Disney's

     Toy Story

VIRTUAL FRIENDS (TM) Space Explorer

* 3 different space creatures to care for: Alien, dog and bird

* Extensive life-like animation on jumbo screen with sound efects

* Special features: PAUSE function and BEST RECORD memory

* Play, excercise, and feed your intergalactic space friends

* Different excercises and activities for each space friend

* Play interactive target games to capture UFOs on radar

* Choose regular or power sleep time

* Watch out for the "CLAW", as it tries to kidnap your friends

* Batteries included

Back cover of the package:

VIRTUAL FRIENDS (TM) Space Explorer

The toy is by 'Thinkway Toys (New York)' and manufactured in China.

  -----------

The LCD screen is 3cm x 3cm with the top and bottom showing the different

function icons and the 3cm wide by 1.5 cm wide region in the middle is a

29 x 16 pixel display.

There are 4 buttons, small but spaced wide enough apart for big fingers

to press them.  The buttons are labeled as such:

       []    []             []     []

  Select >  < Select       Skip    Enter

When you pull the tab to start the game (or hit the reset button on back)

you have to set the clock and choose between KG amd LBS.  The screen displays

a cute opening animation showing the ship's air supply being filled and then

you'll see the 3 possible creatures you'll be taking care of.

  [ 3-eyed alien from "Toy Story" ]

  [ A 3-eyed dog with an antenna ]

  [ A 3-legged ostrich-like bird ]

The CLAW (see 'Toy Story' for the reference) will come down and take two of

them at random ... the one remaining is the one you take care of.

The SELECT buttons scroll through the 8 function icons.  The following is

a quick description of the functions (the instructions provided in the

package are more detailed)

  Feeding [ pizza-shaped icon ]  --  Obviously, aliens only eat pizza :-)

    Each meal increases your pet's weight and adds one to it's "HUNGRY" level.

    The pet won't eat if full.  Extra uneaten food somehow contaminates the

    air.

Sleeping [ sun-shaped icon ]   --  Turn on/off the light for the creature

    Should be turned off when sleeping otherwise it'll get sick.

    Automatically turns back on when the creature awakens.

    You can select 'SLOW' or 'POWER' sleep..

    'SLOW' means the creature will sleep from 9PM to 7AM on the toy's clock.

    'POWER' will accelerate the toy's clock by a factor of 60 (only when the

    creature is sleeping) so it will only sleep about 10 min 'real time'.

  Game [ target symbol icon ]  --  Shoot down rebel UFOs.  Use SELECT < >

    to move the radar around.. when you see a blip on the radar hit ENTER

    to fire.  The blip doesn't stay in one place very long. 

    3 out of 5 hits and the creature's 'HAPPY' level goes up by one. 

    4 or 5 out of 5 and the creature's 'HAPPY' level increases by 2 units.

      

  Air [ swirly-shaped icon ]  --  You can select 'Filter' or 'Oxygen'...

    Use 'Filter' cleans the air (you see specks on the screen when it needs

    filtering).  Use 'Oxygen' fills the air tanks.

  Clock [ Clock with electrons orbiting it icon ] -- This is the 'pause'

    feature.  Turning this on will make the display show the word [STOP]

    and will stop the toy's clock as well.

  First Aid [ First aid cross icon ] -- Press this and a UFO-shaped ambulence

    will zip by to help the creature (if it is sick).  If it is NOT sick it

    will shake it's head to say 'no' at you.

  Mission Log icon [ Document shaped icon ] -- View two types of stats..

    'PET' info and 'DATA' info. 

    - 'PET' info is Age, Weight, and 'Best record'. 

    - 'DATA' info is its 'HUNGRY' level (shown as 0-5 slices of pizza),

      'HAPPY' level (shown as 0-4 happy faces), and HEALTH is shown as a

      horizontal bar not unlike that for fighting-style video games.

      Also mentions if the creature is over or under weight.

  Excercise [ Space Bar-bell icon ] -- This differs with the 3 creatures:

    Alien -- Catch space balls

    Dog -- Catch flying saucers (frisbees)

    Bird -- Jump hurdles

  The more done in 15 seconds, the more health is added to the health bar. 

  Each time the creature excersizes it's weight drops and its "HUNGRY" level

  goes down... also the air will need filtering faster.

  Attention [ triangle-shaped icon ] -- shows up only if something is wrong

  *  When its HUNGRY level too low ... or over/underweight

  *  When its HAPPY level too low

  *  When sick (also, a '+' will appear on the screen)

  *  When air is dirty (also little specks will appear on the screen)

  *  When 1 1/2 of the 3 oxygen tanks are empty

  *  When THE CLAW appears

 

The Claw --

  The claw appears from time to time to try to take away your creature.

  To make it go away you need to play an win (3 out of 5 or more) the

  target game.  The longer you wait to play and win the game, the closer

  the claw will get.

* If you press the first three buttons together you get a little easter egg..

  The screen displays in two pages:

                      ------------    ------------

                     |    THINK   |  |  (C) 1997  |

                     |     WAY    |  |            |

                      ------------    ------------

* Too much fiddling with pressing multiple buttons actually caused a glitch

  in my game resetting it and even erasing my 'Best Record'.