Yopparatchi

Factsheet

Developer:
MTNGODS
Based in Brooklyn, New York

Release date:
June 2019

Press / Business contact:
hello@mtngods.com

Social:
twitter.com/mtngods
instagram.com/mtngods

Address:
435 S5th St
Brooklyn, NY 11211

About

Description
Last year, Tamagotchi celebrated 21 years, making it finally old enough to drink. While its 20th birthday was marked with a celebratory anniversary edition of the digital pet, its 21st was met with crickets.

The creators over at MTN GODS got to thinking — what would their childhood digital pets be like if they had been able to keep them alive for this important milestone? What if they had been able to lovingly care for these little creatures for 21 years? The result is a tongue-in-cheek prototype called Yopparatchi.

How it works
Yopparatchi (from the Japanese word ‘Yopparai’ meaning ‘drunk’) is a retro-inspired digital pet and drinking buddy equipped with an alcohol sensor that’s used to help feed your new friend. Take a drink, blow into the sensor, and if it detects alcohol, your Yopparatchi gets a drink, too!

When you turn it on, you’re greeted by a very grumpy and very sober pet. Pressing its colorful buttons gives it a drink, but with a catch: it doesn’t like to drink alone. In order for it to take a drink, you’ll need to blow into the alcohol sensor built into the device. Take turns with friends, helping keep Yopparatchi tipsy and happy.

But be careful! Just like you cleaned up your Tamagotchi’s digital defecation, you need to care for Yopparatchi. If it drinks too much you may have to clean up its pixel puke and nurse it back to sobriety. If you wait too long between drinks, Yopparatchi grabs a cup of coffee.

Why make this, you may ask?
Designed & fabricated from scratch, Yopparatchi was made totally in house, from the character design & form factor, all the way down to the custom circuit board.

Yopparatchi was created for fun and personal education, and not to market booze to children. Therefore Yopparatchi won’t be sold or mass produced. It will, however, play a steady stream of classic 8-bit sounds from a tiny speaker, while you party the night away. View the full project on MTN GODS’ site: http://mtngods.com/projects/yopparatchi

Technical
Yopparatchi is based on the Teensy 3.2 board and is programmed in Arduino. The graphics are driven by individually drawn frames which are read from a micro SD card and then buffered to a color TFT screen. It has a rechargeable 1200 mAh lipo battery that can be charged via micro USB. The enclosure was modeled in Fusion 360 and printed on a resin based 3D printer.

Features

Embedded alcohol sensor
Full color LCD screen
Piezo speaker for classic 8 bit sounds
Rechargeable lipo battery

Studio

Description
MTN GODS is a Brooklyn-based art, design, and technology studio founded by Philip Sierzega and Charlie Whitney, multidisciplinary artists that create interactive experiences. We use emerging technology to make the near future the present. We collaborate with forward thinking clients in technology, music, education, museums, and advertising.