Character encoding (TCG GB)

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Missing kanji blocks.

This is the character encoding in Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR!.

Overview

In the American and European versions of Pokémon Trading Card Game, the area between hexadecimal 20 and 7F is based on ASCII, which includes letters, numbers, and some punctuation. However, both versions of this game only have capital letters. In the American version, the ASCII codepoints for small letters simply represent equal duplicates of the capital letters. In the European version, the ASCII codepoints for small letters are replaced by some characters required for the European languages, including this set of capital letters with diacritics: À, Á, Ä, É, È, Í, Ì, Ñ, Ò, Ó, Ö, Ù, Ú, and Ü.

For instance, the ASCII codepoints 4D and 6D represent the capital "M" and the small "m", respectively. However, in the American version of this game, both 4D and 6D equally represent the capital "M". In the European version, 4D remains as the capital "M", but 6D is replaced by "Ú". The letter "É" is a special case, which is found in words such as "Pokémon", "Pokédex", and "Poké Ball". In the American version, the capital letter "É" is equally encoded in the hexadecimal codepoints 40 and 60, replacing the ASCII characters "@" and "`". In the European version, the codepoint 40 remains, but the codepoint 60 is replaced by an unused small "é", and the codepoint 65 (which would be the ASCII small "e") becomes a repeated location for the same capital letter "É".

The internal game data of the American version is written in mixed case, which is consistent with ASCII aside from some special characters such as "É" or "é" with accent. However, the ASCII mixed case is ignored in actual gameplay, where the text is actually displayed in capital letters. Some character names, Pokémon species and other terms are internally written in all-caps, such as "Grand Master COURTNEY" and "SQUIRTLE & Friends Deck", but at other times they are inconsistently stored in mixed case such as "Courtney" and "Squirtle" nonetheless.

The internal game data of the American version uses the codepoint 60 for the "É" character (the codepoint 40 is also available and would equally produce "É", but it is not used in this version). Conversely, that character is stored as the codepoint 40 in the European English, French, and Italian versions, and as the codepoint 65 in the Spanish and German versions. The codepoint 60 is not used in the European versions, where it would be displayed as a lowercase "é".

Sometimes, there other cases of different codepoints producing the same characters.

Characters

20–7E

20–5F: GB1 (American and European)

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
2x	(sp)	!	"	╪	♂	♀	&	’	(	)	×	+	,	-	.	/
3x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;	<	=	>	?
4x	É	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
5x	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	[	\	]	^	_
GB1 (American and European)

60–7E: GB1 (American)

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
6x	É	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
7x	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	{	¦	}	|	‾
GB1 (American)

60–7E: GB1 (European)

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
6x	é	À	Á	Ä	É	È	Í	Ì	Ñ	Ò	Ó	Ö	Ù	Ú	Ü	(sp)
7x	ª	º	¡	¿	s	(sp)
GB1 (European)

0330–04FF

0330–0463: GB1 (Japanese)

When the player types capital letters in the Japanese version of the first game, they are taken from the 0330–0349 portion of this area.

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
033x	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P
034x	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	g	c	m	r.	♀	♂
035x	【	】					_	◼️	°C	゛	゜	°	.	&	:	⚪
036x	※	o	^	𝅘𝅥𝅮	⬛	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k
037x	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z	「
038x	\	」	|	‾	(sp)	!	”	#	$	%	&	’	(	)	*	+
039x	,	-	.	/	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;
03Ax	<	=	>	?	@	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K
03Bx	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	[
03Cx	¥	]	^	_	を	あ	い	う	え	お	か	き	く	け	こ	さ
03Dx	し	す	せ	そ	た	ち	つ	て	と	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	は	ひ
03Ex	ふ	へ	ほ	ま	み	む	め	も	や	ゆ	よ	ら	り	る	れ	ろ
03Fx	わ	ん	が	ぎ	ぐ	げ	ご	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ	だ	ぢ	づ	で
040x	ど	ば	び	ぶ	べ	ぼ	ぱ	ぴ	ぷ	ぺ	ぽ	ぁ	ぃ	ぅ	ぇ	ぉ
041x	ゃ	ゅ	ょ	っ	ヲ	ア	イ	ウ	エ	オ	カ	キ	ク	ケ	コ	サ
042x	シ	ス	セ	ソ	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト	ナ	ニ	ヌ	ネ	ノ	ハ	ヒ
043x	フ	ヘ	ホ	マ	ミ	ム	メ	モ	ヤ	ユ	ヨ	ラ	リ	ル	レ	ロ
044x	ワ	ン	ガ	ギ	グ	ゲ	ゴ	ザ	ジ	ズ	ゼ	ゾ	ダ	ヂ	ヅ	デ
045x	ド	バ	ビ	ブ	ベ	ボ	パ	ピ	プ	ペ	ポ	ァ	ィ	ゥ	ェ	ォ
046x	ャ	ュ	ョ	ッ
GB1 (Japanese)

0410–04FF: GB2

This area contains an incomplete set of hiragana characters, which is cut off at づ (04FF). When the player types small letters in the second game, they are taken from 042A–0443.

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
041x	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P
042x	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	a	b	c	d	e	f
043x	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t	u	v
044x	w	x	y	z	〜	※	o	^	𝅘𝅥𝅮	♀	♂	々	ヴ	@	:	;
045x	【	】						_	◼️	°C	゛	゜	°	.	&	*
046x	<	>	=		‾	⬛	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j
047x	k	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z
048x	「	\	」	|	‾	(sp)	!	”	#	$	%	&	’	(	)	*
049x	+	,	-	.	/	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:
04Ax	;	<	=	>	?	@	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J
04Bx	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
04Cx	[	¥	]	^	_	を	あ	い	う	え	お	か	き	く	け	こ
04Dx	さ	し	す	せ	そ	た	ち	つ	て	と	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	は
04Ex	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ	ま	み	む	め	も	や	ゆ	よ	ら	り	る	れ
04Fx	ろ	わ	ん	が	ぎ	ぐ	げ	ご	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ	だ	ぢ	づ
GB2

0501–0537

0501–0537: GB1 (all languages)

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
050x												* *	△		※	▷
051x	HP	Lv	E	No					(borders)
052x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	.	+	-	×	/	▽
053x		(borders)
GB1 (all languages)

0501–0536: GB2

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
050x														△	※	▷
051x	HP	Lv	E	No					(borders)
052x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	.	+	-	×	/	▽
053x		(borders)
GB2

0E10–0F79

0E10–0E79: GB1 (Japanese) and GB2

When the player uses the text entry interface in the Japanese version of both games, the hiragana characters are taken from this area.

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
0E1x	を	あ	い	う	え	お	か	き	く	け	こ	さ	し	す	せ	そ
0E2x	た	ち	つ	て	と	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	は	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ	ま
0E3x	み	む	め	も	や	ゆ	よ	ら	り	る	れ	ろ	わ	ん	が	ぎ
0E4x	ぐ	げ	ご	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ	だ	ぢ	づ	で	ど	ば	び	ぶ
0E5x	べ	ぼ	ぱ	ぴ	ぷ	ぺ	ぽ	ぁ	ぃ	ぅ	ぇ	ぉ	ゃ	ゅ	ょ	っ
0E6x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	+	-	×	/	!	?
0E7x	(sp)	(	)	「	」	、	。	・	ー	〜
GB1 (Japanese) and GB2

0F10–0F79: GB1 (Japanese) and GB2

When the player uses the text entry interface in the Japanese version of both games, the katakana characters are taken from this area.

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
0F1x	ヲ	ア	イ	ウ	エ	オ	カ	キ	ク	ケ	コ	サ	シ	ス	セ	ソ
0F2x	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト	ナ	ニ	ヌ	ネ	ノ	ハ	ヒ	フ	ヘ	ホ	マ
0F3x	ミ	ム	メ	モ	ヤ	ユ	ヨ	ラ	リ	ル	レ	ロ	ワ	ン	ガ	ギ
0F4x	グ	ゲ	ゴ	ザ	ジ	ズ	ゼ	ゾ	ダ	ヂ	ヅ	デ	ド	バ	ビ	ブ
0F5x	ベ	ボ	パ	ピ	プ	ペ	ポ	ァ	ィ	ゥ	ェ	ォ	ャ	ュ	ョ	ッ
0F6x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	+	-	×	/	!	?
0F7x	(sp)	(	)	「	」	、	。	・	ー	〜
GB1 (Japanese) and GB2