Trip back in time: my very first petz from Dogz 1 & Catz 1!
Jan 29, 2022 18:32:05 GMT -5
Megan@Xoops 🌼, Kel, and 15 more like this
Post by Ratqueen on Jan 29, 2022 18:32:05 GMT -5
A few people asked me if I would share a little more about my very first petz from Dogz and Catz 1, which are featured on the "First Petz Duo" stamps I have in my PUGs shop. I still have both of them, carried over from computer to computer over the years, converted from one Petz version to the next (except P4, which I never owned.) You may even have some of their descendants if you adopted a pet from me (my name in petz family trees has been Carole, Ratqueen, and Ratqueen @ RKC).
I took a deeper dive into my petz folders, online backups, CD backups... and found zip files with a lot more screenshots than I thought I'd saved from the past! (even Zach's original Catz 1 file, named "catz0.cat", with a 1997 time stamp!)
Dogz 1 (March 1996)
I can't remember how I first came to know about Dogz, but I probably read about it in a PC gaming magazine. The game's concept amazed me, as there was nothing quite like it back then: a VIRTUAL dog! I just HAD to have it and was happy to find a copy at my local game store!
I installed the game on my Windows 95 PC (it was a good gaming PC too, with a whole 8 MB of RAM! I wasn't messing around, folks), and then came the time to pick a dog...
I wanted to adopt the largest dog available in the game (I used to have a German Shepherd), and it seemed to be that brown dog named Bootz, so I picked him. I renamed him Bytes for no other reason than it being close to the original name and computer-related (geeky me likey).
Raising little Bytes from puppyhood to adulthood gave me comfort and kept me company at a time I really needed some.
There are thumbnails from Dogz 1 screenshots at the very end of this post, if you're curious to see more of Bytes growing up.
I also wrote a little story to accompany a puppy I gifted Thor for Christmas, with a pictured family tree, if you want to take a look. She said it was ok if I linked it from here:
petzforum.proboards.com/thread/71056/introducing-nibbles
petzforum.proboards.com/thread/71056/introducing-nibbles
Catz 1 (Early 1997)
I got Catz 1 a few months after its 1996 release.
I didn't need to think twice about which cat to pick -- all I wanted was a good black & white (known as Pouncer in Catz 1). I named him Zachary in memory of one of my past cat of the same name.
I don't know if he's an adult or kitten on these pictures. I don't seem to have any screenshots of him with any significant size differences. Maybe I was trying to save on hard disk space, cause those BMPs were taking up precious hard disk space, even though I had a HUGE 1 GB hard disk!
I also apparently had a Persian named Sleepy (known as Homebody in Catz 1) -- I didn't remember that one!
Bytes was converted to Dogz 2, and reborn as a Great Dane. The puppy screenshot below is the fist I have of him after conversion, with a time stamp of 11/15/97, and then his picture as an adult.
Zachary was converted to Catz 2 at the same time, as the first screenshot I could find of him as a B&W Shorthair is also dated 11/15/97. The second pic shows him more grown up.
The two screenshots below are the only ones I found of them hanging out together -- they are time-stamped November 21, 1997. Precious.
Dogz 3 & Catz 3 (January 19, 1999 - April 2002)
Everything indicates that I converted Bytes to Dogz 3 on January 19, 1999, as this is the date shown as his adoption date in his current pet profile, as well as all of his descendants' family trees.
For Zachary, the next file I could find after his original Catz 1 file from 1997, was named "zachary.pet", which showed his adoption date as 04/08/2002. That must be when he was converted to Catz 3. I have no idea why I don't have an earlier file or screenshots for him, with a 1999 time stamps like Bytes'. I'm thinking it's possible that I only bought Catz 3 later. I was indeed more into dogz than catz back then.
1st screenshots of Bytes (1999) & Zach (2002) in Petz 3
In any case, Petz 3 is when my petz population literally exploded! I could finally breed petz! Breeding mixies would become my absolute passion here on out!
Another thing that was new to me, and that I discovered during my Petz 3 ventures, was the early Petz Community, as well as pose shows.
The Early Petz Community & Pose Shows (2002-2003)
When I first came across the Petz Community in 2002, there was only one main forum I can remember, called "The Petz Forum", a few notorious websites (I recall Carolyn Horn, Supernova, Pinecone Cattery...), and a scattering of smaller but active websites.
There were pose shows on The Petz Forum, but they didn't always get judged, or were slow-going with a low chance of placing (EBW shows did not exist -- I started that on RKC). Back then, though, the majority of individually-run Petz websites were hosting their own pose shows. We would email our entries directly, blindly waiting for the show to fill up, which could sometimes take a while, and they would usually post the results on their sites -- so you had to keep checking.
My newfound interest in pose shows is when I started breeding more catz than dogz, because I found them so much easier to pose (especially in P5).
The Birth of RKC (June 27, 2003)
One day, out of the blue, the Petz Forum closed its doors permanently, with only a brief note replacing what used to be there, telling members it was over. Nobody knew it was coming, and nobody knew why. All members found themselves scattered to the four winds, many having no idea how to get in touch with the others.
I started working on opening a new forum shortly, rallying the old members as best I could to a new home we could share, offering moderator positions to a few people I knew from the old forum.
That's how RKC started.
My first show petz and favorite breeders -- Descendants of Bytes & Zach!
Some of my first show petz were, of course, descendants of Bytes and Zach. Here are a few of my favorite petz from the past, both for earning SGCh titles and for continuing their legacy in my breeding frenzy (I know some poses are bad -- it was still knew to me):
Some of Bytes' SGCh Descendants
2019 < Titus | Botox | Schmancy | Gravitar | Evolution | Crumpet | Octet | Megabytes > 2003
Some of Zach's SGCh Descendants
2004 < Chaussettes | Eminent | Pinks | Panache | Totem | Totentanz| Galaxy > 2003
2004 < Chaussettes | Eminent | Pinks | Panache | Totem | Totentanz| Galaxy > 2003
Petz 5 (January/March 2003 - 2022)
I bought Dogz 5 in January 2003, and Catz 5 in March 2003. I loved having 5 new breeds of dogz and catz to mix with! I loved being able to have litters of 4, and I loved the better color palette! I never found the need to have Petz 4, so that's the only version I skipped (it's kind of ironical, I know).
I got really interested in breeding German Shepherds when I first got P5 because it reminded me of my real dog from long ago. I also dabbed a little bit in hexing, releasing a few hexed breedz around that time (Spotted Wildcat, Swiss Mau, Desert Bear, Mini Manifold, and Pergyptian).
I will end this trip down memory lane with a few screenshots of Bytes and Zachary playing together in Petz 5, at the ripe old age of 25 for Bytes, and 24 for Zach!
Screenshot thumbnails of Bytes in Dogz 1 (1996-1997)
Data evidence: actual adoption dates vs dates in profiles vs screenshots time stamps...
I couldn't find Bytes original Dogz 1 file anywhere (so far). Also, unfortunately, the earliest "adoption" dates shown in my current Bytes and Zach profiles do not match their actual 1996 and 1997 adoption dates. Converting them from earlier versions apparently changed their adoption dates to the dates they were converted (to P3 I think). I'm not sure why my current Zachary file has an adoption date of 4/8/2002 instead of 1999 like Bytes'. I suspect I may have bought Catz 3 later, or some of the missing links were backed up on floppy disks, which I possibly still have BUT can't read anymore. It's annoying. I wish they both had their actual adoption dates in their profiles.
I couldn't find Bytes original Dogz 1 file anywhere (so far). Also, unfortunately, the earliest "adoption" dates shown in my current Bytes and Zach profiles do not match their actual 1996 and 1997 adoption dates. Converting them from earlier versions apparently changed their adoption dates to the dates they were converted (to P3 I think). I'm not sure why my current Zachary file has an adoption date of 4/8/2002 instead of 1999 like Bytes'. I suspect I may have bought Catz 3 later, or some of the missing links were backed up on floppy disks, which I possibly still have BUT can't read anymore. It's annoying. I wish they both had their actual adoption dates in their profiles.
To keep track of what I've found (so far -- I'll update if I find more):
03/10/1996: First screenshot of Bytes in Dogz 1.
04/09/1997: Zach's "catz0.cat" file time stamp in Catz 1. Same date is also shown within the file when viewed with LNZPro.
11/15/1997: First screenshot of Bytes as a Great Dane in Dogz 2.
11/15/1997: First screenshot of Zach as a B&W Shorthair in Catz 2.
01/19/1999: Bytes adoption date in current pet profile and descendants' family trees (= conversion to Petz 3)
02/09/1999: First screenshot of Bytes in Dogz 3.
04/07/2002: First screenshot of Zach in Catz 3? WHY 1 day BEFORE adoption date shown in his current profile?! And why nothing between 1997 and 2002? (might be on floppy disks...)
04/08/2002: Zach's adoption date in current pet profile and descendants' family trees (= conversion to Petz 3)
01/14/2003 - Bought Dogz 5
03/08/2003 - Bought Catz 5
I've been a slacker. *blush*