GYAOPPI II in-depth overview and instructions
part of Gyaoppi coverage (October 2018)
I have never really been able to post my writings and findings due to time limits, neither this file is fully finished. However, I have been receiving questions and inquiries about Gyaoppi so I decided to post whatever I have written (and abandoned) now. I hope this information will prove useful to some regardless. I will soon try to find a way to post my other findings and data I recorded in spreadsheets...
Contents: 1. Introduction | 2. Hardware description | 3. Button functions | 4. Screen icons and menus | 5. Notes
1. Introduction
Gyaoppi-style virtual pets were first made during the 90's v-ped fad, a fad caused by Tamagotchi and its success. Their unique features are: the weather system and the Sleep meter. Another unusual thing in many toys which follow the Gyaoppi programming is the negative status (such as poop) appearing as an unclickable icon, instead of being a sprite on the pixel screen.
Various variants (and knockoffs) of these (original Gyaoppi dinosaur, most famous 10 in 1 and 9 in 1, Chuppi, etc) are still available for buy on the internet, and various of them were already logged on a few virtual pet-related blogs, sites, and forums. But here I attempt to describe Gyaoppi II. The reason for that is not only because Gyaoppi toys, in general, have little information documented on them available online, but because this particular v-pet seems to get much smaller coverage among the Gyaoppis, especially when comparing it to a such 9 in 1. Even the available „Gyaoppi dinosaur chart” isn't entirely correct for this toy [2021 edit: I'm unsure now which exact chart I referred to when I first wrote the text, but I suspect it was this one http://www.tamenagerie.com/charts1.html].
The original „Gyaoppi dinosaur chart” isn't fully accurate nor fully filled. Here I tried to assemble every each pet sprite from Gyaoppi II, and name them for purpose of this document. To see a full spritesheet, please visit this post: Gyaoppi II spritesheet and hotkeys
2. Hardware description
The shape of Gyaoppi II is the same as in Gyaoppi and „Pishi”; it takes the form of a horizontal oval/egg, quite comfortable. The 3 buttons are rubbery, placed rather close to each other. They are responsible, only at very rare occasions they don't register any action, but give out the sound regardless. The sound the toy makes is „soft”, maybe even a bit too quiet.
Gyaoppi II uses two LR44 batteries, which are inserted on the back of the device. Two small screws are keeping the battery cover in place.
This unit is white, but other colors can be seen on the internet. The graphics on the shell look fine: „GYAOPPI II” text is placed more on the left, and cute little dino with a heart on the right.
3. Button functions
It has 3 buttons on the front: A B C.
A – moves through menus and options. (Can be also used in minigames).
B – confirm an option, or switch between the pet screen or clock screen. (can be also used in minigames).
C – cancel.
The reset button is on the back, below the toy's surface.
Useful button combinations:
Pet Screen:
A + C = sound off/on
A + B = Pause
Clock Screen:
A + C = set up the clock
A – set up the hour
B – set up minutes
C – confirm
4. Screen icons and menus
The toy's screen has top and bottom bar, where the icons are displayed. The top bar is used to select the desired action (Feed, Play, Scold, Heal, Clean, Sleep, Stats, and Equip). The pet's sprite is always the same in those menus/actions (it's the default Happysaur), regardless of the pet's age and form.
The bottom bar isn't clickable and its icons are used as notifications (Attention, Sick (2x), Poop (4x)).
4.1. Top icon bar
Feed icon. Clicking on it gives you the option to choose between drumstick, carrot, and bottle.
Drumstick fills the pet's hunger bar by 1, and also raises its weight by 1 kg. Feed it with these when the pet is hungry. When the pet is full, it will refuse to eat by shaking its head.
Carrot seemingly does nothing, but it is required to keep your pet healthy. It doesn't work as „snack” food, as it doesn't raise Happiness.
Bottle of water seems to work just like a carrot.
Beware of overfeeding/underfeeding the pet with veggies/water – it may get sick or die. This is something I will need to test when I'm done with these runs. Also, the game most likely keeps track of veggie/water as a separate meter, but it was made to be invisible to the player.
Play icon. It opens a menu where you can choose between ring-toss and ball-kick. Use it when your pet is unhappy.
Both minigames seem to work exactly the same, and both seem to be random. Think of them as of a fancy „left-right” game from Tamas.
Upon choosing a minigame, a short animation of flashing circles will show, and a jingle will play. Then the game starts.
Gameplay: click to see the outcome: fail or success. The minigame has 5 rounds in total and your aim is to succeed at most of them. After 5 rounds it will show you the score (eg. „3 VS 2”).
Only winning (high score) grants you 1 Happy and 1kg weight loss. Failure does seem to do absolutely nothing (no negatives, no positives, as if you haven't played with your pet at all).
You can quit the current game with the Cancel button during the gameplay (it won't work at the score screen or at the pet's reaction).
Scold icon. This acts as discipline, and you should use it only if your pet demands attention for no reason (it's not sick, has no poop, is not hungry nor bored). Otherwise, it will play angry dino animation, and the Discipline meter drops by 1.
When used at the right time, the teacher will come, and it will scold/educate your pet. And its Discipline meter fills by 1.
Heal icon. When your pet is sick, use this icon to heal it. The animation shows an IV bag emptying. If your pet is not sick, the pet will just shake its head.
Clean icon. Use it to clean poops. Upon choosing it, a pushing vehicle will appear to push the poop out of the screen. The animation is long and noisy, so beware if you are in public. If there's no poop, then the pet will just shake its head.
Sleep icon. It allows you to put your pet to sleep. Sleeping is kind of a thing in Gyaoppis (see Sleep meter), as the pets have a separate Sleep meter. Too much sleep will make the pet sick, and so it seems with not enough sleep.
Clicking on it turns the lights off automatically, and vice versa.
Stats icon. View your pet's statistics, obviously.
Age in years (Gyaoppi aging isn't as simple as in eg. Tama or Digimon. Aging doesn't seem to occur at the exact same hours or every 24hrs. It is likely it has a predefined amount of hours per growth stage that needs to pass, before your pet ages.
Weight (kg). It raises after feeding the pet with drumsticks. It gets lower after winning a minigame.
Hunger meter. The more filled it is, the less hungry your pet is. When your pet pooped, that means the meter's bar dropped. And when the bar it's empty, your pet will call for your attention.
Your pet can eat more than 4 units shown on the meter. The maximum amount of drumsticks it can eat is 8 before it refuses to eat.
Happy meter. The more filled it is, the more happy your pet is. And when it's empty, then yep, the pet will call for your attention.
Again, it looks like you can feel the meter beyond the 4 meter units seen on the screen. Perhaps that's why many people claim the Happy meter empties faster than the Hungry meter: they feed the pet to the max (8 times) but only play with it 4 times.
Sleep meter. The lower it gets, the more sleep your pet will need to refill it. It automatically depletes during the time the pet is active.
Don't oversleep your pet as it can get sick.
More about the Sleep meter and sleeping pattern
Beware: contrary to what it may feel like, fully filling the meter actually makes the pet sick (overslept). The pet will get up automatically and ask for your attention!
It's really hard to track this or find a pattern, and I'm still confused by how it works. There are times when it seems like you got it, but then the meter goes off the next day, and ultimately it leads to your pet waking up in the middle of the night sick.
I found out that the best time to wake up the pet is when the meter is at its 3/4.
This also secures you to have the meter considerably depleted before you go to sleep, thus most likely avoiding being abruptly woken up at night. Should the meter go nuts, pause the toy until the next day.
An empty sleep meter does not make the pet go to bed automatically, at least not immediately. It perhaps can make the pet sick. Another thing to test out.
Playing minigames doesn't seem to influence this meter.
The Japanese manual states that the pet likes to be put in bed at the similar time, and to have its sleep not interrupted – otherwise it may get sick.
Discipline meter. It starts from 0 and fills up by 1 when you scold your pet when it demands your attention for no real reason.
If you scold it when it doesn't need it, the meter will deplete.
Not reacting to the pet's call, when it needs scolding, depletes the meter as well.
The interesting thing is that the meter's bar exceeds the 4 units the meter is composed of. It kind of „overflows” and starts from 1, each time when you reach beyond the 4th.
Equip (a.k.a. Weather) icon. It lets you choose a cap or an umbrella when the weather changes. If there's no weather, you can't select the items (the pet will shake its head). Not reacting to the weather will make the pet sick.
In Gyaoppis there's a weather feature and at some times your pet will call for attention and the screen will show either sun and a palm tree, or a volcano with rain. When it's sunny, you should put the cap on your pet (a cute animation with the pet wearing it will show). Similarly, when it's rainy, the umbrella comes in handy (again, a separate tiny animation). Choosing the wrong item will just make the pet shake its head.
4.2. Bottom icon bar
This space is used to notify you about negative issues that your pet may have. These aren't clickable.
1. Attention icon. Your pet uses it when it needs something from you. It can be poop, sickness, hungriness, sadness, or even bad weather (for this there is a separate animation playing on the screen as well). Or, it may call for no reason (you use scold when it does that).
2. Sick icon (2x). It appears when your pet is sick. Click the Heal icon to give it a treatment and remove the status.
3. Poop icon (4x). It appears when your pet pooped, obviously. Use the Clean icon to remove the poop.
Note: The pet sometimes calls for no reason (and it's not for scolding), without any icon, so you can't really do anything. I have 3 theories why is this happens: 1) the invisible veggie/water meter meets 0, 2) it learns to discipline itself (I doubt that they would actually program that lol), 3) just a glitch, most probably.
5. Notes
The pet will grow and change its forms (evolving). Unfortunately, it does not notify you when it does that (is there a separate animation or not?).
The growth chart floating on the internet is not accurate. This Gyaoppi has one growth stage more, and this is not pictured on the „Gyaoppi dinosaur chart”.
There is a slight inaccuracy in the clock (not sure if all units have this). After around 1 week of running the clock is ~5 minutes fast. Obviously, the difference gets greater the longer the toy is on. The pet's lifespan isn't long enough for this to have a greater impact. If it's something that bothers you though, you can set up the time again. I don't think changing the time influences the pet's growth.
The pause may interfere with its sleep pattern. It is unknown how the Sleep meter works. And what are the directives here: always going to bed at the same time and sleeping the same amount of hours per night, each night (pause has little influence); or a hidden value which measures how long the pet is awaken, ignoring the current time (pause has bigger influence)?
If the pet keeps getting sick for no reason, then it may have not eaten enough veggies/water.
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