HamsterSoft presents...

VirtualHamster 1.3.2
by Ian J. Lander
http://members.xoom.com/koolham/virtualhamster.html

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WHAT IS IT?
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VirtualHamster is a small program that simulates a pet hamster. You can feed it hamster mix, lettuce, cheese, or treats. You can pet it, groom it, squeeze it with love, make sure its water bottle is full, and clean up its poop that it leaves in its cage. This latest version includes a much more complicated simulation that will almost compare to the real thing and improvements are made all the time! For people who can't own real pets for whatever reason, VirtualHamster is the right program for you!

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NEW IN 1.3.2
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* Added sounds!
* The food, stress, and water levels are now represented in progress bars instead of numbers.
* The hunger level has been changed to the food level. The scale is from 1 to 10: 1 being starving and 10 being full.
* The hunger, stress, and water level now randomly change while VirtualHamster is running. Be sure to check on the little thing here and there to see if it has been fed enough or if he needs some petting from all its stress. The water level also decreases randomly, so check the water level if the bottle needs to be refilled!
* The hamster now looks big and fat when it gets full and it looks skinny and squished when its starving or if its squeezed too much.
* VirtualHamster for PC! You heard right, the PC version of VirtualHamster is available and identical to the Mac version!
* VirtualHamster is redeveloped with REALbasic(TM), which will make the overall appearance and performance much better than before!
* The lettuce has been replaced with a new, better picture.
* The hunger level can go in the negatives to indicate how full the hamster is; if it gets too stuffed, it will die.
* Alfalfa hay has been added to the bottom of the cage to make it look more realistic. For now it will look simplistic until I find a decent picture.
* The hamster now says even more things creating a different combination of thoughts whenever you do something!

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NEW IN 1.2
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* The hamster now moves around the cage randomly when you do things.
* The cage is now bigger so the hamster can move around more
* A new water bottle has been added to the cage, the hamster randomly drinks from the bottle when it moves around the cage; there is a water meter so you know when to refill the bottle.
* The hamster now dies if its hunger or stress gets up to 30, or if the water bottle runs out of water.
* The hamster now says more things when it poops, gets hungry, thirsty, or is stressed out.
* The hunger level can now go in the negatives to indicate how full the hamster is, if it gets too stuffed it will die.
* Added color to the borders around the different options.

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NEW IN 1.1
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* The hamster now randomly poops depending on what you feed it! Don't forget to clean it up! :)
* There is now a hunger and stress meter that keeps track of your hamster's health. Be sure to feed it when it's hungry and pet/groom it when its stressed!
* Improved the overall layout of VirtualHamster!

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SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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Macintosh:

Any PowerPC(TM) or 68K
Mac OS 8 or later
2 MB free RAM
1 MB of HD space

PC:

Any Pentium, 100% compatible, or 486 processor
Windows 95 or later
2 MB free RAM
Less than 1 MB of HD space

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HOW DO I USE IT?
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It is fairly straight forward. Double-click on VirtualHamster to run it. It is comprised of options of things to do with your hamster. For instance if you want to feed your Hamster lettuce, you click on the Lettuce radio button and then click on the Feed button. You do this for the other types of food and also to pet or groom your Hamster. You can even squeeze your Hamster (not to kill it, but like a hug). I will be adding many more features in later versions. Please send suggestions and I will see what I can do.

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DOES IT COST ANYTHING?
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It is free to use but I will accept donations. Donations will motivate me to continue to develope more programs. If you would like to donate money (cash/check) sent it to my address listed under contact information.

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CONTACT INFORMATION
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Ian J. Lander
10860 Ivy Hill Drive #6
San Diego, CA 92131

Send questions or comments to:
koolham@yahoo.com

Original file name: ReadMe - converted on Sunday, 17 October 1999, 01:01