Gyaoppi

The Gyaoppi was released around 1998.

It's oval-shaped, one of the virtual pets that deviated from the popular oval-shape commonly used at the time.

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The one pictured here is a 9-in-1, but similar 8-in-1 and 10-in-1 versions were also produced. Several of the pets such as the duck, dinosaur, and bird were released individually as well.

The pixels are a little large, so the characters don't move around as much as on some virtual pets. They're still really cute, though, and the final forms are some of the more realistic-looking ones I've seen.

At the start of the multi-versions you select a pet and set the time. Your pet soon hatches or is dropped off, and the game begins.

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Each pet has two types of food you can feed it, and a drink. The types of foods vary between pets.

There are two games you can play. The first is a dodging game. You use the left and middle buttons to dodge the arrows that fall down from the top of the screen. Getting hit three times ends the game early.

The other game is a guessing game. You're shown a card with a seven on it, and you have to guess if the next card revealed is higher or lower than seven. Press the left button if you think it's higher, and the left button if you think it's lower.

A little problem I've come across is that it'll sometimes freeze for a few seconds during the card game after you're chosen. It starts back again soon, however, and doesn't seem to cause any other problems.

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Rather than appearing beside the pet, poop is represented with lit-up icons on the sides of the screen. It takes a while for the cleaning animation to finish, and requires a separate push for each lit icon, so it's best to not let it build up too much.

One nice thing about this one is that rather than having set icons for things like hunger and happiness is that it uses a meter instead. It also uses this for it's energy level rather than having it go to bed at a set time. This makes it possible to get it on /your sleep schedule.

It's possible to set an alarm on this toy, but you can also just keep it turned off if you don't want to use it.

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A pretty unique feature of the Gyaoppi is the weather. Sometimes it'll start to rain or the sun will start shining brightly. When this happens, you have to give your pet the correct article of clothing, an umbrella or hat respectively.

This version of the Gyaoppi, at least, has the ability to pause, turn the sound off, or even speed up the time. This makes it so each minute passes in just one second. The pet changes every one or two days, so you could potentially experience its entire lifecycle in a single day using this.

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Multi-pets today tend to be cheaply made, but this was made back when virtual pets were at the height of popularity. This one is a pretty good quality. If you're looking for an alternative to classic Tamagotchis, this one is a good choice.