Petz
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Petz (Dogz and Catz) is a series of games dating back to 1995, in which the player can adopt, raise, care for and breed their own virtual pets.
Petz were the world's first virtual pets, first released before Tamagotchi or Nintendogs. Petz were among the most advanced, directly interactive virtual characters, with rich personality, emotion, and artificial intelligence. They were among the first 3D characters as well, rendered in a non-photorealistic cartoony style. Over its lifetime Petz have sold over 2 million copies worldwide, popular among both kids and adults.
A player starts the game by visiting the Adoption Center, where they choose their preferred breed and then a pet, of random gender, will come outside to play. Once they have found a pet they like the user can adopt and name the new puppy or kitten. After around three days (real time) the petz become adults. Adult petz can then breed and have kittenz or puppyz of their own. Cross-breeding can create different types of petz, called 'Mixed Breeds'.
There are a number of toyz, food/water bowls and treats available. Petz can learn trickz with positive rewards such as tickling and treatz, or trained not to do something using the punishment (water) spray bottle. Petz must be looked after properly; abused or neglected petz may run away.
Players may share their petz with others who have the game. Each version allows the importing of petz from all earlier versions. There is also a camera feature, permitting snapshots of petz to be taken and saved as .bmp files.
One can choose to look after dogz, catz or both, as well as a small selection of other animals such as pigz and bunniez. Later versions of the games included a Petz Web Fun Pack, Petz Publisher and a Petz Player web browser plug-in, allowing players to publish their petz online in playable webpages.
Users soon learned how to reverse-engineer the system, and began producing additional breedz, toyz, playscenes, clothes, and developer tools for the games, as permitted by PF Magic, Mindscape, and Ubisoft Entertainment.
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[edit] Game history
The game is available in several different versions and, for all but the first pair of the PC titles, installing both Dogz and Catz combines the pair into a single game where dogz and catz can play (or fight) together.
[edit] Dogz and Catz
Dogz was released by PF Magic in the fall of 1995 with Virgin Interactive Entertainment as their publishers. There were five dogz breedz available and a small number of toyz in a supply shelf. The game, although quite simple, was the first of many titles in the series.
A year later, in the spring of 1996, PF Magic released Catz, with improved graphics and a wider selection of toyz. The game's main two addition features were a screensaver and "Desktop Mode" in which the pet could live on the computer desktop instead of their normal playpen. These items were included in the following games as well. Both games were available for Windows and Mac. Note that cats and dogs do not age quickly in all Petz games.
- See also: Oddballz (released Autumn 1996)
[edit] Petz II
Petz II, published 1997 by Mindscape, had five dogz breedz and five catz breedz, expandable to ten breedz per game with the Dogz II Catz Add-on Pack. It also offered a huge range of toyz in a new toy box, of which twenty items could be transported around in the supply shelf. As the first game in the series to combine Dogz and Catz if both titles were installed onto the same computer, the user was allowed to have two petz out at any one time; other adoptions had to play in an off-screen garden.
The same year, Dogz and Catz plush toys were introduced into the toy market by Trendmasters Inc. under a licensing agreement with PF Magic.
[edit] Petz 3
In 1998 Mindscape purchased PF Magic and Petz 3 was released. Among its new elements was the ability for petz to breed and produce offspring that could age from baby petz to adulthood. A new clothes closet was added in addition to the toy closet, allowing pets to be dressed in shirts, trousers, socks and hats. The Beach, Backyard, Family Room and Kitchen rooms were also introduced. The game was packaged with the Petz Web Publisher and Web Fun Pack, a website making tool and a collection of clipart, banners and other items that could be freely used in player's website. The Petz Web Publisher and Fun Pack were included in all Petz games from this point on.
[edit] Petz 4
Petz 4 was released in 1999 and allowed the petz to travel the world, with a range of themed rooms set in different worldwide locations. The new playscenes - Arabia, a Gypsy Circus, a Snow Scene, South Seas Island and the Wild West - each had a guest pet character and Pigz and Bunniez were added. This game was the only title to have support for voice recognition, so the petz could be trained to respond to the user's voice commands. It had an updated Petz Web Publisher and the Petz Player, which meant that any adopted pet could be exported into a new webpage applet. If the Petz Player was installed the applet showed a playpen with a bottle of milk, toy and the pet in, able to walk around, play and interact with the user as if still in the game. Although, there was a problem with new versions of Internet Explorer.
- See also: Babyz (released 1999)
[edit] Dogz and Catz GBC
In 2000, Mindscape produced Dogz and Catz for the Game Boy Color. Each game offered a choice of three petz to adopt and had three rooms - the playpen, adoption center and toy cupboard - that the user could move between.
[edit] Petz 5
Petz 5 was developed in 2002 by Studio Mythos for Ubisoft Entertainment, who had recently purchased the Entertainment Division of The Learning Company (after they in turn had purchased Mindscape). The highlights of Petz 5 were that petz could then have litterz of offspring, "Mini Games", weather effects and day & night cycles, along with the usual new breedz, playscenes, toyz and clothes. The toy closet was built into the supply case. A plugin was also made by a third party to allow an infinite number of petz out at any given time. This was called PetzA, developed by Nicholas Sherlock for multiple purposes in-game. One of these was 'instant breeding', one of the most popular, which only required the player to select which two petz to breed and they would do so automatically. Some consider this cheating the game.
[edit] Dogz and Catz GBA
Dogz and Catz for the Game Boy Advance were released by Ubisoft in November 2005. They hit the market at around the same time as Nintendo's Nintendogs. The two games were a great improvement on the older Game Boy Color versions.
[edit] Dogz and Catz DS
Dogz and Catz were released by Ubisoft for the Nintendo DS in November 2006.
[edit] "Dogz" and "Catz" (PC)
"Dogz" and "Catz" has been released by Ubisoft for the PC on November 2006. There are less breedz in the game, only giving 5 instead of Petz 5's 20. There are a few changes in the game like the change to 3D graphic rendering. You can also train the Petz to do tricks.
[edit] Hamsterz Life
Released for the Nintendo DS by Ubisoft on November 28, 2006.
[edit] Ball style design
The petz are modelled as a set of balls joined by lines with variable parameters. The concept for this was developed an early PF Magic title, the fighting game Ballz for Sega Genesis. This model was scrapped in the 2006 games "Dogz" and "Catz" for the PC for a more "realistic" look (e.g. Fur patterns).
