Petz - Television Tropes & Idioms

To the left, a Great Dane (top) and Alley Cat (bottom) fresh out of the Adoption Center. Compare with the hexed Dane and Alley Cat on the right.

Petz (Dogz and Catz) is a series of games dating back to 1995, in which the player can adopt, raise, care for and breed their own virtual pets. Petz were the world's first virtual pets, and were shown to people to be revolutionary. First released before Tamagotchi, they were among the first 3D characters, rendered in a non-photorealistic cartoon style. Petz has sold over 3 million copies worldwide, and appeals to both children and adults.

The player starts at the Adoption Center, where they may choose a dog or cat to adopt of a breed and gender of their choosing. Once they have found a pet they like the user can adopt and name the new puppy or kitten. After around three days (real time) the petz become adults. Adult petz can then breed and have kittens or puppies of their own in Petz 3, Petz 4, and Petz 5 (this was not available in the first two games). Cross-breeding can create different types of petz, called 'Mixed Breeds'.

There are a number of toyz, food/water bowls and treats available. Petz can learn tricks with positive rewards such as tickling and treats, or trained not to do something using the punishment (water) spray bottle. Petz must be looked after properly; abused or neglected petz may run away.

Users soon learned how to reverse-engineer the system, and began producing additional breedz, toys, playscenes, clothes, and developer tools for the games, as permitted by PF Magic, Mindscape, and Ubisoft Entertainment. This is called 'hexing' by the Petz Community.

A related, but much less well-known, game is "Oddballz", also by PF Magic, which revolves around bizarre creatures as pets that can be temporarily shapeshifted into more normal animalz (including dogz and catz).

Breedz:

Catz: Alley Cat, Black & White Shorthair (B&W), Calico, Chinchilla Persian, Main Coon, Orange Shorthair (Oshie), Persian, Russian Blue, Siamese, and Tabby. Added in Petz 5 were the Desert Lynx, Egyptian Mau, Honey Bear, Japanese Bobtail, and Scottish Fold.
Dogz: Bulldog, Chihuahua, Dachshund, Dalmatian (Dali), Great Dane, Labrador Retriever, Mutt, Poodle, Scottish Terrier (Scottie), and Sheepdog (Sheepie). Added in Petz 5 were the German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Jack Russel Terrier, Papillion, and Pug.

The Catz game also comes with the (already spayed/neutered, so no freakish hybrids unless you do a bit of tweaking) Bunniez breed, and Dogz players get Pigz.

Creature Designs:

Body: (Ball style design) The petz are modelled as a set of balls joined by lines with variable parameters. The concept for this was developed in an early PF Magic title, the fighting game Ballz for Sega Genesis. Because of this design, Petz breedz, toyz, and clothez are relatively easy to modify, but the ball and line system also causes some glitchiness. This model was scrapped in the 2006 games "Dogz" and "Catz" for the PC for a more "realistic" look.

Colors: There are 10 default colors that occur naturally in the game. These are white, black, two shades of grey (known as blue and silver), cream, brown, red/ruddy/sorrel/russet, orange, tan and dusty. In addition to these coat colors is the pink found on some Poodle variations. Eye colors are not limited to these 10, although shades of brown, green and blue are most common, particularly in low generation petz. In "hexed" breedz/petz the range of colors can be much greater, although all colors must be within the 256-bit selection. Any coat colors other than the default 10 cannot be inherited properly and will mutate to inheritable colors in offspring.

Textures: Textures cover the ballz, imitating fur.

Paintballz: Some Breedz have splotches of color or texture on their bodies called Paintballz. The spots on the Alley Cat and Dalmatian are examples of this.

This game provides examples of:

Casual Video Game
Friendly, Playful Dolphin: Petz Wild Animals Dolphinz is about training and taking care of dolphins. Petz Dolphinz Encounter allows the player to swim with wild dolphins.
Gonk: Many unfortunate Bulldog, Sheepdog, and Persian mixes.
Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: You just need a male and a female (but they must both be either dogz or catz) and have them fall in love to get the female pregnant. This can be fun in both games with hexed breedz and those with the original ones. Let's just say Chihuahuas don't breed well with anything, and their mixies often have grotesque and enormous heads. And with hexed breeds, you can have some insane mixes, such as parrot/badger or oriental dragon/bison.
Power Perversion Potential: And you might also be surprised by the occasional 'anatomically correct' Dogz some people hex. Most notably male dogz, but there is at least one instance of a female one.
Self-Imposed Challenge: Breeding lines of "selective breeds", like tamsins (Dalmatians with Mutt patches), hounds (Great Danes with Dalmatian ears), and MPCs ("Meezer-Pointed Calicoes", Calico mixes with Siamese points), just to name a few.
Simulation Game
Stock Animal Name: The default adoption names.
Shout Out: In the temple playscene in Petz 4, there is an Indiana Jones mutt, simply named Jones. The Catz host for the Wild West scene is named after Wyatt Earp. The circus has a cat named after PT Barnum.
Video Game Caring Potential
Video Game Cruelty Potential: Spray Bottle. Jack o' Lantern. Watering Can. Snowballs. The list goes on. You can also choose to pick up and dangle a pet for as long as you want.
Wide Open Sandbox: And how. With hexing, you can mess with spots (paintballz) and made fantastically designed Petz, or if you're more of a mad scientist, you can turn dogz and catz into anything from Pokemon, to fish, to horses, to dragons, and to just about anything (including specific, separate breeds if you want them to breed true or have color variations). Some people have also made breedz specifically designed for showing (getting your petz to pose in a certain way and taking a picture of it, it's a bit hard to explain) which are incredibly play-unfriendly and move like tables.