Pokémon Channel

Pokémon Channel
Developer(s)	Ambrella
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	Pokémon
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	JP July 18, 2003 NA December 1, 2003 AUS April 1, 2004 EU April 2, 2004
Genre(s)	Adventure, Fantasy
Mode(s)	Single-player
Input methods	GameCube Controller, Game Boy Advance
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	GPAE01, GPAJ01, GPAP01, GPAU01
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Pokémon Channel, released in Japan as ポケモンチャンネル ～ピカチュウといっしょ!～ Pokémon Channeru ~Pikachū to Issho!~ (Pokémon Channel ~Together With Pikachu!~) is a virtual pet video game for the GameCube developed by Ambrella. Its focus is the adventures the player has with Pikachu, most of them involving a new television network. The game can be considered as the spiritual sequel to Hey You, Pikachu!.

Emulation Information

Improper GameCube Font

Due to copyright concerns, Dolphin is unable to include official GameCube fonts, and instead uses Droid Sans. Unfortunately, Droid Sans does not align well with the size/kerning of the official GameCube font, which can cause text to be misplaced, dialogs to display improperly, and other issues due to differing text sizes.

This can be corrected by including a region appropriate GameCube IPL (i.e. BIOS ROM) under <Dolphin User Folder>/GC/. A GameCube "IPL.bin" can be acquired from a real GameCube using Swiss. Refer issue 8362. GameCube BIOS files need to be named "IPL.bin" in order for Dolphin to detect them, and should be 2,097,152 bytes in size. IPL files are different for PAL consoles and NTSC consoles, but American NTSC consoles use the same IPL files as Japanese NTSC consoles. The known good CRC32 checksums below can be used to validate files, but it is possible that a bad dump with a different checksum also works.

	NTSC CRC32	Brazil CRC32	PAL CRC32
v1.0	6DAC1F2A		4F319F43
v1.1	D5E6FEEA	667D0B64
v1.2	86573808		AD1B7F16

Missing SD card adapter support

Dolphin does not emulate the official Nintendo memory card to SD card adapter, which is used to store pictures and save data from this game and transfer them to a PC. See issue 11757. (This only applies to the Japanese release of the game.)

Problems

Programs with Painting

EFB Copies to Texture Only must be disabled for programs with painting to work.

While using Smeargle 2 to paint during the "Pichu Bros." anime, the crayon won't update right. Set the Texture Cache to safe to fix this.

Enhancements

16:9 Widescreen Gecko Code

US

$16:9 Widescreen
C20F39E0 00000002
C0229AB4 D0230044
60000000 00000000
04352A34 3FE38E39

EU

$16:9 Widescreen
04005440 C0229AB4
04005444 D0230044
04005448 480F30C0
040F8504 4BF0CF3C
04340034 3FE38E39

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Store EFB Copies to Texture Only	Off	Enable programs/painting
Texture Cache Accuracy	Position 1 (Safe)	Makes the Smeargle painting tools more responsive.

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Pokémon Channel since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r2155

Δ

2409-117 (current)

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

2.0 (r5384)

Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Test Entries
Revision	OS	CPU	GPU	Result	Tester
r6010	Windows XP	Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.4 GHz	Intel GMA G35	Playable: 46-61FPS, some slowdowns in big areas.
r6010	Windows 7	Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.4 GHz	Intel GMA G35	Playable: 46-61FPS, some slowdowns in big areas.
3.0	Windows	Intel Pentium P6200 @ 2.13 GHz	Intel	Major slowdowns during the pichu bros. show	MoeBoy76
4.0.2	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-4670K @ 3.4 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti	Playable: 60FPS even with enhanced settings. First episode of Pichu bros anime causes slowdown. Disabling the Frame buffer has a noticeable increase in quality of the image, must enable EFB to RAM for programs and painting.	turtlbrdr

Gameplay Videos

(60FPS) Dolphin Emulator 4.0-3950 - Pokémon Channel (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube