History VideoGame / Seaman

* BizarreAlienBiology / [[BizarreAlienReproduction Reproduction]]: Aside from the fact that Seaman is, iconically, a fish with a human face capable of human speech, the life cycle and ecosystem is, as the AngryVideoGameNerd describes it, more complex than [[Film/{{Alien}} xenomorphs]].

* HeyItsThatVoice: Besides Leonard Nimoy, the seamen (from the adult-gillman stage onward) are voiced by Jeff Kramer, the man responsible for [[VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition Agent York]]. Not George Takei, as popularly believed.

* AmbiguousGender: At first glance, you'd think that all the gillman in a tank are male due to their voice and face being stylized after a male's. "Male" (or alpha) gillman have a gold body, while "female" (or beta) gillman have peach-colroed bodies.

* AmbiguousGender: At first glance, you'd think that all the gillman in a tank are male due to their voice and face being stylized after a male's. "Male" (or alpha) gillman have a gold body, while "female" gillman have peach-colroed bodies.

* AmbiguousGender: At first glance, you'd think that all the gillman in a tank are male due to their voice and face being stylized after a male's. Male gillman have a gold body, while female gillman have peach-colroed bodies.

** Upon becoming '''Gillmen''', the Seamen erupt from the corpse of their host. This is when they resemble their iconic "fish with a man's face" appearance. At first, Gillmen are small and incapable of speech, but over time as they grow and the player talks to them, their vocabulary evolves until they can carry a conversation. Gillmen will canabalize one another, using their cranial tendrils to suck their broodmates' blood until only two are left. One becomes the "alpha" Gillman, developing a golden complexion to their scales, after the player names it.

* ADateWithRosiePalms / AccidentalInnuendo - ''You'' try bringing up Seamen without someone cracking up.
** IntentionallyAwkwardTitle - To the point where Nimoy actually tried to avoid doing {{Title Drop}}s while recording his lines as he finds it too awkward.
* AllThereInTheManual - A good chunk of the backstory behind Seaman's creation are found in the instruction booklet, and although Seaman will occasionally shed light on his origins and his experience with Gasse he gradually recalls, it's only a quarter of what you could read in the manual.
* AntiPoopsocking - The manual itself says that this is not a game that can be played in one long sitting. Seaman will only feel like talking for so long each day before he doesn't want to talk anymore, and become grumpy when you keep trying to talk to it. Even Creator/LeonardNimoy will express concern if you boot up the game multiple times in a single day (although one could cheat by bumping the Dreamcast's internal clock forward a day).

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther - The seaman can act like a [[{{Jerkass}} smartass]] for most of the game when it's mature enough to learn back-talk, but he also occasionally shows care for you by complimenting you and calling you nicknames like "fuzzy".
* BizarreAlienBiology / [[BizarreAlienReproduction Reproduction]] - Aside from the fact that Seaman is, iconically, a fish with a human face capable of human speech, the life cycle and ecosystem is, as the AngryVideoGameNerd describes it, more complex than [[Film/{{Alien}} xenomorphs]].

* DeadpanSnarker - Seaman
* DeathBySex [=/=] OutWithABang - If a male and female Seaman have sex, the male will die immediately after.
* FictionalDocument - The Japanese marketing campaign had fake fossils displayed at museums, and even a ''book'' was published (''The Journal of Jean-Paul Gasse'').
* GuideDangIt - Some aspects in raising your seaman, partly for certain acts you're supposed to perform to allow them to evolve that you won't have a clue to do, and partially because the seaman's voice recognition is limited. [[spoiler: an example for the former includes how you're supposed to awaken the Nautilus (in the shell in the tank) and allow it to eat your mushroomers so they'll become gillman, while the latter includes the task of naming your seaman by specifically saying "I will give you a name." or "I will/shall name you.", because simply asking "name?" will ask if they ''have'' a name, and "do you want a name?" won't let you name them. Note that Nimoy will mention both of these eventually.]]
* HeyItsThatVoice - Besides Leonard Nimoy, the seamen (from the adult-gillman stage onward) are voiced by Jeff Kramer, the man responsible for [[VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition Agent York]]. Not George Takei, as popularly believed.
* {{Jerkass}} - Your seaman to you.

* NonSequitur - Some of Seaman's responses can be this, due to the voice recognition not being completely perfect.
* ProductPlacement - Try asking your seaman about Playstation, Nintendo or the Sega Dreamcast. [[spoiler: He also has a habit of trying to convince you to buy another Dreamcast]].
* SequelHook: One that never panned out. [[spoiler: The story of Seaman's origin and biological notes implied that there was another version - a bird with a human face created when mushroomers were eaten by waterfowl. At the end of Seaman 1, the Seaman - now in toad form - sets off to find this creature.]] [[AbortedArc The Japanese Seaman 2 was totally unrelated to this.]]

* StarCrossedLovers - [[AllThereInTheManual Apparently]], Seaman was either the reincarnation or the descendant of a son of a pharaoh in the third dynasty of Egypt who fell in love with a priest's daughter. The priest had sought advice from the god of wisdom Thoth, who turned the pharaoh's son into a fish and the priest's daughter into a bird, both of whom vanished. The priest, who was in charge of the construction of the pyramids, built a landmark that served as a beacon to guide the two lovers back someday, and was nearby where Seaman would have been discovered centuries later by Gasse.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything - A handful of the things Seaman can respond to, and a few cases of him remembering an old response you made to throw back at you later [[spoiler: such as [[RuleThirtyFour if you brought up you looked up porn on the internet]], and you answer you like the internet uncensored later, he'll remark that freedom of speech on the internet will at least get the pervert vote.]]
* TrialAndErrorGameplay - You only have a limited number of food pellets to feed your seaman with before you run out [[spoiler: and although you later can raise caterpillars and crickets, they too are limited]], and it is very easy to run out.
* UnwinnableByMistake - Use up your food pellets too soon [[spoiler: or use up all the caterpillars or crickets]] will lead to you being unable to get any more food, leaving your seaman to starve to death.

* OutWithABang - If a male and female Seaman have sex, the male will die immediately after.

* DeathBySex [=/=] OutWithABang - If a male and female Seaman have sex, the male will die immediately after.

** Eventually, the Tadmen will lay an egg that hatches into a '''Frogman''', the final form of Seaman. Resembling a frog with a human face, the Frogman is amphibious and can survive on land or in water. In-game, the Seaman will tell you that it can only continue to evolve outside the confines of its cage. What happens to the Seaman after this stage is a mystery.

* BizarreAlienBiology / [[BizarreAlienReproduction Reproduction]] - Aside from the fact that Seaman is, iconically, a fish with a human face capable of human speech, the life cycle and ecosystem that, as the AngryVideoGameNerd describes it, more complex than [[Film/{{Alien}} xenomorphs]].

* AntiPoopsocking: The manual itself says that this is not a game that can be played in one long sitting. Seaman will only feel like talking for so long each day before he doesn't want to talk anymore, and become grumpy when you keep trying to talk to it. Even Creator/LeonardNimoy will express concern if you boot up the game multiple times in a single day (although one could cheat by bumping the Dreamcast's internal clock forward a day).

* AntiPoopsocking: The manual itself says that this is not a game that can be played in one long sitting. Seaman will only feel like talking for so long each day before he doesn't want to talk anymore, and become grumpy when you keep trying to talk to it. Even ''Creator/LeonardNimoy'' will express concern if you boot up the game multiple times in a single day (although one could cheat by bumping the Dreamcast's internal clock forward a day).

-->'''Seaman on the f-word:''' I'm too polite to use that word, so I'll say... "Bite me, you baboon-faced ass-scratcher."

* ShoutOut: "You're a BraveLittleToaster, aren't you?"

** IntentionallyAwkwardTitle - To the point where Nimoy actually avoided doing {{Title Drop}}s while recording his lines as he finds it too awkward.

** IntentionallyAwkwardTitle

''Seaman'' is a virtual-pet-raising game released for the Sega Dreamcast in Japan in 1999 and localized in 2000. It was [[UpdatedRerelease re-released]] [[NoExportForYou for Japan]] as ''Christmas Seaman'' and again as a Playstation 2 port. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen There were also plans for a PC release that allowed Seaman to interact with and manipulate your desktop and e-mails,]] [[DummiedOut but it was eventually cancelled.]] A sequel was also released, [[NoExportForYou again, only in Japan]], for the Playstation 2. The game was one of the few in the Dreamcast library to take advantage of the microphone. It also features narration from Leonard Nimoy in the English version.

* StarCrossedLovers - [[AllThereInTheManual Apparently]], Seaman was either the reincarnation or the descendant of a son of a pharaoh in the third dynasty of Egypt who fell in love with a priest's daughter. The priest had seeked advice from the god of wisdom Thoth, who turned the pharaoh's son into a fish and the priest's daughter into a bird, both of whom vanished. The priest, who was in charge of the construction of the pyramids, built a landmark that served as a beacon to guide the two lovers back someday, and was nearby where Seaman would have been discovered centuries later by Gasse.

* HeyItsThatVoice - Besides Leonard Nimoy, the seamen (from the adult-gillman stage onward) are voiced by Jeff Kramer, the man responsible for [[DeadlyPremonition Agent York]]. Not George Takei, as popularly believed.

* SequelHook: One that never panned out. [[spoiler: The story of Seaman's origin and biological notes implied that there was another version - a bird with a human face created when mushroomers were eaten by waterfowl. At the end of Seaman 1, the Seaman - now in toad form - sets off to find this creature.]] The Japanese Seaman 2 was totally unrelated to this.

''Seaman'' is a virtual-pet-raising game released for the Sega Dreamcast in Japan in 1999 and localized in 2000. It was [[UpdatedRerelease re-released]] [[NoExportForYou for Japan]] as ''Christmas Seaman'' and again as a Playstation 2 port. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen There were also plans for a PC release that allowed Seaman to interact with and manipulate your desktop and e-mails,]] [[DummiedOut but it was eventually cancelled.]] A sequel was also released on the Playstation 2 [[NoExportForYou again, only in Japan]] for the Playstation 2. The game was one of the few in the Dreamcast library to take advantage of the microphone. It also features narration from Leonard Nimoy in the English version.

* UncannyValley - Between its early attempt at realistic graphics and the ever-looming fact that ''you are having conversations with a fish-bodied man''...

* YouFailBiologyForever - The life cycle and breeding cycle of Seaman is... Something else...