ROM Versions

[hwd45]

Got a few more ROM versions! Thanks again to the two people from the Tamagotchi Discord group who helped supply me with this information:

Oden-Kun: 0.2
Akai: 12.0
V5 (US): 32.1
one of those V3-looking Deka Tamagotchis: 11.1
one of those V4-looking Deka Tamagotchis: 1.0

Yeah, I don't know all that much about Deka Tamagotchis; I don't even know what these ones are called, lmao. But this was really cool to find out!

 

[Pirorirotchi]

I was directed here here by penguin-keeper due to some observations i made with my assorment of v3s. One of them, my pink translucent, has a slightly lower key than the other three. That being, all of its sounds are slightly lower than the same sounds of the others. I decided to rom test all four of them, and i had some pretty interesting results!

First off, let me talk about my tamas.

pink ice cream - US version, normal sound, blue and yellow box background, "tamagotchi connection" logo with mimitchi

Green hibiscus - US version, normal sound, blue and yellow box background, "tamagotchi connection" logo with mimitchi

translucent pink - US version, lower than normal sound, pink and yellow dots background, "tamagotchi connection" logo with mimitchi

Zebra - US version region-changed to UK, normal sound, blue and yellow box background, "tamagotchi" logo with mametchi

So, I went through and rom tested all four of them. The first three are all A3 0 or A3 2, including the deep-voiced translucent pink. However, my zebra was A3 3, which is a version that's not included in the list above!

NOW, there's obviously something different about the zebra. I region changed it using a similar method to debugging (taking a pencil to the correct broken circles on the chip). When I undid the region change, however, it was back to being an A3 2!

For my next trick, I attempt to region change one of my A3 0s. I tried doing it on both of them, but even after filling in the circles, it didn't actually take. I checked, and it was still and A3 0. It might have been the way I did it (my pencil could have been sharper), but i digress.

Theory: there are four US rom versions. I've confirmed that A3 2 isn't a UK variant as theorized above, because all of mine are american, came with american chain styles and have US logos. However, A3 3 (and very likely A3 1) are region-changed variants of 0 and 2.

also, now i have even less of a theory as to why my pink sounds like that.

 

[hwd45]

Woah! Interesting stuff!

 Theory: there are four US rom versions. I've confirmed that A3 2 isn't a UK variant as theorized above, because all of mine are american, came with american chain styles and have US logos. However, A3 3 (and very likely A3 1) are region-changed variants of 0 and 2.

 also, now i have even less of a theory as to why my pink sounds like that.

I'm not really sure why I speculated A3 2 was a European release, all the A3 2 ROMs I've seen so far have been in US versions. I guess I got a bit confused. It's interesting that your zebra shell has a different logo, it's part of the same wave as the transparent pink one.

I'm yet to see what the European ROM versions are like, but part of me wonders if maybe some ROM versions really are designated for region changed models. I guess that's a new thing to investigate, the effects of region changing on the ROM version! Perhaps some versions come with multiple ROMs built in and the one that's loaded depends on whether the region change feature is enabled. I guess in the case of the zebra one, it was packaged with A3 2 and maybe A3 3 was a later European ROM that was added to models later in the V3 production run?

 

[hwd45]

Did you know? English and Japanese are not the only languages Tamagotchi are available in.

None of this post is my own findings! Lots of helpful people in the Discord introduced me to what I'm about to show you.

//www.tamatalk.com/IB/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png

Spanish wasn't the only other language that got its own Tamagotchi release. Have you ever seen a Russian Tamagotchi Friends before? Later Tamagotchi releases had fewer revisional differences so I imagine the Russian version would play identically to an English Tamagotchi Friends aside from the language (though, the games did differ between the European and American releases - I guess, judging by the shell and the date format, that the Russian version was built upon the American version's ROM).

Got any more info on foreign language Tamagotchis like the Spanish releases? Aware of any other obscure Tamagotchi versions? I'd love to hear more about them.

 

[Jhud]

It's actually Ukrainian, not Russian. 

I've hard of the Tama-Go being released in Portugese and I think I've seen screenshots of it. 

 

[hwd45]

It's actually Ukrainian, not Russian. 

I've hard of the Tama-Go being released in Portugese and I think I've seen screenshots of it. 

See I'd heard it was actually Ukrainian because there were rumblings about it on the wiki, but I'd also heard that it was actually not Ukrainian and it was Russian, and the channel that uploaded the video I posted is called "Tamagotchi Russia" so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe it is Ukrainian, but whatever it is, it uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

The Tama-Go did have a release in Brazil so a Portuguese version would make sense - I've never seen the Brazilian ones in action though, only ever seen the packaging.

 

[Jhud]

Funnily enough, pretty sure the title of that video is in Ukrainian, and while I'm not that much of an expert, the person sounds as if they were speaking Ukrainian rather than Russian as well... Odd. Might be wrong, it's hard to differentiate sometimes.

I've seen Tama-Go packages in Japanese, though I'm pretty sure the actual unit in them is english, which is even stranger. Did that version even come out in Japan? 

 

[hwd45]

Funnily enough, pretty sure the title of that video is in Ukrainian, and while I'm not that much of an expert, the person sounds as if they were speaking Ukrainian rather than Russian as well... Odd. Might be wrong, it's hard to differentiate sometimes.

I've seen Tama-Go packages in Japanese, though I'm pretty sure the actual unit in them is english, which is even stranger. Did that version even come out in Japan? 

It didn't release in Japan, but it did release in Singapore with Japanese packaging. Not sure if the toy itself was in Japanese though.

 

[Jhud]

I'd guess it's in english since that's the more or less main language in Singapore. Odd that they got the Japanese packaging though. 

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Odd that they got the Japanese packaging though. 

I would've understood that if it was Hong Kong, since a number of video games and the like used to release there with Japanese packaging and English text, if memory serves.

 

[hwd45]

I would've understood that if it was Hong Kong, since a number of video games and the like used to release there with Japanese packaging and English text, if memory serves.

You mean Chinese? I'm not really sure why they would release in Japanese there. The Connection actually did release in Hong Kong with a Chinese instruction manual, and judging by the manual the text was in English. I've heard they came with the shells used by the Tamagotchi Plus though, so they're a unique combination of a Japanese shell and an English board. I feel like ROM tests would spit out the same versions as the rest of the European models, but it'd be interesting to confirm this in the future just in case the Hong Kong version uses a unique ROM version, or something.

Edit: here's the instruction manual of the Hong Kong version.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

You mean Chinese? I'm not really sure why they would release in Japanese there.

Nope, I do mean Japanese! It was very common in the 1990s for, for example, Mega Drive games to release in Hong Kong in Japanese packaging, with Japanese cartridge-shells, but with English in-game text. It went on for years! (Look up Asian releases for that console - you'll see it. )

 

[Jhud]

Yeah, just like the Hong Kong Tamagotchi Plus - the packaging looks identical to the Japanese one but PRETTY sure it is in english. I think th Hong Kong P1s are in english too but I think those have an American - style package if I'm not mistaken. Also English iD L had the original packaging (albeit desaturated into white) while the unit was English.

The thing about consoles and games is true too. While Wonderswan was a Japanese-exclusive console (to my knowledge), Hong Kong cartridges for it were in English.

 

[hwd45]

Yeah, just like the Hong Kong Tamagotchi Plus - the packaging looks identical to the Japanese one but PRETTY sure it is in english. I think th Hong Kong P1s are in english too but I think those have an American - style package if I'm not mistaken. Also English iD L had the original packaging (albeit desaturated into white) while the unit was English.

The thing about consoles and games is true too. While Wonderswan was a Japanese-exclusive console (to my knowledge), Hong Kong cartridges for it were in English.

Yeah, I found an image of the Hong Kong edition's packaging and sure enough it's literally just the Japanese packaging. Strange! I think it's safe to say they're in English given all the English menus and words in the instruction manual.

 

[hwd45]

A small update: the US version of the V5 Celebrity actually displays a lot more in the ROM test than the earlier V5 versions, with a screen more reminiscent of the ROM version screen seen in later versions. Alongside a little sprite of Nyatchi the ROM version is displayed (on the one I saw the ROM version was 36.0, but there might be more ROM versions for the V5C!) as well as the region of the device (in this case "USA") and another number I'm not sure of the purpose of ("00" here).

This 00 - or sometimes 01 - appears in the ROM test screens of V6, 7 and 8, too. And probably the Dream Town Friends as well, but I've not seen a ROM test of that version as of yet. From what I can tell this is a revision number - unlike earlier versions where revisions are encoded in the ROM version (for example, 2.0 and 2.1 are different revisions of the European version of the V1), it seems as though the later versions split the version into two numbers, with the first representing the general / retail version of the Tamagotchi (the Music Star, Tama-Go and Friends have the ROM versions 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0) while the second number represents revisions. It also seems to split the region into a separate variable too - previously different regions used different ROM versions, but perhaps in later versions the regional differences were so minor that the only differences between the different regional variants was language and date format, so the ROM version itself was kept the same between releases.

The "general version number" concept slightly conflicts with the number displayed on the V5C since clearly the "V5.5" is not V36. I'm not really sure how to reconcile this discrepancy but I assume it just displays 36.0 because it's an international version, so it follows the ROM version numbering used in the Japanese models. It still begs the question of why there's a ".0" at all if revisions are handled by an additional variable, but I guess it's just to make room for the ".5" versions (which ironically never appeared again after the V5 Celebrity, though the Music Star was going to get a "refresh" version which was cancelled and there's some proof that the Tama-Go faced the same fate.

The Music Star had the (revision number) versions of 00 and 01, with the former being the original release and the latter being the second wave - there's subtle differences between these versions but the main difference is that the way in which money is passed down each generation is changed. I think I've heard the price of the Wild Guitar was lowered too.

The US version of the Tama-Go had the number 01 - I've yet to see whether the different regional releases yet. I'm not really sure why it didn't start at 00 this time, but maybe the number 00 was given to the prototype versions seen at the toy fair.

So far I've only seen "00" for the Friends, I think it was the US version. This definitely needs more investigation too, since the European version had different games and the Russian version needs to be investigated, too.

Both the Music Star and the Tama-Go also display a single "0" and the Music Star also has a small "32.0" beneath the word "Ver". I've no idea what any of these numbers mean, though.

---

One small update for the V2, too: it's been determined that version A.3 is a European version and that it used the early item names. It seems as though first wave V2s used this ROM version. The history behind the V2's release is a complicated one - apparently, the devices that were planned to release in America in March / April got redirected to Europe, perhaps to make up for the Tamagotchi shortage there, and the release was delayed until June. These "0th wave" V2s frequently used ROM versions with the earlier item names, just as the very early European ones did. So, if your V2 uses these early item names, it's probably version A.3 or earlier. We're still not sure on the exact number that was used by the early Connection V2s, though.

---

One last thing I thought I'd mention which I noticed recently! Some versions display a character on screen during a ROM test, but I hadn't noticed until recently that it seems like the character depends on what region the Tamagotchi was released in. European V4s display a little Pochitchi, while the American ones show Nyatchi!

 

[Kuchipetchi]

On 2/7/2019 at 4:06 AM, hwd45 said:

Did you know? English and Japanese are not the only languages Tamagotchi are available in.

None of this post is my own findings! Lots of helpful people in the Discord introduced me to what I'm about to show you.

//www.tamatalk.com/IB/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png

i can confirm this is indeed russian, there are no Ukrainian letters, though they are very similar there are two or three distictive characters between russian and ukrainian. im actually looking into getting one but it may be hard. 

 

[hwd45]

An update! The PUMA V2 has a ROM version of "A2 H" (thanks to the Discord user that sent me this info!)

This one's a bit weird - the other known V2 versions are A.3, A.4 and A.5 (though there's at least another two versions on top of those). The PUMA version doesn't have a period between the A and the number, meaning this was probably the start of the convention that the V3 used, where the retail version number follows the letter A. What I'm not sure of the meaning of is the H - I don't have a clue why they chose this particular letter.

Hopefully we'll be hearing about what ROM version the GLAY Expo Plus used soon - if it's anything like the PUMA version I'm sure it'll contain a random letter too.

 

[hwd45]

Time for perhaps the most bizarre update I've given - some new developer features have been discovered!

All this information comes from rjalda100, who discovered and tested the feature while trying to perform the region change procedure on a V1.

For those unfamiliar with region changing, it's a process you can perform on the American connection models in a similar manner to activating the debug mode - instead of shorting the JP3 solder jumper on the circuit board, however, JP1 and JP2 are shorted instead. I'm unsure about what happens if only one of these two jumpers are shorted; it'll be something to investigate in the future.

As Pirorirotchi demonstrated on page 3, region changing has the effect of switching the ROM version that's used with a different one - the data your Tamagotchi uses is changed from the data used in the American ROM to one used by European models. This isn't necessarily hugely remarkable by itself, though this recent discovery has given us new knowledge about what this feature was used for.

A few days ago rjalda100 was attempting to compare the two ROM versions of an American V1 - before region changing, the ROM version was found to be 4.2. After region changing and ROM testing again, the following screen was shown instead of what was expected:

This ROM version has never been observed before, and until this point all of the Japanese and worldwide releases in the Connection / Plus series used even integer version numbers - 0.0, 2.0, 2.1, 4.0, 4.2, 6.1, 8.0 and so on. The numbers at the bottom of the screen are also unfamiliar, and their purpose is unclear. I had speculated in the past that there could be entirely new and unknown versions hidden behind the region change feature, so I guess this speculation was proven correct. I had also speculated that odd integer versions were reserved for developer versions - would this speculation be proven correct too?

Upon resetting the Tamagotchi, instead of being greeted by an egg, the time setting screen is shown instead. Sure enough, the date format that was used by this version was Day / Month, as would be expected after switching to a European ROM version. This screen is followed immediately by the naming screen despite no egg having hatched. After this was an entirely new screen with the options "BOY" and "GIRL". Selecting a gender will finally show you the Tamagotchi you'll be raising:

A Burgertchi

Actually, more accurately, the Burgertchi will raise itself. From this point onwards, the only button which functions is the B button - only the standard Tamagotchi view and the clock screen are accessible. Burgertchi does all the cooking and cleaning by itself - if it's hungry, it eats automatically (aptly, it eats a burger). If it makes a mess, it cleans it up. It flicks between a bunch of different animations, too.

I'm not really totally sure what the purpose of this feature is, or if there's anything else that's unique about this ROM version, but as far as I can tell it's some sort of demo mode. Why Burgertchi? No idea. But I can see this sitting behind a screen in a store, demonstrating what a Tamagotchi looks like without actually requiring constant care and attention.

Hopefully, new discoveries like this will continue being made in the near future! The region change mechanic is a truly interesting one which may reveal entirely new Tamagotchi modes to us.

 

[hwd45]

An update to my previous post: Version 3.0 is actually not just a demo version - it's actually an unreleased Deka version.

The Deka Tamagotchis were originally placed in stores and restaurants across Japan in 2004 and behaved exactly as I described above. The only key difference between these Deka devices and Version 3.0 is that the Deka Tamagotchis were in Japanese, whereas 3.0 is an English translated version, perhaps suggesting there were plans to bring the devices to the west. There was actually a wider range of characters than just Burgertchi, but in order to obtain them you had to solder some connections on the circuit board. Since the V1 uses a different circuit board to the Deka, these connections are not present on the V1 and so a lot of functionality unfortunately cannot be seen.

Deka Tamagotchis also had the ability to connect with other Tamagotchis - simply connecting with the Deka while it's in its idle state will result in the following:

- First, the Tamagotchi moves to the Deka and an animation will play.

- Next, the Tamagotchi will return to its device bringing the Deka character along with them.

- The Deka character will give the Tamagotchi an item before returning to the Deka.

The items received by the Deka characters are mostly food items, often ones not seen anywhere else on the device! There's also a couple items but they don't seem to stay in the player's items list:

- Tamagotchi will give the player a small Tamagotchi device.

- Capsuletchi will sometimes give the player a card that says "Pt" on it and "10p" appears on the screen - perhaps this was part of a cut gotchi points feature on the V1.

So apparently after all these years I'm still learning new things about what the V1 can do! I'll continue to post updates as I learn more information.

 

[hwd45]

In case you're curious where we're up to with ROM versions now...

There have been quite a few new version discoveries lately! There's a few gaps in the image where I think there's probably more versions, but it seems to be the case that most have been accounted for, now.

There's a few spin-off devices which haven't been tested yet:

- Store Deka Tamas
- Tamasuku 1/2
- TamagoChu
- Tamafure
- Tamajuku
- Tamawalkie

These are the most likely ones to use the same version numbering that the rest of the devices use (maybe with the exception of the Tamawalkie).

If you've any questions about what any of the ROM versions listed above are then I'll be happy to answer.