Pokémon Trading Card Game Online

Pokémon Trading Card Game Online
Developer: Dire Wolf Digital Publisher: The Pokémon Company International Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android Released internationally: March 24, 2011 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused sounds. This game has regional differences. This game has a notes page

This game is defunct. Do note the game no longer works at all without modifications. This is most likely due to the game's servers being shut down. As a result, further official developments with the game are unlikely to happen.

To do: More old/unused assets to eventually branch into a subpage. Is/Was level25 ever used? Worth more investigation.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Online (also known as Pokémon TCG Online or PTCGO) was a free-to-play online collectable card game. Shut down in June 2023, it was succeeded by Pokémon Trading Card Game Live.

Sub-Page

Notes

Unused Images

Developer's Logo

Characters

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  Elsa

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  Leo

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  Sonia

Internally named Elsa, Leo and Sonia. Elsa and Sonia are seen in the background of one of the main screens, but Leo is absent from the game. They also have battle portraits, which can be seen here.

Type Challenges

To do: Were other Special Challenge type templates really used? These challenges had the Daily Challenge layout instead.

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Colorless is the only type to not feature in Daily Challenges, although an asset for it and the type reward coin exists; mentions of a deck box and card sleeve also exist in files. Not all types have been featured in Special Challenges, either.

Deck Box

Internaly named "Generations Mew Deck Box", supposely to have been accompained with its related card sleeve from the Mew Mythical Pokémon Collection's redemption code, like other deck boxes from similar products.

Leftovers

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  achievement_allDressedUp

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  achievement_devastation

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  achievement_hatTrick

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  prizeGem

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  gems1

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  gems2

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  gems3

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  gems4

Some achievements and Gem images are still present in the files.

Currency indicators of the game's old menu. The booster icons referred to Booster Credits, and Tournament Keys (the key icon) were replaced by Event Tickets with the same initial purpose before being available, then introduced in August 2020 with a different design.

Cosmetic items for the Trainer's Avatar hands, such as cards, Pokémon figures and miscellaneous were also removed in the game's redesign around mid-2013 but still exist in the assets. Players that obtained hand items through redemption codes no longer have acess to them. A full gallery is available on spriters-resource.

Emotes

To do: There is also thumbs up, thumbs down and the "horns", were they used at any point?

Nine unused emotes can be found in the files.

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  Angel

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  Annoyed

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  Cool

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  Cry

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  Drool

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  Evil

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  Indifferent

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  Joy

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  LOL

Set Symbols

Symbols for the Diamond & Pearl sets Majestic Dawn, Legends Awakened and Stormfront, and the promotional McDonald's sets from 2010 and 2012, none of which have been available to players. Higher resolution versions of Diamond & Pearl symbols were used while the game was still browser-based.

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  Majestic Dawn (dp5)

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  Legends Awakened (dp6)

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  Stormfront (dp7)

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  McDonald's 2010 (promo_y2_mcd)

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  McDonald's 2012 (promo_mcd)

Rarity Card Search

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  IconRarityNone.png

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  IconRarityRarePrime.png

All cards in the game have a rarity, making the first icon unused. IconRarityRarePrime is a copy of the Rare rarity icon (white star), but Pokémon Prime are searched by Rare Holo rarity (orange star) instead.

Spectator messages

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  EOGSpectaorTitle_Thanks.png

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  EOGSpectaorTitle_Thanks.png

As Spectator Mode has never been implemented in the game, these messages have never been used.

Unused Models

To do: Figure if the models are the same from the main games. Some Unown also have alternate models without the eye.

Winning with any of the Lost Thunder Unown's Abilities displays a "VICTORY!"/"DEFEAT" screen spelled out with Unown. All existing Unown however are in the game's files, even "letters" not needed for other languages.

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  B

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  K

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  L

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  M

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  P

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  Q

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  U

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  X

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  Z

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  ?

To do: Several other models of interest too, generic buildings etc.

Models for the Golden Gate Bridge and Space Needle exist in the game.

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  bridge

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  SpaceNeedle

Unused Sounds

AchievementPopup is a leftover from when achievements were still in the game.

Unused NPC Card

Venusaur-EX (XY Promo 28) is included in the assets for Logan's cards, but he does not use it in the Trainer Challenge (regardless of difficulty) or Test Deck Mode.

Unique animation

Typhlosion (Lost Thunder 42)'s ability has a special animation that is never seen by most players due to being a subpar Stage 2 Pokémon card.

Unobtainable Cards

To do: More cards might have also been playable by the AI but Bulbapedia/the internet has no full documentation. Figure if decklists were inside early versions of the game's files.

Many cards from the Majestic Dawn, Legends Awakened and Stormfront expansions (released before PTCGO's operations) were searchable in the Collection area when looking for not owned cards but never obtainable by players. Some Stormfront cards however were used by the Trainer Challenge (a short single-player campaign) AIs up to April 2013:

• Voltorb (Stormfront 81)
• Electrode (Stormfront 37)
• Magnemite (Stormfront 67)
• Bagon (Stormfront 53)
• Shelgon (Stormfront 50)
• Machop (Stormfront 64)
• Machoke (Stormfront 41)
• Machamp (Stormfront 20)
• Duskull (Stormfront 59)
• Dusclops (Stormfront 35)
• Ponyta (Stormfront 71)
• Roselia (Stormfront 72)
• Roserade (Stormfront 23)
• Starly (Stormfront 75)
• Staravia (Stormfront 52)
• Staraptor (Stormfront 27)
• Charmander (Stormfront 101)
• Chameleon (Stormfront 102)
• Charizard (Stormfront 103)
• Great Ball (Stormfront 85)
• Luxury Ball (Stormfront 86)
• Cyclone Energy (Stormfront 94)

These unobtainable cards have been removed from the servers around January 2016.

Some promos that were never distributed into TCGO as either code cards or shop bundles were also hidden from the game in December 11, 2018:

• Elgyem (BW Promo 55)
• Espeon (BW Promo 92)
• Flareon (BW Promo 88)
• Glaceon (BW Promo 90)
• Jigglypuff (BW Promo 65)
• Jolteon (BW Promo 91)
• Keldeo (BW Promo 60)
• Leafeon (BW Promo 87)
• Lillipup (BW Promo 52)
• Meowth (BW Promo 35)
• Scraggy (BW Promo 25)
• Vaporeon (BW Promo 99)

Removed Features

Booster Credits

This former currency was used with redemption code cards found in physical booster packs. Booster Credits could be redeemed for booster packs of the player’s choice from HeartGold & SoulSilver through Boundaries Crossed expansions. This code card method ended on July 2013 when codes from a booster pack became redeemable for a virtual version of that specific booster pack. The February 7, 2014 update automatically redeemed all remaining credits for Boundaries Crossed packs.

Achievements

The Achievements system was retired on March 25, 2015. Achievements had no special effect on the game.

Practice Battle

This mode allowed players to play their chosen deck against another randomly selected player like ranked battles (later renamed to Versus Mode), but did not count toward player rank or earn trainer tokens or bonus wheel spins. The practice battle option was retired on March 25, 2015.

Undoing Actions

Players could undo playing certain cards on the field like basic energies unless it would break the game's state. This option was removed on November 6, 2015 to "streamline gameplay and better match competitive play environments". UI changes have also made less common to misclick during a game.

Unlimited Format

On March 30, 2016, the Unlimited format no longer existed in Versus Mode and Tournaments (now only available in friend battles), being symbolically replaced by the Legacy format. Cards previously banned in the Unlimited format for game balance can be played again, but due to these changes the format has virtually no playerbase.

Versus Chat

The in-game chat for online battles has been replaced by canned messages and emoticons on September 26, 2016.

Gems

Gems were a purchaseable currency only available to Canadian players from April 19, 2013 to October 29, 2018. Similar to Trainer Tokens, they could be redeemed for items in the in-game shop or used as a currency for trading with other players.

Language Differences

Vivillon (XY 17) has two different obtainable cards, one featuring the Meadow Pattern and one which changes its artwork depending on the set language. A feature which mimics this card's distribution over each country.

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  English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish

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  German

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  Italian and Spanish

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  Portuguese