Tamagotchi

The origins of Digimon exist within the Tamagotchi (たまごっち Tamagotchi) a series of handheld Virtual Pets created by Aki Maita and sold by Bandai. Three buttons (A, B, and C) allow the user to select the options to feed or play with the virtual pet. There are a wide range of "characters" that the Tamagotchi can evolve into, depending how well the user takes care of it (features which eventually became evolution within digimon).