Pokémon Snap

Pokémon Snap
Developers: HAL Laboratory, Pax Softnica Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo 64 Released in JP: March 21, 1999 Released in US: July 26, 1999 Released in EU: September 15, 2000 Released in AU: March 23, 2000 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a development article This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Pokémon Snap is a first-person photography game featuring 63 of the 151 original Pokémon where you can (as the name of the game implies) snap pictures of said Pokémon on the imaginatively named "Pokémon Island".

This game is mainly remembered nowadays for the fact that for a time you could have your pictures printed out on stickers when going to participating Blockbuster Video outlets in America (or Toys R Us stores in Australia). CHAAAAAAAAA!

To do: Add information about a potential debug save menu found by fkualol: "801340E8 = pointer for different menus, set to 8012AA24 for debug save menu?"

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Unused Graphics

The kanji symbol (仮) for "Temporary", just a placeholder graphic.

Japanese text saying "Start Game", still present in the US version.

Dratini has an unseen blinking animation.

Crash Debugger

• 

  When you entered the code correctly (see below)

• 

  1st page

• 

  2nd page

This game has a crash debugger. To open it, crash the game in some way, then enter this button code:

• Z + R + L
• D-Up + C-Up
• A + D-Left
• B + D-Right
• D-Down + C-Down

Press Z + R + L to scroll through the pages. Oddly enough, unlike the identical iterations of the crash debugger in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Super Smash Bros., the routine that would display the third page is missing in this game. This has the effect of crashing the crash debugger (ironically) once you reach the second page, which means that only the registers and the stack trace are viewable.

(Source: fkualol)

Anti-Piracy

To do: Verify that the effect it does is correct; the function location should be correct

Like several Nintendo 64 games developed by HAL Laboratory at the time, there's an anti-tampering method in the game, which is implemented in two of the game's objects, for a total of three checks. These checks are done to ensure that the game is running on a genuine cartridge which has the correct CIC chip type, which should be 6103 in NTSC versions and 7103 in PAL versions.

The first two checks is implemented in the volcano object, which loads up when the player reaches the title screen. When the volcano object is loaded, the game's reads the stack pointer at 0x04001000 and ensures it returns the value 6103 (7103 on PAL versions), or the CIC chip type. Next, it reads 0x04000000 in the stack pointer memory and ensures it returns the value FF (-1). If there is a mismatch, then a pirate flag is set in the player object as true.

There is one more object called 504770 that has a function at 0x80364360 which subtracts a value at 0x80200000 by 8 and checks if it is equal to 0; if it isn't, the pirate flag is set as true. However, the function doesn't seem to be called by any of the game's objects.

The flag is checked when the player saves at Professor Oak's lab. If this pirate flag is true, then the game calls a function at 0x800E5EBC when the player saves their progress, which prevents saving the player's pictures and thus making any further progress.

(Source: Game decompilation)

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Regional Differences

To do: More.

Japanese	International

As in most other Pokémon games featuring voiced cries, most Pokémon appearing in the game had their voices changed to match the English dub of the anime. However, some Pokémon did not have their voiced cries changed, because at the time of the game's release these certain Pokémon did not have an English dub voice. The Pokémon who did not have their voiced cries changed include Metapod, Diglett, Dugtrio, Pidgey, Psyduck, and Porygon.

Japan	International

"CAMERA CHECK" has a different font, Bulbasaur was lightened and moved up and to the right, and the grey texture was slightly touched up in the international versions.

Japan	International

Once again the font is different, and the corners of the red frame were darkened in the international versions.

Japan	International

The Pokémon Report sign was given bolts, a different texture, a blue frame, and glowing text in the international versions.

Revisional Differences

Virtual Console Changes

Snap was the first Pokémon game released on the Virtual Console, and one of the first Virtual Console games to have modifications to the original ROM. Nintendo's stance on game modding, go figure.

Send to the Wii Message Board

Once per day, the player can send one of the photos they took to the Wii Message Board by going to the gallery, choosing a picture, and then pressing - (Minus) on the Classic Controller or (if using a GameCube controller) the first player's Wii Remote.

While this mimics the Snap Stations that were available when the game was released, it only really meant something if the player had a lot of people on their friend list to send photos to, and the termination of the WiiConnect24 service as well as the Wii U's Wii Mode omitting the WiiConnect24 features has rendered this feature utterly pointless.

Jynx

Original	Virtual Console

Jynx's face was changed from black to purple in order to match with the Pokémon's modern design, which had to be changed due to the original's unfortunate resemblance to a person wearing blackface. Oddly enough, her hands are still black. This was fixed in the NSO version.