Pocketstation/Chocobo World Technical FAQ
Pocketstation/Chocobo World FAQ 2.1 FINAL, 3/21/2007
About this FAQ
This FAQ covers technical data about the Sony Pocketstation hand-held
game device. Specifically, this also covers the mini game 'Chocobo
World' (Odekake Chocobo RPG in Japan) that is designed to work with
the 'Final Fantasy VIII' game title for the Sony Playstation. Chocobo
World, Sony, Playstation, Pocketstation and 'Odekake Chocobo RPG' are
trademarked/copyright Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and SquareSoft
USA.
You may find the latest copy of this FAQ at
http://www.gamefaqs.com
In the Final Fantasy 8 section.
This FAQ is copyright 2000. You are free to make copies or upload
this anywhere you like for any NON-COMMERCIAL purposes providing this
license notice is retained at the beginning of the text. You may
NOT sell this FAQ in any form, including as part of a larger body
of information without express written permission from the author.
To send questions, comments or death threats, email me at:
[email protected]
New in this FAQ (2.1 FINAL):
- Cleaned up the 'Technical' section, moved it to the bottom since
very few people seem to read it.
- Added some more Questions to the Q&A
- This is the FINAL version of this FAQ. No new data seems to
be coming in, and no further edits will be made to this file.
What's here/Table of contents:
1. About the pocketstation
2. The pocketstation manual
3. About Chocobo World
4. Playing Chocobo World
4.1 Weapons
4.2 Items
4.3 Battles
4.4 Reports and preferences
5. Chocobo World game events
5.1 Powerup effects
6. Playing against a Chocobo on another Pocketstation
7. Advancing in Rank/Effects of Rank
8. Using up items in FF8
9. Questions & Answers
10. Chocobo World vs. Battle IR protocol (technical specs)
10.1 IR Analysis tools
11. Credits
1. About the Pocketstation
The Sony SCPH-4000 Pocketstation is a special memory card for the Sony
Playstation. Like the standard card, it holds 15 blocks of regular data.
In addition to that, it has a small screen (32x32 pixels) and can run
programs that are designed to work with the game. For people interested,
it uses an ARM7TDMI Thumb processor chip developed by Atmel Corp. (San
Jose, CA) which manufactures many chips for mobile products and other
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), including the ARM7 and the StrongARM
RISC processors. The processor is a 32-bit RISC chip with contains the
CPU, flash memory, RAM, LCD controller, D/A converter (for controlling a
speaker) and IrDA communication system. It has 2k of SRAM (for executing
programs) and 128k of Flash RAM (holds the memory card data; programs also
use it store their data as well).
It is powered by a standard Cr2032 watch battery. The biggest drain on
the battery life is, of course, the LCD screen. Chocobo world can run for
at least 5-6 months without needing a battery replacement under normal
conditions, but leaving some screens displayed (i.e. screen is all black
with the 'Event!' message) can drain the battery 10 times as fast.
Sony released the pocketstation in Japan in Dec 98, but canceled a
scheduled US release due to manufacturing difficulties. For now, the only
way to get on in the US is to order it from a console import shop like
National Console Support (
http://www.ncsx.com). That is where I ordered
mine. They charge about $50. Since the release was canceled, most US
games have removed support for it if there was any in the original Japanese
title. So far, only 'Final Fantasy 8', 'Street Fighter Alpha Zero' and
'Ridge Racer' english titles support this device. Moreover, Street Fighter
must be unlocked with a GameShark to support this feature. Don't expect to
be using the Pocketstation for much besides FF8.
You can choose one of two spiffy colors; White or Crystal (clear).
2. The Pocketstation Manual
Ok, so you ordered the pocketstation, it came in it's nifty box and you
opened it up. But wait a sec... the manual is all in Japanese! Well, what
did you expect for ordering it from Japan? Here's what I have translated
of the manual so far (I can't read Japanese very well, so I may have some
of this wrong. Correct me if you know better, please):
Warnings and Advisories:
- If you wear the pocketstation cord around your neck, be careful it
doesn't get caught in doors when you go through and strangle you.
(Current pocketstations come with cords too small to fit over the
head of anything other than a very small infant)
- Don't swing the pocketstation by it's cord without paying attention
as you might hit people.
- Pay attention to your surroundings when playing with the pocketstation
so you don't walk out into traffic.
- Don't try to take your pocketstation apart/disassemble it.
- Don't set your pocketstation on fire.
- Don't drop or smash it.
- Don't eat the battery or feed it to your baby brother.
- Something about magnets erasing your memory card data, I think.
A troubleshooting guide (? I haven't translated this yet)
When you first get the pocketstation, a piece of paper keeps the
battery from making contact and completing a circuit (this keeps the
pocketstation off during storage and transportation). Pull the piece
of paper out and throw it away.
When you turn the pocketstation on for the first time, it will ask you
to set the date and time. Use the up/down buttons to change the
flashing number and the left/right buttons to move between the different
elements of the date and time. The clock is in 24-hour format.
There are two main screens for the pocketstation, one shows a little
speaker at the top, the time in the middle, a little icon in the
bottom-left showing how many data blocks are being used, and the
seconds past the current minute in the bottom-right. Press the 'Up'
button to change speaker volume. Press and hold the 'Down' button
(the block count will flash) to see what games are saved on the memory
card. Each game has a little picture (the same one that you see in the
memory-card display on the playstation).
Press the Enter/decision button (the one on the right) to switch to
the other main screen and back.
The other screen shows the date at the top (it will show MM/DD/YYYY
at first, then scroll to show the MM/DD and the weekday), the time
in the middle, an icon to show whether the alarm is on (a picture of
a bell if the alarm is on, a bell with a slash through it if the
alarm is disabled) in the bottom-left, and the alarm time in the
bottom right. To set the date and time, press and hold the UP button
at this screen. To set/activate the alarm press and hold the DOWN
button.
If you leave the pocketstation at the either main screen for one minute
without pressing any buttons, it will shut off the screen and go into
sleep mode. Wake it up by pressing any button.
To go from the main screen to any game specifically designed for the
pocketstation (like Chocobo World), press left/right from the main
screen until you see the logo for the game, then press enter/decision.
Battery replacement: When the battery is running low, an icon appears
in the upper-right corner of the main screen that looks like a battery
with a line through it. Turn the playstation over, unscrew the tiny
screw between the speaker and the battery compartment and remove the
plastic cover. Replace the battery with a CR2032 (watch battery),
with the PLUS side facing the outside of the pocketstation. The same
way the battery was when you first got the pocketstation.
Technical data:
- Uses a CR2032 battery, interfaces with the playstation.
- Dimensions: 42 x 14.8 x 65 mm
- Weighs 32g
- Operating temperatures: 5-35 degrees Celcius
- Components:
Speaker, Infrared data port, LED
Liquid Crystal (LCD) 32x32 pixel display, 5 control buttons
Reset button
To 'KeyLock' the pocketstation, press all 5 buttons simultaneously (a
padlock icon will appear at the top and the pocketstation will ignore
any button presses until all 5 are pressed again)
To plug the pocketstation into the playstation, flip the control
buttons up (the hinge is in the middle of the pocketstation, see the
diagram on the back page of the manual for a picture), this will expose
the memory card contacts. Now plug it into the playstation with the
LCD screen facing up and towards you.
When you flip the buttons up, you can also see the unique ID number
for the pocketstation.
If something screws up and you need to reset the pocketstation, flip
the control buttons up and use a pointed object to press the tiny
reset button between the direction controls and the enter/decision
button.
If the cover/buttons comes off for some reason, you can snap it back
in by following the directions on the back page, bottom right - hold
the hinge at a 90degree angle (straight up) to the pocketstation, press
it forward at the hinge.
3. About Chocobo World (Odekake Chocobo RPG):
Once you get a 'chicobo' in the main Final Fantasy 8 game (directly
after you catch a Chocobo by yourself for the first time in any
Chocobo Forest) you can play Chocobo World. The earliest you can
really do this is near the beginning of Disc 2 after you have can
cross over the ocean.
Once you have the Chicobo, go to the 'Save' screen of the menu,
and select 'Chocobo World'. The first time you do this, the game will
tell you that you need to initialize the pocketstation. If you select
"Yes", Chocobo World will be transferred to the pocketstation. Since
you cannot have more than one 'Chocobo World' game on the pocketstation
at a time, this will erase any previous games. The new game of Chocobo
World will be assigned a new weapon (usually 2211), given it's own ID
(usually the last three digits of the pocketstation's unique ID) and
also given a random hidden ID number. This is the number transmitted
as the 'header' during a vs. battle.
From there on, you can play the game. FF8 will direct you to also
save your game before you exit the save screen. This is important
because of the hidden ID number; FF8 will not let you import data from
a pocketstation that does not match this number!
Your chocobo can adventure in the pocketstation, collect items for
you, and gain levels and power. To import all this data back into your
FF8 game, go to the save screen again, select chocobo world. Select
the option "Home" to bring all the collected items and the state of the
chocobo back to the FF8 game. Select "World" to send him back to the
pocketstation. When the chocobo is in the pocketstation, he cannot be
summoned with Gysahl greens and the MiniMog ability won't work in the
FF8 game. When he is in the FF8 game, you cannot play Chocobo World on
the pocketstation.
4. Playing Chocobo World
There is something of a plot to the game, but it's not all that deep
(Hey! What did you expect out of 32x32 pixels?). In the first part of
the game, you are supposedly trying to find your friend Mog (a moogle,
like the ones in FF7). Later on you have to rescue this girl chocobo
that you've only ever seen twice before. After you do that, the game is
pretty much over, although you can wander around forever and collect
items to send back to FF8.
Boko (the name of your Chocobo if you didn't change it, I named him
Spike), wanders around in the desert most of the time (well, he seems
to sleep most of the time in my games, grr...). You can see his handsome
self walking around. The direction he is facing (and the direction the
dots are going on the ground) tell you which way he is headed. If you
press Enter at this screen, you can see a map. The square is the map
you are walking on. The flashing dot is you, the solid dots are
'Events'. The big arrow on the right is the direction you are headed,
and under the map is the level you are on and the current time.
Look at the map and steer Boko towards a black Event dot (NOTE: you
cannot do this on the map! Press Enter to leave the map and go to the
walking screen, then use the direction buttons to guide Boko toward a
dot). Boko runs faster if you hold down the button in the direction
you want to go. Running off one side of the map will put you on the
other side (is each level a sphere or something?)
Hitting a dot will give you an 'Event'. There are a few kinds of
Events you can hit:
1. Battles (most common) - Boko fights a monster
2. Moomba (about 10%) - A moomba appears and offers you a weapon
3. Cactaur (about 10%) - A cactuar appears and gives you an item
4. Special Event - Depends on level and settings
Because this is a boring game, Boko gets bored too. After a while of
wandering around, he will get distracted with something else and will
stop walking. There are several other activities he'll do:
- Listen to a portable radio
- Eat a picnic lunch
- Fishing
- Watching a TV
- Sitting around a campfire with Moomba
(The minimized screen says '???' during any of these)
There is also a percentage chance per each step that he will go to
sleep on his own. It seems to be based on how damaged he is. If
he is at 1 HP, he will probably sleep when he moves onto the next
map square. He regains HP while sleeping or doing any of the other
activities listed above. If he is on Rank 2-6, he regains 4 HP
every few seconds, on Rank 1 he regains 5 HP. After a minute or two
of sleeping with full HP or doing one of the other activities, he
will wake up and keep going on his journey. While sleeping, the
minimized screen says 'Zzz...". While fighting or walking on the
map, the screen says 'Walking'.
4.1 Weapons
All 'weapons' are just a series of four numbers. When you hit
someone in battle, one of the numbers is selected randomly and that is
how much damage you do. So, to make an obvious point, the average
damage you will do with any weapon can be figured by adding up all four
numbers and dividing by 4. A 5544 weapon does an average damage of 4.5,
and is thus more powerful than a 9111 (ave. damage 3.0). The best
weapon you can get is based on your Rank (see section 8).
4.2 Items
There are four categories of items; called, oddly enough A items,
B items, C items and D items. When you import back into the FF8 game,
each A/B/C/D item becomes one or more real items in the FF8 game. D
items become cheap stuff like condition curing items and the M-Stone
pieces. C items become slightly better stuff, like Potions,
Hi Potions, a few of the weaker GF ability items (like turtle shells,
healing mail, etc..) and some of the stronger junk items. B items
become the best GF ability items (including cool stuff, like 3-stars,
rosetta stones, curtains), rare items (malboro tentacles, inferno fangs),
and even unique items (Girl Next Door magazine, Solomon Ring, Magic Lamp)
and the various power up items (Str Up, Mag Up, etc..). Yup, that's
right buckaroos; you can get the solomon ring and all the items you need
to summon DoomTrain in disc 2! A items become the best B items.
Some items I have never gotten outside of the pocketstation are:
- Ribbon: Gives GF the 'Ribbon' ability (immunity to all status changes)
- Mog Amulet: Gives GF the 'MiniMog' ability (heals GF during battle)
- Friendship: Use item for 'MoombaMoomba' attack; lowers enemy to 1Hp!
- Chocobo Tag: Rename the chocobo
Some notable really rare items that you can get:
- Rosetta Stones
- Power Generators, Dark Matter (for Quistis' Blue Magic, 'B'/'A' items)
- Samantha Soul, Energy Crystal, Gaea's Ring, Diamond Armor ('B' items)
- Hero and Hero-Trial (rare 'B' items!)
Thanks to <
[email protected]> for sending me a list of how the items are
determined (for the PC version of Chocobo World). This seems to be
accurate for the pocketstation game too, but some things may be off. He
pointed out that you can also get some items not listed here, like Pulse
Ammo and (Hi-)Potion+. I have also gotten Hero-Trials. I thought I had
gotten a 'Holy War-trial' item, but it was a mistake. I haven't ever
gotten another after thousands of items imported, so I don't think it is
possible.
Each time an item is brought in, a random number 1-64 is generated with
each number being mapped to an item. Often, a range of numbers is mapped
to one item to make an item more common. So if an item has a 2/64 chance,
then 2 numbers out of 64 can end up to be that item.
-- "A" Rank --
(1/64 each) - Monk's Code, Moon Curtain, Aegis Amulet
(2/64 each) - Hundred Needles, Steel Curtain, Rocket Engine
(5/64 each) - Friendship, Elem Atk, Elem Guard, Status Atk, Status Guard,
Bomb Spirit, Hungry Cookpot, Three Stars, Ribbon, Dark Matter, Shaman Stone
-- "B" Rank --
(3/64 each) - Friendship, HP Up, Str UP, Mag Up, Spd Up
(2/64 each) - Aegis Amulet, Vit Up, Spr Up, Luck Up
(1/64 each) - Hero, Ultima Stone, Gysahl Greens, Tent, Cottage
G-Hi-Potion, G-Returner, Str-J Scroll, Mag-J Scroll, Spd-J Scroll, Elem Atk
Elem Guard, Status Atk, Status Guard, Rosetta Stone, Magic Scroll
Draw Scroll, Gambler Spirit, Phoenix Sprit, Hungry Cookpot, Mog's Amulet
Star Fragment, Samantha Soul, Silver Mail, Diamond Armor, Giants Ring
Power Wrist, Orihalcon, Force Armlet, Hypno Crown, Jet Engine, Rocket Engine
Steel Curtain, Accelerator, Hundred Needles, Ribbon, "Girl Next Door"
Pet Nametag, Magical Lamp, LuvLuvG
-- "C" Rank --
(2/64 each) - Rename Card, Chocobo's Tag
(1/64 each) - Potion, Hi-Potion, X-Potion, Mega-Potion, Phoenix Down,
Mega Phoenix, Elixir, Megalixir, Remedy, Remedy+, Shell Stone, Protect Stone
Death Stone, Holy Stone, Meteor Stone, Regen Ring, Turtle Shell, Doc's Code
Ochu Tentacle, Cockatrice Pinion, Zombie Powder, Lightweight, Sharp Spike
Screw, Mesmerize Blade, Fury Fragment, Betrayal Sword, Sleep Powder,
Life Ring, Dragon Fang, Spider Web, Coral Fragment, Curse Spike, Black Hole
Water Crystal, Missile, Mystery Fluid, Running Fire, Inferno Fang,
Malboro Tentacle, Whisper, Laser Cannon, Barrier, Red Fang, Arctic Wind,
North Wind, Dynamo Stone, Shear Feather, Venom Fang, Steel Orb, Moon Stone
Dino Bone, Windmill, Dragon Skin, Dragon Fin, Poison Powder, Dead Spirit,
Chef's Knife, Cactus Thorn, Pet Nametag
-- "D" Rank --
(13/64 ea.) - Magic Stone
(12/64 ea.) - M-Stone Piece, Wizard Stone
(4/64 each) - Normal Ammo, Dark Ammo, Demolition Ammo, AP Ammo
(1/64 each) - Antidote, Soft, Eye Drops, Echo Screen, Holy Water, Screw
Mesmerize Blade, Coral Fragment, Arctic Wind, Dragon Skin, Poison Powder
4.3 Battles
Battles in Chocobo World are fairly simple. Your chocobo appears on the
right side of the screen, the monster on the left. The monster you get
in the battle is related to the map you are on. They don't really have
names, but they look like some monsters in the FF8:
Level 1-100: Creep (Monster A) , HP is Map Level/5 +6
Level 10-100: Vampire Bat (Monster B) , HP is Map Level/5 +8
Level 30-100: Blobra (Monster C) , HP is Map Level/5 +10
Level 70-100: Wendigo (Monster D) , HP is Map Level/5 +16
The monster's HP appears on the left, yours is on the right. In the
middle of the bottom portion of the screen are two numbers counting
down to 0. When one of the numbers hits '0', the person on that side
(either you or the monster) makes an Attack and both counters reset and
begin counting down again. The speed at which the your counter counts
down is constant, but you can make it count faster by pressing the
left/right buttons alternately. The easiest way I've found to do this is
to use two hands, one thumb to each button. The speed at which the
monster counts varies by monster type (A is slowest, D is fastest). When
either side is reduced to 0 HP, the battle ends.
If you're not on level 100, you will go to a tic-tac-toe grid a little
rock will whiz around and land on one of the empty squares. If you get
three dots to line up in a row, you go to the next level. You should be
able to advance a level in not less than 3 battles won, and not more
than 6 battles won. Left alone, Boko advances one level about every
20 minutes or so.
When Boko gets reduced to 0 HP, he goes to sleep. While he sleeps he
will slowly recover HP. After a while of wandering around, he will go
to sleep anyway (regardless of current HP). He eventually wakes up after
some time (long after he has reached full HP). You can wake him up by
pressing the 'Enter' button while he is sleeping. This doesn't work if
he has 0 HP.
4.4 Reports and preferences
Lastly, if you go to the map screen, you can view your status and change
settings by pressing left/right. In order of pressing 'Right' from the
map screen:
- Status screen: Displays current weapon, power level, map level, HP and ID
- Item screen: Displays how many of each item you have
- Chocobo World Vs. Screen: Lets you challenge another Pocketstation
- Event Wait screen: Lets you set Event Wait on or off
- Mog screen (after level 25): Lets you set Mog to sleep or standby
- Move screen: Lets you set the movement rate
Since Chocobo world is amazing boring after a while, you can make it just
play itself automatically. Set 'Event Wait' OFF by pressing the Down
button on that screen. Boko will wander, sleep, fight, collect items and
do random stuff without waiting to tell you.
Normally, Boko just heads on forever in a straight line if you leave the
game running. Fix this by setting Movement rate on the move screen to a
high number. Boko will 'scan' for a number of pixels around him and turn
toward an event dot within his sight range. The Movement rate tells him
how many pixels to 'look'. So, setting it to '6', he will turn towards
an event dot that is less than 6 squares away. Event dots disappear after
he moves onto them and reappear somewhere else on the map. Sometimes,
there will be no dots within 6 squares of Boko's line of travel and he
will just keep going in the same direction forever. Check him
occasionally if you leave him in Event Wait Off for long periods of time.
5. Chocobo World game special events
Various special events will pause the game even if you have Event
Wait Off and wait for you to come watch them. This will totally
drain the battery in a few weeks (at most!) so don't leave the game
displaying the 'Event!' screen forever. The Level specified here is
usually just the earliest level the event occurs, you may meet Koko
any time after level 20 for example. Only the Level 50 and Level 100
events are fixed to that level.
Level 20: meet Koko (this occurs even if event wait is off)
Koko bumps into Boko (or the other way around if event wait is off.
Love at first sight, which makes sense since these two seem to be
the only overgrown chickens in the game.
Level 25: find Mog, initial settings (event wait can be off)
Koko and Mog jump up and down a few times. You can set Mog to either
Standby or Sleep. If he's on standby, and you are killed in battle,
he will jump in and make one final attack for you. If that attack
reduces the enemy to HP 0, you will survive the battle with 1 HP. If
not, then you lose Mog and have to find him again.
Level 50, event wait on: Rescue Koko (1st powerup)
or Level 50, event wait off: Fall into a pit
It is IMPORTANT to have Event Wait on before you hit your first event
dot on level 50! If you have it off, Boko falls into a pit, misses
the first powerup (meaning you may only get two!) and dies. Some
people have reported not being able to get *ANY* powerups if they miss
the first one, so if you miss yours, it is much better to use 'Do over'
to reset your CW back to an old level. DO NOT USE THE 'HOME' command
if you missed it, because it will update the 'Do over' command.
Level 75: Hurry up
The cactuar guy and the moomba tell you to hurry up and watch the
fireworks.
Level 100: Koko abducted
A demon monster grabs Koko and disappears. What a demon wants with a
big chicken is beyond me. Still, you get to go rescue her.
Set MV to 1 to fight demon king
He has 99 HP, but is pretty slow & easy to beat.
Visit event dots with 'event wait' on (and possibly mog on standby as
well) to get the 2nd and 3rd powerup (random, but won't appear without
Event wait on). Maybe it's just me, but both times I got the 3rd
powerup I had MV set to 3. I got both powerups within 20 straight
battles after fighting the demon king (without losing any battles).
Each Powerup improves Boko in FF8. When you summon Boko with the
Gysahl greens (available as an item in Chocobo World, or buyable from
the Choco Kid), he will appear, make an attack and leave. Depending
on the number of powerups the attack strength varies:
5.1 Powerup effects
0 power-ups: ChocoFire (weak fire attack, about as strong as 'Fira')
1 power-up : ChocoFlare (strong fire attack, 5000-9000 damage!)
2 power-ups: ChocoMeteor (9999 damage!)
3 power-ups: ChocoBuckle (INCOMING! Usually 10,000-20,000 damage)
NOTE: That's not a typo, ChocoBuckle can do more than 10,000 damage
in a SINGLE ATTACK. It is one of only a few attacks that can do
that; the others are the Giant Cactuar's level 100 attack (does
exactly 10,000 damage), Eden (also can do 65,000 damage), Quistis'
Shockwave Pulsar (sometimes does 10,000-20,000 damage). To see the
max HP damage, summon ChocoBuckle vs a weak enemy like the geezard.
Mostly it does 10,000-20,000 damage though. To see Eden do 65,000 damage,
summon her vs. a weak enemy after casting 'Meltdown' on it. Eden must be
at level 100 and have all four SumMag +XX%s and 250 boost.
6. Playing against a Chocobo on another Pocketstation
The way this is supposed to work is you and your buddy (someone else
who bought this thing and has the Chocobo World game) hold your
pocketstations a few inches away, with the tops close to each other.
One player puts his Chocobo World in 'Receive Mode', the other sets
'Transmit Mode' and presses 'Enter'. The transmitter will go into
the receiver's game and the receiver can fight the chocobo. If the
receiver wins, he can copy the ID number from the transmitter.
I don't have two pocketstations, so I don't know whether the
transmitter fights a battle too. When I send what should be the right
codes back to the 'transmitter', it just exits back to chocobo world
'walking mode'. In either case, the game does not transmit anything
during or after the battle (so the transmitter is in no danger of
'losing' his ID).
7. Advancing in Rank/Effects of Rank
'Rank' in Chocobo World affects your probability of getting the various
items in the game, as well as the best weapon you can get and your max
hit points on level 100. It is determined solely by your ID number,
which is initially set to the last three digits of your unique
pocketstation ID (you can see it by flipping up the cover). The only
way you can improve your rank is to beat someone else with a better ID
and copy theirs. The table below tells you what IDs qualify for the
various ranks. If you call the Squaresoft 900-number hint line, they
will tell you that lower IDs are better. This is *NOT* true. Consult
the table below to determine whether you should take someone else's ID
or not. For example, if you have ID# 211, you should *never* choose to
take another one.
Taking some of this data from JTKauffman's Chocobo World faq on
http://www.gamefaqs.com
with respect to Mr. JTKauffman, he states that the rank can be improved
by beating the game. This doesn't seem possible in the US version of
the game, and may not be possible in the Japanese version either.
NOTE: The probability of items figures seem to be based on the japanese
version of the game, and may have been changed for the US version.
Calling the Squaresoft 900 number, they will tell you that the game
cannot be beaten, level 100 continues forever so you can keep collecting
items. However, they do not seem to have much information on Chocobo
World so this may not be correct.
Rank Max. Max. Probability of item #ID ID
Number - HP - Weapon - A B C D - - requirement
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 41 - 9999 - 25% 25% 25% 25% - 1 - 211
2 - 37 - 9998 - 5% 35% 30% 30% - 3 - 000,008,777
3 - 35 - 9898 - 4% 10% 46% 40% - 8 - All digits the same
4 - 34 - 9888 - 3% 10% 37% 50% - 9 - Ending in 00
5 - 33 - 9698 - 2% 10% 28% 60% - 9 - Ending in 77
6 - 32 - 9698 - 0%? 5% 25% 70% - 90 - Ending in 7
7 - 31 - 9698? - 0% 5% 15% 80% - 880 - Any other number
I have tested this information with my own Chocobo, and asked many of the
people who've come to me for help changing their ID to run their games
through samples of all these IDs. '211' seems to be the ultimate ID for
everyone, and the other data seems consistent on every other chocobo world
game.
The Chocobo World tests your ID against each criteria starting with rank 1,
stopping when it finds a match (so 777 is rank 2, even though it qualifies
for rank 3,5 and 6). The #ID field lists how many IDs qualify for each
rank, it is presented in JTKauffman's FAQ with an incorrect explanation for
what the numbers mean.
I'm not entirely sure about the Rank 7 weapon. At least one person got
a 9698 with a Rank 7 (most people with a rank 7 report the best weapon they
found is a 9697 though, so 9698 may be very rare). The other Max weapon
data is based on me leaving my chocobo world running with that rank for
3 days to a week.
The Probability of Item data comes from Mr. JTKauffman's FAQ mostly. I
do not think it is possible to get an 'A' item on Rank 6 or 7. I left CW
running for several months on Rank 6 and got 99 of items B, C and D but
0 item 'A's.
8. Using up items in FF8
Well, the two main advantages Chocobo World gives you is items and the
GF Boko. Boko has a pretty obvious use: Any character with the 'Item'
ability can summon him to inflict serious pain on the enemy. Items
have less obvious uses, but here's what I've found:
Refining items you get tons of into awesome magic for junctioning:
1x Inferno Fang -> F Mag-RF -> 20x Flare
1x Regen Ring -> L Mag-RF -> 20x Full-Life
1x Phoenix Spr. -> L Mag-RF -> 100x Full-Life
1x Moon Stone -> L Mag-RF -> 20x Holy
1x Three Stars -> Time Mag-RF -> 100x Triple
1x Curse Spike -> ST Mag-RF -> 10x Pain
1x Mystery Fld. -> ST Mag-RF -> 10x Meltdown
1x Fury Fragmt -> Supt Mag-RF -> 5x Aura
1x Dark Matter -> For. Mag-RF -> 100x Ultima
Phoenix Spirit is not that common an item, but how many people are
you going to give 'Revive' to? You should get so many of the above
items (especially with the memory card copy trick) that you can have
all of your characters with 100 of each of the above spells. With
that kind of power junctioned to your stats, you'll be flattening the
enemy about as fast as they show up. It's trivial to get the max of
all the other power spells; Quake, Thundaga, Firaga, Blizzaga,
Curaga, Death, Regen too.
You're still going to have tons of items on your hands even after
refining them to magic. Now work on your GF Ability items.
Give your GFs all the items they need to start working on their
unique skills (like, give Siren a Hypno Crown (Mag +40%) so she
can start learning 'Mag Bonus')
Once your GFs know all their unique abilities, use amnesia greens
to make them forget all the lesser abilities (everything but
HP +80%, Str +60%, Vit +60%, Mag +60%, Spr +60%, Spd +40%) and
replace them with their most powerful version. Also trash
'Elem Def/x2' and replace them with 'Elem Def x4',
Expend x2-1 can become Expend 3x-1. Ability x3 can become
Ability x4. ST-Def-J/x2 can become ST-Def-J x4 as well. Make
sure everyone has SumMag +30% & +40%, and GFHP +30% & +40% (that
is enough for all GFs to get 9999 HP at level 100 except for
Quetzacotl, Shiva and Ifrit, they also need GFHP +20%).
You've STILL got tons of items, especially if you refine all
those weaker GF Ability items. You can refine lots of stuff
to Aura/Flare/Holy/Meteor/Ultima stones. The 'Item' skill
becomes a lot nicer with a lot more firepower to throw around.
The benefit of 'Magic' is that it can be Double/Tripled and
you can use 'Regen'. Still having several people with Recover,
Revive, Treatment and a healthy supply of Megalixers you can
probably do without the 'Magic' command entirely by now.
Now work on the ultimate item:
Refine spare Rosetta Stones, Hungry Cookpot, Mog Amulet and
Dark Matter to Shaman stones with Tool-RF. If you like, refine
100 Shaman Stones to 100 LuvLuv-Gs and start maxing out several
characters on ALL the GF compatabilities (adds +20 to ALL GFs!)
Take any leftover Shaman Stones and Forbid Med-RF them into
Hero-Trials, then upgrade 10x Hero-trials to full Heros! If
you want, you can upgrade 10 Heros to 1 Holy-war-trial, and
10 Holy-war-trials to 1 full Holy war! You should easily end
up with 30-40 Heros if you don't refine them further. Plus,
your stats should be so high that you won't need them very
often. You can refine 100 Shaman stones to 1 Hero this way,
and 100 Heros to 1 Holy War. That's pretty pitiful actually.
It's MUCH, MUCH easier to refine Gilgamesh to 10 Holy-Wars,
especially since you can get a replacement Gilgamesh card on
the fourth disc from Xu (in the landing bay of the Ragnarok).
Forbid Med-RF turns more of your items into cool xx ups!
Concentrate each of your xx-up potions on one person until they
are at a limit you like. I gave Zell most of my Str Ups,
Selphie got all my Luck Ups, and my Spd Ups were distributed
among all my characters until they all had a natural Spd 50,
then I started giving them to Squall and Zell.
Many items can become Elixirs (Elem-Atk, Elem-Guard, St-Atk,
St-Guard, Remedy+, Mega-potion, etc...), and you can refine 10x
Elixirs into 1 Megalixer. You can easily keep yourself stocked
with 100 megalixers all the time.
Once you get the pocketstation, you shouldn't have any need to
actually buy items anymore. In fact, at this point, you can
probably sell tons of excess items to make more money than you
can reasonably use. You can purchase the items you need to
eventually refine to the various xx up items for a ton of
money.
NOTE about Holy Wars: They're incredibly powerful, making everybody
immune to further damage and status changes. I used 3 in a battle
against Omega weapon (yeah, I know, I'm a wimp!). If you want to
really toast Ultimecia, wait until she cast's 'Hells Judgement' on
you (lowers everybody to 1 HP!), then use a Holy War and watch
everybody waste her with their best limit breaks! Too easy. You
*Can* use a megalixer while you are under Holy War if you like, but
you can't cast Aura or anything else on your people.
9. Questions & Answers
Q: Why am I not getting any 'A' items? I've left the Pocketstation
running for X (days/months/years)?
A: Sorry, only about 3 pocketstations in 1000 will ever get any A
items on their own. If you're in this majority of people, then
your options are to either:
1. buy another pocketstation, hoping to get lucky
2. find someone else with a rare pocketstation, battle their
chicobo & copy their ID
3. hack the save data to give yourself a better ID
4. hack the chocobo world IR transmission to trick your game into
thinking it's fighting another game with a cooler ID
Q: That SUCKS! I can't do any of those things. Isn't there some magical
fairy god that can give me 'A' items?
A: Yes, that does suck. However the 'Pocketstation Exclusive' items
like 'Friendship' and 'Ribbon' are also available somewhat rarely as
'B' items. The rest of the items are available in the main FF8 game.
Q: Why would I ever want to set Movement rate less than 6 (the max)?
A: You wouldn't, most of the time. You might set it to '1' if Boko is
damaged and you want him to heal before you go to an event dot.
Also, some events can only occur when you are at a certain movement
rate.
Q: My boko sleeps too much!
A: No kidding. The little brat sleeps more than my cat does.
Q: This game is *really* boring!
A: No argument here.
Q: Hey, wait a sec... If I use the Playstation's 'Memory Card' mode, I
can copy the state of the Chocobo World onto another card, then
restore it after I upload my items... I can have infinite items!
A: You genius, you. Don't forget that you have to exit chocobo world
(by holding 'Enter' for 10 seconds) before you can overwrite it
with the data you saved on the other card.
Q: My battery is about to die, am I going to lose my data?
A: No. All the data is saved on a flash card, right down to the EXACT
state of the game (even if you're in the middle of a battle!). You
can exit any time you like and come back, or change the battery
without losing any data.
Q: When I try to import my data back, the 'Home' button is greyed out
OR when I try to save onto the pocketstation, I get a message like
"Chocobo is already in the pocketstation". Now what?
A: This occurs when your pocketstation is out of sync with your FF8
game and usually occurs as a result of NOT SAVING WHEN YOU'RE
SUPPOSED TO! The state of whether Boko is in FF8 or the PS is saved
to both your FF8 saved game file and the PS data. If they do not
agree, then you can't do anything with either game. You have a few
options:
1. Select 'Do Over'. It overwrites the PS data with the data from
the last time you imported Boko back to FF8, but resets all the
items to 0. This is fine if you can't use 'World'.
2. Go back to an old save file where the state of Chocobo World was
the same as it is now and continue from there.
3. Follow these steps if you can't use 'Home':
A. Save & Exit FF8
B. Use the PSX 'Memory Card' mode to copy CW to another card
C. Start FF8 again, pick 'Do over' from the menu, save FF8 & Exit
D. Exit Chocobo World
E. Use the PSX 'Memory Card' mode to delete Chocobo World
E. Copy the original CW back from the other card
F. Start FF8 and Re-import
Q: Hey, for some reason I can't import my data back (says 'Data from
another pocketstation cannot be brought home to FF8), what gives?
A: Sorry, you're screwed. The only thing you can do is say 'Do Over'
and clobber the data in the pocketstation. The error comes from trying
to bring a Chocobo from a different saved game into your game.
Q: Man, this game royally sucks. How can I delete it completely?
A: First exit Chocobo World (the game will not allow you to overwrite
it's data or delete it if it is running), then use the PSX 'Memory
Card' mode to delete it.
Q: How come you have so little of a life you can sit around and write
these stupid FAQs?
A: Hey, FAQ you too.
10. Chocobo World vs. Battle IR protocol (technical specs)
NOTE: This section goes into the technical details of how Chocobo
World games communicate with each other. It is intended to help
other programmers who want to mess with their game. It does not
describe the standalone PC version of chocobo world.
Why bother dissecting the IR communications protocol? Perhaps you're
like me, a US gamer who ordered a pocketstation from an importer.
Since you can only attain a low rank by beating someone with a low
rank, and only 3 pocketstations in 1000 have a rank low enough to
attain 'A' items, you're unlikely to have one or know anyone that
does.
On the other hand, the PalmPilot PDAs are fairly common here,
inexpensive, and they come equipped with an IR transmitter and all
the software you need to hack together your own 'virtual' chocobo
world, good enough to fool the pocketstation game you're holding...
It was a matter of a weekend to sit down with my wonderful Palm 3x,
Chocobo World, my favorite hex editor and some PERL scripts to help
me analyze the data. All this data is the result of many hours of
testing, checking and analyzing the IR signals the pocketstation
transmits. Some of the software I used to accomplish this (and to
create the new data to fool my pocketstation into 'fighting' a
different chocobo) are:
NOTE: The data file has only been tested on my 3x, so I don't
know if it works on any other Palm model or the Handspring Visor.
Pacific Neotek (The OmniRemote people) has attachments to let
any non-IR-equipped palm use IR too.
A note about conventions:
When I refer to a hexadecimal number I precede it with an 0x. So
the decimal number 16 is 0x10. In order to play against another
chocobo world, one pocketstation must be placed in 'receive' mode and
the other in 'transmit' mode. I refer to the one in 'transmit' mode
as the 'sender', and the one in 'receive' mode as the 'receiver' even
though both pocketstations transmit data to each other at some point.
Interpreting the data:
Although IR devices exist that can transmit on multiple frequencies,
the Pocketstation is not one of them. It has one IR LED that it can
turn on and off. To send a '0' bit, it turns the LED on for a short
length of time (something like 5 milliseconds). To send a '1' bit,
it turns the LED on for twice as long. In between bits, there's a
pause (where the LED is turned off) that's a little shorter than the
time a '0' bit is on (say, about 4 milliseconds).
What does this mean to you? When OmniRemote records the signal, it
records moments when the IR LED is ON as '1' bits in the data file.
Moments when the LED is off become '0' bits in the data file.
From a higher level perspective:
A. Chocobo World wants to send the number 0x01
B. 0x01 becomes the bits: 0000 0001
C. Chocobo World transmits these bits:
LED ON 5ms, LED OFF 4ms (repeated 7 times)
LED ON 10ms, LED OFF 4ms
D. Omniremote captures this data:
11111 0000 11111 0000
11111 0000 11111 0000
11111 0000 11111 0000
11111 0000 1111111111 0000
E. Omniremote reassembles these bits into bytes:
1111 1000 0111 1100 -> F8 7C
0011 1110 0001 1111 -> 3E 1F
0000 1111 1000 0111 -> 0F 87
1100 0011 1110 0001 -> C3 E1
1111 1111 1000 0--- -> FF 80
F. OmniRemote's data file in a hex dump:
F8 7C 3E 1F 0F 87 C3 E1 FF 80
So in a perfect world, you'll never see the hex characters
5 (0101), 6 (0110), A (1010), B (1011) or D (1101)
in the data since it would mean the LED was turned on, but not long
enough to send any bits. If you see them, it usually means you're in
an 'IR noisy' environment and you should move somewhere without a lot
of reflections and blinking IR LEDs.
There is some leeway in the transmission/interpretation of bits.
Although a '1' transmission data bit SHOULD become 10 '1' bits in the
OmniRemote data, anywhere from 8-11 (sometimes 12) will still be
interpreted as a 1. Likewise, 0's SHOULD be 5, but can be 4-6,
and the spacer SHOULD be 4 '0's of OmniRemote data, but can be 3-5.
I'm assuming that each bit in the OmniRemote data file represents
about a millisecond of recording time, but it's probably shorter than
that.
The Transmission:
When placed in 'Transmit' mode, the pocketstation sends an annoncement,
followed by a burst of 28 bytes to the receiving pocketstation.
Announcement:
The entire message sequence is preceded by turning on the LED for about
twice the length of a '1' bit (usually recorded as 18 '1's of OmniRemote
data), followed by a standard pause (4 '0's of OmniRemote data).
Then the hex message 'FF 00 00 00' is sent.
Chocobo World message:
The message starts with a header block to identify the sender as
another 'chocobo world' game. This is 32 bits (4 bytes) and is always
the same for each pocketstation. It is the hidden ID number that the
game was assigned the first time it was initialized. On my game, this
is always the bytes: "F5 95 99 47"
Following the header, the sender sends it's ID number as two bytes,
with the last byte first. The ID is NOT sent as it's hex equivalent,
but is sent one base-10 number per nybble. The IDs 397, 456, 011
would be sent as: 97 03, 56 04, 11 00 (that's 0x97 0x03, 0x56 0x04,
0x11 0x00 and NOT 0x61 0x03, 0x38 0x04, 0x0B 0x00)
After the ID number comes the weapon; also sent as two bytes, last
byte first. Again, the numbers of the weapon are not sent as their
hex equivalent, but as one base-10 number per nybble. The weapons
9698, 7788, 1020 are sent as 0x98 0x96, 0x88 0x77, 0x20 0x10.
After the ID, the sender sends the current hit point total, one
byte (not converted to it's hex equivalent). The hit points 7, 32,
and 12 are sent 0x07, 0x32 0x12.
That is followed by a long break (I have not seen it change);
"08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00" (hex values)
Then the previous parts of the message may be repeated;
ID number is either re-sent or sent as "00 00",
Weapon is either re-sent or sent as "00 00",
Hit points is either re-sent or sent as "00".
Next come 3 random bytes (possibly related to the current time)
Then the ID number is either re-sent again or sent as "00 00",
Next come 6 more random bytes (again, possibly related to the time)
Last is sent a 1-byte hex checksum. The message will not be accepted
by the receiving chocobo world if the checksum is not correct.
The checksum is computed by adding up all the bytes (treated as
hex values, even if they represent base-10 numbers: if the hit
points were sent as 0x20 (representing 20 hit points) this would still
be computed in the checksum as 0x20). Only the last byte of the
checksum is sent (so if the message added up to 0x2FF, only the 'FF'
would be sent). The checksum can be any number in range 0x00 - 0xFF.
The checksum adds up all the numbers in the entire message except for
the introduction sequence and the header. So it adds up all the
numbers starting from the first bytes of the first time the ID is sent.
To summarize the portions of the sender's message:
[header][id number][weapon][HP][ break ]
[id or '0000'][weapon or '0000'][HP or '00']
[random bytes][id or '0000'][random bytes][checksum]
A minimal message to send ID '000', weapon '1111' and HP '1', would be
FF FF 00 00 00 F5 95 99 47 00 00 11 11 01 08
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2B
After the reciever gets the whole message, if it parses correctly and
the checksum is valid, it sends an acknowlegement burst back. This
consists of the receiver's hidden ID number. After the sender detects the
response burst, it sends back an acknowledgement. The final
acknowledgement consists of both hidden ID numbers, repeated twice. If
you are 'talking to yourself', it will be your game's unique ID repeated
four times.
Once the receiver picks up the senders acknowledgement burst, it sends
a similar short burst back, then begins the game. The sender appears
as a chocobo monster on the reciever's pocketstation. It fights with
the weapon the sender sent in the first burst, and has the HP that was
transmitted as well. There is no exchange of data between pocketstations
during the fight. If the player on the receiving pocketstation beats
the monster, s/he may take ('inplant') the ID number of the sender
instead of the one currently in use. The ID number affects the
probability of getting the different items, the maximum HP and the best
weapon you can get.
[ Thanks to Paul Lam for figuring out the second round of signals! ]
The first round of exchange, counting from the moment the transmitter
begins sending it's signal to the end of the receiver's first signal
is almost exactly 1.4 seconds. The transmitter has a few seconds or
so to send the second signal after the receiver has sent it's first
signal.
10.1 IR analysis tools
I used the following software packages to help me analyze the signals
coming out of the pocketstation:
OmniRemote: Learning remote program for the Palm 3 and up
(captures and sends IR signals), shareware $25 but its
introductory period was more than long enough for me to
learn what I wanted from the Pocketstation.
http://www.pacificneotek.com/
The HexTool Binary Editor: Absolutely the best hex editor. By
Jon Durward (
[email protected]), shareware $20
http://www.durward.com/hextool/index.html
</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
If you have a PalmPilot with an IR port (the Palm 3,3x,5 and 7),
you can download my tools and an OmniRemote data file to transmit
the appropriate codes to your Pocketstation from my web site at
http://plumeria.vmth.ucdavis.edu/~saintly/
My tools are designed to work in the UNIX environment, and are
a combination of 1 'C' program and a couple Perl scripts. If you
aren't familiar with these, then just get 'OmniRemote', capture
a few signals from your game when it's in 'Transmit' mode, and
send it to me. I'll see what I can do as far as creating the files
you need to get your game to Rank 1.
11. Credits
Paul Lam <
[email protected]> - Worked out what the Transmitter 2
signal was, and how it had to be constructed. Extremely helpful in
filling in the missing pieces.
<
[email protected]> - Sent me the list of what all the items in CW
(A,B,C,D) can become when they are imported! It applies to the PC
version, but I think it may be close to the Pocketstation version as
well.
Some of the data in the table in section (8) came from JTKauffman's
Chocobo World FAQ. He translated much of the data from a Japanese
version of the FF8 Ultimania Guide (a strategy guide), but either
did not correctly interpret/guess what everything meant or some
of the data has changed from the Japanese version to the US version.
