Game Boy

Game de Hakken!! Tamagotchi is the first of Bandai's Game Boy pet simulators, bringing the 1997 virtual-pet craze to the handheld: players hatch, feed, clean up after and raise their Tamagotchi on the big screen, with Super Game Boy enhancement for play in colour on the television.

This first entry (DMG-ATAJ-JPN, July 1997) uses a conventional Game Boy cartridge with a standard mapper. The elaborate real-time board that lets the pet keep ageing while the console is off would not arrive until the series' third game, Osutchi to Mesutchi.

More from the Museum's Journal: The Tamagotchi Cartridges: Three Pet Sims, and One of the Rarest Boards in Game Boy History.