August 05, 2004

Sprite Life pets include 3-dimensional dogs, cats, and a fantasy species called a "spriteling," whose features were inspired by cats, dogs, rabbits, and monkeys. Each Sprite Life pet has its own genetic code and a family tree. The pet owner gets to select pets from the currently available litters. Once the owner adopts the pet, it is no longer available for adoption by anyone else. At some point, the owner may even wish to donate a sample of the pet
posted by SideDish 19 years ago
  • adopt a real pet and neuter / spay them. Then boycott companies that test on animals. (i.e. Gilette, Johnson & Johnson) Then choose not to eat meat from factory farms - including boycotting KFC for their role in supporting cruelty to animals (recently in the news). Still, ever since screen savers people have enjoyed or worked to perfect sprite-life beings of one sort or another. There used to be a sw product that was a parrot that would remember your phone book and keep your calendar and things like that that interacted with voice commands on some level. Furby is the lo-tech example.
  • They're creepy. Not just the pets, but the people who run that site. When I clicked on "more info" for the least expensive starter kit ($20), I noticed that they'd added that plus another $10 to my cart. When I navagated back to this page, the "toy chest" page came up as one I'd visited. Plus, there's not a FAQ or About Us page evident.
  • They're ugly. I'm sure they could at least make them somewhat cute. /looks around for URL of some japanese site with kawaii-level, pretty 3D rendered virtual pets No, don't have it, but at least those really looked to be appealing to the teenage schoolgirl set. Btw, regarding that parrot and its' second incarnation, the infamous Bonzi Buddy malware: are there any non poisonous alternatives available of such a cute, interactive pet? A friend really hated to get rid of it when I made her ditch it. 'Awww, but it recognized me (?!) and danced and told jokes and...' Of course, when I sent her reports of it's dark side, she understood. But she's been looking for some (free, optimally) screen pet ever since.
  • Those things'll tear your throat out when you're sleeping, I just know it. They give me a steaming slab of heebie jeebies served over a side of fresh skin-crawling willies. Yeeeeeg.
  • Ugly? Mmm. Possibly zomboid. As if they'd been mummified by ancient Egyptians, left alone for a long time, only to be discovered in some recent archeaological dig. Visible traces of linen bandages yet on some.
  • Gosh. Most of them look like they got carved out of wood, and oftimes the head's a totally different color. Not anywhere near kawaii in my book. Reminds me a bit of the texturing done in the old game Daggerfall.
  • I used to like Catz as virtual pets back in school when I couldn't have real pets. They're cartoony but pretty cute. Plus, you could get the cat stoned with catnip. I once made a cat that ate so much catnip he was permastoned and never quite right again. Then I graduated and got a job and started adopting real cats and am now on my way to my life goal of becoming the Cat Lady.
  • Sheep is another favorite desktop pet. You can run several sheep at the same time. They wander around your windows and do cute things. Launch 5 of them and stack them on top of each other and let the fun begin!
  • rhiannon, I was thinking of that one too. Stick them on top of an open window and let them plummet to the bottom of the screen.