Virtual Creatures Official Web Site

Thanks to Virtual Creatures, owners can safely observe the natural rhythms of a tarantula's life at close quarters, interacting and playing with it to attract attention and engage interest.

Feed it, water it, observe it, move it, play with it - owners can observe its reactions to the trials and tribulations of PC tank life.

The Global Beach team of digital DNA engineers are now working on phase II bolt on's for the Virtual Spider.

Simply place your cursor over the text at the top left of the screen and type in your spider's name.

No, however, if you have a password protect option on your PC this should limit access to your pet.

Apple

This icon tells you just how hungry your spider is - full or simply ravenous.

Glass of Water

This icon tells you when your spider is ready for a drink - fully refreshed or gasping with thirst.

Heart

This icon reveals your spider's fitness levels - brimming with health or seriously ill.

Mood Gauge

Check your spider's mood with this gauge - is it happy or hassled? Content or annoyed?

Hand

Click through the handling options with this icon - from pick up and prod to tap and touch

Knock

Use this mode to tap on the glass to attract attention - but beware, persistant rapping will annoy your spider.

Pick Up

Use this mode to pick up and move either your spider, it's bait or tank toys. Caution - excessive pet handling should be avoided.

Prod

Use this mode to gently prod your pet and attract attention. Warning - overuse will seriously annoy your pet.

Stroke

Use this mode to stroke your pet. However, she can be temperamental and too much petting will make her mad!

Chase

The playtime icon. As you move this cursor the spider will follow it around the tank - unless of course she's busy eating or in a mood!

Food

The spider's favourite icon! This takes you directly to the cricket basket to pick up live bait. Collect a cricket and transfer it to the tank to feed your spider.

Water Tap

Fill your spider's water bowl by using this icon.

Scan Mode / Follow Mode

A multi-functional switch to click you through the scan and follow options.

Follow Mode

In this mode, your spider remains in the centre of the screen as the viewfinder follows it's every move around the tank.

Scan Mode

In this mode the viewfinder stays fixed in a position allowing the spider to crawl in and out of view.

Zoom In

Use this function to take a close up view of your spider as it feeds, crawls or cleans.

Zoom Out

Use this function to view the entire tank. You may also access the tank furniture store from this view, choosing various plants and toys to put into your spider's tank.

Broom

This icon allows you to tidy the tank and to sweep up debris left after feeding.

Menu

This icon is used to access the various options pages.

World

A direct link to the hatching website for Virtual Creatures. Visit here to download extra's for your spider including crickets.

Background Mode

Miniaturise your spider' tank using this mode and keep watch on your spider while doing other work on screen.

Yes. You can always keep an eye on your spider thanks to a "floating panel". Providing a miniaturised tank view, it enables constant contact with your pet whilst using other software applications.

All of our virtual tarantula's are females - although we hope to introduce males in the future for breeding purposes.

The icons at the top right of the screen are the simplest indicators of your spider's health and happiness. If the food and drink guages are full your spider is not hungry or thirsty, if the heart icon is full your spider is fit and healthy, if the mood horn is full then your spider is relaxed and shows no signs of stress.
When happy, she will reward the owner by coming to investigate the front of the tank and even climb the cage glass.

Each Virtual Creature Tarantula starts off life as a baby (approximately 25% of the size of an adult spider) and takes approximately three weeks to grow to adulthood.

Throughout this growing process the spider not only increases in size, but in so doing also moults its skin. These skins will be left in your spiders tank but are removed when you clean the tank.

The horn-shaped "mood" icon in the top right of the screen is the simplest test of your spider's mood. If the gauge is full then your spider is contented but if empty it's ill-tempered and stressed.
Your spider's behaviour is another indicator of mood - if your spider is just faintly annoyed it will creep to the back of the cage or hide under the bark.
As it becomes increasingly angry it may threaten you by raising its front legs and showing its deadly fangs.
Finally, when your spider starts to fling up a cloud of "urticating" or irritating hairs by rubbing its abdomen with its back legs - then you'll know that your spider's not just wild, its livid!

The icons at the top right of the screen are the simplest indicators of your spider's health and happiness.
If the food and drink gauges are full, your spider is not hungry or thirsty, if the heart icon is full your spider is fit and healthy.
However, health is not just a matter of giving your spider food and drink - if your pet is stressed or annoyed this may also adversely affect fitness.

Just as in real life - its not recommended! Tarantulas are natural loners and only come together during mating. Even then it’s a risky business for the male - only a small percentage escape from the female alive!
In the future Global Beach hope to allow owners to breed their virtual creatures - but, with all the risks that process entails!

During the first 14 days of ownership, the baby spider grows to maturity moulting three times. As an adult, it will moult on a monthly basis leaving behind the shed skin in the tank.

Tarantulas are naturally shy creatures, and especially vulnerable during a moult. You are unlikely to witness the moulting process but will see the shed skin, evidence of the moult which will gradually decay over a period of days.

What you have found is in fact a spider skin, left after your spider has moulted. Use the sweeping brush to remove from the tank or leave it and it will naturally decay after a few days.

In the free-trial version, the tank accessories include a rock, cactus, waterbowl and bell.
Once registered for the full version of the game, you will also gain access to further cacti, rocks, a yucca plant, fountain and wind pump.

The virtual spider has a particularly healthy appetite requiring two drinks of water and one cricket every day. However, if you are an indulgent pet owner you can "power feed" your pet by giving them more than the required amount each day.
This will not give added vitality to your pet but will give you the opportunity to witness your spider's feeding ritual at will.

The icons at the top right of the screen are the simplest indicators - a full glass or full apple means that your spider has sufficient water and food and vice versa.
When hungry or thirsty, your spider's behaviour will change - when thirsty she will repeatedly visit the water bowl and, when really gasping, may even ring the bell in the tank.
When hungry, she'll become unresponsive and will start spinning webs. She may also become increasingly lethargic to conserve energy, indulging in sporadic hunting forays around the tank.

Every responsible pet owner needs to feed, water and care for their pet - tarantula's naturally live on a diet of pinhead crickets. Virtual Creatures too need care and attention to survive.
Realism has been vital to the Virtual Creatures project - we've spent many hours studying the real thing to ensure that the virtual pets display as many of the real characteristics of the species as possible - from grooming and web spinning through to attack and defence, catch and kill.

If your spider does die, you can resurrect it by clicking on the options menu at the bottom of the screen and choosing Utilities/ Resurrect creature. Doing this will give you a brand new baby spider.

No, to get a new spider in your tank, choose resurrect creature from the options menu which is at the bottom of the screen. This will resurrect your spider instantaneously so there is no need for another download.

Your spider may be hiding under a rock or log - simply click on the zoom button (+ magnifying glass) which will take you automatically to your spiders hiding place.

Love them or hate them, spiders are truly fascinating - Virtual Creatures are no exception. The range allows unrivalled, close range observation of the creature's daily rituals.
Not only that, but owners can interact with their pet and watch its personality develop in response to the care and attention they provide.

Virtual Creatures do have a therapeutic value in providing arachnaphobes with a "safe" way to confront their fears. They may indeed help to dispel misgivings, acting as a stepping stone to facing the real thing.
Virtual Creatures give arachnophobes the opportunity to observe the fascinating natural behaviour patterns of spiders at close range but within a virtual (and therefore non-threatening) environment which can only be beneficial.

The Mexican Red Knee is a CITES listed, protected species - Virtual Creatures gives people access to the species without harming it, or its environment, and allows the owner to learn about the creature concerned.

Unfortunately, due to the low cost of each spider we are unable to accept other forms of payment at this time. Payment is available only by Visa/Mastercard on our secure server.

Our servers are secure, Verisign approved and we operate via World Pay and NatWest your transaction will be as secure as it gets!

If you need to reload your machine or upgrade your operating system, then your Virtual Creatures Registration will become void.

To re-register your spider follow these steps:

(if you have a chille rose, simply replace 'chilerose' for 'red knee' in the following process)

Open the RedKnee program, by going to

start => program files => Virtual creatures => Red Knee

UNREGISTERED VERSION

Do you wish to register?

Now your browser will open,

and you will need to type in your details:

On this page there is a section:

If you have previously registered your Virtual Creature and your Certificate is no longer registering your product, then you need to 're-register your Creature Here',

Click 're-register your Creature Here'

You will be asked for you 'registration code',

then you will be able to download a new certificate.

You will need to download a new certificate by following the normal registration process and click on the re-register button at the VC registration website. Follow the onscreen prompt from there to obtain and download your new certificate.

Try one of these other download sites:

The registered spider cannot be moved from machine to machine so it is advisable to register the spider on the machine where you are most likely to use it.

If someone you know really likes your spider the best thing to do is direct them to one of our download sites so they can obtain their own Virtual Creature!!

You must install the spider at home, then go to register, insert a blank floppy, when it has saved, take this to work, open the file register.htm that is on the disk, follow the steps, save the certificate to disk and take it home, and run it.

Downloading Crickets

At home, go to 'download crickets', insert a blank floppy, when it has saved, take this to work, open the file dwncrk.htm that is on the disk, follow the steps, save the creaturefood.exe to disk and take it home, and run it.

When you require new crickets you must download them from the virtual creatures website, by clicking on Utilities/download crickets in the Virtual Creatures application. This will automatically take you to the cricket download area.

If you are experiencing problems downloading crickets there's a couple of things you need to check. Firstly, Is your spider properly registered? You must ensure that the certificate has been downloaded and installed on your machine. If your program is not registered it will display a REGISTER dialogue boxfrom time to time. See How to register for more details on registering.

If you have registered your spider, but when you attempt to download crickets you are told that you are not a registered user, dont worry, it simply means that your spider is not properly registered. It could be that you have upgraded or re-installed the spider, or your operating system, or simply that you have not installed your certificate correctly. Click here to download DEREGISTER.EXE, and execute it on your computer to remove your existing registration. Now follow the instructions for re-registering your spider in the section "Computer Crashes".

If you are still experiencing problems contact support with details of the problem and your registration code.

If you are expeiencing problems downloading a certificate please contact us stating your name, browser, Registration number and reply email address.

sales@globalbeach.com

When you download the certificate all you need to do is run it once on the machine where you virtual creature is installed. The next time you start your Virtual Creature your creature will be registered.

When you register Virtual Creatures, you are registering it to one specific machine. The certificate must be run on the same machine where your Virtual Creature registration was initiated from. If you upgrade your operating system, or you have to reformat you hard drive, then your registration will become void. See the section "Computer Crashes" for details on obtaining a new certificate.

When you download new crickets you will get the opportunity to download a plugin for your spider which will enable your spider to do new things like climb the glass and spin webs. Additional plugins will be released in the future to add even more functionality to your creature.

To download the plugin now, select your creature from below :

For peak fitness, your spider needs daily attention - just like the real thing. Although your spider can survive for around four days untended, conscientious spider owners are advised to make provisions to ensure that a colleague or friend looks after their pet while they are away.

Alternatively you can use the "Freeze Simulation" option to "freeze" your spider indefinately.