The Tamagotchi was first released in Japan in 1996 after it was developed by Akihiro Yokoi and his colleagues at his toy development company.
Measuring just a few centimetres long, the egg-shaped digital gadget was home to a series of pixelated alien pets.
Owners had to feed, clean and play with their pets by pressing three tiny buttons. Looking after your Tamagotchi and seeing them evolve was thrilling for many children and its popularity quickly spread from Japan across the world.
Almost 100 million Tamagotchis have been sold in more than 50 countries.
Akihiro Yokoi tells Emily Uchida Finch how the hit toy was born, and the impact its prevalence has had on his life and career.
A Whistledown production.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
(Photo: Tamagotchi. Credit: Yves Forestier/Sygma via Getty Images)
