Pokémon Trading Card Game

Pokémon Trading Card Game
Also known as: Pokémon Card GB (JP) Developer: Hudson Soft Publisher: Nintendo Platforms: Game Boy, Super Game Boy, Game Boy Color Released in JP: December 18, 1998 Released in US: April 10, 2000 Released in EU: December 15, 2000 Released in AU: April 7, 2000 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a Data Crystal page

Pokémon Trading Card Game is a Game Boy rendition of the classic card game played on schoolyards around the world.

Sub-Pages

Debugging Material Leftover functions used to test out various things.

Unused Graphics Bootleg medals, and a good amount of unused font characters.

Unused Text Left. Right. Left. Right...

Version Differences Graphical tweaks here and there.

Build Dates

These ASCII strings show the date that each version was built. The AXQP version contains English, French and German, while the AXQX contains English, Spanish and Italian, but they both share the same build date.

Japan 0x2A81	USA 0x7401	Europe 0x7354
VER 10/31 17:21	VER 12/20 09:36	VER 10/11 11:47

Lowercase Letters

While all the text is displayed in capital letters only, the text in the North American version of the game is actually stored in mixed case ASCII. There is an unused WRAM switch to enable the use of lowercase letters (alternatively, one can use GameShark code 00000DCD). This makes it the first game to spell the word Pokémon as "Pokémon", and not "POKéMON", at least internally. The European versions, in comparison, have all their text stored in upper case only.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Promotional Rarity Symbol

In this game, cards have one of three rarity symbols, with Common (●), Uncommon (♦), and Rare (★). However, internally there are four rarity ranks, though for some reason the one assigned to promotional cards is an empty string.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Unused Save Checker

To do: Get the Japanese string.

There exists a routine that was commented-out, which upon loading a save file would have checked whether or not the save was corrupted. If so, an error message would have been displayed, appropriately stating that the save data was lost.

Japanese	English	French
	Your Data was destroyed somehow. The game cannot be continued in its present condition. Please restart the game after the Data is reset.	VOS DONNEES ONT ETE DETRUITES. LE JEU NE PEUT PAS ETRE CONTINUE DANS L'ETAT ACTUEL DES CHOSES. VEUILLEZ RECOMMENCER APRES LA REINITIALISATION
German	Italian	Spanish
DEIN SPIELSTAND GING VERLOREN. DAS SPIEL KANN UNTER DIESEN BEDINGUNGEN NICHT FORTGESETZT WERDEN. BITTE LADE DAS SPIEL NOCH EINMAL.	I DATI SONO STATI DISTRUTTI. IL GIOCO NON PUÓ CONTINUARE IN QUESTE CONDIZIONI. RICOMINCIA IL GIOCO DOPO AVER RESETTATO I DATI.	DESTRUIDOS TUS DATOS POR ALGUNA RAZÓN. NO PUEDES SEGUIR CON ESTA PARTIDA. REINICIA EL JUEGO UNA VEZ BORRADOS LOS DATOS.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Dummy Overworld Location

The first entry in the overworld map's location list is unused, though there does exist a placeholder cursor script for this id spot. As defined, pressing any direction on the d-pad would move the cursor over to the Science Club (though there is no corresponding player movement script).

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Unused Move Animations

The following animation pointers are not linked to any moves:

#	Animation
03	Default impact.
09	Thunder/Thundershock copy.
0B	Thunderstorm copy.
17	Blizzard copy.
1B	Psychic Hit copy.
1F	Default beam.
2A	Multiple Slash copy.
31	Needle moves copy.
33	Smoke moves copy.
34	Smoke moves copy.
3A	Powder moves copy.
3B	Powder moves copy.
3C	Powder moves copy.
3E	Goo moves copy.
40	Goo moves copy.
42	Bubble copy.
44	String Shot copy.
49	Confuse Ray copy.
4D	Supersonic copy.
67	Poison Fang copy.
68	Poison Fang copy.
69	Unused copy of the animation script for needle moves.
70	Thunder Wave copy.
77	Stubbed-out animation.
8F	Stubbed-out animation 2.
90	Stubbed-out animation 2.

Moreover, some animations themselves go unused, though they're only variants of already existing used scripts:

#	Description
76	Plays the Waterfall/Surf animation, but without any screen shaking or damage impacts.
81	Plays the question mark animation on the opponent's side, and nothing else.
89	Plays the Poison status animation on the user's side, but with an added damage impact.
8B	Plays the Sleep status animation on the user's side, with an added command to update the HUD.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Unused Sound Effects

A few sound effects go unused, with all of them aside from 5f being early in the list, away from the block of move animation sounds.

05		A miscellaneous series of beeps.
06		A miscellaneous series of boops.
09		Sounds akin to an explosion.
0a		Gives off a "shimmering" feel.
0d		A lengthy series of "bounces".
0e		Another "shimery" sound, maybe Coin Toss related.
5f		A shuffling sound. Likely a cut move animation sfx.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Unused Screens

Test Screens

The first two screens were more than likely used to test out the GBC's color range, in the form of a color wheel and TV color bars. The third one, meanwhile, simply displays the palette is it assigned (default palette is shown first, with the last picture being an example of what this screen looks like with a different palette assigned, here, the color wheel's.

The scene values for these screens are $0C, $0D, and $1B respectively.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Unused Copyright Screens

Early	Later	Final

No less than two unused copyright screens, each with their own unique graphics. The first one is incredibly barebones, and was likely the earliest attempt. The second screen, meanwhile, looks essentially finalized, and is clearly styled after the copyright screen from the contemporary mainline games.

The second screen also has a dedicated routine associated to it, where it would have remained on-screen for 300 frames, and could be skipped by pressing Start. The final game would ditch the concept entirely, instead moving the copyright info to the title screen. However, the company details seen after the end credits are an evolution of that concept.

The scene values for these screens are $16, $19, and $17 respectively.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Unused Title Screen

Unused (GBC)	Unused (SGB)
Final (JP - GBC)	Final (JP - SGB)

Data for a fully finalized unused titlescreen exists, complete with a unique palette, and different graphics for both Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy modes. Differences include the energy icons being static graphics instead of moving objects, the lack of the Poké Ball outline, and the copyright info being nowhere to be found.

The scene value for this unused title screen is $18, with a copy also found at $1a.

(Source: Pokémon TCG Disassembly)

Unused Card

To do: Document this bug (and other ones too) on a dedicated bugs subpage.

Venusaur Lv64 was intended to be obtained through the game's Card Pop feature, but is not due to a programming error. This in turn makes the Mysterious Pokémon deck in the Pokémon Dome's Auto-Deck machine unbuildable, as it requires two Venusaur Lv64 cards. GameShark code 01xx0AA1 (where xx is the desired number of cards in hex) will add the card to the player's album.

Venusaur Lv64 would later be properly obtainable in the sequel as a prize at GR Island's Game Center.