This is a journal of my time with Seaman. Seaman is a game for the Dreamcast in which you try to raise a seaman. The game comes with a microphone and you can talk to him and he will talk back… eventually. Seaman is similar to Nintendogs or other pet games as you must raise an animal and be diligent, returning every day, teaching new things, etc. For more information about the game check its page here, or the more detailed Wikipedia page.

As the game starts I’m introduced to the laboratory and previous findings of Dr. Jean Paul Gassé. He found a seaman while in Egypt and started to raise it but it died, fortunately for us there were eggs in its carcass. Leonard Nimoy is the game’s narrator and he gives me some beginning tips. All that I have is a giant aquarium, an egg and some food pellets.

To start off I adjusted the light to be as bright as possible (there are three settings,) I adjusted the temperature to be around 20.0 (unclear whether it’s Fahrenheit or Celsius), and I adjusted the air to about 70 (again unclear about it.) After inserting the egg it took about five minutes to hatch, when it did it spread about seven “mushroomers” which look like spores.

There is a creature already in the tank called the “nautilus.” I tap the glass near the nautilus to draw the mushroomers near it and the nautilus eats a few of them. The nautilus begins shooting around spewing ink like a squid. It turns out the mushroomers are changing and using the nautilus as a host. After ten or so minutes six little “gillmen” break out of the nautilus and it dies. The gillmen are premature seamen, they are little fish like creatures with a human face.

I drop in a food pellet but they don’t respond to it, must not be hungry. I observe them for another twenty minutes all the while trying to talk to them. They are talking but as of now it just sounds like gibberish, it doesn’t make sense. They do recognize “hey” and “seaman” and come near when they hear it. That's it for today.