virtually real

Site

I had the idea for this site since around late 1999, and it took me a whole year to get around to working on it. Even though this site looks small, it took me quite a long time to get it up, mostly due to all the pictures necessary to make it complete. This site was first opened on October 6th, 2000. I chose the name "Virtually Real," because that is what Fin Fin is: a virtual pet which seems so lifelike that you think him to be real, and totally forget that all he is is a swarm of pixels. I must admit that I cheated a little in the creation of this title; the Fin Fin CD booklet claims Fin Fin to be "The World's Most Realistic Virtual Pet!"

And why would I make a fansite for Fin Fin, which is something almost no one knows about? Well, that's why. Because no one knows about it. All sites on him are in either Japanese or, more rarely, German. I came upon the Fin Fin program by chance, around August in 1998 (or maybe it was in 1997, I really don't remember exactly). All I was doing was wandering around Computer City while my mom was looking for some Random Computer Part, and I found Fin Fin. At the time it only came with four contact points, and was missing Lemo Valley and the Nest. I soon became obsessed with Fin Fin. I emailed the Fin Fin people questions about Fin Fin and his world, which they patiently answered, and even offered to send me some free stuff, which I gladly accepted. I also bugged mom a lot, and eventually bought Fin Fin Deluxe, which was like the original but improved and had the Lemo Valley, and the Fin Fin Fun Pack, which came with a coloring book, a CD with screensavers, desktops, mouse icons, and other things, and a Fin Fin stuffed toy, which I still love very much to this day.

Sadly, not many people know about Fin Fin, and Fin Fin isn't available for purchase in the US anymore, save on EBay. I can't say, "Hey, go buy Fin Fin and see for yourself!" so I wanted to make this fansite as informative as I could, so that viewers could perhaps enjoy him as much as I do.

Most of this information was gathered from my own observations, the Fin Fin Encyclopedia, and the Japanese Official Fin Fin website (information on the Nest comes from here), and the FinFin.com people who answered my emails long, long ago. A big thank you goes to my friend Sarah for snapping pictures of the Fin Fin anime!