Can I look after a goldfish?

The short answer is no. Good bye!

Still here? Oh, well, you see I would love to look after a living creature, but unfortunately I would be a bad parent. I would forget to feed it, or neglect its little tank and turn its environment into a dank, poisonous and murky abyss even worse than Darlington. With this self-realisation comes wisdom though, for now I seek my animal companionship through virtual pets.

My current favourite is iQuarium by Infinite Dreams for Android.

My pet fish, John.

This is a really beautiful app. The fish looks very lifelike and the developers have clearly spent a lot of time making the fish move like a real animal. Unlike in many virtual pet apps, there are no gimmicks. You simply have to remember to feed your fish each day and that's it. There are no daft games to play to increase its 'happyness', and no muck to clear out. Each day you just get to watch your fish swimming around its virtual world. It is very relaxing.

The way you treat your fish will affect its personality, apparently. I do not know if this is true, or not, because so far I have been treating my fish very well. John is a seemingly happy and well-adjusted four-week old fish.

You can interact with your pet. If you press on your screen he will follow your finger. If you tap him he will turn and stare at you. Other than that, your fish is its own person and will do its own thing.

The longer you keep your fish, the more points you score. Various new artifacts, plants and backgrounds are available the longer you play.

Here you can see John hard at work coming up with ideas for his own blog.

If you are looking for a realistic fish simulator with no gimmicks then to look at iQuarium for Android. It is a shame that there is no Windows 10 version though.

+1 Geek experience point awarded to Infinite Dreams.

If you are still here, then you might like to read all about that time I was the god of my own planet, or have a look at my other virtual pet posts.

Microbit virtual pet

I made a virtual pet for microbit.

The microbit is an ARM-based embedded computer system designed by the BBC for use in computer  science education. It comes packed with sensors and a 25-LED display.  The microbit website allows you to program the device and I first discussed it in this post over here.



Today I built a virtual pet. Grab the code here and run it on your microbit or in the simulator.

Microbit virtual pet when started. It is happy.

As with all virtual pets you get to look after and feed a creature within the device. You can feed the creature by holding the 'A' button, and clean up after its waste with the 'B' button.  Holding both buttons together will get the creature to talk to you - it will tell you what it needs.  The creature gets hungry after a certain period of time which can be changed in the 'hungerThreshold' variable.

This virtual pet always does a poo after you have fed it.

Currently that is all, but there is room to improve: The creature does not die from neglect; it always eats even when it is not hungry; it does not complain when you shake it.

Update - 2016-06-29 - The micorbit virtual pet now has a new name: Mike the Microbit, and he will die from neglect.

My virtual pet, Phil

This is Phil.  He is my virtual pet.

As you can see, Phil has done a little poo.

This app is very reminiscent of the classic Tamagotchis of Lore.  Wildagotchi is available in the Android store, or for your Windows Phone.

Game play is very simple.  You need to keep him from going hungry (so feed him when you do); you need to give him rest (so put him to bed when you go to sleep) and you need to play games with him. In one such game you need to guide your virtual pet across a busy road in the hope that he doesn't get squashed under the heavy traffic. This is virtually impossible not to do.  Despite being squashed countless time's your virtual pet will thank you for the fun times and his/her happiness will increase. The games are different depending on which of the twelve creatures available you currently have.

At the start of the game you get to choose a type of creature, its gender and give it a name.  There are just two types of critter to choose from, but you unlock more as you progress.  Your virtual animal will start off as a baby, and grows each day.  Phil is currently three days old and has reached 100% maturity without dying.  Go me.  This means that I can now unlock the gorilla or the panda.

The app is perfect for children, or for grown-up children who want to relive their Tamagotchi days, or indeed for people like me who are not even responsible enough to look after a goldfish.

One aspect I really like is that they haven't gone all out with the cartoon graphics.  The LCD like display looks just great.

Phil, in his early days, running on my awesome Lumia 950.