VIRTUAL PETS

Giga Pets
Neopets
Nintendogs
Tamagotchi
Insaniquarium
 

Giga Pets

Giga Pets are a series of virtual pets. They were first created and released in 1997 by Tiger Electronics, now a division of Hasbro. They were one of the first virtual pets to be released in the United States, but were created after, and were less popular than the Tamagotchi.

The first Giga Pets included the Compu Kitty, Digital Doggie, Baby T-Rex, Virtual Alien, and Micro Chimp. Later added were the Komputer Koala and Floppy Frog. The latter of which became a rare collector's item, and is widely regarded as the best Giga Pet ever made. Floppy Frogs have been known to be sold on eBay for up to 28 dollars. When Tiger Electronics decided to release a new line of pets, they called them Giga Friends. These included such pets as the Salem the Cat giga pet, Looney Tunes, Giga Farm, and various Star Wars characters, among others.

Giga Pets have recently been re-released, this time including a dragon lizard, a bunny, a tomcat, a pixie, a puffball, and a scorpion as mini-pets. There is also a controller called Giga Pets Explorer that can be plugged into a TV, enabling the user to have their mini-pet pair up with a dog, a panda, or a monkey, onscreen.

Some people were confused about the box art of Giga Pets Explorer because it said that when the mini-pet was plugged into the controller, it would expand the player's choices by allowing them to pick the mini-pet instead of the usual panda, monkey, and dog.