#nincatgo

[crying-over-cartoons]

Ninjago Characters in Petz

[image ID: Zane, Cole, Nya, Kai, Pixal, Lloyd, and Jay from Ninjago, redesigned as cats in the video game Petz. end ID]

You see these critters? I made these. I meant to make a post about them but then forgot, so I'm doing it now, lol

This post is pretty lengthy, so here, have a readmore:

Briefest possible introduction to Petz: It's a series of virtual pet games from the 90s, and it has a prolific modding scene. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petz

The creations I will be talking about in this post were made for Petz 4.

Terminology:

"Hexing" refers to the process of creating a mod for Petz, since it required a hex editor in the early days, before dedicated programs were made. Hex editors are still used for some modifications, such as changing a petz' personality values.

A "hexie" is a breed or pet created via hexing.

The first NinCatGo (yes that's what I call them) hexie I made was Zane, because he's my favourite character. I initially intended to only make Zane, but he was so dang fun I decided to make some more.

[image IDs: Zane from Ninjago recreated as a cat in the game Petz. he is grey with silver and light blue accents, a blue nose, and blue whiskers. he has pale blue eyes with white pupils. in the third image, he is wearing neon green shutter shades, a green tail bow, and a sweater patterned with the aromantic flag. end ID]

Next up was Jay. He blends in incredibly well with most of the carpets and rugs in this game.

[image IDs: Jay from Ninjago recreated as a cat in the game Petz. He is dark blue with lighter blue speckles, a dark grey nose, and blue whiskers. his tailtip, legs, and ear insides are lighter blue. he has yellow eyes, freckles, and pawpads. end ID]

After Jay was Nya. Designing her was SO fun! Like Jay, she also blends into the carpets and rugs. She's doesn't act as angry as she looks, but I based her off of the Black&White Shorthair from the original game, and those cats are just kinda like that...

[image IDs: Nya from Ninjago recreated as a cat in the game Petz. she has blue fur with black tiger stripes. her belly, face, tailtip, and ear insides are lighter blue. her nose is dark grey, her whiskers are blue, and her eyes light blue. end ID]

Next, I made Kai. I used Nya as a base, but recoloured the tiger texture I was using, and made his tail and ears crooked by borrowing some code from the Alley Cat, a base game breed.

[image IDs: Kai from Ninjago recreated as a cat in the game Petz. he has red fur with brown stripes. his belly, tailtip, and ear insides are orange. he has a red nose and whiskers, and bright red eyes. he has multiple kinks in his tail, and his left ear is shorter than the right. end ID]

After that came Cole. He's the first one I made a texture for; all the other textures are either from the game, or downloaded from other websites. Cole's lava texture though, that's all me!

[image IDs: Cole from Ninjago recreated as a cat in the game Petz. his fur is black, and his face, belly, and ear insides are orange. his tail and legs have been textured to appear to be made of lava. he has black whiskers, a dark grey nose, and yellow eyes. in the third image, he is carrying a pink yarn ball. end ID]

Then came Lloyd. I left him for last (I didn't plan to make Pixal at the time) because his modifications are the most complex, requiring me to make a new tail, ears, horns, and mane for him (modifying the original tail and ears wouldn't work, because it would cause the animations to break and just generally be horrifying).

[image IDs: Lloyd from Ninjago recreated as a cat in the game Petz. he has green scales, with blonde fur on his legs, tailtip, face, throat, and ear insides. he has a blonde mane, and two black antlers. he has black whiskers and bright red eyes. in the third image, he is wearing shamrock-shaped glasses, a yellow collar, and a yellow tail bow. end ID]

Shortly after creating all of these guys, I decided I hadn't had enough, and made Pixal as well. I used Zane as a base, and created a new circuit texture for her. Considering there's a total of like, two purple colours available in the game's palette, I'm very happy with how she turned out.

[image IDs: Pixal from Ninjago recreated as a cat in the game Petz. she is light silver with white and purple accents. Portions of her body are covered in a circuitry texture. she has blue whiskers, a blue nose, and green eyes with white pupils. end ID]

Congrats on reading this far! If you like what you see, may I suggest giving Petz a try? For new players, I'd suggest downloading Petz 4 from this site: https://mazzew.neocities.org/ (warning for flashing imagery!)

You can also see some more images of these guys and a bunch of other neat Petz stuff on my own site: https://thecatingrey.neocities.org/

I hope I can manage to inspire at least one Ninjago fan to pick up Petz. It's an incredibly fun and low maintenance game, and unlike games like Animal Crossing and Nintendogs, time doesn't pass in-game when it's not on. This makes it the perfect virtual pet game for someone like me, whose Neopets are currently languishing and whose Animal Crossing island is in shambles.

Not to mention, the community for the games is incredible. I always struggle to describe it in words. Never before have I seen an online community this friendly and welcoming. The amount of talent I see every time I visit a new site is mind-boggling. I've genuinely been inspired to learn new skills because of some of the amazing things I've seen.

There are people who have been in this community since the games came out, and there are some websites that are nearly as old. Finding this community opened my eyes to a whole new world- one that I thought disappeared before I could use a computer. But the old web still exists, and there's a place for you in it.

[sailorchips]

Good-ish!Morro and Kai as Lloyd’s substitute parents (EDIT: I’m calling it the Destiny Dads AU)

also threw in some Nincatgo in there for fun hehe (click for higher res!)