Oddballz

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title: "Oddballz" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1996-video-games", "god-games", "pf.magic-games", "single-player-video-games", "ubisoft-games", "video-games-developed-in-the-united-states", "virtual-pet-video-games", "windows-games"] description: "1996 video game" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddballz" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 1996 video game ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox video game"]

Field	Value
title	Oddballz: Your Wacky Computer Petz
image	Oddballz Coverart.png
caption	Italian box art
developer	PF Magic
publisher	PF Magic
released	Windows: 1996
genre	Virtual pets
modes	Single Player
platforms	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS 7
::

| title = Oddballz: Your Wacky Computer Petz | image = Oddballz Coverart.png | caption = Italian box art | developer = PF Magic | publisher = PF Magic | designer = | engine = | released = Windows: 1996 | genre = Virtual pets | modes = Single Player | platforms = Microsoft Windows, Mac OS 7 | media = Oddballz: Your Wacky Computer Petz is a virtual pet game developed by PF Magic, as part of the Petz series, released in 1996. It follows, and uses many of the systems as, PF Magic's previous Catz and Dogz.

Gameplay

Oddballz follows much of format of Catz and Dogz, with the player being able to adopt a selection of pets, and to play or punish them affecting their mood. However, unlike its predecessors it focuses on fantasy and Chimeric animals—such as a "cross between a walrus and a rabbit" or "half duck, half bear". Also unlike those games, Oddballz includes more than the starting 6 animals, allowing the user to unlock and collect them. New "toys"—items used to interact with your petz—include ray guns, magnets and fire extinguishers. Creatures could also be further "mutated" and traded online with other players, further enhancing the collectability aspect.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Oddballz_(game).png" caption="A pet interacting with the user and with its surroundings."] ::

The game had the ability to get extra content—either from the official website, or on CD-ROM.

Reception

|rev1=The Philadelphia Inquirer |rev1Score= |Allgame= |rev2=MacNN |rev2Score= Alex Garland, in The Daily Telegraph, thought while boring to adults, the collectability aspect would make it appealing to children. Similarly, while Robert Wright found nothing compelling for him, he recounts that his three children—aged 10, 8 and 4—had "been playing it endlessly".

Trevor Covert, of MacNN, while praising the software's intuitive interface, criticized the lack of Mac support for the CD-ROM expansions.

References

References

1. "First Dogz, Then Catz, Now This?". WorldVillage.
2. (6 December 1996). "Oddballz, your Wacky Computer Petz (PC only, Published by P.F. Magic)". [[Hull Daily Mail]].
3. (31 December 1996). "Family pet Loses its fur". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
4. (23 November 1996). "Mini-monsters in the machine". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
5. (20 February 1997). "A video phone for the masses". The Toronto Star.
6. (December 1996). "Dispatches". Dennis Publishing.
7. (August 1997). "Oddballz".
8. (30 January 1997). "Software that combines search engines to effectively navigate Net". [[The Philadelphia Inquirer]].
9. "Oddballz: Your Collectable Computer Petz - Review". [[AllGame]].
10. "Review: Oddballz". MacNN.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::