History VideoGame / Seaman

* VocalDissonance: The female Seaman (Seawoman?) has the same deep voice as the male.
* WidgetSeries: It's one of the weirdest {{virtual pet}}s ever created, both in design (a human-faced fish [[spoiler:and frog]]?) and in terms of how you interact with it (speaking, which eventually turns into quite philosophical and introspective discussions).

You play as a pet owner who had decided to adopt a new, unknown species dubbed "Seaman" by scientist and discoverer, Jean Paul Gasse. The titular creature is a fish-like animal gradually evolving into a frog-like creature [[BeastWithAHumanFace with a human face]] who would eventually be able to talk with you. You start out with a handful of food pellets and a seaman egg to start with where you must hatch the egg and raise the resulting seaman to maturity. You are tasked with checking up on it to make sure it has enough air in its tank, the environment is warm and that they are fed, and eventually you'll be able to converse with the seaman and be asked various questions as you raise it. Although [[TrialAndErrorGameplay you are left to figure out how to raise the seaman on your own]], Nimoy will also give you general hints and tips as you check in on your seaman.

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

* VocalDissonance: The female Seaman has the same deep voice as the male.

* ImAHumanitarian: An unavoidable part of each evolutionary stage of the Seaman is that it will cannibalize its siblings until only itself and one other are left, and the other is only there for [[IncestIsRelative procreation purposes]].

* 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.
* 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-colored 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" (or "male") Gillman, developing a golden complexion to their scales, after the player names it.

* 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.

You play as a pet owner who had decided to adopt a new, unknown species dubbed "Seaman" by scientist and discoverer, Jean Paul Gasse. The titular creature is a fish-like animal [[spoiler: gradually evolving into a frog-like creature]] [[BeastWithAHumanFace with a human face]] who would eventually be able to talk with you. You start out with a handful of food pellets and a seaman egg to start with where you must hatch the egg and raise the resulting seaman [[spoiler: or rather, sea''men'']] to maturity. You are tasked with checking up on it to make sure it has enough air in its tank, the environment is warm and that they are fed, and eventually you'll be able to converse with the seaman and be asked various questions as you raise it. Although [[TrialAndErrorGameplay you are left to figure out how to raise the seaman on your own]], Nimoy will also give you general hints and tips as you check in on your seaman.

* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: ''You'' try bringing up Seamen without someone cracking up. To the point where Nimoy actually tried to avoid doing {{Title Drop}}s while recording his lines as he finds it too awkward.

* VideoGameCaringPotential / VideoGameCrueltyPotential

''Seaman'' is a virtual-pet-raising game developed by Vivarium and published by Creator/{{Sega}}, 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 Creator/LeonardNimoy in the English version.

* 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.

* FictionalDocument: The Japanese marketing campaign had fake fossils displayed at museums, and even a ''book'' was published (''The Journal of Jean-Paul Gasse'').

* 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.]]

** There is also a stage beyond Frogman that only exists in the japan-only PS2 remake of the game, the '''Lizardman''' that resembles a green lizard with a human face. This creature is created when the two Frogmen mate, producing a single egg that hatches into the juvenile Lizardman. It seems that the Lizardman has become a purely land-dwelling creature. Once the Lizardman reaches adulthood it goes off on its own, much like the Frogmen in the original game.

* 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.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Seaman

* ExcretementStatement: Seaman will sometimes throw dung at the screen if he's annoyed.

* DungFu: Seaman will sometimes throw dung at the screen if he's annoyed.

You play as a pet owner who had decided to adopt a new, unknown species dubbed "Seaman" by scientist and discoverer, Jean Paul Gasse. The titular creature is a fish-like animal [[spoiler: gradually evolving into a frog-like creature]] with a human face who would eventually be able to talk with you. You start out with a handful of food pellets and a seaman egg to start with where you must hatch the egg and raise the resulting seaman [[spoiler: or rather, sea''men'']] to maturity. You are tasked with checking up on it to make sure it has enough air in its tank, the environment is warm and that they are fed, and eventually you'll be able to converse with the seaman and be asked various questions as you raise it. Although [[TrialAndErrorGameplay you are left to figure out how to raise the seaman on your own]], Nimoy will also give you general hints and tips as you check in on your 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 WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd describes it, more complex than [[Film/{{Alien}} xenomorphs]].

''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 Creator/LeonardNimoy in the English version.

* FriendlyTickleTorture: You can subject your seaman to this. [[TheStoic Considering seaman, his laughter is more calmer than other examples of this trope.]]