atleast until next weekend. I'll keep you posted on her progress and will post other Tamagotchi related articles in the meantime, so be sure to check my blog regularly for new info and articles!

The joys of eBay hunting

 - I think those plants need some water -

As a Tamagotchi fan, like I am sure you probably are, we all know the joys and pains of eBay hunting. Finding that one perfect deal for that Tamagotchi you have been looking for such a long time.

Without forums like TamaTalk it's really hard to know wether the price you think you'll go for is reasonable or not. Adds like the one below are easy to detect, which is clearly outrageous by the way, but how can you tell what is a bargain and what is not?

- Is this person trying to make a statement or was it a typo?  -

As per discussed in a previous entry, Devilgotchi's will go for around $270 USD a pop (if mint and in box). For a Devil, that's actually reasonable. If it were a Tama-Go, it'd be a whole nother matter.

Other than the prices, there's the payment to worry about. Some people (like me) don't have a creditcard. Luckily for me, I live in Europe, where SEPA has just been introduced. Now, PayPal can automatically withdraw money from my debit account and pay for my orders. This is very important, because since I don't own a creditcard, I wouldn't be able to buy 90% of the Tamagotchi's offered on eBay. If you don't live in Europe and don't have creditcard, you can pretty much give up on those great deals before you even started looking.

- When you read the offer, it says that it is used, doesn't work and has scratches... Total bargain! -

Let's say we found our bargain, we can pay for it, we ordered it and now we wait. 

....

Still waiting

....

AARGH! I can't take this anymore! Message the seller "Have you sent my Tamagotchi yet??!!" No reply. Eventhough you've checked their feedback and all seemed so well... That's why I only spend money on eBay that I'm willing to "throw away" if you will. I wouldn't be very hurt if the money is gone.

I know you can try and get it back through PayPal or eBay but still. It's a risk you're taking. 

Eventhough we all go through these pains we still just love to hunt. I hunt on eBay for my dreams like Devilgotchi's and Ocean's English. I know they will never come within the range I'm willing to pay yet I still look them up time and time again. Until eventually I'll probably crack and overspend. *sigh*. 

Hold on, I'm just gonna check eBay real quick. Brb.

Keep it in the box!

- My iD L English when it was still worth $75 USD -

The other day I came across a thread on TamaTalk where someone had just bought a P1 and was asking how to best replace the batteries. Everyone soon came to his aid and helped him out. But there was one post that was different:

- Name and other info removed. Not bashing people for their opinions here -

I know that this rule of "Don't open the box" goes for many collectible items, not just Tamagotchi's. I look at these boxed Tama's and I remember that feeling when you get this brandnew one in the mail and it's all crisp and packaged... AND THEN BRUTALLY RIP IT OPEN! Lol. That last bit is the most important one for me: open it up and feel the new shell. Admire the colours. Read the manual cover to cover and then all over again. I just love it.

Keeping it in the box feels like I did not finish the fun part (yet). I've been waiting for it to arrive for weeks most of the time. To then just put it on a shelf and not do anything with it just because of it's economic value feels wrong to me.

- Together these are worth about $1000 USD -

I think that buying a Tama and then not playing it makes it a investment. I'm not a investor. I'm a player. I collect them not to look at them in a box and wait for them to be worth more. I do see why people would feel that way. It's as if you just threw away money. But I think NOT opening them is wasting money. Guess it just depends on how you look at it.

- And now they're worth about $600 USD if not less -

However, the person asking the question in the thread I mentioned bought it to play with it. Currently, I see P1's going on eBay for around $100 USD. Used ones go for around $32 USD. How much of a waste is that? Not much to me personally. I understand that in the future, they might be worth a lot more than that. But again; he bought it to play with it. He knows what he paid for it. 

I think what the person was trying to say was: "Buy a used one if you're going to open the box anyway". But to me: that would spoil part of the fun. I want a crisp, new Tamagotchi and get that "opening of the box" experience.

Are you a "investor", a "player", or are you a "collector"? Or maybe all of the above? Let me know what you think in the comment section.