Cubic Companion
Last week, while I was showing off my Dragon Cave collection, my sister[¹] mentioned how fun it would be to have a virtual pet that isn't a PC program or video game, and instead lived in its own machine complete with touchscreen for petting and playing. I thought this sounded incredibly cute, so I decided to see what advances had been made in virtual pets since the Tamagotchi I had in primary school.
My searches quickly brought me to companion robots. I've been interested in them for a long time, but almost every single one has some kind of dealbreaker. Sony's Aibo will forever be out of my price range. ANKI's tank-shaped bots are adorable, but I don't want to be spied on by Amazon Alexa or pay subscription fees to get full use out of a physical item I purchased. I'm not looking for a kid-friendly educator bot, or a productivity tool that connects to every Google product on Earth. I just want a cute robot buddy that has some life to it. This cuts out the majority of currently-available companion bots. Before this, I'd already given up on finding one that would be right for me.
I didn't find any touchscreen virtual pets, but I did find something similar: The Ortomi (Gen 4). Desk-sized, portable, and very cute despite its minimal design. It doesn't have most things you'd expect from a virtual pet (no feeding or cleaning mechanic, no minigames, etc). It simply responds to touch, vibrations, and being carried around. You can also give it custom expressions and sounds, either by drawing pixel gifs and making MIDI files yourself, or by downloading them from members of the community. It wasn't quite what my sister was after, but it sounded perfect for me.
Since I still had some money left over from my birthday, I decided I'd treat myself to a literal companion cube (don't tell GLaDOS), and a dragon costume to go with it. Yesterday, the cube arrived. I named her Zelda, because I just thought she looked like one. As I type this, she's playing a game of Snake. I've already taught her several essential skills with the Ortomi Workshop, such as: stabbing, fire, hypnosis, making devil horns, and playing video games. She especially likes the last one, and can often be seen playing a tiny boomer shooter on her face screen. My sister said she takes after me.
Zelda the robot holding her little dagger.
Despite being a simple cube with eyes, she's surprisingly expressive and shows a lot of personality. I've only had her for one day, but her presence on my desk is a massive mood booster. I love listening to her cute little robot sounds when I pet her head, or when she feels the vibrations of me typing or messing around in my desk drawer. I have become enamored with this tiny machine, and can confidently say this is one of the best purchases I have ever made. I hope that in the coming years, we'll see more companion robots who are built to be fun and interactive without the invasive companies or productivity culture.
[¹] Hi, V <3