A HARROGATE firm at the centre of the Virtual Pets fad that swept the nation last year is bracing itself to market millions of one-step-better new wave technology devices.

Tiger Electronics UK, an American company with its distribution arm at Belvedere House in Victoria Avenue, Harrogate, is readying itself for the storm of demand following a launch at the end of next month of... Giga Fighters.

No longer is the subject of cyber-mania the cute Tamagotchi dog or cat that you carefully cared for lest it died of neglect. Now the two by one-and-a-half-inch image is a monster from the film Aliens, all fangs and fright, or a musclebound Batman to name just two subjects.

And you don't care for them in order to allow them to simply exist. You train them to fight. Blase schoolchildren may shrug at the notion of fighting cyber-creatures. The bleeping, weeping destroyers have been around for some time.

"But ours are different," says Elaine Walker, promotions manager for Tiger Electronics. "Giga Fighters are the only Virtual Pets on the market that have real combat fighting.

"Owners can raise their Giga fighters and put them into head to head battle with another Giga Fighter via a linking port that connects the two together. So Batman can take on Predator, or Robin can clash with an all-star wrestler or even a Ninja Turtle.

"New features also include 10 seconds of real sound effects, a night light and multiple characters."

Responding to the criticism by some teachers that Virtual Pets were being played in the classroom, these new gadgets have a pause feature which suspends play without killing your pet fighter." Another first: Giga fighters will be able to connect with a PC, allowing owners to log on to the www.gigapets.com website and by downloading their scores they can compare achievements of other Giga fighters all over the world.

At the same time the website allows them to upload into their tiny machines hidden characters and features which improve the enjoyment of battle.

When asked the kind of turnover and profits the company had bearing in mind the retail price of £15.99, the Tiger barely mewed. "It's not the kind of information we give out," says Elaine. "Ours is a company owned privately by Randy Rissan and our head offices are outside Chicago in Vernon Hills, Illinois."

There is also an office in Hong Kong, where the little contraptions are produced, as well as in Germany and France.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.