Character encoding (Generation II)
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This article is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this article to add missing information and complete it. Reason: French, German, Italian, and Spanish character encodings |
The Generation II games use a proprietary character encoding to store text data. The Generation II encoding is largely similar to the Generation I encoding. Versions of the games in different languages may use different encodings, some more different than others.
Character sets
Technically, all characters before 0x60 function as control characters. An asterisk (*) denotes a character that is explained in the control characters section below.
English
Only a few control characters below 0x50 are actually used in the English games, all of which are ones marked below with an asterisk (for more, see the control characters section further down where they are explained). The sub-0x50 characters that are not marked with an asterisk are artifacts of the Japanese control characters that print other characters with a diacritic.
-0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -A -B -C -D -E -F 0- ? B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P 1- Q R S T * * * X Y Z ( ) : ; [ * 2- q r * * * * w x y z 3- Ä Ö Ü ä ö * * * * * * 4- Z ( ) ":" * * * * 'r * * 5- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 6- ▲ 
D E F G H I V S L M : ぃ ぅ 7- PO Ké “ ” ・ … ぁ ぇ ぉ text box borders 8- A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P 9- Q R S T U V W X Y Z ( ) : ; [ ] A- a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p B- q r s t u v w x y z C- Ä Ö Ü ä ö ü D- 'd 'l 'm 'r 's 't 'v ← E- ' PK MN - ? ! . & é → ▷ ▶ ▼ ♂ F- $ × . / , ♀ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The arrows at 0xDF & 0xEB are only present in Pokemon Crystal.
French & German
-0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -A -B -C -D -E -F 0- Unsure 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- ▲ D E F G H I V S L M : ぃ ぅ 7- PO Ké “ ” ・ … ぁ ぇ ぉ text box borders 8- A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P 9- Q R S T U V W X Y Z ( ) : ; [ ] A- a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p B- q r s t u v w x y z à è é ù ß ç C- Ä Ö Ü ä ö ü ë ï â ô û ê î D- c' d' j' l' m' n' p' s' 's t' u' y' E- ' PK MN - + ? ! . & é ▷ ▶ ▼ ♂ F- $ × . / , ♀ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Italian & Spanish
-0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -A -B -C -D -E -F 0- 1- Unsure 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- ▲ D E F G H I V S L M : ぃ ぅ 7- PO Ké “ ” ・ … ぁ ぇ ぉ text box borders 8- A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P 9- Q R S T U V W X Y Z ( ) : ; [ ] A- a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p B- q r s t u v w x y z à è é ù À Á C- Ä Ö Ü ä ö ü È É Ì Í Ñ Ò Ó Ù Ú á D- ì í ñ ò ó ú º & 'd 'l 'm 'r 's 't 'v E- ' PK MN - ¿ ¡ ? ! . & é ▷ ▶ ▼ ♂ F- $ × . / , ♀ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Japanese
-0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -A -B -C -D -E -F 0- ? イ゙ ヴ エ゙ オ゙ ガ ギ グ ゲ ゴ ザ ジ ズ ゼ ゾ ダ 1- ヂ ヅ デ ド * * * ネ゙ ノ゙ バ ビ ブ ボ * * * 2- ィ゙ あ゙ * * * * が ぎ ぐ げ ご ざ じ ず ぜ ぞ 3- だ ぢ づ で ど * * * * * ば び ぶ べ ぼ * 4- パ ピ プ ポ ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ * * * * も゚ * * 5- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 6- ▲ D E F G H I V S L M : ぃ ぅ 7- 「 」 『 』 ・ ⋯ ぁ ぇ ぉ text box borders 8- ア イ ウ エ オ カ キ ク ケ コ サ シ ス セ ソ タ 9- チ ツ テ ト ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ ハ ヒ フ ホ マ ミ ム A- メ モ ヤ ユ ヨ ラ ル レ ロ ワ ヲ ン ッ ャ ュ ョ B- ィ あ い う え お か き く け こ さ し す せ そ C- た ち つ て と な に ぬ ね の は ひ ふ へ ほ ま D- み む め も や ゆ よ ら り る れ ろ わ を ん っ E- ゃ ゅ ょ ー ゜ ゛ ? ! 。 ァ ゥ ェ ▷ ▶ ▼ ♂ F- 円 × . / ォ ♀ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Korean
- Main article: Korean character encoding (Generation II)
Control characters
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This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Any alternate defaults or functions in Gold and Silver or in other languages |
The characters on a gray background below are not naturally used in the games.
| Character | Japanese | English |
|---|---|---|
| 0x14 | Prints the player's name, including a gendered honorific in Japanese (adds くん for male, ちゃん for female).
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| 0x15 | Nothing. | May break. |
| 0x16 | Nothing. | May break. |
| 0x1D | Prints に . |
Prints ;.
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| 0x1E | Prints って. |
Prints [.
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| 0x1F | Prints を . |
Prints .
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| 0x22 | Prints た！. |
A "half" line break (moves the print position to the place one tile below the start of the current line). |
| 0x23 | Prints こうげき. |
Prints tzx, but this appears to be junk data.
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| 0x24 | Prints は . |
Prints POKé.
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| 0x25 | Prints の . |
Nothing. |
| 0x35 | Prints ばん どうろ. |
Nothing. |
| 0x36 | Prints わたし. |
Nothing. |
| 0x37 | Prints ここは . |
Nothing. |
| 0x38 | Prints レッド. |
Prints RED.
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| 0x39 | Prints グリーン. |
Prints GREEN.
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| 0x3F | Prints the opposing Trainer's name (including their Trainer class). (Outside of battle, this may not terminate properly.) | |
| 0x49 | Prints おかあさん. |
Prints MOM.
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| 0x4A | Prints が . |
Prints PKMN.
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| 0x4B | Appears to be the same as 0x55 | |
| 0x4C | Appears to be the same as 0x55 except without any prompt or pause (immediately shifting the dialogue box's lines upwards) | |
| 0x4E | Line break (moves the print position to the space two tiles below the start of the current line (as defined by explicit placements of the print position); mostly used in move descriptions and Pokédex entries). | |
| 0x4F | Dialogue line break (moves the print position to the expected start of the second line in a standard dialogue box). | |
| 0x50 | String terminator. | |
| 0x51 | Prompts the player to press a button, after which the text window is cleared to make way for the following text. | |
| 0x52 | Prints the player's name without an honorific. | |
| 0x53 | Prints the rival's name. | |
| 0x54 | Prints ポケモン. |
Prints POKé.
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| 0x55 | Prompts the player to press a button, after which the top line of the text window is replaced by the bottom, the bottom line is cleared, and the print position moves to the start of the bottom line. | |
| 0x56 | Prints ...... (in the middle of the line in Japanese).
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| 0x57 | Marks the end of dialogue, without a visual prompt to the player. | |
| 0x58 | Marks the end of dialogue, with a visual prompt to the player. | |
| 0x59 | Prints the inactive* Pokémon's name in battle. (Outside of battle, this may not terminate properly.) | |
| 0x5A | Prints the active* Pokémon's name in battle. | |
| 0x5B | Prints パソコン. |
Prints PC.
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| 0x5C | Prints わざマシン. |
Prints TM.
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| 0x5D | Prints トレーナー. |
Prints TRAINER.
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| 0x5E | Prints ロケットだん |
Prints ROCKET.
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| 0x5F | Prints a period (0xE8) and simultaneously functions as a string terminator. (Only used in Japanese Pokédex entries.) | |
Uses
Strings using this character encoding are found in various places, including the save data structure in RAM and the Trainer data structure and the below examples in ROM.
Species names
The names of all the Pokémon are stored in a simple list of 256 strings. In international versions, each entry is 10 bytes, while in Japanese versions, they are 5 bytes. If a name takes less than its full allotted length, it is terminated by 0x50.
The first name in the list is Bulbasaur while the last is ?????. The game looks up a Pokémon's name by receiving its index number, decrementing it by 1, and then looking for that index in the list. So while Bulbasaur's index number is 1, the game will find Bulbasaur's name at index 0 in the list (the first entry). These names are used for a variety of things, such as naming wild Pokémon and displaying the species name in the Pokédex and on summary screens.
The following are ROM offsets for the start of the list in each game:
| Game | English | Japanese |
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| Gold | 0x1B0B74
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0x053A09
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| Silver | 0x1B0B74
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0x053A09
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| Crystal | 0x053384
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0x05341A
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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. |