Seaman

About Seaman

Seaman is considered a unique video game because it contains limited action. The player's goal is to feed and care for the Seaman while providing him with the company that he needs. The mechanic operates in real time, so the player is required to check on the Seaman every real-time day or he could die. A portion of the Seaman's knowledge is random trivia. When he asks what the player's birthday is (and the player responds via the microphone input), the Seaman will share significant events that happened on that date.

Although the Seaman becomes fairly tame, it does not stop insulting the player or making less-than-friendly remarks.

At the beginning of the game, the player is provided with an unhatched Seaman egg and develops and interacts with it through various stages of development. Through various buttons on the Dreamcast controller, the player controls all the machinery and physical contact with the mysterious creature. The player is also provided with multiple Seamen for breeding and interaction purposes. Over the course of the game, the player is required to evolve their Seaman to different stages in its life cycle, eventually transforming into a frog-like creature outlined on the disc's cover.

As a new pet owner, the player is given the responsibility of caring for and learning about the enigmatic "Seaman" species using a replica of the discoverer's laboratory. The player must figure everything out by themselves, such as appropriate care, with some guidance from the narrator, Leonard Nimoy.

The game's manual goes into further detail about the backstory of the seaman species. The manual on page 3 & 11 says to visit the website "www.meetseaman.com" for more information, between 2000 and 2004, it redirected to Yoot.com which expanded on the story in the manual.

During the 1930s, Dr. Jean-Paul Gassé was a member of a special team of French biologists sent to Egypt by the French government. During that time, Dr. Gassé was determined to research a creature that was an "omnipotent messenger of the gods" among the ruins of the Third Dynasty. In March 1932, in the city of Alexandria, Dr. Gassé met a local resident, who, while fishing, caught a Seaman. Dr. Gassé obtained a sample of some of the Seaman eggs, and went back to France with the egg samples in his possession.