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Catz 5/Dogz 5


Genre: Childrens, Virtual pets
Release Year: 2002
Developer: Studio Mythos
Publisher: Ubisoft
Age Rating: Everyone
Playability Status: Perfect
Tested On: Windows 8 x64
Availability: Copyright retained - Still sold

Virtual pet games have always been popular especially with children. All the fun of your own pet minus any real responsibility. The Petz series of games from Ubisoft was incredibly popular at the time, letting virtual pet owners care for either cats or dogs, or buy and install both games together and care for both types of furry four legged friend. While the virtual pet craze has died down a little in more recent years, these entertaining titles are still a great way to keep children occupied on a rainy day.

Installation

There are a few extra steps you need to take when installing either Catz 5 or Dogz 5. Start by inserting either game CD into your computers optical drive. Follow the on-screen prompts to start the installer. If the installer does not start automatically, browse to the CD in Computer/This PC and run the “Launch.exe” file manually.

Now, follow the installer through until the part where you are asked where you want to install the game to. Most users click over this step and install their games and other programs to the default directories, but the Petz games won’t work with the default directories when run on 64 bit machines. Click on the “Browse” button and choose a different directory, “C:\Games\Petz 5” would be ideal, for example.

The rest of the installation will now be automatic. At the end of the installation you will be asked if you want to install DirectX, you should skip this step. You might want to skip the online registration too as it is unlikely that registration is still active for such an old game.

Since there are no official patches to install and no compatibility mode settings to change, you can now simply start the game and play. If you do encounter any problems or want to know about the unofficial patch, read on to the next sections.

Troubleshooting

We did not encounter any issues running Dogz 5 on our Windows 8.1 PC. If you do have issues getting the game to start, try setting the compatibility mode options to run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 2). If you need a tutorial on using compatibility mode settings, see this link.

Some users also reported that it was necessary to reduce the resolution of their Windows desktop, though the game ran just fine here with a huge 2048×1152 desktop resolution.

PetsA – Unofficial patch and expansion

If you’re still encountering issues running or playing Dogz 5 or Catz 5 on your modern PC, or you just want to get more out of your virtual pet simulator, you should check out this fantastic unofficial expansion and patch program from Sherlock Software called PetzA. PetzA fixes bugs and adds a lot of new features and options, some that could be considered cheating and some that may have strange effects on your virtual critters! Of course it’s up to the player which ones he/she uses. Remember you can make a backup copy of your Petz save games at any time simply by copying the .pet files found in the “Adopted Petz” sub-folder in the Petz 5 installation folder.

To find out more about PetzA and to download a copy for free, visit this page. Sherlock Software also have a bunch of other programs for tinkering with the Petz games that allow you to create new breeds of animal and new toys, so be sure to browse around their site.

Screenshots

Click on any screenshot to enlarge it.

Playing ball with a virtual pet in the living room.

Playing ball with a virtual pet in the living room.

Feeding a pet in the kitchen.

Feeding a pet in the kitchen.

50 comments

  1. Lim Yee Rou says:

    help me download petz 5!

  2. WolfAlexia says:

    Hey … I have a problem with this game … He goes installed and played on Windows 8.1, but when you adopt a dog or any animal, the animal appears without eyes and on the right screen and the animal that appears as a black and normal white game .. .we have no idea what to do …. I wish I could play this joc.thanks for the reply!

    • BuckoA51 says:

      Curious! Did you try installing PetsA too?

      • Keegan says:

        This is a late response, but I hope I am able to help those who are experiencing this issue today.

        What you are experiencing is simply a graphical error. But don’t worry! This can be fixed very easily. All you have to do is change your screen resolution to 1024 x 768. :) All done!

        Also, as a side tip, if you’re experiencing any further issues with your game, be sure to run your game as an administrator! And if you are to download mods for you game (ex. Tinker only), run this as an admin as well so you can properly make changes in game. :)

  3. WolfAlexia says:

    Yes.Plase he;p me !I wish play this game!

  4. WolfAlexia says:

    Please Tell me how insttall step by step .I want to play this game very much.
    Thanks

  5. WolfAlexia says:

    Well I do not know how to properly install Catz and Dogz 5 game …..
    I would like to help me Plase

    • BuckoA51 says:

      The guide above tells you how to install it. Just be careful to change the installation folder to C:\Petz or something similar.

      • Dogs54 says:

        It won’t run on windows 10… i tried everything… compatibility mode, setting my resolution down to what is says on the box and troubleshooting forums…. please help! It just doesn’t even launch. No errors, no loading problem – no crashes – it just doesn’t launch at all. The launcher will run, but then disappears right after it says “demoshield”

  6. WolfAlexia says:

    You know where I can download Dogz and Catz 5 ?

  7. WolfAlexia says:

    Thanks very much for reply.

  8. Kirsty says:

    I’ve just installed Catz 5 and the petzA and the pets are coming out without eyes and a graphic “shadow” to the left of the actual pet. Can you help?

  9. Laura says:

    To all having the no-eyes problem; on my machine, a simple screen resolution change fixed it. Try setting your monitor to 1024×768 and see if that fixes the issue.

  10. Annie says:

    does the copies from amazon or ebay needs to pay money?
    how to download? please >_<

  11. Tintin says:

    When i try run Petz5 (Catz5) on my windows 7 acer. It always says
    “Sorry petz5 could not run because of the following error: Asset not found
    Asset= \Resource\translationkit.txt. This may be cause by low memory or lack or hard disk space.
    What does this mean? I have no idea what to do? i downloaded lots from my laptop and nothing?

  12. KatD says:

    I have fixed my no eyes problem by changing the resolution.

    However, when I go into the arabian area the notificationpops up about the minigame and continues to pop up until the game stops running.

  13. Beth says:

    Any idea on the official CD’s missing the data3.cab file? I’m trying to install Catz 5 and Dogz 5 on my laptop (now on Windows 10), and these discs have worked on my old computers just fine. But now that I try to install it on this laptop, I can’t get through the installation process. I have tried both discs, and checked both: they each have data1.cab and data2.cab, but no data3.cab exists. I know these are the official discs – I bought them in store when they first came out. Please help? Thanks!

  14. wolforine2002 says:

    I Have windows ten and catz and dogz five the CD. It opens just fine but when i click install it locks up then closes and doesn’t do anything!

  15. Aric says:

    Hi,

    I bought this game for my bf and his computer runs windows 10, will he run into issues installing or running the game? Should I do anything different in the installation process?

  16. Erin says:

    My problem says that I don’t have the permission and i need to sign in as an administrator… I am the only one to use and has ever used this computer. What do I do?

  17. Joy Joy says:

    does catz 5 work on windows 7?

  18. Talhah says:

    Hey, could there be anyway to make the Petz Publisher to work without the need of a virtual machine. I would really appreciate it.

  19. Omu says:

    How do you get Catz 5 to work without the travel skinz cuz its not working 4 me.

  20. Joy says:

    How do you get ut to work? i hit play and the box goes away and doesnt load or anything

  21. Sarah says:

    Hi! I have installed Dogz 4 on three different computers. Two with Windows 10, one on Windows 7. The game installs and works fine at the original page where you can select and adopt 2 dogs, but as soon as I click “adopt”, it gives me the adoption certificate, then crashes. This happens on all 3 computers. I even bought a second disk in case it was the disk, but it’s doing it with the second disk as well. ALSO I have tried playing in compatibility mode and with different graphics. Help!!

  22. bridie says:

    I don’t know how you get those pandas and breeds how do you get them ?

  23. HazelGirlOnline says:

    My computer says theres no disk! I get on to “My PC” and theres nothing!

  24. can you help me to download catz5 beacause my school sjk [c]chi hwa has the game and my friends said “i wish catz5 its in my computer so that i can play catz5 everyday”pls help me to download catz 5 please

  25. American Pickers S16E10 says:

    thanks for great post

  26. Nikki says:

    I have Windows 7 on my laptop, and I’ve changed the compatability to the Windows XP Service Pack 2, but all that does is make the screen go black and glitch out for a few secinds after that

  27. Lunod says:

    I’ve tried installing the game using all of the instructions above. I have windows 8.1 on my laptop and windows 7 x64 on my desktop PC. It downloads fine on both, but when i go to launch the game by hitting play nothing happens.

  28. Monstermaster13 says:

    I need help with playing it, i got ‘please login in with administration priviledges and try again’, i tried doing it as an administrator and it didn’t work.

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