Episode 10 - Dogz

Frustrated by the unjustified furore that surrounded his tame interactive movie game, designer Rob Fulop turned to Santa for help. And with a clever business model he and his team at PF Magic invented a new kind of game, one in which you adopt and care for a digital animal — a virtual dog or cat, or something more exotic, with a personality and needs and quirks not unlike a real one.Petz hexing is a deep rabbit hole to fall down, but if you're curious I'd recommend starting with these links:Ballz & Linez: Remembering the Golden Age of Petz HexingPetz: A lost community of mostly female coders/gamersCarolyn's CreationsAnd for more on the Petz AI, I thought these were interesting:Socially Intelligent Virtual PetzCreating Emotional Relationships With Virtual CharactersVirtual Babyz: Believable Agents with Narrative Intelligence(Also take a good look at what one of the Dogz/Catz developers did next.)Support comes from my Patreon backers, with special credit to my three $10+ backers Vivek Mohan, Wade Tregaskis, and Simon Moss. Thanks fellas!To learn more about my book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming, head to its official website secrethistoryofmacgaming.com.Music and SFX credits:Two short clips from Night Trap's 1993 3DO versionExcerpt from 1993 Senate Committee Hearings, via YouTubeAnd everything else is my own work.The Life & Times of Video Games on the Web and social mediaWebsite: lifeandtimes.gamesTwitter: @LifeandTimesVGInstagram: @lifeandtimesvgYouTube: lifeandtimes.games/youtubeYou can make a donation to help cover running costs and allow me to rely less on freelance income (which means more time to produce the show) viaPatreon: lifeandtimes.games/patreonor PayPal: paypal.me/mossrcCan't afford to give me money?Consider listening via the RadioPublic app for Android or iOS. It's free. And if you enable analytics then I get paid a couple of cents each time you listen to my show. Head to [RadioPublic.com](RadioPublic.com) for more info.Support The Life & Times of Video GamesLinks:The Secret History of Mac Gaming: Richard Moss - AmazonAmazon.com: Night Trap: 25 Years Later — Explore the history of the ground-breaking Full Motion Video (FMV) game, Night Trap, in this documentary brought to you by My Life in Gaming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices