Debugging features within Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal: Difference between revisions

Several unused features have been found within the coding of the final build of Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal which are suggestible of debugging features which may have been used within earlier builds when Pokémon Gold and Silver were in their early stages of development.

It is notable that dialogue strings corresponding to a non existent NPC named 'MR. CHRONO' exist within the game's coding. If the game is forced to start event data for "MR. CHRONO" he will give the words; "I'm MR CHRONO" and "Now on DEBUG." respectively. Prior to the "Now on DEBUG" message, an interface is displayed which shows the current time according to the "Real-Time Clock" (RT) and the DF (i.e. the time offset set by the player normally at the beginning of the game). Next to the time offset; either "ON" or "OFF" is displayed. "ON" denotes that the player is using Daylight-Saving Time and "OFF" denotes that Daylight-Saving Time is disabled.

The "Now on DEBUG." message will appear after the RT/DF display is exited. However, this dialog string does not appear to activate any further debugging features; which may suggest that most if not all of its associated event data has been removed from the final game. One dialog string however; "Test event XX?" (mentioned below) is still functionable and may relate to the "Now on DEBUG." message, although it can no longer be activated simply by closing the text box.

A dialogue string "Test event XX?" exists within the coding of the final game, where XX is any integer between 0 and 255, for example; "Test event 04?". This might suggest that at one time the game developers had the choice of testing a certain algorithm or function, using any value given by XX. The event however, is no longer functionable and the options YES/NO do not appear normally. XX depicts a value from a RAM address nearby Real-Time Clock data, which can suggest that it is related to the "Now on DEBUG." message displayed after activating the MR. CHRONO RT/DF display.

[[Image:GSbColorDebug.png|270px|thumb|right|A player altering the primary palette of an enemy Bulbasaur via an unused Pokémon/Trainer 'color test' interface within Pokémon Gold and Silver (JP).]]

Interestingly, a large unused, complex interface, presumably for in-game battles, exists within the final game. It consists of two pages; the first can be used to change the colors of Pokémon or trainers in battle and the second allows one to check the TM/HM compatability of the relevant Pokémon. Although the interface still exists within translated versions of the game, it is the most stable on the original Japanese version; as the game will attempt to manage dialogue which was removed in later versions, such as おわりますか？ ("Are you finished?"), graphic bugs would also ensue due to the screen not being localised.

In the Japanese version; the interface occupies memory address 3F:54F1 (v1.0 and v1.10) and can be activated by enabling the screen update service (i.e. by checking address FFD6), whether the game will attempt to manage a Pokémon or a trainer depends on the memory address CF21, where an identifier of 00 activates 'Pokémon mode' and any other identifier activates 'Trainer mode'.

The manageable Pokémon/Trainer is initially Bulbasaur or Falkner respectively, although it can be changed by using either the Select button to change to the next Pokémon/Trainer according to identifier in the Species or Trainer byte, or the Start button to change to the previous Pokémon/Trainer.

One can change the color of the front and backsprite's Pokémon/Trainer via the directional pad. Three 'scroll bars' can be adjusted to change the amount of Red, Green or Blue saturation in the relevant sprite 'region'. A cursor at the top-right section of the screen denotes what region the player is managing; the left-most section changes the primary color scheme and the right-most section changes the secondary color scheme. The location of the cursor can be changed to manage another color scheme. The hexadecimal identifier (two bytes) of the final color is shown below both icons for the primary and secondary color schemes and denotes the values for each one respectively.

The player can press the B button on the first page to proceed to the second page or press the B button again to return the first page. On the second page, the game will manage the Pokémon/Trainer from the first page, using the palettes previously loaded to the game's memory. The game suggests that the menu can be exited via the A button however, although the game code to exit the menu exists, it remains unused for unknown reasons.

The directional pad on this page, can be used to select a TM or HM, with respect to its relevant identifier. After choosing a TM or HM, the game will display the message "おぼえられる" if the Pokémon can be taught that move, or "おぼえられない" if the Pokémon cannot be taught that move.

Another interface; likely related to the Pokémon/Trainer color interface exists within the final builds of Pokémon Gold and Silver, but remains unused. The menu cannot normally be seen even if it is called via a [[game-altering device]] because of the fact that a return function is called prior to all subroutines. If the menu is modified however to remove the return function being used, or if a custom game code is written to load the interface directly further details can be revealed.

By pressing the Select button, players can rotate between which palettes are going to be managed depending on the order they are loaded in the game's RAM. However, the menu palette and any foreground palettes cannot be altered via this interface, with the addition of palette 07. There is no valid function in this interface to exit this menu, once called.

#[[Object event.]] - Possibly for when the player speaks to an object or NPC with no defined dialog data, compare with [[!]].

#[[No windows avail-able for popping.]] - Possibly for when the game attempts to bring up a window with undefined or invalid data.

#[[Coordinates event.]] - Possibly an extension of Object Event for an object or NPC whom has no defined text and changes the co-ordinates of an other object

#[[BG event.]] - Possibly an extension of Object Event for an object or NPC which changes details of the map background.

#[[?????]] - Used for an invalid Pokémon species

#[[Teru-Sama]] - Denotes placeholder item data

#[[?]] - Used for an invalid item

#[http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/Pokémon_Gold_and_Silver] The Cutting Room Floor wiki - Unused elements of Pokémon Gold and Silver.