Nintendogs

Nintendogs: Lab & Friends/Dachshund & Friends/Chihuahua & Friends/Best Friends/Dalmatian & Friends
Also known as: Shiba & Friends (JP "Lab" version), Rentian Gougou (CN) Developer: Nintendo EAD Publishers: Nintendo (INT), iQue (CN) Platform: Nintendo DS Released in JP: April 21, 2005 Released in US: August 22, 2005 Released in EU: October 7, 2005 Released in AU: September 22, 2005 Released in KR: May 3, 2007 Released in CN: December 12, 2009 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has unusual dummy files. This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page

Nintendogs is a real-time pet simulation game that was released in a number of versions, mostly named for the starter breed (similarly to Pokémon). Dachshund, Lab/Shiba, and Chihuahua were the first to be released, with Best Friends and Dalmatian coming a bit later. Pet and play with your doggy, then don't play it for 10 years, then rediscover it!

To do: Still a lot to cover. A demo version exists, with an early English translation. Internal material from the iQue localization process in the September 2020 Nintendo leaks. There are a lot of ambience music sequences. Which ones are unused? Also, SSEQ_0128 appears to be an unused item sound. There appears to be code for debugging features. Try to find out how to enable them if possible. Unused sounds, such as frog croaking?

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Notes

Game Content

Unused Item Data So much trash... literally.

Lost Bark Mode Events Na, du bist aber ein Süßer!

Version Differences No golden retrievers for Japan!

Resources

Unused Graphics They really had trouble designing the UI...

Obscured Graphics Hidden placeholder graphics and markers.

Unused Text (Doesn't Appear in Game)

Early Text "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock!"

Unused System Files There's a lot of Nintendogs games...

Misc.

Oddities Hidden details and other interesting tidbits.

Removed Breeds

German press kit, February 2005

The game unsurprisingly features a lot of different dog breeds and variations, however, some didn't make the final cut. They all use the early Beagle breed files as a placeholder.

Papillon and Maltese

Papillon modded into the kennel.

The developers left two more toy breeds in the files, Papillon (パピヨン) and Maltese (マルチーズ). They are unfinished, hence they use the aforementioned placeholder files. Both breeds reserve data for two variants. Like in real life, they are classified as long hair dogs, meaning that they need appropriate shampoo too. Their file identifiers are pap and mcz, respectively and they occupy the IDs $000F and $0010. Their names weren't localized and the French and Spanish localizations left their names blank. Furthermore, their item attributes were removed, meaning that they cannot be unlocked in the kennel.

Maltese was added in Nintendogs + Cats, but Papillon remains unused.

Golden Retriever

Even though golden retrievers were introduced in localized releases, unfinished data for it can be found in Japanese games. Like the two unreleased breeds above, it uses placeholder data. Interestingly, there's no file for a third variant (Glc_c).

Alternate Variants

Excluding the unused breeds, there are at least three variants available for all dog breeds. However, placeholder data for several variants exist. There would have been one more variant for Chihuahuas (Chi_e), toy poodles (Pdl_d), and shiba inus (Sib_d), and two more variants for miniature dachshunds (Mdf_d and Mdf_e).

Unused Sequences

SSEQ_0033 ($21)

Attempting to play it crashes the game because the soundbank and samples for it are missing. When played in a MIDI editor, it's revealed to be an arrangement of Valkyrie’s Violation, by classical composer Wagner. It was likely intended to be used on one of the Records, considering the others play renditions of famous classical music.

SSEQ_0037 ($25)

An alternate rendition of the friendly dog theme without the intro, implying it was supposed to be used as a "regular theme" when meeting friendly dogs on walk.

SSEQ_0052 ($34)

A variation of the curious dog theme with a slightly tense intro. How it was meant to be used remains a mystery, though.

Unused Music Box File

As described on the unused item data page, there's one music box item that was removed from the final game. Likewise, there is an unused audio file for a removed music box called musicbox_grain_rec.mbox. When loaded into the final game, it's revealed to be a dummy sequence as it plays a set of ascending notes over and over again.

Unused Agility Competition Data

There exists some unused content specifically for agility competitions.

Unused Tunnel Object

Although various rotated tunnel obstacles are used during agility competitions, this specific variant is never used, rendering its Top Screen icon unused as well.

Unseen Training Obstacle Sequences

The player's dog can exercise in the local gymnasium to train for agility competitions. Here, there's no time limit or actual sequence the dog has to go through. Nevertheless, an actual sequence is configured, which is never used or seen in-game. The unused time limit for these is 99 seconds.