SEAMAN DEV GOING IPHONE WITH GABO
Yutaka ‘Yoot’ Saito hasn’t quite yet become a household name, but if you were gaming throughout the Dreamcast era you’ve probably at least heard of his work: he’s the creator of the wonderfully grotesque Leonard Nemoy-voiced pet simulator Seaman, as well as the designer behind Maxis’s SimTower (which later was released to GBA and DS as The Tower) and GameCube feudal Japan pinball/strategy game (!) Odama.
While we in the West haven’t been treated to Saito’s work since Odama, he has continued to rework his Seaman idea since, with a mobile phone version and a proper Seaman 2 sequel for PlayStation 2. Unlike the fishtank first, that sequel featured a Peking man with a disturbingly pert umbilical cord called Gabo, whom you communicated with as he went about his daily life (with a now more-evolved Seaman working as your companion).
Though it’s fairly clear we’ll never see a proper English version of Seaman 2, Saito has now revealed that he’s bringing Gabo to iPhones as a low-priced app that lets you more directly poke at, pester, feed, and clean him, with what looks to feature about as much functionality as your average Tamagotchi.
His company DigiToys has uploaded a quick demonstration video of what to expect, and, after watching him mutter quietly to himself while tweaking and twisting his cord and then screaming impotently into the watery void, I have to admit I’m already forming a fast bond.
Gabo! ver1.0 [DigiToys, YouTube trailer]
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