Posted July 19, 2010
Back in '98 an evil creature was released upon the US in the form of a owl..gerbil..thing, and it's name was FURBY! This demon caused much havoc across the country as people literally crawled over each other to get their dollar-ink smeared hands on one. Cargo trucks were hijacked and their contents re-dyed (as if that was going to help "launder" the ill-gotten gains) and sold at prices that would make a scalper at a (whoever is currently popular, I kinda lost touch with modern "artists" with the advent of Linkin Park, at which point I said "screw this, I'm going Classic Rock") concert balk, which, for the curious peaked somewhere around $600, and that's in 1998 money, even though ironically that was the year we had the lowest gasoline prices since the late 40's, $1.05/gal ($1.25/gal today). But I debilitate. The Furby's main marketing point was that it "learned" English the more English was spoken to it, and it had some kinda IR sensor in the front so that if it were facing another Furby, they would chat amongst themselves like the little role-that-nobody-really-remembers-Howie-Mandel-for that they are.
Later on, the next year, Sony would counter with AIBO, an autonomous, intelligent, and (one-upping the Furby) mobile robot dog, with modest learning abilities based on input received via it's camera "eye" and commands from an owner, in either Spanish or English, and of course, from other AIBOs. Sony's entry would spawn the likes of ROBOSapien (only the v2 was really autonomous, as the first was controlled entirely via remote), a German competitor designed for easy modification by the end-user.
Now, in 2010, fourteen years after the first sale of a Tamagotchi in Japan, attempts at getting the "Younger generation" excited about our future masters has been reduced to this.
For us GoG'ers, and those of you who had a PC Gamer subscription in '96 (predating the Furby), you may remember a disc loaded with weird demos, like Bad Mojo a Quicktime based game about a man, his death, and his karmic reincarnation as a cockroach. There was also this gem, Galapagos: Mendel's Escape, a game about a different bug-like creature whose task is to learn how to escape from the starting lab, and eventually the island. Your task is to provide Creature-esque prodding and ever-so-subtly (I cannot stress enough the importance of patience and "holding thine horses" when deciding where and when to prod) guide Mendel along the desired path.
Yes, that's right, I rambled for two and a fifth paragraphs to plug two old weird games.
Later on, the next year, Sony would counter with AIBO, an autonomous, intelligent, and (one-upping the Furby) mobile robot dog, with modest learning abilities based on input received via it's camera "eye" and commands from an owner, in either Spanish or English, and of course, from other AIBOs. Sony's entry would spawn the likes of ROBOSapien (only the v2 was really autonomous, as the first was controlled entirely via remote), a German competitor designed for easy modification by the end-user.
Now, in 2010, fourteen years after the first sale of a Tamagotchi in Japan, attempts at getting the "Younger generation" excited about our future masters has been reduced to this.
For us GoG'ers, and those of you who had a PC Gamer subscription in '96 (predating the Furby), you may remember a disc loaded with weird demos, like Bad Mojo a Quicktime based game about a man, his death, and his karmic reincarnation as a cockroach. There was also this gem, Galapagos: Mendel's Escape, a game about a different bug-like creature whose task is to learn how to escape from the starting lab, and eventually the island. Your task is to provide Creature-esque prodding and ever-so-subtly (I cannot stress enough the importance of patience and "holding thine horses" when deciding where and when to prod) guide Mendel along the desired path.
Yes, that's right, I rambled for two and a fifth paragraphs to plug two old weird games.
