Digimon Battle Pets
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The Digimon Battle Pets were released in 1997 during the Gigapet and Tamagotchi craze by Bandai. The toys attracted the attention of boys who were generally uninterested in the other virtual pets because of its unique battle system. Every owner would start off with a Baby Digimon, train it, evolve it, take care of it, and then have battles with other Digimon owners to see who was stronger. The Digimon pet had several evolution capabilities, so many owners had many different Digimon. These toys were the first appearance of what would become the Digimon franchise.
Gameplay
The Digimon Battle Pet had several functions that allowed the owner to take care of the pet. The first icon is the status. The user can check the pet's age, weight, strength, hunger, and energy stats here. If a Digimon had no energy in its energy bar, it would be unable to link up and battle.The second icon fed the Digimon. The meat decreased the pet's hunger, and the vitamin increased its strength and energy. However, feeding the pet either of these would increase the Digimon's weight, affecting digivolution possibilities and battle outcomes. Once the Digimon reaches the Rookie stage, it will be able to eat far more than its hunger level requires before getting full. Digimon can eat an unlimited number of vitamins.
The third icon trained the Digimon. In shadow boxing, the owner's Digimon would appear on the right, and a duplicate "shadow" would appear on the left. The owner would then push either the top or middle buttons, and the Digimon would fire an attack either upwards or downwards, respectively. The shadow Digimon would attempt to block, either upwards or downwards. It was a game of luck. If the owner's Digimon hit three out of five, it would lose one pound and its strength would increase. If it didn't make this quota, the Digimon would only lose a pound and not regain any strength.
The fourth icon was battle mode. Once activated, the owner could link up to another owner's Digimon Battle Pet and begin a battle. The two Digimon would exchange blows three times, then one would fire a double attack; the other digimon would fire a single attack. The one who fired the double attack on the fourth turn dodged the other Digimon's attack and was declared the winner. Whether the Digimon won or lost, it was still susceptable to aquiring an injury during battle. Battling too many times in one day could "kill" a Digimon (see Digimon Mainframe below).
The fifth Icon (the first on the bottom row) cleaned up the Digimon's droppings. Leaving droppings uncleaned for too long would cause the Digimon to become ill.
The sixth icon (second on the bottom row) toggled the light. If the Digimon fell asleep and the light was never turned off, its overall condition (an unviewable stat) would decrease, and its chances of a high-power evolution would decrease.
The seventh icon (third on the bottom row) is the medical icon. If the Digimon got sick or injured in battle, it would have to be fixed before it could battle again. The Digimon becomes angry when it receives medical treatment, implying perhaps that it received a shot.
The eighth and final icon is not manually selectable. It is the alert icon. It lights up and begins to beep if the sound is on if the Digimon poops, needs food, or falls asleep with the lights on.
Battle Pet Device Operation
The Digimon Battle Pet has three buttons and one reset button. The buttons are located to the right of the screen. The top "A" button scrolls through the icons and options on the screens. The middle "B" button activates the selected function. The bottom "C" button cancels out whatever is on the screen. Pressing "A" and "C" simultaneously toggles the sound. The reset button could only be pressed with a pen or other sharp object.Digimon Evolution Tree
Like the animated series and video games, the Digimon evolved and changed form over time. The evolution tree was as follows:Digimon I
- Fresh: Botamon
- In-Training: Koromon
- Rookie: Agumon, Betamon
- Champion: Greymon, Tyrannomon, Meramon, Darkmon, Airdramon, Seadramon, Numemon
- Ultimate: MetalGreymon, Mamemon, Teddymon
For a Digimon to grow into Ultimate level, Digimon must at least battle fifteen times in Rookie and Champion levels.
Agumon could transform from there into one of the following Champions (from strongest to weakest): Greymon, Tyrannomon, Meramon, Darkmon, or Numemon. Betamon would evolve into Meramon, Darkmon, Airdramon, Seadramon, or Numemon.
Digimon could only reach the Ultimate level by battling 40 times in their lifetime and winning at least 60% of them. Greymon, Airdramon, and Darkmon would become MetalGreymon. Meramon, Tyrannomon, and Seadramon would become Mamemon. The weakest champion, Numemon, would become the strongest ultimate: Teddymon.
Digimon II
- Fresh: Punimon
- In-Training: Tsunomon
- Rookie: Gabumon, Elecmon
- Champion: Garurumon, Kabuterimon, Angemon, Yukidarumon, Birdramon, Whamon, Veggiemon
- Ultimate: SkullGreymon, MetalMamemon, Vadermon
Digimon III
- Fresh: Poyomon
- In-Training: Tokomon
- Rookie: Patamon, Kunemon
- Champion: Unimon, Kentarumon, Ogremon, Bakemon, Shellmon, Drimogemon, Sukamon
- Ultimate: Andromon, Giromon, Etemon
Digimon IV
- Fresh: Yuramon
- In-Training: Tanemon
- Rookie: Piyomon, Palmon
- Champion: Monochromon, Cockatrimon, Leomon, Kuwagamon, Coelamon, Mojyamon, Nanimon
- Ultimate: Megadramon, Piccolomon, Digitamamon
Digimon V
- Fresh: Zurumon
- In-Training: Pagumon
- Rookie: Gazimon, Gizamon
- Champion: DarkTyrannomon, Cyclomon, Devidramon, Tuskmon, Flymon, Deltamon, Raremon
- Ultimate: MetalTyrannomon, Nanomon, ExTyrannomon
- The data on Digimon II - V is unconfirmed at this time.
Digimon Mainframe
When a Digimon's time expired, it would be sent to the Digimon Mainframe. The Digimon Mainframe is where all Digimon come from, and where all Digimon go. According to the stories, once they return, they remain in the same evolutionary form they were in when they left the owner, and would do battle with other Digimon whose time also expired.Digimon could expire due to extreme hunger, illness, too many battles, or old age.
Branching Out
When Digimon became an animated series, there were several major changes made, mostly to the Digivolution chains.
Other changes included changing Darkmon's name to Devimon, and Teddymon's name to Monzaemon. MetalGreymon's look was altered as well. In Digimon Adventure, he had orange skin. But in the Battle Pets, MetalGreymon had blue skin, much like he did in Digimon Adventure 02 when the Digimon Emperor had a dark spiral on Agumon and dark-digivolved him.
Though the concepts were similar between the Digimon Battle Pet and the Digivice toys released following the release of the animated TV show, there were some differences. For example, the Digivices were not "true" Tamagotchis, in that you did not need to feed them or clean up their droppings. Also, the Digivices included a pedometer function that advanced the game, and didn't require the level of care of the Digimon Battle Pets. In addition, there were side quests, like locating Digieggs in the D-3 version, and the Spirits in the D-Tector game, side quests that did not exist originally in the Digimon Battle Pets. These games could be left at home all day without care and did not require the constant attention that the Tamagotchis required during those days.
Additional Digimon v-pets
- Digimon had different releases, like Tamagotchi. There were five in all, and each progressing release had different characters and different evolutions (stages in life), but nonetheless the care functions similarly.
- After the initial five releases, Bandai released a line of Virtual Pets(V-Pets) called Pendulums which introduced a feature called Jogress (Dub: DNA Digvolution ); pendulum-type counter, and a new evolution level: Ultimate( Japan )/Mega ( Dub ) , which comes after Perfect(Japan )/Ultimate( Dub ). The pendulum is used to count the amount of times the device has been shaken.
- 5 versions of the Digimon Pendulum were released, each of these being followed by a .5 version which contained a slightly-altered charater lineup. A Version 0 was also later released.
- The newest series of Pendulums are called Pendulum Progress. There are three in total; the Pendulum Progress is an upgrade similar to the Tamagotchi Connection/Tamagotchi Connexion/Tamagotchi Plus. The character lineup on each is expanded and it retains the pendulum feature that became a series standard; it also has the ability to have the current monster fight a computer monster in battle as opposed to linking up with another device.
- The Pendulum Progress was followed by the Pendulum X. The Pendulum X combines the classic pet raising with the adventure and RPG aspects of the "Digivices". The Pendulum X is the first device to use the new three-prong type of connector. It was remade by Bandai Asia and marketed as the "D-Cyber"; this version is similar with a slightly different translation and classic two-prong connector.
- The Digimon Mini is modeled similarly to the original pets but at a much smaller size. The character set has been minimized and functions are limited. It uses the three prong connector.
- This Tamagotchi premiered the feature of interconnecting Tamagotchi which could communicate data to each other. In this case, the connecting was called "Dock 'n Rock" early on in America (and possibly Europe; the term is absent in Japan) but was faded out in favor of "Battle Connect". Later, the connectors would also be used to "jogres" (literal Japanese term, a combination of the English words "joint" and "progress".). For years afterwards digimon pets and digivices would continue, to an extent, to use the D-Link System. This system of compatability encompasses the pets, pendulums, digivices, devices such as the Digimon Analyzer and D-Terminal, WonderSwan games, and special action figures. The Pendulum X, Digimon Mini, and Digimon Accelerator are excluded because they have different connectors; in certain cases functions will not work between same-type connectors due to an alteration in battle system or other errors, though.
- The American and similar Bandai Asia versions of Digivices are typically an entirely different product with a smaller screen. They register with pets, and certain other devices, as a pet.
Glitches and Cheats
One glitch the Digimon Battle Pet had was the addition of a scrambled Digimon that could be obtained in the early versions of the pet by resetting the pet and removing the batteries in timely manners. This Digimon was nicknamed "SkullGreymon" because of its odd appearance that seemed to resemble Greymon. The Digimon allegedly had the power of Metal Greymon. The glitch was apparently fixed in later versions of the Digimon Battle Pet.
| Digimon | |
|---|---|
| Anime: | | Digimon Adventure | Digimon Adventure 02 | Digimon Tamers | Digimon Frontier | Digimon Savers | Digital Monster X-Evolution |
| Mangas: | V-Tamer | Digimon Next | Digimon Chronicle | D-Cyber | C'mon Digimon |
| Video Games: | Digimon World (and 2, 3, 4) | Digital Card Battle | Battle Spirit (and , 2) | Digimon Racing | Rumble Arena (and 2) | Digimon Story | Digimon Wii | | | | | | |
| Other: | Digimon (card game) | Digimon Battle Pets | DigiDestined | Digivice | Digivolution | Digital World | List of Digimon | Chosen Digimon | List of human characters |
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