| abstract | - The Digimon 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 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 susceptible to acquiring 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. The original Digimon 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.
* 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 "jogress" (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 compatibility 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. Various unofficial characters could be achieved on the pets by inserting and removing the tab that came with it. With the original device you could achieve Teddymon with this method, although it took many attempts. Alternatively, one could remove the batteries, allow the power to drop, then reinsert them. This is because the voltage is dropped, but does not go low enough to register a reset. The RAM data becomes corrupt and random results are achieved. This 'cheat' can break the device, so it's not recommended. One glitch that would not reset or break the device would allow only one unit to experience PvP combat. By joining the devices and entering battle mode, but separating one or both of the metal connectors halfway through, a battle would take place on one unit only, the second would receive a connection error. A new problem has surfaced in New Zealand and Australia regarding the Digimon virtual pet, in that the thickness of the battery the device takes has been reduced, resulting in loss of contact causing the device to become glitchy and unusable. Like the animated series and video games, the Digimon evolved and changed form over time. For example a Digimon such as Agumon will start off at Koromon. From there, the Digimon may transform or "digivolve" into the form called Rookie (Koromon>Agumon), then to Champion. For a Digimon to grow into their Ultimate level, Digimon must battle at least fifteen times in Rookie and Champion levels, and win approximately 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. When a Digimon's time expired, it would be sent to the Digimon Mainframe, which resembled a personal computer, similar to how programs are sent to the Source when their purpose is done in The Matrix. 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. The Digimon Mainframe is only viewable on the American version one pets. In the Japanese versions, when a Digimon's time expires, the screen displays a grave instead of a Digimon Mainframe. When Digimon became an animated series, there were several major changes made, mostly to the Digivolution chains. When the pet was brought to the US, elements such as the "Megalthic Mainframe" were added to soften the concept of death, revising it so that Digimon did not die, but instead returned to a separate world. In addition, Devimon and Monzaemon were renamed "Darkmon" and "Teddymon". The original MetalGreymon that was obtainable in the first pet was viral, but the character used in Digimon Adventure was made a vaccine (vaccine being considered good type, and virus type being bad). Though the concepts were similar between the Digimon pet line and the Digivice toys released following the release of the animated TV show, there were some differences. For example, the Digivices were not "true" Tamagotchi, 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 virtual 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 original Digimon or Pendulums. 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. Each Digivice has the player travel through levels whose enemies and bosses are based on characters from its respective anime. However, the original Digimon pet remained battle compatible with the newer Digivice releases, permitting them to engage in battle, though the graphical details of the attacks are different between the two systems. Like the Tamagotchi, the Digimon virtual pet had multiple releases. The five versions of the toy each had different characters and different evolutions, but the same mechanics. A sixth virtual pet, mimicking Digimon Pendulum I: Nature Spirits, was released in Australia by Bandai of Asia. As a result, when releasing their "Pendulum Cycle" versions of the Japanese Pendulums, Bandai of Asia omitted Nature Spirits and began their numbering from "Version 7".
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