Proto:Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/March-August 2006 Source Leak

This is a sub-page of Proto:Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

This page or section details content from the July 2020 Nintendo Leak. Check the July 2020 Nintendo Leak category for more pages also sourced from this material.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. Notes: To look at a WIP Improvement on this page, please look at User:PokeFan/Pokemon DP Prototypes Rewrite

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: Extremely messy, very unfinished, misinformation; the whole wazoo

To do: Further documentation. Reconsider page structure: Things like Pokémon graphics can be grouped by pokegra.narc version, with each page specifying which builds said narc belongs to. Other individual files which are easier to compare independently of the builds could be done in a similar way. The rest of the differences should be tracked as normal within a build subpage (e.g. The builds section of this page) rather than one subpage for every conceivable area of comparison and every individual build. Considering how close the March 24th - April 14th builds are, and how close the June / July builds are, it's probably worth grouping them into the same page whilst pointing out the small differences between each of those builds. This will allow us to avoid excessive repetition. March 14th is arguably early enough to have its own page. In fact, do we even want to talk about builds at all when we're the ones deciding which builds to produce? Might it be more accurate to discuss individual file changes and the like? Or is it fair to talk about builds here as only a small quantity of working builds can be produced? If we didn't talk about builds it would arguably be harder to conceptualize each snapshot of development, as each aspect (sprites, sounds, gameplay etc.) would all be in separate pages. Having changes for a single build alongside each other is, I think, more helpful. Perhaps talking about major builds with CVS tags alongside individual file changes would allow for more comprehensive documentation? See this talk page for more discussion. There are some inaccuracies in the header paragraph that are worth fixing.

On July 24, 2020, the complete source code for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl was leaked. The data corresponding to the version control system it used - CVS - was intact, to such an extent that a large number of file versions from commits from March 2006 onward are now available to us.

While no builds were present within the repository, a number of builds can be compiled from a handful of the commits. As such, the true extent to the revision history of the game cannot be captured by a small selection of builds, but they still provide key snapshots of development that can provide useful insights.

As we have the full history of the files which go into the build - perhaps most notably the Pokémon sprites in "pokegra.narc" and the SDAT files holding the game's soundtrack - the specific histories of those files are also documented here. The subpage for each build will specify which version of each of these files are used in the build process.

The English, Korean, and European debug ROMs were also compiled, along with a debug English demo ROM. They are otherwise completely the same as retail, so they are left undocumented.

Compiled Builds

Though the commits in the source data range from March onwards, much of the data within the commits seem to be from quite a bit earlier. Specifically, the .imd and .gmm files in each commit contain what is understood to be a more accurate means of dating the data than the commit dates themselves. With that in mind, the builds listed below - which were built from key milestones within the commits - are dated corresponding to the dates on these .imd and .gmm files, though many of them correspond to commit dates which are a bit later in development.

The builds have been grouped together to split development into three phases:

February 17th, 2006 build The earliest build that can be compiled from the source files.

March 17th - March 31st, 2006 builds Two closely related builds, apparently being quite a bit more complete than the previous build.

June 23rd - July 17th, 2006 builds The next group of compilable builds, nearing the game's completion.

Assets

Asset differences from the source code, listed by their commits (or by the gmm / imd dates in the same commits). Each of the build pages will also link to each of the pages corresponding to the assets used by that build.

pokegra.narc Differences

The first compressed narc file was included within the March 12th commit. However, the files in this commit actually seem to be from around mid-February, given the dates on the .imd and .gmm files within this commit.

February 17 Initial Sprites The initial sprites, included within the March 12th commit but suspected to be from around February 17th. Many of these share similarities to their GBA counterparts.

March 17 Changed Sprites Changed sprites and comparisons for March 17th's pokegra narc. Commit dates are March 26th and 27th.

March 31 Changed Sprites Changed sprites and comparisons for March 31st's pokegra narc. Commit date is April 14th.

June 23 Changed Sprites Changed sprites and comparisons for June 23rd's pokegra narc. Commit date is June 27th.

June 30 Changed Sprites Changed sprites and comparisons for June 30th's pokegra narc. Commit date is July 3rd.

July 9 Changed Sprites Changed sprites and comparisons for July 9th's pokegra narc. Commit date is July 13th, 03:03.

July 13 Changed Sprites Changed sprites and comparisons for July 13th's pokegra narc. Commit date is July 13th, 17:54.

July 17 Changed Sprites Changed sprites and comparisons for July 17th's pokegra narc. Commit date is July 18th.

Trainer Sprite Differences

March 12 Sprites Trainer sprites present in the March 12th commit and February 17th build.

March 26-27 Sprites Trainer sprites present in the March 26th/27th commits and March 17th build.

April 14 Sprites Trainer sprites present in the April 14th commit and March 31st build.

June 27 Sprites Trainer sprites present in the June 2th commit and June 23rd build.

July 3 Sprites Trainer sprites present in the July 3rd commit and June 30th build.

July 13 Sprites Trainer sprites present in the July 13th commit and July 13th build.

July 18 Sprites Trainer sprites present in the July 18th commit and July 17th build.

Music Differences

• A notable general change is that the in-game music had a dynamic crossfade from day to night, which isn't the case in the final game. This is present in all the builds from February 17th until March 31st. It seems to have been phased out in the following build, that being June 23rd.

Initial March 12 SDAT commit First known SDAT commit with 36 music SEQ slots. Suspected to have been compiled in February.

March 23rd SDAT commit Second SDAT commit with 46 music SEQ slots.

April 14th SDAT commit Fourth SDAT commit with 47 music SEQ slots.

Pokémon Super Contest Differences

To do: These are better off being a subpage or subheading of a June 30th / June-July builds page!

June 30th Super Contest Differences Differences in Super Contests for June 30th's build.

Gym Leader Designs

The badge case before defeating the respective gym leader gives a glimpse at earlier designs for each character.

To do: Specify which prototype this is relevant to and move it to the associated page, add June overworld sprites for Byron and Crasher Wake.

Although the gym leaders' trainer sprites are not available in the prototype, the badge case gives a glimpse at some earlier designs for the characters. Notably:

• Roark's glasses are missing.
• Gardenia's black hair texture is missing.
• Maylene's nose bandage is missing.
• Crasher Wake has a much different mask.
• Byron's hair is less ostentatious.

In particular, Crasher Wake's mask seems to resemble a Swampert, which may have fit into his location on the Great Marsh.