Pikmin

Pikmin
Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Platform: GameCube Released in JP: October 26, 2001 Released in US: December 2, 2001 Released in EU: June 14, 2002 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. 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 a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page

Pikmin is the story of Captain Olimar, an explorer who crash lands on an "unknown planet" (that totally doesn't resemble Earth in any way). There, he finds some indigenous creatures that are eager to help him recover his ship parts. However, these cute animal-plant hybrids are on the bottom of the food chain, and there are larger creatures waiting to eat them. The Pikmin will have to work as a team with Olimar to take down these (comparatively) gigantic beasts! Can Olimar recover at least 25 required ship parts in just 30 days? Canonically, yes.

This article was brought to you by Microsoft Windows™.

To do: Replace videos with screenshots or GIFs whenever possible, attempt to combine certain videos such as the Unused Area ones, and optionally, link to the videos with a simple link (i.e. no embed). Document unused objects: the omnidirectional fire stream which can be found if you enter a normal area with the Windows debugging executable. Are there any further differences between the adult/child mode in the Japanese version? [1] [2] Dolphin comes with a code for the EU version: Gfx Debug 0039D724 00000001. Document and find the US code. The huge amount of codes on the talk page have a lot of stuff. Search on the ISO for the word "pikmin" with a hex editor. There's a truckload of debug strings we don't have documented yet. Discoveries from this channel. An unused area map.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Notes

Windows Executable A debugging executable for Windows. It's like I'm actually working at Nintendo!

Development Text Because not everything has to do with story.

Debug Content

Debug Menu

A simple debug menu that tests some of the game's features. Each option has a value that can be changed with the analog stick, and when the A button is pressed, a menu or screen appears. The menu is in Japanese in all releases. The options to the following, from top to bottom:

• Title screen options test. (1) has Challenge Mode show up in the menu.
• Monolog viewer. Notable monologs include:
  • 10 (tu_tx16.blo) and 29 (tu_tx36.blo), an untranslated message and an unused ending monolog respectively.
  • 152 (test2.blo), more or less the second sprite test screen but without the ability to move the screen or the 5.
• Save file saving test. All 8 options seem to do the same thing.
• Effect/button/sprite test screen. Use the C-stick to pan screen.
  • (1) has a pulsating 5 that can be moved with the analog stick, along with some different text.
• Memory card notices, including save creation, space warnings, corruption warnings, and a repair tool of sorts. A save file will actually be created in this menu, so caution should be used if testing options that would reformat the card for instance.
• Save file loading test. (1) does nothing.
• Voyage log/monolog viewer. All 31 options do the same thing, and the days you can select only go up to day 16 for unknown reasons. Some unused/untranslated logs are present as well.
• End of day screen
• Pause menus for both game modes
• Final statistics screen
• Shows the "Press Start" graphic from the title screen

To access this, use one of the codes below, then hold the D-pad right when loading a menu. You will have to restart the game to leave the debug menu.

Region	Code
PAL	R7RH-6BYQ-6QUW3 HJ4F-HEJZ-ACKEN 0Z7C-29CE-0C1BC
NTSC	42NA-65DT-9YNBG HJ4F-HEJZ-ACKEN 0Z7C-29CE-0C1BC

(Source: ConkerGuru (code))

(Source: gabrielwoj (video))

Debug Info

Using one of the codes below, you can enable on-screen debug info.

Region	Code
NTSC V1.1 (Press D-Pad Up to show)	04CE5870 08000000 8A39D400 00000008 003988BC 00000001 003E7CC0 00000001 003988A4 00000701 00000000 40000000
NTSC V1.1 (Press D-Pad Down to hide)	04CE5871 08000000 8A39D400 00000004 003988BC 00000000 003E7CC0 00000000 003988A4 00000700 00000000 40000000

Model Viewer

A model viewer for a small selection of entities in the game, including a couple unused (or broken) ones.

With the code below enabled, hold the D-pad right while a new menu is being loaded (for instance, in the Nintendo logo or from the main menu to the save selection), and the viewer will load instead. Note that loading the model viewer at the Nintendo logo will make the animations play without sound.

Region	Code
NTSC V1.1	0A39D400 00000002 0439D9A8 00000003

Controls

• R: Toggle zoom. Works similarly to the in-game zoom.
• L + Left/Right: Move camera left/right.
• A: Play animation.
• B: Pause/resume animation.
• C-stick up/down: Change the framerate of the animation from 0 to 60 (twice as fast).
• C-stick left/right: Change animation ("Motion") to play.
• L + A: Changes the current model to Blue Pikmin Model.
• L + C-stick left/right: Change model.
• X: Stop animation loop.
• Start: Exit.

(Codes: ConkerGuru)

(Source: gabrielwoj (video))

(Source: Woofmute (other video)

Unused Areas

Many unused areas remain on the game disc. Some are test maps, while others were used in prerelease trailers. Only their models and collision data remain, so in order to access them in-game, they must replace an existing level. The objects, music, and other properties will belong to the replaced level.

play3/E3play_3

This area resembles both The Impact Site and The Forest of Hope. It was probably used for an E3 conference.

shapetest

A test map. Features placeholder textures, strange bottles, tin cans, and some very realistic mountains.

tuto2

A small forest area with an inaccessible wooden bridge near the edge of the map that may have been intended for the cut 2-player mode based on the files.

map06

This area appeared in a commercial for the game. It looks like Distant Spring with various unused textures. There are no borders, so be careful not to walk off the edge.

play_4

Another test map with many slopes and test textures, including a Helicopter parking symbol on top of a tree stump.

testmap

A large test map featuring many typical test map elements such as slopes and stairs of varying heights. Also features more specific testing elements, like a platform filled with holes for Pikmin to fall into and winding airborne paths.

tuto1

A small map consisting of three circular areas using placeholder textures.

animtest/codetest

Two maps meant for the model viewer and map collision codes and their affiliated flags (step sound, if Pikmin can be planted there, etc.) respectively.

route

Believed to be a prototype version of The Impact Site, due to both looking quite similar and even sharing the paths Pikmin use to carry things to their Onions. The slopes have odd textures.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

Unused Models

cylinder.mod

An early pellet model. There are also duplicates for this model.

kuribo.mod

A goofy looking model of a Goomba from the Mario franchise that looks a bit like the unused Kug enemy from Super Mario Sunshine. "Kuribo" is the Japanese name for Goomba.

mario.mod

A very large model of Mario.

door.mod and key.mod

A door and key model are located in the same folder. They can only be loaded without mods in the Windows Debug version. The door has a small and big version.

The door and key are still functional as well. Keys can be picked up by walking into them, and will disappear when collected. The keys can then be used on the door by simply walking in front of them. The small door will lock Olimar in place if the player has a key, but the big door will play an animation where it shrinks vertically until it disappears into the ground. The game will keep track of how many keys you have, so you will have to pick up another one of you want to open another door.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

(Source: Yoshi2 (video))

OldMarkr.mod

A marker most likely used to help test the mechanics of the Pikmin. The X shows where a Pikmin will land when thrown, the inner circle may be used to show how close a Pikmin must be to something to grab/attack it, and the outer circle shows the range of Olimar's whistle. The X and inner circle will change color depending on which Pikmin is currently closest to Olimar's active group.

(Source: gabrielwoj (video))

(Source: 9TDF (discovery))

Prototype S.S. Dolphin

Folders "demo76" and "demo77", found in dataDir/cinemas, contain identical copies of a prototype version of the S.S. Dolphin's cutscene model. Demo76 and demo77 do not use these, and instead borrow from demo01's resources.

(Source: Minty_Meeo)

Unused Enemies

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: Replace images with better ones and/or GIFs.

Iwagen

In some test levels such as testmap, there is an unused enemy called 'iwagen'. It appears to be a rock spitting vase, shooting small boulders similarly to the armored cannon beetle. It has no health counter and its only animation is for shooting. The name is a combination of "iwa" (meaning "rock") and "gen" (short for "generator").

Usuba

Usuba (ウスバ), short for Antlion (ウスバカゲロウ), would have been a flying antlion enemy based on a debug string stating "Usuba is flying." and its only animation file being named "fly.dca". Attempting to spawn Usuba in any manner crashes the game, and it doesn't show up in the animation test, but the model can be swapped with any object in-game. Usuba is likely from a similar stage of development as Iwagen, as its parameter file is one of only three that still use version 0823 (8). As a side note, there is a completely unused parameter version that is older than 0823 (8) called 0615 (7), giving us a time-frame for when Usuba was last developed.

The parameters themselves suggest Usuba was dropped fairly late into its development, showing that it would have had 5000 HP (one of the highest amounts in the game) and may have spawned Smoky Proggs, but it's possible that the IDs for this shifted during development, so this can't be confirmed.

A video of the creature's flying animation can be seen here.

(Source: Minty_Meeo)

Unused Textures

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: Actually get images of the test maps' textures in here.

Early Impact Site Map

Textures for an early map of The Impact Site are loaded in memory when on said area. By stitching them together, it's possible to see what the area looked like in development. While it shares the same general layout of the final map, there are also several big differences.

• The platform that normally has the 20 seed pellets is almost entirely gone. There's still an outline of the platform's slope, so this area may have simply not been finished at that point.
• The two stumps near the ship have no slopes present.
• The onions' "landing pad" textures aren't present.
• Oddly, the area where the Pikmin would push a box has differing sizes between where it starts out and where it would go.
• The lake seems to be entirely absent.

(Source: Pikipedia (Image))

Bomb-rock Textures

Textures for all maturities of Blue and Red Pikmin holding bomb-rocks, something only Yellow Pikmin could do in the final game.

Moon Texture

A moon texture. This was originally intended to appear on the clock at night, replacing the sun icon.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

Unused Olimar's Log Textures

In the final game, Olimar can write log entries on several of the enemies he encounters, but the Swooping Snitchbug and Water Dumple logs appear to have been cut. Despite this, the textures for his drawings remain on the disc.

(Source: PikHacker)

play_4 Stump Texture

play_4 has a large textured tree stump, but most of its texture goes unmapped. The full thing reveals an entire arena around the stump, and a corridor connecting to another room.

(Source: Drizzlederg (discovery))

2d_data Folder

The "2d_data" folder in the dataDir directory contains a subfolder named "karltexs", which contains the following .txe and .bti images.

• 

  2D_piki.txe

• 

  2D_piki.txe-karl

• 

  arrow.bti

• 

  blue.txe

• 

  cage.txe

• 

  cagenew.txe

• 

  gmwin.bti

• 

  kettei.bti

• 

  oldgmwin.bti

• 

  red.txe

• 

  stick_d.bti

• 

  stick_n.bti

• 

  stick_u.bti

• 

  udarrow.bti

• 

  yellow.txe

"red.txe" appears to be damaged, but removing its alpha channels restores it.

• 

  red.txe restored

(Source: Minty_Meeo)

Early Banner

There is an unused GameCube BIOS banner in the files that features the same Pikmin renders seen in Challenge Mode.

Early	Final

Unused Screens

Play_07.blo

Found in the game's screen files is Play_07.blo, which is the HUD seen in many early screenshots. This version of the HUD has all the elements in one .blo while the final version has the health meter and clock in their own .blo. The main differences in this include the day counter in place of the total Pikmin counter and the unused moon texture being present on the screen, implying that there may have been a night clock.

(Source: TheJeffreyLand)

Unused Early Demo Movie

The Japanese release has an early demo movie in dataDir/SndData of all places. It has several small differences from the final demo movie.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

Unused Music

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

There are some unused files in the SndData folder named after some of the unused levels.

A jingle located in piki.stx. This likely was the original jingle for meeting up with the Pikmin.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

Unused 2-Player mode

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

On many level's configurations, there is a "2player" configuration.

Unused Text

Unused Voyage Log Content

"I have finally recovered all 30 parts of my ship and succeeded in escaping this strange world! To think, all the times I almost gave up hope... On the now distant surface, the brave Pikmin that aided me in my perilous quest are running about as if I had never come. Will our paths ever cross again...?

At any rate, I can finally return to my home world. I feel relief, of course, but also a certain sadness. I can't exactly say... Perhaps, I am just thinking of the long journey through space that still lies before me. This time, I shall set my ship's navigation system so that I encounter no more meteors, and I shall enjoy a long relaxing sleep. I shan't forget you, Pikmin!"

A log showing Olimar's relief for collecting every ship part and escaping the planet. This log is never recorded because the game ends immediately after collecting all 30 pieces, and the voyage log can't be read after that.

How do these Pikmin choose a route to return to their Onions? If an obstacle blocks their path, they just seem to carry their load in a tight circle... It is obvious their intelligence has limits. It seems I must order them to tear down the walls to open the way.

A slightly different version of the log talking about the Pikmin's pathing.

I am so very tired...

May have been used if you failed to get enough ship parts by day 30, but since the bad ending just shows Olimar failing to blast off), this text is never shown.

Other than these, there are a few files in Japanese, that discuss some pretty standard stuff, that shouldn't warrant a voyage log to begin with. There is also a second page file for some of the entries. The translators were likely able to fit all the info in one page, making the additional entries pointless. Some entries have a small function that checks the number of days. If it's just 1, it displays "day" (singular). If not, "days" (plural). Though in some of those cases, the check is unused, as some of the entries couldn't possibly happen on the first day.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

Unused Monolog Content

"My long adventure has finally come to its conclusion. I must part with these Pikmin who have helped me in my need. At last comes the time when I depart to once again travel the depths of space."

Similarly to the unused voyage log entry, this message is never shown. Once the final piece (the piggy bank) is collected, Olimar comments about it and states that he must leave the planet. After that, the ending cutscenes roll and Olimar never monologs in-game again.

One of the monologs also has a plural/singular check. When Olimar checks the ship's status, it shows how many pieces have been gathered. However, there are two messages like this. One that is only said on the first day (and doesn't mention healing the suit), and another on the following days (and mentions the suit being healed). In the first day, when you collect the first piece, the day ends immediately. This means that the only way to view that "first day" message is when the ship has 0 parts. As such, the game could never write "part" in singular.

Finally, there are also some entries in Japanese that talk about miscellaneous stuff.

(Source: gabrielwoj)

Off-camera Content

This game has a lot of debugging text and unused content just outside of the camera's frame, in almost every screen.

Image	Screen	Direction	Description
	Title screen, after pressing Start	Left	"toyoda", written vertically in orange. Tokihiko Toyoda was the designer in charge of the interface. Some bubbles can also be seen. This name also appears in the same spot, when the game is paused.
	Area selection/Challenge Mode level selection	Top	Four question marks. Perhaps at one point, all areas were available to be selected, and locked areas would show these question marks.
	Voyage Log	Right	Simple "se_" and "c". This can also be seen on memory card warning screens, but with the "c" in-line.
	In-game	Right	A random 7. This doesn't appear to change. There are also 6 misaligned circles, but these only appear in Challenge Mode.
	Radar screen	South-southwest of the current map (north-northeast for The Final Trial)	A huge list of numbers, spread out vertically. These are a part of the radar portion, so they rotate with it, and are only visible in the screen coordinates matching the radar's on-screen position.
	A few monolog pages	Bottom	On a number of monolog pages, a bunch of numbers can be found vertically, below the screen.
	Save and load screens	Everywhere	"200" on the right, Five "2" on the bottom-left, a load of vertical numbers on the bottom, and bubbles on the left and right.
	Any memory card warning screen	Everywhere	"se_c" on the right, a LOT of numbers below, stretching vertically, bubbles on the left and right, and the frames of animation used for the memory card on the right.
	Save file creation screen	Bottom and right	To the right, there are 3 frames belonging to the spinning memory card's animation. On the bottom, there's "DATA1", "DATA2" and "DATA3". These appear alongside the creation of the logs on the main screen.
	Final Analysis screen	Top-left	A yellow-tinted GUI box. It's a bit far off in the distance.
	Ship Parts screen	Right	Japanese text. きまぐれなレーダー refers to the Whimsical Radar, and へそくり金庫 refers to the Secret Safe.
	Model viewer	Up (vertically in-world)	Above the model, there are 2 large hexagon-like shapes, with their texture being one of the textures of the current enemy. The exact texture depends.

(Translation: GlitterBerri)

Minor Things

There are other off-camera details, but these ones aren't exactly unused, just misplaced or weird.

• On the bottom of the second page of the "Extraordinary! When I plucked the sprout" monolog, the "in party" icon from the radar screen can be found here. It's also present on the "My clock has indicated the coming of noon" monolog, but it's really tiny.
• On most monologs where the controls are shown on-screen, a white shadow of one of the blinking buttons (A or L) can be found below the screen.
• If the Final Analysis screen is accessed the normal way, i.e. not from the debug menu, a red light and four blinking blue lights can be found above the screen, and a fair bit to the back. These are actually remnants from Olimar and the S.S. Dolphin's lights on the preceding cutscene.

Leftover build.map File

This file contains information about the build process, including function names, source code files, and more.

Download build.map Linker Address Map File: Pikmin-BuildMap.zip (754kb) (info)

Leftover Night Clock

Pikmin, at night!

It appears the player was originally intended to be able to explore the planet's surface at night. The Gecko code below disables the normal end-of-day cutscene, allowing the clock to roll over into night.
(Please note that you cannot use the 'Go to Sunset' option in the menu, as it is hardcoded to end the day normally.)

US, version 1.0
04100084 60000000

Once the timer hits 0, the sun icon on the clock will turn into a moon and it will start moving back toward the left side of the screen. The day counter also automatically increments.
Due to a bug, the moon disappears entirely after about 30 seconds and the day counter starts to slowly increment.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Miscellaneous

• There are 2 test .blo files, test.blo and test2.blo.
• account.blo contains some weird strings that don't seem to be used. They are "The sun has gone down, today's job is finished.", which appears twice, "starting pikmins", "pikmins now", "dead pikmins", "enemies defeated" and "collected items", which all appear twice, grouped. account2.blo seems to contain the real text for the results screen.
• When you hold a Pikmin before throwing, it makes a noise. The moment you start, the Pikmin's throw height gets set, but the longer you hold it for, the higher the height value gets, stopping more or less when the Pikmin noise does. The problem is that the starting height and ending height use the same value in the game files, so this feature has no impact on gameplay. Pikmin 2 also has these parameters, but the logic to change the throw height is missing.
• An unused parameter in aiconst.bin, when set to 1, allows the player to pluck Pikmin by whistling at them, just like the Pluckaphone in Pikmin 2. The Pikmin use a unique sound effect and animation for this. This feature was actually enabled in the 2000 prototype trailer. A video of the feature in action in the final game can be found here, and the trailer can be seen here.

Regional Differences

• In the Japanese and US version, you cannot skip the ~20 second long sunset cutscenes, but you can in the European version.
• In the Japanese version, there is an option with the values "I am an adult" and "I am a child". This mode changes the game's text for kids to make it easier to read, replacing all kanji with hiragana/katakana, introducing additional spacing and changing word highlighting. No similar option was provided in the international versions.
• In the Japanese version, the final ship part, the Secret Safe, requires 85 Pikmin to carry it, and only 40 Pikmin in the other two versions.
• In the Japanese 1.01 version, you can pause the game and choose to go to sunset, and then mash Start. There is a one-frame window where you can pause the game before the cutscene starts (as proven by the pause sound effect), and when the cutscene begins, it will be stuck in the starting state, unable to proceed.
• In the European version, most of the game's cutscene music was extended to account for the lower framerate of PAL.

To do: Upload comparisons between the normal and EU music.

Revisional Differences

There are at least two Japanese versions of the game: v1.01, and v1.02. The following differences between them are known:

• v1.02 fixes the sunset softlock glitch described above.
• v1.02 lets players go up the rim of the tree trunk in The Impact Site by walking onto it from the cardboard box; v1.01 doesn't, as seen here.
• v1.02 has the number on the in-group Pikmin counter jump from the old number to the final one instantly, when the player whistles a group of Pikmin. Revision 1.01 and all other versions after 1.02 make the number run up gradually.

External Links

• Pikipedia
• Pikmin {GC - Beta / Unused Stuff / Debug} on Unseen64