From the Collections: Tamagotchi (1997 Hong Kong Collector’s Edition)
This portable Tamagotchi game (1997 Hong Kong Collector’s Edition) from Bandai Co. is in the M+ Collections, but what is it, who made it, and why did M+ acquire it? William Seung, Curatorial Assistant, Design & Architecture, M+, explains:
What is this?
This is an early generation of a Tamagotchi, a portable pet-raising simulation game. The name is a combination of the Japanese words tamago (‘egg’) and wocchi (‘watch’)—referring to both the gameplay (raising a pet from an egg and keeping watch over it) and its egg-like case and keychain that lets you walk around with it. The goal of the game is to take care of a Tamagotchi, a mysterious alien-like creature, so that it can grow up from a toddler to an adult. Players have to keep it in a good mood, teach it to be well-behaved, and feed it when it’s hungry.