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From: pconnors@lucent.com (Paul Connors)
Subject: Re: Tamagochi firmware
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Date: Sat, 2 Aug 1997 10:12:11 GMT
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In an article, mooby@dma.be (Liekens Anthony) says...
> > > Does anyone know what kind of technique (Fuzzy, Genetic, etc) is being
> used
> > > in the Tamagochi toys from Japan ? 
> > > 
> > 
> > I've played with a few of these. There may be a little bit of randomness 
> > thrown in, but basically they show every sign of just being hard-coded. 
> > Wouldn't surprise me if they were programmed at the hardware level.
> 
> I heard a story of a dino-tamagotchi a little kid had:
> everytime he smashed the tamagotchi against the table his dino laid an egg,
> i don't think that smashing you dino is pre-programmed behaviour

The dino lays an egg every time time the program is reset. This can be 
done on request by pressing the button on the back, or accidentally when 
some static electricity hits the tamagotchi, or when the toy is handled 
roughly -- even while being carried in a pocket. (Cheap hardware design.)

In any case, this raises an intriguing  question: why has the tamagotchi 
(with the most imbecilic of AI behaviours) been the AI software that has 
made the most money ???

