Waylaid on the Road to Riches

kaboom!Tamagotchi! kaboom!

'Round about two years ago this April, they invaded. Unless you have been living with Mrs. Dial and her dogs on the prairie, you have probably seen them: the egg-shaped, LED virtual pets that pretty much every child in the seven to twelve age set nurtured and played with until the fad became passé.

One of the Waylaid authors had a Tamagotchi, and deliberately starved it, beat it, and ignored it after it began chirping at 7 am on a Sunday morning. And still, it lived!

To learn more about these pesky pretend pets, visit the Tamagotchi Collectors Page.

For those who prefer their virtual pets a little grimmer, even suicidal, the Tamagothi is a must-see.

And finally, for those who'd rather see all Tamagotchi dead, there is the Godzilla vs. Tamagotchi" video game, which "lets you become Godzilla and crush successive waves of Tamagotchis to keep Tokyo safe from oppressive cuteness."