Digital Monster

Did You Know?

• The original Digimon Device has three buttons and one reset button; pressing A and C simultaneously toggles the sound.
• When brought to the US, elements such as the "Megalithic Mainframe" were added to soften the concept of death, so Digimon return to a fictional world instead of dying.
• The Digimon Mini is much smaller than the original pets, with a minimized character set and no status screen for hunger.

History

Makoto Kitagawara and Kenji Watanabe of WiZ, along with Ayumu Horimura of Bandai, were key figures in the Digital Monster's development. Kitagawara and Watanabe had been in WiZ's game department before moving to the toy department, where Kitagawara worked on debugging and spec documents for a second-generation Tamagotchi. This led to discussions for a male-oriented Tamagotchi, with Horimura supervising. The device was initially called "Otokotchi" and then "Capsule Zaurus" before being renamed Digital Monster due to potential trademark issues. Watanabe designed the first two monsters, Tyranomon and Agumon, influenced by American comics such as Spawn and artists like Simon Bisley and Mike Mignola.

Digimon Pendulums

In 1998, Bandai released the Pendulums series, which introduced higher evolution levels and the Jogress function for combining certain Digimon. The pendulum counted how many times the device was shaken. Five versions were released: Nature Spirit (version 1), Deep Savers (version 2), Nightmare Soldier (version 3), Wind Guardian (version 4), and Metal Empire (version 5), each followed by a 0.5 version with altered character lineups. A Version 0 representing Virus Busters was later released. The Pendulum Progress succeeded the original series, with three units that expanded character lineups and allowed battling a computer monster. The Pendulum X series, released in 2003, combined RPG elements from Digivice games with pet-raising and was accompanied by a story titled Digimon Chronicle, told through prose and short manga comics in the booklets, with four chapters sold with each progressive version.

Digimon 20th anniversary

On June 26, 2017, the 20th anniversary edition of the original Digital Monster was released in Japan, featuring new functions such as Web Link and the ability to train two Digimon simultaneously. It came in original brown and gray colors, included versions 1 through 5, 134 trainable Digimon, and 154 appearing Digimon. Special Digi-Eggs could be obtained by meeting conditions, and fusing the brown-exclusive Agumon with the gray-exclusive Gabumon yielded Omnimon. In November 2017, three additional colors (Omegamon, Alphamon, Zubamon) were released in Japan, each with exclusive Digi-Eggs. Connecting the first and second waves unlocked a Dorumon Egg. The edition was released worldwide in 2019. In June 2018, a 20th anniversary edition of the Pendulum series was released, exclusively in Japan.

Digimon X

In March 2019, Bandai released Digimon X, an updated version combining features of the 20th anniversary release and the Pendulum X series, with RPG-like gameplay where Digimon earn experience points and level up through battles. The English release came in October 2021 in two versions with two colors each. Digimon X Version 2, released in Japan on November 16, 2019, featured the Seven Great Demon Lords; its English release in March 2022 had a programming glitch causing incorrect characters, leading to a recall. Digimon X Version 3, released in Japan in March 2020, featured 13 Holy Knight Digimon and their battle against the Seven Great Demon Lords, remaining exclusive to Japan. In 2023, Bandai America launched four new color variations with Dice Roll Attack, Quest Mode, and various evolution paths, available at major retailers.