celebi machine Any Information relating to Celebi/Mew Distribution Machines

[BrynCat]

I haven't found much information about Celebi Machines, even after searching through the Internet for the last couple months, but this is some of the more notable information that I have gathered:

     There is a (possibly modified) Super Famicom inside, which has a (also possibly modified) Super Gameboy 2 inserted in it.

     Inside the SGB2 is a modified Gold version(or Blue for the Mew machines).

    The SGB2 is connected to a modified Gameboy/Gameboy Color, which in most pictures you can see as the "IN" slot.

     There is a glitch relating to Pokemon in the party having mail.

What I don't know:

     If the Super Famicom/SGB2 is modified

          How they are modified.

          How the Pokemon Gold/GBC is modified

     How the Celebi is distributed. I have heard that it is automatic, but that might be untrue.

These are merely my findings on this topic. I would love to hear everyone else's finds into this, whether it is false or true.

     

 

[Sabresite]

For Gen 2, I claimed a celebi myself.  I stuck my cart into a huge machine.  It showed me a pic of Celebi and then displayed successful.  I took the cart out and had celebi. I THINK we had to have a party slot available.  I bet there are others who can confirm since this was so long ago.  I also do not remember pressing any buttons.

I don't remember anything about the machine, sorry.

[BrynCat]

15 hours ago, Sabresite said:

For Gen 2, I claimed a celebi myself.  I stuck my cart into a huge machine.  It showed me a pic of Celebi and then displayed successful.  I took the cart out and had celebi. I THINK we had to have a party slot available.  I bet there are others who can confirm since this was so long ago.  I also do not remember pressing any buttons.

I don't remember anything about the machine, sorry.

Do you remember if it looked something like this?

Spoiler

As well, did the employee push any buttons? Like, something to get the transfer started?

[Sabresite]

Employees were not present to help the line.  It is possible that is how the machine looks.  I want to say it was yellow, but I can't be certain since it was so long ago.  My memory is not the best, but I don't remember pressing any buttons.

[BrynCat]

1 hour ago, Sabresite said:

I want to say it was yellow, but I can't be certain since it was so long ago.

I actually heard they were yellow before:

Quote

And of course, there were different revisions of the Celebi Machine (the earliest ones seen at events like Pokémon Fun Fest 2001 had the same blue-coloured case as a Mew Machine, later Celebi Machines had a yellow case).

(Link to the conversation stated above, it also talks about a glitch in the distribution machines: Link)

Strange though, I can't seem to find any pictures of the yellow ones.

Perhaps the yellow ones are slightly better in software than the blue ones, not just a colour change? Maybe they could have loaded the Celebi automatically, instead of the employee having to press the button to transfer it.

[BrynCat]

Hmm. I just found a picture that shows something rather interesting:

Spoiler

If I am not mistaken, and I am pretty sure I'm not, this Celebi machine is running a (Modified) Silver cartridge inside. I guess it would make sense for them to not use exclusively Gold cartridges. What is also interesting is that this is in the exact same casing as a Mew machine:

Spoiler

As opposed to most of the pictures of it on the internet:

Spoiler

This picture in particular was taken in the summer of 2000!(At Spaceworld, Japan) While the one above was taken in 2001(Belgium).

[Guest]

I also went to once of these events.
You had to give your game cartridge to the staff, they would put it into that "IN" slot, and then push "A" on the Super Famicom controller.
The TV showed a short animation while the savedata was updated and that's it.
It was also possible to push A multiple times to get more than 1 Celebi, even without swapping carts first.

[BrynCat]

1 minute ago, Purin said:

I also went to once of these events.
You had to give your game cartridge to the staff, they would put it into that "IN" slot, and then push "A" on the Super Famicom controller.
The TV showed a short animation while the savedata was updated and that's it.
It was also possible to push A multiple times to get more than 1 Celebi, even without swapping carts first.

Huh, I didn't know the machine did that, I thought that it would load it into the cart, and then you would have to reinsert it to get another. As well, was the animation like the trading one, like it would show the Celebi going through the trade cable? I heard that it was like that for the Mew machines:

Spoiler

 

[Guest]

Yeah, it was like half the trade animation, only you didn't give anything back.

[Sabresite]

IIRC, limits on receiving a Pokemon didn't exist until late gen 3.

 

EDIT: Gen 2 had limits.

[juandiego1993]

I'm no a programer nor a hacker but I'm thinking what would it takes to remake this mechine.

software wise, it seems to have a modified pokemon rom that only had a single function, to display a pokemon until a another rom is detected and wound start a transfering animation, give the pokemon on a available party slot and loop back to a static screen from the beginning. 

Hardware wise, it has a TV,  connected to a SNES or a N64 or any other device that can connect the modified cartridge or a modified rom, a way to connect the modded game with the authentic game cartridge thought the cartridge slot and a way to send commands (a controller) it could be a modded SNES controller,  power source and the best attempt of the whole casing!

Why do I post this? Because finding one seems useless but seeing it in action once again could be something special (and if you have a game related store, you can display it as a free celebi) 

It could be made with a raspberry pi zero running a gbc rom on a AV signal to a small old TV with an adruino as a way to connect a real cartridge to the raspberry pi zero and have it all running on a casing the most similar to the Celebi Mechine!

[Deoxyz]

I just wanted to post this here. We have a new theoretical idea how these Mew/Celebi machines worked. In several posts I've made during the past years I've said it was probably a devcart inside a SGB2/SFC linked to a GBP. This was based on the fact you can see the SFC controller in photos, as well as a cartridge slot that looks like a GBP. Upon discovering the PCNY machine, our theory has changed. Partly, but not limited to, the fact the PCNY writer's cartridge slot has a faux-GameBoy plastic cover for that illusion. I'll leave out specific details for now, but basically the PCNY cartridge writer is called Machine 2. We think Machine 1 is possibly none other than the Mew/Celebi Machine, which would mean it could theoretically be a devcart in a SGB1/SFC with the cartridge writer plugged into Port 2. Upon learning how the PCNY machine works, this process makes the most sense to be the same case for these original machines. If none other than considering the fact they all support cartridges being constantly inserted/removed without the need of a system reboot, this theory stands very well.

Now even more so than in the past, I hope we will one day obtain the software and the cart writer used inside these machines, if not even an entire intact unit. If a few Machine 2s still exist in some form, then Machine 1s more than likely do as well. The question is how and when will they surface?

Edited February 2, 2020 by Deoxyz

[TotalTS]

4 hours ago, juandiego1993 said:

software wise, it seems to have a modified pokemon rom that only had a single function, to display a pokemon until a another rom is detected and wound start a transfering animation, give the pokemon on a available party slot and loop back to a static screen from the beginning. 

I had thought about remaking the Mew Machine through pokered disassembly (I mean, making a ROM hack). The main problem it's that a hacked ROM nowadays can be found on a cartridge on Etsy, therefore everyone could fake a Mew and we couldn't tell with certainty if it's legal or not (faking the Mew Certificate it's also not that hard). I think it's better waiting until someone finds it/buy it and dump the ROM. (For me the Spaceworld Demo was a HUGE waiting so it's not that impossible to find the Mew Machine)

[Guest]

Couldn’t have said it any better than @Deoxyz. It’s kinda impossible to recreate something that you don’t know how it works... we can only make assumptions based on Pokémon Machine 2 which is the successor of the first Pokémon Machine 1. What we would need is not only a piece of software but also the customized developer hardware that was used to make this event possible. I already have a theory how the events were done and coded but never can say for sure.

We can only hope that the said hardware and software wasn’t destroyed and preserved by someone.

[TotalTS]

Just found this info on twitter, it's in german but is another picture of the Mew Machine:

https://twitter.com/jpgames_de/status/1070066332354400258/photo/1

Posting the pic here in case the tweet gets deleted in a future.

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by TotalTS

[TheSchilling]

die guten alten zeiten

[Sabresite]

12 hours ago, TotalTS said:

Just found this info on twitter, it's in german but is another picture of the Mew Machine:

https://twitter.com/jpgames_de/status/1070066332354400258/photo/1

Posting the pic here in case the tweet gets deleted in a future.

 

Do we know the OT?

[Guest]

Interesting. They called it "Download Machine" in Germany. In Japan they were just called "Machine".

By the way...
There's something about the software I noticed previously...
Let's play a game and see who can find the error.

Round 1

One hint: It's not about Mew, pay attention to the details.

Edited June 14, 2020 by ajxpk

[TotalTS]

Just now, ajxpk said:

Interesting. They called it "Download Machine" in Germany. In Japan they were just called "Machine".

By the way...
There's something about the software I noticed previously...
Let's play a game and see who can find the error.

Round 1

One hint: It's not about Mew, pay attention to the details.

The ID Number has a 0 in the beginning which isn't available on the other versions.

I made a mockup screen based on that one some time ago.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, exactly. It displays the ID as 6 numbers instead of 5. Cool screen!

Ready for Round 2?

You need to zoom in a little, it’s a bit harder because of the blurriness, but it’s the best image of the Japanese version we have to make a good comparison...

Why not making a screen for this too?  

Edited June 14, 2020 by ajxpk

[TotalTS]

2 hours ago, ajxpk said:

You need to zoom in a little, it’s a bit harder because of the blurriness, but it’s the best image of the Japanese version we have to make a good comparison...

Why not making a screen for this too?  

Sadly I can't read anything because of my screen/the low resolution. I can only suppose it's a zero again because the English Distribution Machine also has it.

I post how it looks on the Distribution Machine (mockup obviously) and in the Japanese ROM for comparison. The trainer is スペース so the Machine is from Spaceworld 2000.

Mockup Distribution Machine.

In final game.

Edited June 14, 2020 by TotalTS

[Guest]

Thanks for the screens.

So what I realized is that the Rom is just mimicking the look of the Pokémon Blue in a similar way the Pokémon Machine 2 Software does it with Ruby & Sapphire. This also means that the software could be something different than what we might expect. At least it’s clear that the Gold & Silver Version is the same software, the Pokémon is still looking to the right like in Gen 1, it’s still the same text box obj from the Blue Version and I know this is hard to see but the bg palette is still the same as in the Blue Version, most importantly the ID is still displayed as 6 numbers. So the only thing that was changed visually is the SGB Border, which btw. is always the Japanese, even in the International Version. Also the text alignment for the ID No. is incorrect in the International Versions, for some reasons it is centered unlike the other text.

That's all we can learn just based on the screens though... 

Edited June 14, 2020 by ajxpk

[TheOGCodyBurns]

Hey all!

 

I didn't have time to read EVERYTHING above, but I wanted to weigh in on this exciting conversation!

 

I am currently editing a video for our Pokemon Project on YouTube (EveryGameEver) and I recently had a long conversation with Nintendo rep Jeremy Hepworth on this topic!

He agrees that there is not any sort of SGB/2 SNES inside. Rather, it is proprietary software with a modified GB link cable that distributes the Mew to your game if you have an empty party slot. The SNES controller was simple the joystick used for the machine. He said there was no cartridge inside the Mew machines either, and that they were overall slightly smaller than the Arcade1Up tabletops you find in stores.

I of course asked where Nintendo buried them, he said they are most definitely in a storage warehouse collecting dust lol.

 

I just thought I would share this awesome conversation I got to have with him. Look for my vid next week!

 

- Cody

[TotalTS]

18 hours ago, TheOGCodyBurns said:

Hey all!

 

I didn't have time to read EVERYTHING above, but I wanted to weigh in on this exciting conversation!

 

I am currently editing a video for our Pokemon Project on YouTube (EveryGameEver) and I recently had a long conversation with Nintendo rep Jeremy Hepworth on this topic!

He agrees that there is not any sort of SGB/2 SNES inside. Rather, it is proprietary software with a modified GB link cable that distributes the Mew to your game if you have an empty party slot. The SNES controller was simple the joystick used for the machine. He said there was no cartridge inside the Mew machines either, and that they were overall slightly smaller than the Arcade1Up tabletops you find in stores.

I of course asked where Nintendo buried them, he said they are most definitely in a storage warehouse collecting dust lol.

 

I just thought I would share this awesome conversation I got to have with him. Look for my vid next week!

 

- Cody

Interesting! I'll be waiting for that video

Recently I talked to someone who was at those distributions that the Distribution Machine he saw had a inside printer for the certificates. Something that hasn't been mentioned yet.

This was the tweet where it was mentioned:

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by TotalTS

[TheOGCodyBurns]

6 minutes ago, TotalTS said:

Interesting! I'll be waiting for that video

Recently I talked to someone who was at those distributions that the Distribution Machine he saw had a inside printer for the certificates. Something that hasn't been mentioned yet.

Super interesting!

 

I have actually been looking for a way to print a faux certificate for my project but haven't found any info on cardstock or printing method, etc. That's cool!

 

Yeah should be wrapped and posted Tuesday, I can update here as well :)