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Pictochat FAQ
by MajikHunta
MajikFAQs (at) Gmail (dot) com
Be sure to press F5 to make sure you are viewing the most recent
version of this FAQ.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Table of Contents |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
1. Legal Stuff
2. Version History
3. Introduction
4. Starting up Pictochat
5. Using Pictochat
6. Fun things to do with Pictochat when you are bored
7. FAQs
8. Contacting Me
9. Credits / Closing
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(1) Legal Stuff |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for
personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or
otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission.
Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public
display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned
by their respective trademark and copyright holders.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(2) Version History |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Version 1.0 - Started and Finished this FAQ (Wednesday December 29,
2004)
Version 1.1 - Few minor updates (Thursday, January 06, 2005)
Version 1.2 - Bunch of updates that I'm too lazy to list (Sunday,
January 09, 2005)
Version 1.3 - Haven't updated in a while, just added mainly to the
"fun things to do" section (Sunday, February 06,
2005)
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(3) Introduction |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Hello. Welcome to my FAQ on Pictochat. Pictochat is a program that
comes built in with the Nintendo DS. For the most part, its a
pretty useless program. You can only chat with someone within 100
ft, so why not just go over and talk to them? However, if there is
another DS 100 ft or less away from the person you are chatting to,
you can chat with them too (DS1--100ft--DS2--100ft--DS3--100ft--DS
4, etc). So technically you could chat with someone 1600 ft away,
but how likely is that for 16 DS' to be within 100 ft of another
DS. Overall, pictochat isn't completely useless, some fun can be
had with it when you are bored.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(4) Starting up Pictochat |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
In order to start up Pictochat, simply touch it in the DS' menu.
Its the button below Play DS game, above play GBA game, and to the
left of DS Download Play. If you've got your DS in Auto Mode (
system automiatcally boots up game and skips menu) hold down the
start and select buttons while booting up the system to access the
menu (Thanks to XPhacter for the start/select information).
Alternately, you could just take out the game card.
You will then be presented with a choice of 4 chatrooms. Most
likely all of them will be 0/16, if not, someone else within 100 ft
is using pictochat. Also, you may notice that the light showing
your power is now flashing, this means wireless mode is on, which
also means your battery will drain faster. So select a chatroom, if
you just want to doodle around, select an empty one, if you want to
chat, select one that isn't empty (although chances are they will
all be empty).
Ta-dah, you're in Pictochat. See the next section of this FAQ to
learn how to use this software.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(5) Using Pictochat |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Hmm, I suppose the easiest way to describe the buttons would be an
ASCII diagram. Please note that I suck at ASCII diagrams, but I'll
do my best.
+-+----+-----------------------------------------------------+
|/|Name| |
+-+----+ blah blah |
| | text and drawings go here | T
| | | O
| +----+-----------------------------------------------------+ P
| |Name| If you only send text, the message appears like this|
| +----+-----------------------------------------------------+ S
+-+Name| blah blah more text and drawings | C
+-+----+ | R
+-+ | E
+-+----+-----------------------------------------------------+ E
+-+Name| | N
| |----+ |
+-+ blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
|A| |
+============================================================+
|/\|_______________________________________________________|X|
|\/|Name|when you use the keyboard, text appears here +-| T
|--|----+ | O
|/ | | U
|[]| | C
|--| | H
|O | (This is the Input Board) |
|o | | S
|--|---------------------------------------------------------| C
|A1| |[send] | R
|A | |-------| E
|??| Keyboard Panel |[ V ]| E
|@ | |-------| N
|:)| |[ * ]|
+------------------------------------------------------------+
bleh... please forgive the badness of my ASCII drawing skills.
Okay, so what everything does.
Top screen:
Signal Strength Icon - At the very top left part of the screen
theres a bargraph and key thing (its just a / in the ASCII drawing
). This shows the strength of the wireless signal. Depending on how
many bars of the graph are white, shows how powerful the signal is.
0 bars = Very weak signal
1 bar = Weak signal
2 bars = Strong signal
3 bars = Very Strong signal
Message Display - As you can see, most of the top screen is used to
display messages or pictures sent.
Scroll Bar - Shows who sent the last messages/pictures. So if the
bottom line is red, then that means the red user sent the last
message, and the line above that is green, means the green user
sent the second last message, etc. You can also use the "L" and "R"
shoulder buttons instead to scroll through the messages (Thanks to
Sean Monahan for the L/R information)
Chat Room Letter - At the bottom left corner of the top screen (is
the "A" in ASCII drawing). Shows which chatroom you are in. Shows
an 'A' if you are in chatroom A, 'B' if in chatroom B, etc.
Touch Screen:
Chat Member Bar - Shows the names of all the users in the chatroom.
If you touch their name, you can see their message*. Is at the very
top of the touch screen.
Scroll Button - Scrolls up or down through the message history. (Is
the /\ and \/ in ASCII drawing).
Pen Tool - Select this to draw onto the input board. You start with
pen when Pictochat starts up, however if you need to erase
something, once you are done, select this switch back to pen.
Button is just below the scroll buttons (Is the / in ASCII drawing
).
Eraser Tool - Use to erase lines from the input board, located just
below the pen tool (Is [] in ASCII drawing).
Input Board - Text or lines appear here before selecting send.
Pen thickness - select either a thick or thin line for drawing
pictures (is the O and o in ASCII drawing) The large circle,
obviously selects the thicker line and the smaller circle selects
the thinner line (no duh).
Keyboard Style - Select from different keyboard styles. Choose from
Alphanumeric (A1 on ASCII drawing), International (A on ASCII
drawing, also incase you didn't know, International is letters with
accents and stuff on them), Japanese Hiragana / Katakana* (Is ?? in
ASCII drawing, although on the actual DS it is a Japanese symbol/
letter), Symbols (@ on ASCII drawing) and pictures (Is :) on ASCII
drawing).
* - If you want to know how to pronounce Hiragana / Katakana, visit
the following sites:
Hiragana -
http://www.genki-online.com/kyozai/hiragana.html
Katakana -
http://www.genki-online.com/kyozai/katakana.html
(Thanks Andrew Stiver for information about this)
Keyboard Panel - Use the stylus or D-Pad and A/B buttons to select
letters for your messages. With the stylus, if you drag the letter,
you can place it _anywhere_ on the input board.
Exit Button - Touch to leave current pictochat chat room. (Is a
small X in the top right corner on ASCII drawing). Closing the NDS
also allows you to exit the chat room. At this point, opening it
again will ask if you wish to continue communication. Choosing 'No'
will bring the NDS to the closing sequence. (Thanks to Alexander
The 1st for the info on closing the NDS)
Send Button - Touch to send your message / picture on the input
board to all other users in the chat room. Looks like a rectangle
with arrow going out of it pointing up and says "send" below it on
the actual DS. (Is [send] on ASCII drawing)
Copy Button - Touch to copy the bottom message on the touch screen
to the input board. Is located right below the send button (Is [ V
] on ASCII drawing). (Thanks to aaronmiller453 for a correction
regaring this button)
Clear Button - Clears the input board. Is located below copy button
(Is [ * ] on ASCII drawing)
*Message is a thing that you can store in your DS. It can be up to
18 characters long. Since it is stored in the DS, even when the
system is turned off, you can also use it for quick reminders,
however take note that anybody you pictochat with can see this
message.
To set a message, go to options, select the person icon (second to
the right) and select the person with a speech bubble icon (
furthest to the right). You can then input a message using the on-
screen keyboard. Press the confirm button to save the message.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(6) Fun things to do with Pictochat when you are bored |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
The Demo Booth Trick:
If your local video game store has a DS Demo Booth set at
pictochat, go outside the store, where nobody can see your DS. Take
out your DS and go to pictochat. Join up the chatroom in which the
Demo Booth DS' are in. Send wierd messages and stuff. If possible,
stay near a window, so you can see the reactions of the people
inside the store at the DS Demo booth without them seeing your DS.
Tic Tac Toe:
If you've got 2 people and 1 DS, just open up pictochat. Draw the
tic tac toe grid and play. Once a game is done, press send so you
can keep a temporary history of the matches. You can also do this
with 2 DS' if you want. First person takes there move and sends the
message. Second person uses the copy button adds there move and
sends it. Repeat.
Hangman - (Multi DS):
(contributed by Zeep)
One person writes a series of underscores to indicate the blank
letters, and a picture like this:
____
| |
|
_|_
Then the second person guesses a letter, and the first person
compies their original message, but either puts in the letter, or
add it to the 'used letter' bin and add a part of the hanging man.
basically, you play just like a normal game of hangman.
Picture Story - (Multi DS):
(contributed by Zeep)
The first person draws a picture, with a sentence (text or
handwritten) about what's happening in the story. The next person
edits the picture, or makes a new picture, with a new sentence.
Example:
Person 1:
[draws a stickfigure]
One day, fred was walking to the store...
Person 2:
[adds a car in front of the stick figure]
When he got hit by a car!
Pictionary - (Multi DS):
(contributed by bobdaknight)
Just like the game of the same name, one person draws a picture of
the word he/she has chosen. From this image, people try to guess
what the image is supposed to be (ie, a box with a V shaped antenna
coming out of the top could be a television). Whoever guesses it
first becomes the next artist. Repeat until bored.
Art Contest - (Multi-DS):
(contributed by bobdaknight)
Everybody, whether it be 2 or 12 or however many people the are,
agrees to draw a picture of one object, ie Mario or a smiley face
or a Nintendo DS. when everyone has submitted their drawing, people
decide and agree which is the best.
Math Game - (Multi-DS):
(contributed by bobdaknight)
Send a seemingly ridiculous math problem, but actually is very easy
to solve (as long as it would make sense to people, ie ax(squared)
+ bx + c might not be a good idea, but 9432534 + 235423 - 482354
could be okay). No calculators allowed! And whoever actually solves
the problem wins.
Shapeshifter - (Multi-DS):
(contributed by Gaming King)
One person draws a shape. The next player uses the Copy button to
copy it and add something to it. The next player does the same,
until all players agree it's finished.
Haircut - (Multi DS):
(contributed by drew morris)
One player draws a person with weird hair, an the other person uses
the eraser to give it a "haircut"
Pictochat Hide N' Seek - (Multi DS):
(contributed by Seph14)
Play hide and seek while communicating with each other via
pictochat. Sounds odd, I know, but it can be a lot of fun.
Animating:
(contributed by Joe James)
You can create and animate using the L and R buttons. All you have
to do is this: Draw a starting frame, send it, dowbload it again
and slightly alter it. Keep going like this, but be careful not to
draw too much because there is a limit to how much it can hold. Now
scroll up to the top of the message list, press and hold L and THEN
start holding down the R button. If done right, picochat will
scroll through your messages without any bluring, creating a cool
frame-by-frame animation! Youu can create many things with this
cool feature! Try making your own cartoons!
Blackout:
Try to fill in the screen and make it completely black. If you have
two or more people in pictochat, race to see who can do it the
fastest.
Mr Squiggle - (Multi DS):
(contributed by julestk421)
Player 1 draws some random lines/wiggles/shapes, etc. Player 2 must
turn this into a picture by adding to the lines. When player 2 has
finished, they explain what it is, and start again by drawing the
squiggles, you could play this on one ds with 2 people or with 2
people with 2 DS'
..I'm sure there are more things you can do with pictochat when
you're bored, just be creative and if you know of any that you want
to contribute to this FAQ, send me an e-mail at:
MajikFAQs (at) gmail (dot) com
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(7) FAQs |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Q. Is Ping Pals worth getting?
A. No, its the same as Pictochat with some avatar thing and some
lame mini games added. Save your money on something else.
Q. Can Pictochat go online?
A. Short Answer: NO!
Long Answer: Pictochat can only chat with someone within 100 ft.
While Nintendo does have plans of taking the DS online, they would
also have to make some kind of upgrade/patch for pictochat to take
it online. The DS doesn't have an internal hardrive, so theres
nowhere the upgrade/patch would be stored. So unless there is an
external hardrive or something that goes into the GBA slot,
pictochat will never be online.
Q. I keep hearing about this hidden game in Pictochat called "
PictoQuest". How do I unlock it?
A. There is no "PictoQuest". Its just a lame fad on the GameFAQs
Pictochat Message Board. Whatever people on GameAFQs message board
may tell you, there is no such thing as "PictoQuest". The closest
you'll ever get to an RPG, is if you and some friends have a text &
drawing RP.
Q. I just want to doodle around in pictochat by myself, is there
any way to turn off wireless to save battery life?
A. Pictochat doesn't send out wireless signals when you are in a
chat room by yourself. If it recives a signal from another DS being
near by, then it sends out signals. But when you're alone, no
battery is. (Thanks to David Lo for this correct)
Q. Can the DS "leap frog" ? (In other words DS1--DS2--DS3--DS4--
DS5, etc, -- being 100 ft, so DS5 would be 500ft from DS1)
A. Yes. While I've only tried it with 4 DS', I'm sure it will work
with up to 16.
Q. How do you place text wherever you want?
A. Instead of just tapping the letter, drag it onto the input
board. Any letter you type after that will appear beside the last
typed letter.
Q. How far is the wireless range?
A. 100 ft, although if there are walls and other obsticles in the
way, it could be reduced to as little as 90 ft.
Q. All the chatrooms are 0/16, what gives?
A. It means nobody near by you who has a DS is using pictochat.
Q. My DS doesn't come with pictochat!!11111shift+one11111!!1
A. Yes it does, newb. See the "Starting up Pictochat" section for
detailed instructions on getting to Pictochat.
Q. I submitted an idea to your guide, but its under someone else's
name!
A. Since I didn't update this FAQ for nearly a month, I recieved a
lot of suggestions. A lot of people sent the same ideas. So I just
gave credit to the _first_ person to suggest the idea. Sorry...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(8) Contacting Me |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
My e-mail: MajikFAQs (at) Gmail (dot) com
Please make sure the subject is something along the lines of
"Pictochat FAQ" or it may be ignored. Also do not send the same e-
mail twice or it will be picked up as spam via gmail's spam filter.
If you have a pictochat question, please ask at the GameFAQs
Message Board before asking me.
If you have found this FAQ hosted on a site other than
www.gamefaqs.com then please e-mail me.
If you have found something wrong with this FAQ (false info, typos,
etc) then please e-mail me. Remember to include your GameFAQs
account name in the e-mail so I can give you credit.
If you just want give feedback on the FAQ, then you are welcome to
e-mail me. Or if you just want to thank me for making this FAQ,
that is fine too :)
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|(9) Credits / Closing |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Credits:
whew... this section is getting big because a lot of people have
sent corrections / contributions, thanks alot.
-Me for writing this FAQ
-Alexander The 1st (
[email protected]) for a bit of
information regarding when you close the DS while chatting
-Sean Monahan (
[email protected]) for informing me that you can
use the L/R buttons to scroll through messages
-Zeep (
[email protected]) for the hangman and picture story ideas
for section 6
-bobdaknight (
[email protected]) for the pictionary, art
contest and math game ideas for section 6
-aaronmiller453 (
[email protected]) for a correction regarding
the copy button
-Andrew Stiver (
[email protected]) for information about
Hiragana / Katakana
-Gaming King (
[email protected]) for the Shapeshifter game
idea in section 6
-XPhacter (
[email protected]) for informing me that you could
press start/select while booting up the system to acess the menu if
you are in auto-mode
-Drew Morris (
[email protected]) for the "Haircut" idea for
section 6
-Seph14 (
[email protected]) for the Pictochat Hide N' Seek
Idea for section 6
-Joe James (
[email protected]) for the animation idea for
section 6
-David Lo (
[email protected]) for a correction regarding the
battery life while chatting alone in pictochat
-julestk421 (
[email protected]) for Mr Squiggle idea for section
6
-Nintendo for making such an awesome system and including pictochat
in it
-Sony for announcing that they were making a portable, without them
doing that, we'd be stuck with a portable SNES (aka the GBA)
-Alexander Davidson for programming Metapad, which made writing
this FAQ much easier
-CJayC for running GameFAQs
Closing:
Hope you found this FAQ on pictochat useful.
