tama.loociano.com
Tamagotchi Tech Specs Collection
By loociano
Introduction
This page compiles the technical specifications of Tamagotchi toys, with focus on worldwide releases. This project is inspired by this talk by Natalie Silvanovich and her further work on Tamagotchis.
Check out the GitHub repo to contribute or report a broken link.
Tamagotchi Original Series
Specs
- CPU: 4-Bit CMOS E0C6S46 (Datasheet)
- Clock Speed: 32.768 kHz
- Memory: 640x4 words (RAM) 160x4 words (display)
Tamagotchi Connection Series
- Versions: V1, V2, Mini, V3, V4, V4.5, V5, V5.5 (Celebrity) and V6 (Music Star)
- Release Dates: 2004-2009
- Tamagotchi Connection had a Debug Mode that could be enabled only by disassembling. Debug mode allows character selection and making time run faster.
Activating Debug Mode with a pencil (source)
Disassembly
Tamagotchi Connection disassembly (source)
Another Tamagotchi Connection disassembly (source)
Tamagotchi Mini
Tamagotchi Mini was released in 2005 and re-launched worldwide in 2017 to celebrate Tamagotchi’s 20th Anniversary. Official Page (Japanese).
Tech Specs
- CPU: ?
- Memory: ?
- IO: 3 buttons, 16x16 pixel screen
Disassembly
TamaTown Tama-Go
TamaTown Tama-Go was released in 2010 and reverse engineered by Natalie Silvanovich.
Tech Specs
- CPU: 8-bit CMOS GPLB52320A (datasheet) with 2x 16-bit timers.
- RAM: 1,536 bytes
- ROM: 640K bytes = 20 banks of 32KB (dump, GP Test Program)
- IO: 16 ports PA[7:0], PB[7:0]
- Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)
- Display Controller: 4 levels of gray with 512 bytes of dedicated RAM. 64 segments and 32 commons = 2048 pixels
- Sound Processing Unit (SPU)
GPLB52320A schematic and actual chip (source)
Tama-Go Figure
- ROM: GPR26LXXXX (8MB or 16MB)
Memory Map
$0000-$0600 SPU RAM, GP RAM
$0600-$0FFF -
$1000-$1FFF DPRAM (VRAM)
$2000-$2FFF -
$3000-$3FFF IO Reg
$4000-$7FFF ROM bank (lower)
$8000-$BFFF ROM bank (high)
$C000-$CBBF SPU table, test program
$CBC0-$CBFF Test Interrupt Vector
$CC00-$FFBF ROM (33C0 bytes)
$FFC0-$FFEF Interrupt Vector
$FFF0-$FFF9 -
$FFFA-$FFFD NMI and reset vector
$FFFE-$FFFF -
Disassembly
TamaTown board (source)
TamaTown Tama-Go board, back side (source)
TamaTown Tama-Go top board, for figure (source)
TamaTown figure board with epoxy (source)
Tamagotchi Friends Series
- Versions: Tamagotchi Friends and Tamagotchi Friends: Dream Town
- Release dates: 2014-2016
Disassembly
Tamagotchi Friends (source)
Tamagotchi Friends front, without plastic case (source)
Tamagotchi Friends board (back) and NFC antenna (source)
Tamagotchi Friends board (front) with epoxy (source)
Japanese series
- Tamagotchi Plus Color and its upgraded version Hexangontchi
- Tamagotchi iD and Tamagotchi iD L
- Tamagotchi Nano
- Tamagotchi P’s
- MrBlinky reverse engineered Tamagotchi P’s and later released a firmware patch to translate texts from Japanese to English.
- MrBlinky published custom Virtual Deco Pierces, decorative elements that can be transferred to Tamagotchi via infrared.
- Tamagotchi 4U and Tamagotchi 4U+
- Following MrBlinky earlier success with Tamagotchi P’s, this version was also reverse engineered and a similar firmware patch was made available.
- Tamagotchi m!x
References
Sites
- tamagotchi.wikia.com The most comprehensive Tamagotchi Wiki to date
- Wikipedia. List of Tamagotchi releases
- Natalie Silvanovich. Personal Site
- Project TamaShell Complete list of Tamagotchi versions and shells
- Pixelmood Tamagotchi fan site, discontinued in 2011. 2 technical articles were published: Tamagotchi Inside and Tamagotchi Debugging
- tamenagerie.com Old looking website with plenty of content
Forums
- TamaTalk The Tamagotchi forum by excellence. As of March 2018, TamaTalk has 94k members and 1,7M posts
- Tama Zone As of March 2018, Tama Zone has 6k members and 300k posts
Projects
- Natalie Silvanovich’s posts at kwartzlab.ca Natalie’s published posts between 2009 and 2013. Remarkable milestones: determining the Tama-Go microcontroller, executing code and dumping the ROM
- spritesmods.com. Creating the Tamagotchi Singularity
- Waking up Tamagotchi Town - TamaTown. loociano (2018)
Talks
- 29c3: Many Tamagotchis Were Harmed in the Making of this Presentation (2012)
- 30c3: Even More Tamagotchis Were Harmed in the Making of this Presentation (2016) (slides)
- Jeroen Domburg Implementing the Tamagotchi Singularity (2015)
Videos
- Erica Griffin. Tamagotchi Take Apart Guide (2009) Disassembly of a P1 Tamagotchi
- Pavel Zhovner. Tamagotchi Friends Teardown (2015) Disassembling a Tamagotchi Friends
GitHub repos
- @natashenka Tamagotchi-Hack
- @natashenka Egg-Shell - Tamagotchi Development Tools
- @hortinstein Tamagotchi Matrix
- @MrBlinky TamaPsTranslation Tamagotchi P’s English Translation project
- @MrBlinky tamadumper Tamagotchi P’s SPI flash dumper and programmer
- @loociano Waking up Tamagotchi Town - TamaTown
- @asterick Tamago - TamaTown for modern browsers Tamago is a TamaTown Tama-Go web emulator written in JavaScript.
Datasheets
- Generalplus. GPLB52640A-52320A-51640A-51320A Version 1.9 (Dec 30, 2010).
- GPLB5x/3x GM03 Library User’s Manual Version 2.0 (April 29, 2009)
Patents
- Nurturing simulation apparatus for virtual creatures. US6213871B1 (1997)
- Game apparatus. USD398659S (1997)
- Simulation device for fostering a virtual creature. US5966526A (1997)
- Rearing simulation apparatus. US6609968B1 (1997)
- Breeding simulation apparatus for virtual creatures. US7104884B2 (2004)
- Virtual Creature Breeding Simulation System and Information Processing System. US20080096661A1 (2004)
- Communication game device. US8545324B2 (2004)
- Game device, control method, and program. US20140066204A1 (2012)