To add further confusion to the age-old chicken-or-the-egg conundrum, now there's a "virtual" electronic chicken in an egg. In Japan, it's called Tama- gocchi. Here in the United States, it's called Tamagotchi. The name translates roughly to "cute little egg." You be the judge. A bird in hand
The toy, about the size and weight of a key-chain charm and manufactured by the Bandai toy company, has been a huge craze in Japan. It's essentially a little video game in which the player is required to take care of a chicken as if it were a real pet. There are three switches - Select, Execute and Cancel - and eight aspects of caring, including feeding the little guy, playing with it, cleaning up the electronic poop, disciplining it when it's bad and responding when it needs attention.
It takes about 10 days for the electronic bird to grow from chick to chicken.
Here's the spooky part. If you don't do the above, the chicken will get sickly, peep-peep weakly and die. It's all on YOUR head. And the chicken eventually WILL die; that's the way of the world. Just don't give it a name. Pray the battery holds out.
It's hard to overstate the impact of this toy in Japan, where tens of thousands have been sold. Hard-charging business tycoons will suddenly break from a teleconference to clean up poop, and schoolgirls weep in class when their chickie peeps its last.
Clearly the virtual pet speaks to an unfulfilled and instinctual emotional need on the part of their owners. It's also clean and recyclable. To make a new chicken, just press the Select and Cancel buttons simultaneously.
The American version goes on sale May 1 with a suggested retail price of $19.95. The main source in Hawaii will be Liberty House.
Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin