FAQs

What is Tamatown?

"Tamatown" - also known as "Tamagotchi Town" - refers to a series of online Flash games intended to serve as a supplement to several of the devices from the "Tamagotchi Connection" series. The site allowed the user to explore the town, play a range of games, and obtain items for their Tamagotchi.In 2013 the Tamatown servers were taken down, at which point, only a small portion of the SWF files required to run the game had been preserved on the web archive.

Wait, are you bringing back Tamatown?

This website is not a Tamatown recreation site. The purpose of this website is to make it clear what is currently archived, what is yet to be found, and how we might go about recovering what is lost.

How much is preserved so far?

Only a small portion of each site. The worst cases are for the V3, V4 and V6/7 Tamatowns - I've included a table below with rough percentages of what is found for each version. Note that this only counts one version of each file - including all versions and localisations of each file, the percentages would be a whole lot lower.

Have you checked the WayBack Machine?

Yes. This was the first place that was checked, and it's been completely scoured for files. The pages on this website detail all of the files which were archived on the WayBack Machine.

Have you tried asking Jason Scott, in case there's something you've missed?

Interesting question. I actually do speak with Jason on occasion, and he's involved in another project I'm working on. Despite this, I don't think reaching out to him would help - it isn't likely that some of the archived files have been missed due to the approach we've taken in searching for the archived files.To clarify, the WayBack Machine actually has a feature which allows you to view all of the sites captured under a given domain. So, for example, the address https://web.archive.org/web/\*/http://v3.tamatown.com/\* takes the user to a page listing all of the pages captured under the v3.tamatown.com domain, and this can be easily searched for the files we seek. As each of the Tamatown domains have been covered, there isn't a strong likelihood of any of the files being overlooked.

I think the V4 site is archived but it won't let me enter Tamatown, why?

This is a common misconception. The V4 site was not archived, only a few small fragments of it were. For a while, it was thought that the only thing stopping people from playing was the servers being down (and thus the password entry being down), but even if you're able to get past the password screen, you aren't going to get any further than the main town area of Tamatown.

When were the passwords cracked? Are the password generators still active?

The V3 and V4 item passwords were cracked in late 2019 and a generator for item codes can be found on my other website, MameMame Labs. V4 login / logout passwords and all Music Star passwords are still a work in progress.A common misconception is that the V3, V4 and V6 passwords were cracked a long time ago, while the site was still active, because password generators from that time can be found on the web archive. These generators did not use the password algorithm directly, but instead queried the Tamatown site in the same way the SWF files would. All of the generation was done server-side, so as soon as the Tamatown servers went down, so did the generators.

What about this guy on GitHub?

In 2018, a GitHub user by the name of loociano began working on a project entitled "Waking Up Tamatown". The idea was to recover any of the lost SWF files that he could find, and host them on a new server.This was quickly met with a large amount of attention, possibly due to the misconception that he had been able to recover anything that wasn't already archived. Public perception was that he would soon have a fully working Tamatown and that he "just needed to find a few files", which is of course a lot more difficult than it was made to sound.The site was briefly active, and used the files that had already been recovered from the WayBack Machine. No new files were recovered while the project was active, and it was taken down shortly afterwards due to legal concerns.loociano's GitHub page is still up, and he provides some useful information about how Tamatown works and some of its files, though it should be noted that there are a number of inaccuracies in the lists of recovered / lost files and so they should be taken with a pinch of salt - when in doubt, refer to the lists on MameMame Library instead.

Did Bandai sue the guy that tried to revive Tamatown before?

No. Reddit and forum posts online suggest loociano was advised by random users to not continue with the project in case Bandai took legal action, and he agreed with taking this approach. There is no proof that Bandai actually took any legal action and none of the other attempts at re-hosting Tamatown have faced any legal trouble.

What about this MEGA folder?

At some point, someone made a MEGA folder containing a large amount of the files present on the Web Archive. No new files are present in this folder, though a few are renamed from their original names and for some reason there is a .fla version of the vote_off.swf file. Leftover code from the WayBack Machine can still be seen in the tama_help_welcome.xml file included within the folder.

Why not just recreate Tamatown with custom files?

While this would be a more achievable goal, the point is not simply to create something playable, but to preserve and archive a lost piece of history.There have been some attempted recreations in the past, including the aforementioned one by loociano, and also this one by Alex Grigoriou. These sites do not recover any of the lost files, however, and in Alex's case the lost files are substituted with games from the (very different) Japanese e-Tamago sites, or videos representing what each of the lost locations would have looked like. This is an interesting experience in its own right, but it doesn't really represent what the actual Tamatown site would have been like, so there's a lot of value to recovering parts of the site that aren't currently available.

Tamatown Files

Each table below gives a rough idea of how preserved each respective version of Tamatown is at this point in time, by listing how many files have been recovered for each site. These numbers are subject to change as more becomes understood about Tamatown. Additionally, since not all of the recovered files are of equal importance, the numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt.Click on the name of the Tamatown version to view more information about what is recovered for that particular version.

International Versions

All Tamatown versions from 2006 to 2013 used by internationally released devices are included below.

Japanese Versions

All Japanese-exclusive Tamatown versions are included below.

Other Files

Several other files can be considered tangentially related to Tamatown without being part of a Tamatown version themselves - this includes the post-2013 version of the site, which stayed up for a little while after the site was closed. Click the button below to learn more about those files.

• Other Files

Tamatown V3

In February 2006, the original version of Tamatown - to be used with Tamagotchi Connection V3 - was first launched.Over time, the site would receive a number of updates and be translated into a variety of different languages, resulting in each of the files having multiple different revisions. This version of Tamatown was available in US English (in both low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth versions), UK English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Russian and Polish. The European site additionally had options for Belgium and Switzerland, but these directed the user to pages with links to both the French and Dutch sites and the French and German sites, respectively. Only the US, German and Spanish sites have been at least partially preserved; no files from any of the other languages have surfaced, though it's likely that a few of the files would have been identical across multiple languages.The files for this version of Tamatown fall into several different categories:
- Location SWFs are the Flash files containing the various locations and games around Tamatown.
- Character SWFs are the Flash files used to display character animations when visiting the Tamagotchi's parents or grandparents.
- Item SWFs are the Flash files used to display item and souvenir sprites.
- MP3s are the music files used across Tamatown. The page for the MP3 files has been merged with the page for the V4 Tamatown, as the same files seem to be used by both sites.
- XML Files were often used to store all the text, item names and character names that would appear across the site.

File Lists

• Location SWFs
• Character SWFs
• Item SWFs
• MP3s
• XML

Other Pages

• Technical Details
• Image Gallery
• Videos and Media

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Tamatown V3 - Location SWFs

Files marked as "Archived" were archived via the WayBack Machine whilst Tamatown was still active. Those marked as "Lost" are currently still lost, and "Unclear" files are ones that have been inferred from some of the files we have, but we have not yet confirmed to exist. It should be noted that limited media of the V3 site is currently known to exist, so it's possible that some games and locations have been unintentionally excluded from this list.All of the SWF files below were held in the Tamatown root directory. For example, on the version of Tamatown hosted at http://v3.tamatown.com/, the tama\_shell.swf file is located at http://v3.tamatown.com/tama\_shell.swf.For more information on each of the locations within Tamatown, including details on the specific versions of each file which have been preserved, click on the entries in the "File" column below.

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Tamatown V3 - Main Location SWFs

The "Main Location SWFs" refer to a group of SWF files which handle the most important features of Tamatown - the overarching shell which runs the game, the intro sequence, and the main town area.For both the V3 and V4 Tamatowns, the preservation status of these SWFs is especially hopeful - at least one version of each of the three main SWFs for the V3 site have been found. In fact, we have two versions of each!Each section below details the function of each respective SWF file and all of the recovered variants. Versioning information includes the archival date, the language and whether it was a high or low bandwidth version. Note that only the US version had the option to choose between high and low bandwidth.Additionally, the first four characters of the SHA-1 hash has been listed alongside each file, as well as an archive link.

tama_shell.swf

Arguably the most important Flash file, tama_shell.swf is the shell loader file that is used to start the game. Much of the game's code and common assets are held within this file.Currently four variants of the file have been obtained, all archived via the WayBack Machine.

Lost Versions

Pre-April 2006 versions of the shell are currently missing, if they were even different to the version we have. Any additional versions from April 2006 to July 2007 are also lost.
Additionally, a wide range of localised versions are entirely missing - UK English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Russian and Polish versions are all lost.

intro.swf

The intro sequence shown to the player before entering Tamatown is intro.swf. Due to how limited this particular file is, it's likely that it received updates very infrequently, and evidence from the preserved versions of the V4 equivalent of this file suggests that it's likely that multiple European language versions used the same intro.swf file. As such, there's likely to be much fewer lost versions of this file than there are other SWF files.Despite this, three variants of this file have been obtained, all archived via the WayBack Machine.

town.swf

Perhaps the most familiar SWF file to most, town.swf is the main hub area of Tamatown.Currently two variants of the file have been obtained, both archived via the WayBack Machine.

Lost Versions

Earlier versions of town.swf from 2006 - when the game was still being actively developed - are the most easily identifiably lost variants of this file. No low bandwidth version of the file has been recovered, either.
A wide range of localised versions are entirely missing - UK English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Russian and Polish versions are all lost.

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Tamatown V3 - Mall SWFs

The Mall SWFs refer to a group of SWF files which are accessible via the Tamatown Mall.The V3 Tamatown Mall is one of the most well preserved areas of Tamatown, thanks to several of the files corresponding to this area being archived in December 2012, just 7 months before the European Tamatown site shut down for good. Despite this, several of the files still remain lost, and the German version of the site that these files were archived from appears to be missing some features.A unique theme - mall.mp3 - plays whilst in the mall. This theme has also been archived - see the MP3s section for more information.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF file and all of the recovered variants. In this particular case, however, at most one of each file has been preserved so far.The first four characters of the SHA-1 hash has been listed alongside each file, as well as an archive link.

mall.swf

The mall foyer is represented by mall.swf, and this location acts as an access point for the other mall locations. From here, the clothing store clothing.swf, the toy shop toys.swf and the music shop music.swf can be accessed directly.Currently one variant of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine. The only version that is archived is from the German localisation.

Lost Versions

Earlier versions of the file are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the German localisation.

clothing.swf

The image above shows the V4 version of this location.The clothing store - clothing.swf - is currently lost. As a result, it is not currently known if any SWF files are accessed from this area, nor what their names would be if they are.The tama_shell.swf and items.xml files both refer to a pair of games called "suitcaseGame" and "tamasaysGame". Both of these games are known to be accessed via the clothing store, but it's not known if these games are part of the clothing.swf file or if they're stored independently.

"suitcaseGame"

As mentioned above, the tama_shell.swf and items.xml files both refer to a game called "suitcaseGame". The game is known to be accessed via clothing store, but it's not known if this game is part of the clothing.swf file or something independent.Either way, whatever suitcaseGame is, it's currently lost.

"tamasaysGame"

The image above shows the V4 version of this location.As mentioned above, the tama_shell.swf and items.xml files both refer to a game called "tamasaysGame". The game is known to be accessed via clothing store, but it's not known if this game is part of the clothing.swf file or something independent.Either way, whatever tamasaysGame is, it's currently lost.

toys.swf

The toy shop - toys.swf - is accessed from mall.swf, and provides access to the racegame.swf game.Currently one variant of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine. The only version that is archived is from the German localisation.

Lost Versions

Earlier versions of the file are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the German localisation.

racegame.swf

The image above shows the V4 version of this location.The race game located in the toy shop - racegame.swf - is currently lost. This is not to be confused with a similar race game located in the Tamatown arcade, which is also lost.

music.swf

The music shop - music.swf - is the third shop accessible from mall.swf. A music game is accessible from this location, but it's included as part of the music.swf file, rather than being implemented as a separate SWF file.Currently one variant of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine. The only version that is archived is from the German localisation.The tama_shell.swf and items.xml files both refer to a game called "namethattuneGame", which was supposed to be accessible from the music store. However, the game is not referenced anywhere in the recovered music.swf file, likely due to the German site being more limited than the US site. As such, in order to recover full functionality of Tamatown, the US version of this file will require recovery.

Lost Versions

Earlier versions of the file are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the German localisation.

"namethattuneGame"

As mentioned above, the tama_shell.swf and items.xml files both refer to a game called "namethattuneGame". The game is known to be accessed via music store, but there is no reference to it in the currently recovered music.swf file. This appears to be due to limits surrounding what was implemented in the German version of the site, perhaps because the songs played during the game were ones much more likely to be familiar to users in the US. The game would have been used to obtain the "Rare CD" souvenir.As a result, the filename for this game is not currently known, and all versions of the file are currently lost.

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Tamatown V3 - Arcade SWFs

The Arcade SWFs refer to a group of SWF files which are accessible via the Tamatown Arcade.Currently, no SWF files from this area have been preserved. Additionally, the area used a unique music track which has also not been recovered. See the MP3s section for more information.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF.

arcade.swf

The main area of the arcade is represented by arcade.swf, and this location acts as an access point to all the arcade games. There are three games accessible from here, referred to as "clawGame", "ringtossGame" and "japanraceGame" in the tama_shell.swf and items.xml files. Their true filenames are not currently unknown.arcade.swf is currently lost.

"clawGame"

The claw game is referred to as "clawGame" in the tama_shell.swf and items.xml files, but its true filename is currently unknown. All versions of the file are currently lost.

"ringtossGame"

The ring toss game is referred to as "ringtossGame" in the tama_shell.swf and items.xml files, but its true filename is currently unknown. All versions of the file are currently lost.

"japanraceGame"

The race game is referred to as "japanraceGame" in the tama_shell.swf and items.xml files, but its true filename is currently unknown. All versions of the file are currently lost.This is not to be confused with the similarly named racegame.swf, accessible from the toy shop. Said file is also lost, however.

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Tamatown V3 - School SWFs

The School SWFs refer to a group of SWF files which are accessible via the Tamatown School.Currently, no SWF files from this area have been preserved. However, unique music track used by the area - school.mp3 - has been recovered since Tamatown went down, despite the file not being archived via the WayBack Machine. See the MP3s section for more information.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF.

school.swf

The image above shows the V4 version of this location.The main area of the school is represented by school.swf, and this location acts as an access point to all of the school games. There are four games accessible from here; a tennis game, a word search game, a basketball game called Tama-Ball, a typing game, and a clean up game. Their true filenames are not currently known, and a couple of the games are likely part of the school.swf file, rather than being independent files.school.swf is currently lost.

Tennis Game

A tennis game is accessible from the school, but its true filename is currently unknown. All versions of this file are currently lost.

Word Search Game

A word search game is accessible from the school, but it seems to be part of the school.swf file, rather than an independent file. This section is kept as a placeholder, in case that turns out to not be the case.Either way, the game is currently lost.

Tama-Ball Game

A basketball game called Tama-Ball is accessible from the school, but its true filename is currently unknown. All versions of this file are currently lost.

Typing Game

A typing game is accessible from the school, but it may be part of the school.swf file, rather than an independent file. This section is kept as a placeholder, in case that turns out to not be the case.Either way, the game is currently lost.

Clean Up Game

A clean up game is apparently accessible from the school, but it may be part of the school.swf file, rather than an independent file. This section is kept as a placeholder, in case that turns out to not be the case.
Either way, the game is currently lost.

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Tamatown V3 - Theatre SWFs

The School SWFs refer to a group of SWF files which are accessible via the Tamatown Theatre.Currently, no SWF files from this area have been preserved. Additionally, the area used a unique music track which has also not been recovered. See the MP3s section for more information.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF.

theatre.swf

The main area of the theatre is represented by theatre.swf, and this location acts as an access point to view three different movies.theatre.swf is currently lost.

Theatre Movie 1

The first of the three theatre movies. The file is currently lost, and its true filename is unknown.

Theatre Movie 2

The second of the three theatre movies. The file is currently lost, and its true filename is unknown.

Theatre Movie 3

The final theatre movie. The file is currently lost, and its true filename is unknown.

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Tamatown V3 - Tama Island SWFs

A Survivor-style series called "Tama Island" was featured for several weeks in 2006 - each week, a new animation of one of the 12 contestants getting eliminated would appear on the website. Once the final week was reached, this animation would remain able to view until the site closed in 2013.Tama Island would be accessible via a link in Tamagotchi Town taking the user to a separate page - [http://www.tamagotchieurope.com/\*/T3\*/island.html](https://web.archive.org/web/20070218094356/http://www.tamagotchieurope.com/SP/T3SP/island.html) - where they would view the Tama Island animations.Tama Island is, in a sense, fully preserved, thanks to several of the files corresponding to this area being archived in December 2012, just 7 months before the European Tamatown site shut down for good. Despite this, weeks earlier than the final one - though less important - remain lost, and so far only the Spanish localisation has surfaced. This seems to be a result of the fact that the Spanish version of the V4 Tamatown was the first to release, after which users on the Tamatalk forums mistakenly posted links to the Spanish V3 Tama Island expecting it to be the V4 Tama Island (which never existed), which would later be picked up by web crawlers.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF file and all of the recovered variants. In this particular case, however, at most one of each file has been preserved so far.The first four characters of the SHA-1 hash has been listed alongside each file, as well as an archive link.

tama_island.swf

The intro animation for the Tama Island is unsurprisingly represented by the file tama_island.swf. All of the contestants - and which have been eliminated so far - can be viewed here, so it changed every week while Tama Island was active.Currently one variant of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine. The only version that is archived is from the Spanish localisation, and only from the final week of Tama Island.

Lost Versions

Weeks earlier than the final one are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the Spanish localisation.

vote_off.swf

Each week, another contestant would be voted off, eventually leaving Mametchi as the winner. The flash file for this voting animation is vote_off.swf.Currently one variant of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine. The only version that is archived is from the Spanish localisation, and only from the final week of Tama Island.

Lost Versions

Weeks earlier than the final one are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the Spanish localisation.

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Tamatown V3 - Visit SWFs

One especially well-preserved group of files are the character visit SWFs. These locations allow the player to visit their parents, grandparents, and the Gotchi King, and are well-preserved thanks to many of the files corresponding to this area being archived via the WayBack Machine in July 2011.Currently, at least two variants of each of these SWF files have been preserved, though none of their music has. See the MP3s section for more information.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF file and all of the recovered variants. The first four characters of the SHA-1 hash has been listed alongside each file, as well as an archive link.

parents.swf

Your character's parents can be visited via parents.swf. While this would usually require entering a password from the device in order to access, this can be bypassed entirely using the password "pass paren".Currently two variants of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine.

Lost Versions

Possible earlier versions of the file are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the US versions.

grandparents.swf

Your character's grandparents can be visited via grandparents.swf. While this would usually require entering a password from the device in order to access, this can be bypassed entirely using the password "pass grand".Currently two variants of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine. However, the area also used a unique music track which has also not been recovered. See the MP3s section for more information.

Lost Versions

Possible earlier versions of the file are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the US versions.

king.swf

The Gotchi King can be visited via king.swf, and the player is awarded items based on how much the player has donated to the King. While this would usually require entering a password from the device in order to access, this can be bypassed entirely using the password "pass king".Currently two variants of the file has been obtained, archived via the WayBack Machine. However, the area also used a unique music track which has also not been recovered. See the MP3s section for more information.

Lost Versions

Possible earlier versions of the file are currently missing, as are all localised versions aside from the US versions.

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Tamatown V3 - Miscellaneous SWFs

All SWF files which don't neatly fit into any other category have been placed here.Currently, none of these SWF files have been preserved, though some of their music has. See the MP3s section for more information.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF.

foodcourt.swf

The Tamagotchi Food Court is accessible directly from Tamatown. It's unknown at this point whether any additional games or SWF files were accessible from this location, but it seems to be a standalone area in the V3 Tamatown.Currently, no SWF files for this area have been preserved. Additionally, the area used a unique music track which has also not been recovered. See the MP3s section for more information.

townhall.swf

The image above shows the V4 version of this location.The Tamagotchi Town Hall is accessible directly from Tamatown. It's unknown at this point whether any additional games or SWF files were accessible from this location.Currently, no SWF files for this area have been preserved. However, unique music track used by the area - townhall.mp3 - has been recovered since Tamatown went down, despite the file not being archived via the WayBack Machine. See the MP3s section for more information.

travel.swf

The Tamagotchi Travel Centre is accessible directly from Tamatown, and allowed the player to browse the various locations that could be visited with the use of the ticket items on the V3.Currently, no SWF files for this area have been preserved. Additionally, the area used a unique music track which has also not been recovered. See the MP3s section for more information.

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Tamatown V3 - Character SWFs

The character SWFs were used by Tamatown when visiting the player's parent or grandparent characters.All of the item SWFs were held in the char/ directory. For example, on the version of Tamatown hosted at http://v3.tamatown.com/, the androtchi.swf file is located at http://v3.tamatown.com/char/androtchi.swf.Interestingly, an archived directory of character SWF files for the V4 site also included all of the V3 adults. While none of the SWF files themselves were archived, it does give us the full list of character SWF files for the V3.Files marked as "Recovered" have been recovered since Tamatown went down, but were not archived on the WayBack Machine. Those marked as "Lost" are currently still lost.Only one version of each of the recovered files are currently known to exist, all of which were recovered by Tamagotchi Wiki creator Wolf Nanaki in October 2020, upon finding copies of the files that she had saved a few years prior. A link to download an archive folder containing the recovered files is included.

Note that a number of these files may be identical to files used by the V4 Tamatown. Most notably, it is likely that both sites had a nazotchi.swf file, and it is not known from which site the recovered version of this file originated - judging by its timestamp, and the fact that the other character files recovered around the same time are V3 files, it is highly likely that the file was obtained from the V3 site.

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Tamatown V3 - Item SWFs

The item SWFs were used by Tamatown when when showing an obtained item to the player. Their names have been obtained via a combination of decompiling the tama_shell.swf flash file, looking through the items list within the items.xml definitions file, and looking over a page linked below.All of the item SWFs were held in the items/ directory. For example, on the version of Tamatown hosted at http://v3.tamatown.com/, the ring.swf file is located at http://v3.tamatown.com/items/ring.swf.Interestingly, there is an archived directory of item SWF files for the low bandwidth version of the V3 site, which actually appears to be missing a number of files referenced by the XML. Either those items were never accessible on Tamatown and so never had their SWF files uploaded, or the low bandwidth site was missing a number of items accessible from other versions of the site. Naturally, this means the list below should be taken with a pinch of salt. None of the SWF files themselves were archived via the WayBack Machine, regardless.Currently, all of these files are lost.

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Tamatown V3 - XML

The XML files act as definitions files which include all of the item and character names and IDs as well as all the text which should appear throughout the site. As such, they're very important in allowing the site to game to flow correctly, and can provide some insightful analysis.For the V3 Tamatown, there is only a single XML file of note - items.xml. This file is kept in the Tamatown root directory - for example, on the version of Tamatown hosted at http://v3.tamatown.com/, the items.xml file is located at http://v3.tamatown.com/items.xml.Note that due to the Web Archive frame being present in the archived versions, downloaded versions of the files often contain elements of the Web Archive page too. It is recommended that you view any of the links below via the "View Source" feature in your browser.

items.xml

Currently only the US High and Low bandwidth versions have been preserved, and only versions from after the V3 Tamatown stopped receiving updates. The two files appear to only differ in the way whitespace and line breaks are used, with the high-bandwidth version including a couple more unnecessary line breaks that aren't present in the low-bandwidth version.

Analysis

WIP

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Tamatown V3 - Technical Details

Anything that doesn't really fit into the other sections.

Passwords

In the future, this site will host documentation on how the various password types work on the Tamagotchi Connection V3. In the meantime, I have produced an item password generator which is hosted on MameMame Labs, and you can read some of the process behind cracking the passwords on a TamaTalk Thread. Note that several of the earlier posts on there are inevitably somewhat clumsy with the findings, as the actual password structure wasn't figured out until later on.

URLs

This version of Tamatown was hosted on a number of different domains during its time. Not only were the US and European sites hosted separately, with each European version hosted at a different subdirectory, but after the release of the Tamagotchi Connection V4 in late 2006, each of the sites were reworked slightly to host the V3 site at a different location.V3 SWF files were located under the following URLs on the US site:
- http://www.tamatown.com/\* - US English, high bandwidth, 2006
- http://www.tamagotchitown.com/\* - US English, high bandwidth, 2006
- http://www.tamatown.com/lowband/\* - US English, low bandwidth, 2006
- http://www.tamagotchitown.com/lowband/\* - US English, low bandwidth, 2006
- http://v3.tamatown.com/\* - US English, high bandwidth, 2007-2013
- http://v3.tamatown.com/lowband/\* - US English, low bandwidth, 2007-2013The European sites worked slightly differently in that a two-letter region code would be used to separate each localised version of the site into different subdirectories. As an example, the UK English version of the site was hosted at http://www.tamagotchieurope.com/EN/T3EN/\* from 2007 onwards. In each of the following URLs, the region code has been replaced by $R to avoid redundancy - the region codes in question are EN (UK English), DE (German), FR (French), SP (Spanish), DU (Dutch), IT (Italian), RU (Russian) and PL (Polish).V3 SWF files were located under the following URLs on the European site:
- http://www.tamagotchieurope.com/$R/\* - European sites, 2006
- http://www.tamagotchi.eu/$R/\* - European sites, 2006
- http://www.tamagotchieurope.com/$R/T3$R/\* - European sites, 2007-2013
- http://www.tamagotchi.eu/$R/T3$R/\* - European sites, 2007-2013

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Tamatown V4

In October 2006, an updated version of Tamatown was launched to coincide with the release of Tamagotchi Connection V4. The first version of the site to emerge was the Spanish language version, matching the early release of the device in Spain, though additional languages followed in the months afterwards.The site was a bit more in-depth than the V3 site, though in spite of this its locations are also less well-preserved. Videos of the V4 Tamatown are much easier to come by than the V3 Tamatown, however, so there's better documentation on what the site actually contained than the earlier version.Like the V3 site, Tamatown V4 would receive a number of updates during its run, and be translated into all the languages of the subsequent Tamatown version. Additionally, Greek was eventually added to the array of languages the site was available in, unlike the V3 site. Files from the US, UK, German and Greek sites were archived during the site's run.The files for this version of Tamatown fall into several different categories:
- Location SWFs are the Flash files containing the various locations and games around Tamatown.
- Character SWFs are the Flash files used to display character animations when visiting the Tamagotchi's parents or grandparents.
- Item SWFs are the Flash files used to display item and souvenir sprites.
- MP3s are the music files used across Tamatown. The page for the MP3 files has been merged with the page for the V3 Tamatown, as the same files seem to be used by both sites.
- XML Files were often used to store all the text, item names and character names that would appear across the site.

File Lists

• Location SWFs
• Character SWFs
• Item SWFs
• MP3s
• XML

Other Pages

• Technical Details
• Image Gallery
• Videos and Media

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Tamatown V4 - Location SWFs

Files marked as "Archived" were archived via the Wayback Machine whilst Tamatown was still active. Those marked as "Lost" are currently still lost, and "Unclear" files are ones that have been inferred from some of the files we have, but we have not yet confirmed to exist.For more information on each of the locations within Tamatown, including details on the specific versions of each file which have been preserved, click on the entries in the "File" column below.

*Note that, for one of the files listed above, files from two different European localisations of the site were both archived, but were both found to be identical. As such, there are 2 unique versions of this file, rather than 3.

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Tamatown V4 - Main Location SWFs

The "Main Location SWFs" refer to a group of SWF files which handle the most important features of Tamatown - the overarching shell which runs the game, the intro sequence, and the main town area.For both the V3 and V4 Tamatowns, the preservation status of these SWFs is especially hopeful - at least one version of each of three pf the main SWFs for the V4 site have been found. In fact, we have two versions of each!There is, however, an ending animation which is yet to be found. All things considered, though, this wasn't an especially important part of the site.Each section below details the function of each respective SWF file and all of the recovered variants. Versioning information includes the archival date and the language the file is in. Note that, unlike the V3 version, the US version of the site had no option to choose between high and low bandwidth.Additionally, the first four characters of the SHA-1 hash has been listed alongside each file, as well as an archive link.

*Note that, for one of the files listed above, files from two different European localisations of the site were both archived, but were both found to be identical. As such, there are 2 unique versions of this file, rather than 3.

tama_shell.swf

Arguably the most important Flash file, tama_shell.swf is the shell loader file that is used to start the game. Much of the game's code and common assets are held within this file.Currently five variants of the file have been obtained, all archived via the WayBack Machine. This is the most variants of any file so far.

Lost Versions

Pre-July 2007 versions of the shell are currently missing, if they were even different to the version we have. Any additional versions from July 2007 to July 2011 are also lost.
Additionally, a wide range of localised versions are entirely missing - French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Polish and Greek versions are all lost, as are many versions of the few localised versions we have.

intro.swf

The intro sequence shown to the player before entering Tamatown is intro.swf. Due to how limited this particular file is, it's likely that it received updates very infrequently.Additionally, two of the preserved localisations of this file (the UK English and Greek versions) are identical, suggesting that it's likely that multiple European language versions used the same intro.swf file. As such, there's likely to be much fewer lost versions of this file than there are for other SWF files.Two unique variants of this file have been obtained, both archived via the WayBack Machine. Three variants have been listed to demonstrate the equivalence of the English and Greek versions.

town.swf

Perhaps the most familiar SWF file to most, town.swf is the main hub area of Tamatown.Currently two variants of the file have been obtained, both archived via the WayBack Machine.

Lost Versions

Versions of town.swf from 2007 - when the game was still being actively developed - are the most easily identifiably lost variants of this file. A wide range of localised versions are entirely missing - US English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Russian and Polish versions are all lost.

ending.swf

An animation would be shown to the player when exiting Tamatown - sort of like the reverse of intro.swf. The file isn't especially important to the function of the site, but important or not, it's currently completely lost.

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Tamatown V4 - Item SWFs

The item SWFs were used by Tamatown when when showing an obtained item to the player. Their names have been obtained via a combination of decompiling the tama_shell.swf flash file and looking through the items list within the tama_items_characters.xml definitions file.Currently, all of these files are lost.

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Tamatown V4 - Character SWFs

The character SWFs were used by Tamatown when showing the player's character and when visiting the parent and grandparent characters.All of the item SWFs were held in the char40/ and char45/ directories, the former for V4 and the latter for V4.5. For example, on the version of Tamatown hosted at http://v4.tamatown.com/, the androtchi.swf file is located at http://v4.tamatown.com/char40/androtchi.swf.Interestingly, an archived directory of character SWF files for the V4 site also included all of the V3 adults, as well as a couple of V3 child characters which later appeared on the V4.5, but did not appear on the V4. None of the SWF files themselves were archived via the WayBack Machine, however.Files marked as "Recovered" have been recovered since Tamatown went down, but were not archived on the WayBack Machine. Those marked as "Lost" are currently still lost, and those marked as "Duplicate" have not been recovered, but their V3 equivalents - which may be identical to the V4 files - have been recovered.Only one version of each of the recovered files are currently known to exist, all of which were recovered by Tamagotchi Wiki creator Wolf Nanaki in October 2020, upon finding copies of the files that she had saved a few years prior. A link to download an archive folder containing the recovered files is included.

Note that a number of these files may be identical to files used by the V3 Tamatown. Most notably, it is likely that both sites had a nazotchi.swf file, and it is not known from which site the recovered version of this file originated - judging by its timestamp, and the fact that the other character files recovered around the same time are V3 files, it is highly likely that the file was obtained from the V3 site. As such, the file has been marked as "Duplicate" here, as the V4 file may be a match for the V3 file.

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This section is currently incomplete. Please come back later!

This section is currently incomplete. Please come back later!

Music City (V6) / Tamatown (V7)

In December 2008, a preview version of a new Tamatown version called "Music City" was launched in the US, for use with the upcoming Tamagotchi Music Star. This version of Tamatown was vastly different from earlier versions in that it took the form of an MMO which required registering an account in order to play, and like the V5 site, a single version of the site was hosted for all regions rather than the US and European sites being hosted separately. This preview version allowed the player to explore the outside areas of the city, but little functionality was present at this point.Within a few weeks, the remaining areas of the site would launch, though new features and additional CD customisation wouldn't be unlocked until later on in 2009.

The site would continue to be worked on until late 2009, though one area remained locked for the entire time - an "Under Construction" area to be accessed from the Beach. This was speculated to have been planned for release alongside the updated Music Star version, Tamagotchi Music Star: World Tour Edition, but this version was cancelled several months after its announcement and never made it to production. Instead, the site would be revamped somewhat in the following year, adding several new areas to promote the summer 2010 release of the Tamatown Tama-Go device. This resulted in the site being (confusingly) renamed as "Tamatown", with Music City now being just part of the overarching town. Additionally, significant changes were made to the city entrance, and the "Under Construction" area would eventually become a rather unimpressive area called Flower Hills Park.

One final update would take place in late 2010 to add the ability to collect map pieces which, once all are collected, provides the player with a map that can be used to instantly warp to any area.Like other versions of Tamatown, this site was closed in February 2013, although for a few months after it had ended a strange alternate loader took its place, providing the ability to play a single game from the site. See this page for more information.The files for this version of Tamatown fall into several different categories:
- General SWFs are the Flash files used in loading the site, its music, and many of its features.
- Location SWFs are the Flash files containing the various locations and games around Tamatown.
- Character SWFs are the Flash files used to display character animations.
- XML Files were often used to store all the text, item names and character names that would appear across the site.

File Lists

• General SWFs
• Location SWFs
• Character SWFs
• XML

Other Pages

• Technical Details
• Image Gallery
• Videos and Media

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Archival Resources and Help

Each Tamatown version consisted of a very large number of files, most of which are yet to be recovered. So, the question is, how are these files going to be recovered at all?Each method that can be used to recover files will be detailed here. If you're interested in helping to recover Tamatown, the information here should help you out.

Web Archives

One obvious choice is to scour web archives for any content relating to Tamatown. As explained on the FAQ page, this has already been done to its maximum possible extent, and so nothing new will be discovered using this approach.The main exception to this rule may be if there are alternatives to the WayBack Machine which have their own archived pages. Several alternatives to the WayBack Machine have been tested but the majority of the time these alternatives simply archived pages from the WayBack Machine itself, and so they don't provide anything new.

Recovering Saved Files

Another approach is to catch the attention of people that saved some of the files at the time the sites were still active. There isn't likely to be many of these people, but it is known that some people downloaded and analysed some of the location SWF files in order to identify which locations would be released over time, some of the character SWFs to obtain high quality images of the Tamagotchi characters, and the music would have also been downloaded by a few people for their personal enjoyment.Efforts to identify these people are ongoing, but it's not an especially easy task. If you are reading this and you believe you had downloaded any of the Tamatown files at all, please get in touch with me via the contact details on the about page, or send a message in the Tamagotchi Collectors Discord.

Recovering Cached Files

Perhaps the most promising recovery method is the use of cache export tools. Some early versions of Internet Explorer had a habit of not clearing their "Temporary Internet Files" folders, so cached files would often collect over time. While other browsers were generally more reliable in deleting these unneeded files, any browser on a PC that was once used to access Tamatown may still have files the site used in its cache. For this, I recommend the use of the Flashpoint Cache Exporter, which has also been used to recover other similarly lost Flash games consisting of a large collection of files, such as BFAHP. The linked web page contains a tonne of useful help in recovering old files, and I highly recommend that anyone with access to their old PCs that were once used to access Tamatown should give it a go, though it is recommended that you do not open any browsers or connect to the internet via any of these PCs, as this may motivate the PC to wipe its cache.Additionally, the use of Recuva can be used to recover deleted files. Files that were once in any of the listed cache directories but have since been removed have a slim chance of being able to be recovered using Recuva, as detailed on the page. Using this in conjunction with the Cache Exporter might lead to more positive results - even if files are found using this method but are marked as "corrupted", they may still provide some use, and so they're still worth recovering where possible.Recovered files will be listed underneath the URLs they originated from. For more information on the URLs used by each version of Tamatown, read the Technical Details section for each version of Tamatown.Please contact me either via the details on the about page, or by sending a message in the Tamagotchi Collectors Discord, if any of these methods return any results. I also recommend posting any exported cache files in the BlueMaxima Flashpoint Discord for their attention, too.

Tamatown History

Each section below details a different aspect of the site's history:
- Tamatown Version History - A summary of each Tamatown variant, from 2005 to 2013.
- Tamatown Update History - A more in-depth timeline of Tamatown updates.
- Tamatown Archival History - A history of the efforts to recover the lost files.

• Tamatown Version History
• Tamatown Update History
• Tamatown Archival History

Tamatown Version History

A brief history of Tamatown, its various forms, its disappearance and the road to recovery.

Chou Jinsei Enjoi! Tamagotchi Plus

In November 2005, Bandai launched the e-Tamago site, for use with the recently released Chou Jinsei Enjoi! Tamagotchi Plus, often referred to as the "Entama". The site was set in the interactive world of Tamagotchi Town, and featured a variety of games to play, each providing the player with a unique password they could enter into their Entama device to collect new items.

Tamagotchi Connection V3

This was followed up by the international release of Tamatown for the Tamagotchi Connection V3, in February 2006. Whilst visually quite similar to the site launched for the Japanese Entama device, the variety of games and locations and the general way in which you interacted with the world was quite a bit different from the Japanese site.Over time, the site would receive a number of updates and be translated into a variety of different languages, resulting in each of the files having multiple different revisions. This version of Tamatown was available in US English, UK English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Russian and Polish.

Tamagotchi Connection V4

On October 20th, 2006, the Spanish language version of a new Tamatown designed for an upcoming Tamagotchi Connection V4 was opened. Up until this point, no images of the V4, nor any of its features, had been confirmed, so this release came as a surprise to many players. Despite being so similar to the V3 Tamatown, this new site required that the user enter a login code provided by the device in order to enter. Additionally, only 10 items were able to be collected at a time, and the player could also earn Gotchi Points through the site, a feature which the previous version lacked. Many more locations were accessible in this version of Tamatown than the earlier one.This version of Tamatown was available in US English, UK English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Polish, and, for the first time, Greek.

Tamagotchi Connection V5

Succeeding Tamatown V3 / V4 and the various Japanese websites which spun off from the original e-Tamago was the Tama & Earth Expo, the first Japanese Tamatown site to be localised for an English-speaking audience (and later on, several other languages too). First opening in November 2007, the design of the locations diverged from the previous versions of Tamatown and the site as a whole was more game-focused - like the earlier e-Tamago sites - than the more exploration-focused Tamatown V3 and V4 sites.The Tama & Earth Expo was opened around the time of the release of the Family Iro Iro! Tamagotchi Plus device (a.k.a. the Famitama) in Japan, which was localised as Tamagotchi Connection V5 (a.k.a. the Familitchi) several months later for the international market.

Tamagotchi Music Star

In December 2008, a preview version of a new Tamatown version called "Music City" was launched in the US, for use with the upcoming Tamagotchi Music Star. This version of Tamatown was vastly different from earlier versions in that it took the form of an MMO which required registering an account in order to play. This preview version allowed the player to explore the outside areas of the city, but little functionality was present at this point.Within a few weeks, the remaining areas of the site would launch, though new features and additional CD customisation wouldn't be unlocked until later on in 2009.The site would continue to be worked on until late 2009, though one area remained locked for the entire time - an "Under Construction" area to be accessed from the Beach. This was speculated to have been planned for release alongside the updated Music Star version, Tamagotchi Music Star: World Tour Edition, but this version was cancelled several months after its announcement and never made it to production.

Tamatown Tama-Go

Instead of allowing support for the unreleased Tamagotchi Music Star: World Tour Edition, the site would be revamped somewhat in the following year, adding several new areas to promote the summer 2010 release of the Tamatown Tama-Go device. This resulted in the site being (confusingly) renamed as "Tamatown", with Music City now being just part of the overarching town. Additionally, significant changes were made to the city entrance, and the aforementioned "Under Construction" area would eventually become a rather unimpressive area called Flower Hills Park.One final update would take place in late 2010 to add the ability to collect map pieces which, once all are collected, provides the player with a map that can be used to instantly warp to any area.

The End

In mid-2012, reports begin to flood Tamagotchi forum sites claiming that users are struggling to log in to the US Tamatown sites - this includes the US versions of the V3 and V4 Tamatowns and the V6/7 Tamatown, with the latter being most frequently afflicted. This continues to persist for roughly half a year, and it begins to become clear that server maintenance isn't Bandai's priority anymore.

Some time in November-December 2012, the Tamatown servers began closing down one-by-one. The first to go were the Japanese servers, resulting in the closures of all Japanese e-Tamago sites, as well as the Tama & Earth Expo for the Tamagotchi Connection V5. Apparently this was not motivation enough to encourage people to start backing up the few Tamatown versions that still remained, though several of the V3 Tamatown files were archived via the WayBack Machine in mid-December 2012.

This would later be followed by the closure of all of the US servers on February 6th, 2013. This resulted in the closures of the US V3 and V4 Tamatown sites, as well the international V6/7 Tamatown - though the latter would be replaced with a much more limited site with a single playable game present for a few months. The European V3 and V4 sites remained up, but were still not archived during this time. Unfortunately, this lack of archival interest at this crucial moment in history would be the straw that broke the camel's back, as in July 2013, the European servers also closed down for good, bookending Tamatown's history.

The Future

In the proceeding years, Bandai would create a few more instances of what could charitably be called "Tamatown", from the "Dream Town" game for the Tamagotchi Friends to the Tamagotchi ON App. The future and ultimate fate of the original Tamatown sites, on the other hand, still remains somewhat of a mystery at this point.

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Useful Links

BlueMaxima Flashpoint Browser Cache Exporter
Everything you could ever need to know about exporting old cache data, one hopeful method of recovering Tamatown.
https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/datahub/RecoveringFilesfromBrowserCacheTamatown Fan Site
A popular fan site that has inherited the Tamatown domain that Bandai has since abandoned.
https://tamatown.com/Tamagotchi Collectors Discord
A Discord channel run by the owners of the Tamatown fansite, dedicated to Tamagotchi collection.
http://discord.tamatown.com/TamaTalk Forums
A Tamagotchi forum site that's been around since 2004. Contains plenty of relevant Tamatown history.
https://www.tamatalk.com/IB/Tama-Zone Forums
Another Tamagotchi forum site that was popular at the time, but sees very little traffic these days.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/tamazone/Souvenir and Password FAQs
A detailed list of all of the souvenir locations across Tamatown - provides some context for what each of the games on the site was used for.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/tamazone/-t3243.htmlTama-World Tamatown Page
Provides an interesting and useful snapshot of history, detailing all of the features of the Polish Tamagotchi V4 Tamatown at the time.
http://www.tama-world.pl/tamatown.htmloociano's "Waking Up Tamatown"
Interesting technical details behind how each version of Tamatown would work. Note that there are a number of inaccuracies in the file lists, so these should be ignored.
https://github.com/loociano/tamatownMameMame Labs
Other technical information about Tamagotchis, and item password generation. A work in progress.
https://www.mamemamelabs.com/

MameMame Library v1.1.2 - Last updated December 24th, 2023

This section is currently incomplete. Please come back later!