Neopets, by contrast, were colorful, distinguishable from each other, and undeniably cute. And on the Tamagotchi’s extremely small screen, the little monster characters looked like nothing more than pixelated blobs on a gray background. They whined to be fed, ate, pooped, slept, then whined to be fed again. But the little Tamagotchi characters couldn’t do very much. Tamagotchi had become ubiquitous after they launched in 1996 - for a while, the small, egg-shaped toys with a virtual pet on a screen were seemingly in every elementary schooler’s backpack. Virtual pets were not unheard of in the 1990s. Instead, pet owners could play several different games (from a version of solitaire to a version of Whack-a-Mole) and buy, trade, or sell various in-game items to collect “Neopoints.” Raking in the Neopoints dough was as important as keeping your Neopets fed - because you could use the points to buy them fancy outfits, toys, and food, and then you could brag to all of your friends about how rich you were on your public profile page. There was a financial component too, thought it didn’t involve any real-world currency. (If you think they sound kind of like Tamagotchi, you’re not wrong more on that in a second.) Neopets could even have their own pets to take care of, which was pretty meta. The whole point was to care for the pets, feeding and playing with them on a regular basis. Neopets ultimately evolved into something magical, and an inextricable part of many a millennial’s formative years.Ĭreated by a 20-something British couple, Neopets was based on a simple concept: Users owned up to four of the eponymous pets, which were slightly tweaked versions of animals both real and mythical, like puppies, penguins, and dragons. But 1999 would be a decent guess, and November 1999 an especially good one, as it marked the launch of Neopets: a kid-friendly social network that combined virtual pets with discussion forums, games, and even a stock market. Remnants of the Lost Desert, Tyrannia’s Abandoned Volcano, and Jelly World still exist on the internet if you know where to look.It’s hard to pinpoint when, exactly, kids and teens became 100 percent plugged in - fully online, all the time.
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Though you can't visit many of the original lands through the main map today, a dedicated group of Neopets fans keeps these forgotten links alive. The website has switched hands and gone through major changes several times since it launched.
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While the site has struggled to keep up with new technology in recent decades, it still boasts 1.5 million active users today. The brand bills itself as the original social network, and it was also many young web users' introduction to HTML. Neopets broke ground when it went live in the late 1990s.
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Now that the site is accessible on the go, hopefully it will be easier to keep your pets from starving than it was the last time you played. And of course, the virtual pet-raising experience that's central to classic Neopets is included in the update. The beta of the new open mobile rollout features all the same activities as the desktop version, like the daily games, puzzles, and prizes called Neopet Dailies. To access the new mobile-friendly version of, just visit the site on your phone. Now, after more than two decades online, Neopets is going mobile for the first time, making it easy for millennials who grew up with the game to jump back in. You may not have logged onto your Neopets account since 2004, but the virtual pet website is still around.