Character encoding
Character encoding refers to how text is stored in the Pokémon games.
In the core series games
Generations I to IV
- Main article: Character encoding (Generation I)
- Main article: Character encoding (Generation II)
- Main article: Character encoding (Generation III)
- Main article: Character encoding (Generation IV)
The core series games from Generation I to IV use proprietary character encodings. Each generation has its own set of character encodings. The encodings used in Generation I and II are similar to each other, with other largely different encodings used in Generation III and IV.
Prior to Generation IV, the character encodings are different according to the game language, although the Western language games of the same generation typically have very similar encodings to each other. The Korean version of Pokémon Gold and Silver uses its own character encoding. In Generation IV, there is a single proprietary character encoding containing all the needed characters to be used by all languages.
Generation V onwards
- Main article: Character encoding (Generation V–present)
From Generation V onwards, the core series Pokémon games use the UTF-16 character encoding.
In the side series games
Pokémon Stadium series
- Main article: Character encoding (Stadium)
In the Pokémon Stadium series, the Western games use an ASCII-based encoding. However, in the American English version, the character "é" is encoded as 0x60 (ASCII for @).
The Japanese games use the EUC-JP character encoding.
Pokémon Colosseum and XD
Pokémon Box Ruby and Sapphire
Pokémon Battle Revolution
- Main article: Wii character encoding (Generation IV)
In the spin-off games
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This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Explain the character encodings of all spin-off games in all languages |
Hey You, Pikachu!
The English version of Hey You, Pikachu! uses an ASCII-based character encoding. However, the "é" character is encoded as the two-byte 0xA1AD.
The Japanese version uses the EUC-JP character encoding.
Pokémon Pinball
The Japanese version of Pokémon Pinball uses the Shift-JIS character encoding.
Pokémon Trading Card Game series
- Main article: Character encoding (TCG GB)
Pokémon Trading Card Game and Trading Card Game 2: The Invasion of Team GR! use proprietary character encodings.
The Western languages of the first game use an ASCII-based encoding. In the American English version, the text stored in the game data uses both uppercase and lowercase letters but they are all equally displayed as all-caps during gameplay. Conversely, the British English and other European languages have the text both stored and displayed in all-caps.
The Japanese versions of both games include a full set of kanji in their character encodings. They were the first Japanese Pokémon games to have kanji regularly used in the dialogue.
Pokémon Puzzle Challenge
In the American English version of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, the letters are encoded as a simple Caesar shift of ASCII, where each ASCII byte is decremented by 1.
For instance, Chikorita's profile correctly indicates that it is a Grass-type Pokémon. The word "Grass" is written in-game as:
- G = 0x46 (ASCII 0x47)
- r = 0x71 (ASCII 0x72)
- a = 0x60 (ASCII 0x61)
- s = 0x72 (ASCII 0x73)
- s = 0x72 (ASCII 0x73)
The word "Grass" encoded this way is equivalent to ASCII "Fq`rr".
Pokémon Tetris
The European version of Pokémon Tetris stores Pokémon names in ASCII, except for the gender symbols of Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂:
- ♀ is encoded as 0x2526 (equivalent to ASCII: %&)
- ♂ is encoded as 0x2324 (equivalent to ASCII: #$)
Pokémon Zany Cards
The American version of Pokémon Zany Cards uses dialogue encoded in ASCII.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series
The North American and European versions of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness and Sky use a custom character encoding based on ANSI+Shift-JIS. The following modifications were made to the Windows-1252 character set:
- A tilde is displayed as a second ˜. While encoded as 0x7E, it cannot normally be displayed as it is also used as a control character. 0x7E7E will display ˜ in text.
- Extra ordinal indicators have been added.
- e is encoded as 0x8D
- è is encoded as 0x8F. This character is not present in the North American versions of Explorers of Time and Darkness
- er and re are encoded as 0x96 and 0x97 respectively (replacing – and —)
- V̈ and V́ are used in place of Ÿ and Ý (encoded as 0x9F and 0xDF respectively) in the North American versions of Explorers of Time and Darkness only
- A custom leftwards arrow is encoded as 0xBC (replacing ¼)
- ♂ is encoded as 0xBD (replacing ½)
- ♀ is encoded as 0xBE (replacing ¾)
0x81 is used as an activator for a Shift-JIS mode, which is used to display extra characters:
- ~ is encoded as 0x8160, taking the place previously occupied by the wave dash (〜) in the Japanese versions.
- ♪ is encoded as 0x81F4
- → is encoded as 0x81A8
- ← is encoded as 0x81A9
- ↑ is encoded as 0x81AA
- ↓ is encoded as 0x81AB
Pokémon Ranger series
- Main article: Character encoding (Ranger)
Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia uses UTF-8 to encode text of all languages. Its fonts do not support kanji.
Related articles
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This data structure article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games. |