VirtualPet.com has a guide for this one here: Puppy Micropet. I have also seen this branded as “MicroPet” from Bluetech, and the instructions seem to reference that branding regardless of which version you get, so I’m assuming it was the original.
While the screens on it look similar to Nanos, the ROM has its own unique programming. There is a points system included that you’re meant to maximize in order to get a “good” ending. Here’s an excerpt from the instructions going over how the scoring works:
Scoring You can get up to 60 points per day for each of the Happiness, Health, Hunger, Sleep, and Over/Under Weight values, if you keep them at the ideal values at the end of the day. You also get 1,000 points for paper training your pet, and 200 points for each of the 4 tricks you teach it. You can also get points by beating your pet at playing the Ball game, but sometimes you should let your pet win, because it makes it happy.
Running Away If you don’t take care of your pet’s Health, Happiness Feeding and Watering, or if you are a bad ownder, your pet can run away. If it runs away 3 times for the same reason (i.e. no water), it may run away for good!
There’s only one game, and it’s a custom one, called the Ball game. You control a hand with a ball on the left side of the screen, and you can move it up and down to where the dog is standing on the right. You can throw the ball wherever you like, and the dog will try and catch it. It also displays a count of how many times he’s caught it in the upper right hand corner, which keeps track of your score. I like the idea behind this game because, while it’s less intuitive than the left-right game, it’s a lot more like playing with a real dog.
The instructions pamphlet nicely includes screenshots of each of the dog’s reaction screens so that you don’t have to do any guessing about how it feels.
The pet ages up for the first time on day 3, and then after that every two days. The pet will die of old age on day 23. At that point, you’ll be able to see if you got a bad or good ending, depending on your score. This is of course assuming he hasn’t run away before then.
The meters are fairly unique. They run vertically and increase one pixel at a time, for a total of 7. This way they’ve been able to display 3 per screen, with the icons at the top above each meter.
Note that there’s no indication of sickness with this pet, such as a skull icon or anything. The attention icon will light up, but other than that there’s no visual cue. Also, Tama Pichu on Youtube (see videos section below) notes that you must always let the various animations complete, otherwise they won’t be counted towards the pet’s meters.
Honestly while I’m reticent on the pet sprites in this one, I really like all the menus and icons. They’re all really unique! Ok nevermind I take that back. IT HAS DREAMING SPRITES. SO CUTE.
Instructions on puppy selection: …puppy’s face by pressing the CANCEL button. To choose one of the puppies, select its face, then press the DO button to see its Personality screen. From there, press the DO button. You have now selected your puppy!
Puppy 1: Male, strong willed and angry, very smart, bad temperament, health OK Puppy 2: Male, not too smart, very happy, health not so good. Puppy 3: Female, sickly, very smart, happy, poor health Puppy 4: Female, dumb, very happy, health OK
NAME YOUR PUPPY Once you have chosen your own Micro Pet Puppy, you need to name it. Select each letter by going through the…
PAPER TRAINING As you observe your pet at home in Wander Mode, you will notice that within 30 minutes after eathing, it starts acting like it needs to “do its business”. Before your pet “needs to go”, it will wander back and forth and then squat on the right side of the screen. When it really needs to go, it will walk more near the centre of the screen and squat. Now Hurry! Press the DO button before it is too late! If you do this successfully, you will see the puppy get picked up and placed over the “papers” in the lower right hand side of the screen, where the puppy will then “do its business”. If you successfully catch your pet seven times out of any 8 in a row, your pet will be paper trained! Smarter pets learn this quicker. (Puppy 1 and 2, must be cause 3 times out of 8, Puppy 2 and 4, must be caught 5 times out of eight.) From then on, it will only “do its business” on the papers, AND it than can be taken outside for walks. If you don’t catch your pet in time, it will “do its business” off the papers, and can never go for walks.
