AIBO Pal

AIBO Pal is an AIBOware for the ERS-31X series.

History
AIBO Friend was introduced in Japan in 2001 at the launch of the ERS-31X series. AIBO Pal, the English version of the software, would launch with the release of the ERS-31X in western markets.

Function
AIBO Pal is akin to Hello AIBO! Type A as AIBO Life (3x) is akin to AIBO Life. The software functions as an adult personality that adapts over time to user input. AIBO Pal is capable of "Motion-detection photography", a "house guard mode" that saves 3 pictures to the memory stick when motion is detected. In addition, Pal contains a "happy mode" that mirrors the boost mode present in AIBO Explorer.

Personalities And Controversy
AIBO Friend contains four personalities, "Latte Happy" and "Latte Sad" that are enabled in an ERS-311, and "Macaron Happy" and "Macron Sad" that are enabled in an ERS-312. The Latte personality is cute and playful, while the Macaron personality is described as mischievous. When localized as AIBO Pal, Sony disabled the Macaron variants, functionally removing 1/2 of the content- likely in an effort to prevent any possibility of the software being interpreted as inappropriate. A Macaron running an unmodified AIBO Pal memory stick will default to either of the "Latte" personalities.

Reception
AIBO Pal is a popular software for the ERS-31X. It is liked for it's simplicity and overall quality, but has a reputation in the western community for being too moody. The software is infamous for being near-impossible to keep in a 'happy' personality variant. Personality patches exist for this reason.

Trivia

 * As with other early ERS-31X software, AIBO Pal is also compatible with the ERS-210 because both models ran on the same versions of OPEN-R. It is not recommended to run the software this way because it was not designed for the ERS-210. Further information is available at Software Compatibility.