Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire

Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire is the sequel to Pokémon Pinball, adding Pokémon from the Johto and Hoenn regions.

Notes

Name#

This game was originally announced as Pokémon Pinball at E3 2003.² This name was also mentioned in a Nintendo Power article about the E3 2003.³

Pokémon Pinball is displayed in-game at the bottom-left corner of the Ruby and Sapphire Fields, is seen several times on the background of the intro animation, and is mentioned on the game blurb at the back of the box: "More than a regular pinball game, Pokémon Pinball combines fast flipper action with a unique way to catch your favorite Pokémon."

Unused Graphics#

Placeholder Pokémon Icons#

These icons are loaded into the graphics data for the Pokémon icons, following the question mark icon, at the very end.

Debug Mode#

GameShark USA:

E8A2266F 4ABC1FE6
E10EF053 D045E4CD
6A7D8822 F44AFDAB
77BC453F 502C6734

CodeBreaker:

74000130 01FF
3200B0CF 0004
74000130 02FF
3200B0CF 0000

Either of the above codes adds the ability to enable (L) and disable (R) a debug mode. While it adds some (persistent) debugging text to the screen, the real meat is the free move ability: while enabled, the ball will stop. You can then use the D-Pad to move the ball arbitrarily (mostly limited by playfield structures).

Attempting to go back to normal while the ball is outside the table will freeze the game.

The numbers on the debug display denote (from left to right) the ball's X position, the ball's Y position, and the table's Y position. While debug mode is enabled, holding A will temporarily hide the overlay and allow for extra slow movement, while holding B makes it possible to move the asterisk cursor one line below BALL-MV with apparently no purpose.

Bonus Stage Select#

While the Field Select screen is visible (after selecting "New Game" and before the main game screen), prerendered text with the names of bonus stages is also loaded.

This screen is associated with game mode 0B, sub-mode 01 (for comparison, the regular selection screen is mode 0A-01; these values are found in RAM at addresses 0200B0C2-3) and is intended to be accessed with an e-Card, released in Japan only.

Codebreaker:

Force Bonus Stage Select (L)
74000130 01FF
8200B0C2 010B

0 seconds remaining (R)
74000130 02FF
82000296 0001

Go to the Field Selection screen and tap L. Bonus Select menu will be activated (without its images loaded); end any stage to return to it with graphics corrected.

(If you are easily scared, do not attempt activating the code in the Options screen...)

Version Differences#

An updated version of the game was released in Japan only (on which the export versions are presumably based). The differences are currently unknown.

Regional Differences#

Japanese to Export#

Name Changes#

The fields MART, EVO, and CATCH were originally SHOP, EVO START, and GET START. The MART inscription on the building is changed from SHOP (as in the mainline games).

The first few items on the end-of-ball-bonus screen were also renamed to read more fluently — and for consistency with the MOVE mode being renamed to TRAVEL:

e-Reader Room#

The Japanese releases of the game have an e-Reader Room for scanning one of the five e-Reader Cards. The Cards either tweak difficulty or increase the odds for certain events.

Japanese	English	German

Although no Cards were ever distributed in North America, the Room is still there and the screen was adjusted to account for the different branding of the e-Reader overseas. These adjustments were also performed in the European localizations where the e-Reader was never made available.

The e-Reader Room can be accessed from the title screen by using the following button sequence:

1. Press and hold →.
2. Alternate between pressing L and R 3×.

American to European#

American	European

The "BONUS CHALLANGE" item, which can be bought for 60 coins and allows an immediate chance of access to the Spheal bonus (ordinarily accessed, for example, by hitting bumpers 100 times in the Sapphire field) had the flagrant typo in its name corrected.

References#