And as of the 30th of November 1997, my GigaPet Virtual Alien was 118 years old and weighed 128 pounds. You notice the past tense? At about noon today (the 30th), the batteries ran too low and she reincarnated (that is, the unit reset itself); she did not die. I'm trying to decide whether to modify the unit to accept larger, longer lasting batteries and try to break my own record, or whether I should just give up on the whole thing. Tell me what you think.
I don't know if anybody really reads this. If you do, and you're interested in the techniques to keep your pet alien alive, or the secrets for keeping it alive a long time, let me know and I'll post that information here.
The Alien only has two digits to display the age and weight. What
happens when it's 100 years old or 100 pounds?
When the number rolls over to 100, only the last digit is displayed.
In the range 100 to 109 years, you have to see that the alien is an
adult to prove it's really that old. In the range 110 to 119, a box
is displayed before the digit (see the age in the picture above). In
the range 120 to 129, an apostrophe is displayed before the digit
(see the weight in the picture above).
What's the easiest way to make the batteries last longer?
The easiest way is to turn off the sound. This makes it much harder
to take care of your pet because you don't know when it poops or
takes a nap or needs something. As a compromise, you could turn the
sound on when it's put away, and turn it off before you take care of
it.
Most Virtual pets come with very weak batteries. In the instructions for most of them, it even says something like "the enclosed batteries are for demonstration purposes only". Sheesh!
So if you're after a LONG life for your critter, do two things:
Silver oxide batteries are a little more expensive (maybe $2.50 instead of $2.00), but they can last up to five times longer than alkaline batteries.
There are some other things you can do, too. If you're really interested in them, let me know.