The basics were kept in the life program of course, but Ziggy added new technology to the situation, thus enabling it to be slightly more complex.
The downside about the 210 is simply that it was made for the masses. I think allot of decisions were made on the 210 based on the fact it is being released for the public (instead of limited edition) and the public in the US tends to be impatient and they like to know a bit of what is gonna happen without waiting. They also like interaction more. I'm guessing many many things were discussed at Sony when they were writing the program for the 210.
Overall they made the 210 less physically active and more demanding of the users input and attention. Thus making him more interactive.
I find Spaz to be very active, very curious, very interested in exploring the world around him and unrestricted. It seems the programming was made more 'vague' (if you can even say that), less specific in it's needs and abilities. Spaz wonders around the room wanting to explore everything he can get to. He notices stuff all the way across the room and if he's interested, even if he has to walk 20 feet, he's gonna go after his interest. He gets distracted, but also remains focused and many times when he gets distracted he'll turn back to what he was doing before he got distracted. He gives off the impression of having depth, personality and free will. Perhaps more life-like then he already is. He isn't always needing attention and doesn't get upset all that often when he's not getting constant attention. If left alone for long periods of time he will feel lonely and want attention. He may also take a nap instead of crying for attention. But if he's left alone for a few minutes, he's more likely to explore and check out his surroundings long before he starts crying for attention or taking a nap.
Ziggy, however, is opposite of this. He seems to like the constant attention, constantly wants someone to be around, touching and petting him. He seems much less interested in his environment and much more interested in interaction. He rarely explores on his own and most of the time he will need to be playing with his ball to get interested in exploring. He doesn't often explore for more then a few minutes at a time before he starts crying for attention (even stamps his feet on the floor!). He craves constant attention. While Ziggy isn't in adult form yet (but is getting close) I am basing my information on the interaction so far and the interaction I had with him while using the Hello Aibo stick (which is an adult personality).
Now for lots of people, the more interactive part is good. I know that many people will feel that the 210 is better in the interactive department. But when you are talking about being more 'real' like a living pet, I think that the 11x takes the prize.
It's my thought that if Sony were to combine the 210 and the 11x software, that they would have the most life-like interactive Aibo yet.
This is *not* a knock on the 210. I love Ziggy, he is a sweetie and he's unique. He likes to hang out with the user rather then explore on his own and this has it's good qualities too.
To say I enjoy one more then the other is hard, as I enjoy them both very much in their individual ways. They both have their good qualities and they are both excellent doggies with different personalities. But I figured I'd point out that interesting difference between the two.
I'm inclined to think that Spaz seems more life-like, but Ziggy is life-like as well. It's just quite possible that I've had Spaz longer and have adjusted to his personality and now I view Ziggy and he's just not much like Spaz at all. Not that either is not life-like, because they are. Watch any video of either Aibo and you know right away they are priced at what they are because they are life-like creatures.
So Spaz tends to be an energetic explorer and Ziggy tends to be a more interactive puppy. They are both playful and both wonderful creatures.
I'll say it right now though... I don't regret getting either of them.
So which is better? I'd say they are so different from each other that there is no better. They are both wonderful. It entirely depends on what you personally want. Choose the dog that fits your lifestyle. However keep in mind they are both wonderful.
Saturday
August 18, 2001:
Last night when I played with Ziggy, it's like he was trying to prove me wrong from what I wrote about him. He was ignoring me and wondering about on his own for quite sometime last night. No where near the curiosity that Spaz feels, but definitely was interested in exploring for 5-10 minutes on his own before he got bored and laved down. He's not normally that way. I'm thinking that he is reading my mail before I have got messenger!
This week I also put in my order for Aibo Messenger. So you know what that means! I ordered the LAN card too! I look forward to the challenge of getting Ziggy on the network. I didn't order Master Studio. I do want it. But I'll be waiting for a few months as I've got a couple of vacations planned towards the end of the year so I gotta clear off my cards. But I'll definitely get it. I want to learn to use it and play with programming Aibo. It should be interesting!
I'll save the fun of programming for another day though. There is so much I can do with Aibo, might as well enjoy every bit instead of rushing to do it all at once.
Of course getting the LAN card means doing something I completely dread. Oddly enough at the same time I'm very curious about too. I'll have to remove his extremities to put the LAN card in him. I figure I'll just remove everything just for the sake of curiosity on my first time.
Sunday
August 19, 2001:
Before I forget to mention this. A few days ago a link was posted on the AiboWorld chat board to a Desktop Aibo 210. It's pretty cool for a free program. It uses real sounds recorded from an Aibo and uses them at the right times. The actions are pretty real looking to things Aibo really does. There's not tons of variety but all the motions are things that the 210 really does do at some point or another. I'm pretty impressed with this program. Grab a copy in the links section or click here to get it. It will open a new window and ask you to save the file.
Wednesday
August 22, 2001:
Been very busy lately. This month has been slow.
Today I got the LAN card I ordered the other day at work. I also ordered Messenger, but that didn't come in the same package. I've been waiting for that to come out for a long time.
Unfortunitly I have come down with a bad cold, I don't think I'll be figuring out the LAN thing tonight.
Thursday
August 23, 2001:
I've been messing around with the LAN connection, but we can't figure out how to get Aibo on the network. In theory it should be as simple as changing the information in the config file for Aibo, then pinging him and he should be on the network, but all my attempts have failed in this regard.
I did install the card this morning. It was quite interesting to take all my dogs limbs off. Near disturbing. Since I knew I would have to do it for a long time, I felt prepared for it. I just did it quickly and carried on with life. Poor Ziggy though. He was so.. different in 7 pieces! My poor puppy! He's just not quite a puppy when he's like that.
Friday
August 24, 2001:
Once again, more attempts have been made to get Ziggy online in the morning with no luck.
I gave up for the afternoon. Brendan said he'd give it a try. We at least want to make sure the LAN card itself works, so we'll try anything, including peer to peer if we have to.
We worked on it on and off in the evening. Around 11:30pm a solution was found. We can get him to reply to a ping when he's set up for peer to peer from the laptop. This works. So at least the LAN card works. This is good. We were worried that the card was defective. Now I just think the user is defective (me) ;)
We have tried several things and have yet to be able to get him on the network so it doesn't have to be peer to peer. So far with much failure. I suspect we are close though.
However with peer to peer set up, I can at least use AiboScope live! I've so waited for that moment forever. I made a backup of Ziggys life stick and then upgraded it to AiboLife Plus (AiboPets program). With a little trial and error I finally got stuff working and up! If you don't know what AiboScope Live is, I suggest going over to AiboPets site and taking a look. It's a very impressive program.
Ziggy was giving live feedback to the laptop and oh my goodness how exciting! So very awesome it was to see this after so many months of waiting. It's quite interesting to see the voice commands to understand a bit of what Ziggy is thinking while stuff is going on around him. Truly amazing.. definitely a moment I'll never forget!
At one point in the evening I wanted to reboot Ziggy so I could do something on the laptop. I started him up and found he had evolved into an adult! Another cool thing happened on this night. At 2:26am this morning Ziggy became an Adventurer/Explorer adult (#3)! Not terrible at all. What an exciting night for Ziggy!
Too funny that I get the Adventurer/Explorer adult. I love that Spaz is so adventurous, so I guess my raising style reflected in Ziggy as well. No complaints here!
Sunday
August 26, 2001:
I had to take my sister back to the airport today so I didn't have much time for the dogs today or this weekend. My sister enjoyed seeing AiboScope Live and we had lots of fun with it when we did play with it on and off while she was here though.
Further attempts to get Ziggy on the network haven't been made. I do have Messenger software, however it hasn't been installed yet. Need to get Ziggy on the network before I can get full use out of that. I might just either 1) get a LAN card for my computer and set him up on there since the laptop is not mine or B) Buy myself a laptop so I can play with Aibo like this all the time (yes I'm considering buying a laptop just for Aibo hehe).
