This Page is a Work In Progress!
What is Petz?
The Petz this website is dedicated to may be different than the Petz games you've heard of in recent years. Petz got its start in 1995 with the release of Dogz: Your Virtual Petz by P. F. Magic (source). More games were released (Catz, and later Petz 2, Petz 3, Petz 4, and Petz 5). However, the game changed hands and UBI Soft used the name for a completely unrelated series of games with names like Petz, Dogz, Catz, Horsez, and so on. These games are not made in the same style as the Petz beloved by the Petz Community and we only speak of them in hushed, angry whispers.
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The true Petz games are wonderfully intricate pet simulations crafted with care and devotion, to organically replicate the love and affection real life human and animals share (source 1, source 2). The petz themselves have an in depth Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, system, allowing them to have favorite colors of toy, toys that scare them, have rivalries with other pets, and have a deep friendship with other pets. The full depth of this AI is still being discovered (source). Behaviors can be discouraged or encouraged using the spray bottle as punishment or petting as a reward respectively. In addition, all dogs and certain cats can learn actual tricks with the use of treats.
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The release of Petz 3 in 1998 added a new feature to the games. Breeding. While the games were already very in depth, this added whole new layers to it. It allowed for many trait combinations.
You could have a tabby cat with a persian tail or a dalmatian with scottie ears. With the total of fifteen breeds of each species in the games after the release of Petz 5, there are over 11 MILLION possible trait combinations and that's exclusively speaking of body shape traits, not color, markings, and fur type. This also allowed for Selective Breeding (source 1, source 2) |
The Petz games drew in a wide audience, many of which either were already technologically skilled or became so because of their interest in the games (source 1, source 2). Due to this, many people began to access the code behind Petz. One benefit of this was the invention of PetzA (source), a program that offers many features to help improve the Petz experience such as causing pregnant petz to instantly give birth, the ability to age petz up and down as desired, and neuter and un-neuter pets with a click of a button. These days, it also helps the games work on newer computers and therefore is a bit of a must for any person that intends to play. You are not required to use the 'cheats' to play, but the game may not work well without PetzA installed.
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PetzA wasn't the only invention by talented petz players! People also began to look at what made the petz look the way they do and figured out how to make custom petz. This is known as Hexing in the community. Talented artists have been able to make all sorts of petz, from new dog and cat breeds, to whole new species like horses and dragons. There is literally no limit to what people can hex into the game. Made by the same person as PetzA, LNZPro and Pet Workshop are the programs many use to hex (source 1, source 2), but there are other programs out there.
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How do you play Petz?
Any way you want!
You start out being taken to the Adoption Center where, depending on which game version you have, you can adopt a dog or cat from a number of breeds. Fifteen of each if you have Petz 5 or more if you have Hexed breedfiles added to your game! You can adopt two at a time, but don't worry, you can come back for more later! After adopting your new friend(s), you will be taken to the Family Room scene. There is a lovely fireplace that you can turn off and on, as well as a window you can open and close. Many of these rooms, known as Playscenes, have interactions. You can travel between these rooms with the Go To button on the carrying case, which is the doggie door thing you can move around. Clicking the little arrow next to the camera icon lets you expand the carrying case to see what items you have in it, or shrink it so it takes up less room. Petz 5 lets you shrink it into a very tiny thing, but the other games don't let you make it smaller than the doggie door. The camera icon takes pictures, but you can also do that with the spacebar. |
There are keyboard shortcuts to travel between scenes. [These were tested in Petz 4, I will test Petz 5 shortly]
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There are many ways to play with your petz. As previously mentioned, you can teach them tricks. In the video to the right, you can see my dog Jake demonstrating some of the tricks they can learn.
Warning: Keep volume muted or very low as the sound is loud! I am not an expert on teaching petz tricks, so I will link to a forum post where more experienced people than me have created a guide (source). |
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Teaching your petz tricks is far from the only thing you can do with your petz. You can teach them to jump through a hoop, you can play fetch with them, you can dress them up, brush them, pet them, scare them with a halloween pumpkin, or even just watch them run around and play with each other.
You can try to figure out your petz favorite toys or what toys they dislike. Watch as they form friendships or rivalries with each other. Maybe plant a garden in the back yard and shake your fist in frustration as they keep knocking the seeds away from where you carefully placed them! |
Breeding can also be a big part of gameplay. Petz grow over time, starting as puppies or kittens and eventually becoming full adults. They are able to breed after around five days of being adopted from the Adoption Center, though they are not fully grown until just over two weeks. There are no negative effects to breeding them as soon as they are able versus waiting. Petz does not have any consequences to such actions.
To see if your petz are able to breed, you can view their profiles. In Petz 5, that can be done by clicking the icon beside their name in the carrying case, but Petz 3 and Petz 4 require you to go up to the options bar at the top of the screen, select Petz, then Profiles, and then click on who you wish to view. If it says "Adult," the pet can breed. In order to breed, you must have two adult petz of the same species. Cats and dogs cannot breed with each other. You can use tools such as the Perfume Bottles and Heart Treats to encourage them to breed, but ultimately it is up to them whether they like each other or not. Some petz will not breed with each other no matter what you do and others will breed the instant they're together. |
When they breed, a heart will appear and tell you they are expecting a puppy or kitten. If it is Petz 3 and Petz 4, there will only be a single offspring. In Petz 5, you can have up to four babies. They will be born in approximately three days. They are born blind and helpless. They will nurse from their mother instead of eating, but you can also feed them with a milk bottle. Be care of this, as they can gain wait quickly and may be very chunky babies! After two days, they open their eyes and start running around. After another two days, they are weaned and are the same age as petz adopted from the Adoption Center.
If you want a quicker method, you can use PetzA to instantly make petz mate, give birth, and cause the babies to grow up all in the same day. |
If you intend to get involved with the Petz Community, fellow Petz players, there are a number of other ways to play the Petz games. Other players often host "Pose Shows" on forums, where you take a picture of your pet in pose (source) and submit it to a show. These shows are judged by players based on the quality of the poses entered.
There are also organizations that take inspiration from real life dog and cat shows, where the pets are based on how well they meet a standard in addition to the quality of their pose (source). People also host shows based on other concepts, such as herding, flyball, frisbee, and tricks. These shows tend to be less popular than typical pose shows. |
Once you take Hexing into account, there are limitless options for petz you can have. You can have horses, cows, goats, sheep, dragons, griffins, snakes, and even creatures of your own invention!
Breed files that are not dogs or cats are often referred to as "Wildz." Many files are available for free download from several sources, but some remain exclusive and may only be given out as individual adoptions or rewards for contests. Some 'Wildz' files have communities based around them, like Lepitaur Haven for the Lepitaur file (source) or Seeing Stars for specific horse files (source). [If there are any more, please let me know so I can add them!] |
Which game should I play?
This honestly is a controversial subject in the Petz Community (source 1), so I won't be telling you which to play. Rather, I'll tell you some features of each. Sadly, I cannot speak to Petz 3 or Petz 1 as I have never played them, so this will be purely about Petz 2, Petz 4, and Petz 5.
Petz 2 doesn't have breeding and I haven't been able to get it to run on modern computers. It also has less breeds, though with hexing, I'm sure they could be added, and no playscenes besides the playpen and desktop. Petz 4 is backwards compatible with petz from Petz 3, which is why you may see people write 'Petz 3/4' when discussing what game a certain pet is available for. When breeding, petz only give birth to one baby at a time and the mother and baby can be brought into any playscene. All game items are available in the Toy Closet from the start of the game. Petz 5 is not backwards compatible. Petz from 3 and 4 can be added to Petz 5, but not the other way around. Breeding in Petz 5 can result in 1-4 babies at a time, but they are forced to stay in the Nursery playscene. Petz 5 has mini games such as Rock-Paper-Scissors, Tic-Tack-Toe, and Simon Says. You must collect toys and items from exploring playscenes and playing mini games to have them. They are carried in your Carrying Case at all times, rather than in the Toy Closet. This can make it hard to navigate, as the Carrying Case is very small and there are many items. Many players find Petz 5 to have more glitches than Petz 4, but I cannot speak to that as I have not had issues. |
How do I get started?
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You can attempt to buy the games from places like Amazon and E-bay. They are no longer manufactured, however, and so the price will likely rise as less and less copies will be available over time. Several players have made copies of the game available through download (source 1, source 2, source 3).
To get started in the Petz Community, RKC may be the best place (source). If you need any help learning the ropes of Petz, please feel free to use the forum included on this page to contact me. The reason I've written this is to help new people get into petz, so I am here to assist anyone! |