How To Access Petz

The PF Magic Petz games have been abandonware for more than 20 years. Game CDs can be purchased secondhand, but they are still susceptible to scratches and disc rot. The Petz Community has kept these games available by a number of means.

These instructions are for Windows-based computers; Mac users will need to use Wineskin or a Windows-based virtual machine.

Petz 4
Petz 4 has the widest install base among the Petz Community for its ease of installation.

PetzA Demo Fooler
All you need to do is install the Petz 4 demo and then install PetzA, which patches the demo to version 4.2 and unlocks the full game.


 * 1) Download the Petz 4 demo from archive.org.
 * 2) Install it in a folder that is not   or , as this may cause problems with the Adopted Petz and Petz Pix folders not appearing correctly.
 * 3) Download PetzA from archive.org
 * 4) Install PetzA.

Patch 4.2
Patch 4.2 for Petz 4 was offered as an official download in 2002 and unlocks the full version of the game for players who may want a more organic play experience. It can be downloaded from archive.org here and simply needs to replace the  in your   folder.

Acid Trip Installers
Acid Trip hosts fully installable copies of all Petz games as well as Oddballz and Babyz.

The instructions provided in their downloadable files are  that require third-party software to open. These can be converted into s for much easier viewing using tools like CloudConvert.

MAZZLABS Installers
MAZZLABS hosts installers of Petz 3, Petz 4 and Petz 5 with PetzA already installed as well as Dogz, Catz, Oddballz and Babyz installers with serial numbers for the latter four.

Virtual Machines
Petz II will likely not work on modern Windows systems even with Acid Trip's installers; virtual machines are easy to install and include free options like VMware Workstation 17 and VirtualBox.


 * 1) Installing Windows 98 on VMware Workstation 17
 * 2) Enabling VMware Tools to allow drag-and-drop file transfer in Windows 98 or earlier
 * 3) Dragging and dropping files from your computer into the virtual machine

The Acid Trip Petz II installers can both be simply dragged and dropped and then installed this way.

An .iso and working product key for Windows 98 can be obtained from archive.org here, or a Windows 95 .iso can be obtained here.