PCNY Distribution Station

DISCLAIMER: This webpage is completely unaffiliated with the original Pokémon Center New York (PCNY) store, and none of the code for its distribution machine was used in the making of this tool. This tool should only be used recreationally/for personal fun - the Pokémon distributed from it are not legitimate event Pokémon. Read below the tool for more information.

Play distribution animation? Play sound effects? Reveal the Pokémon inside of eggs? If you're using Firefox and the video isn't playing properly or freezing, try disabling "hardware acceleration" in your settings and refresh the page. Sorry about that!

What this tool is

This tool aims to recreate the experience of visiting the "Gotta catch 'em all! Station", a large event Pokémon distribution machine located in the now-closed Pokémon Center New York (PCNY) store that was open in New York City in the early 2000s. These Pokémon were usually either shiny or had exclusive moves that couldn't be obtained any other way than visiting the store, making them incredibly elusive and rare, even before the store shut down and generation 2 cartridge batteries started dying.

Thankfully, due to the combined efforts of internet archives, people documenting these distributions at the time, and also the work of modern fans, some of these distributions have been directly preserved, and others we know enough about to essentially "rebuild" them from scratch. In an effort to let more people use these fun Pokémon for the first time, as well as have a more fun/special way to do so than making the Pokémon in a save editor, I've made this tool. The intent is to feel closer to the experience of walking into the store and getting a random event Pokémon, than hacking one in.

Legitimacy concerns

These event Pokémon match the data of the original event Pokémon so much that they will check out as legal in common save editors, and could realistically pass as actual Pokémon from the PCNY store, but that does not actually make them "legitimate." To be legitimate, you would have had to obtain them from the store in the early 2000s, or depending on your definition of legitimacy, have obtained them from the remnants of the machine left behind after the store's closure. Please do not use this tool to lie to people about where you got your Pokémon from!

How it works

I aggregated all of the known parameters for these PCNY event Pokémon into a database complete with event dates, enabling the ability to tell what distribution is current and search through them by date. To match the experience of walking into the store in the early 2000s, the distribution that is loaded when this page is visited is whatever one would have been running in the store at the time all those years ago.

When the "DISTRIBUTE" button is pressed, much like the original machine, a random Pokémon is picked out of the available pool for that distribution. These Pokémon are created with the help of a generation 1/2 save editor in BMF's backend, which I programmed myself. The Pokémon's stats (its DVs to be specific) and whether or not the Pokémon is forced to be shiny is also randomized in real time. This tool is not injecting pre-made Pokémon data; it is making new event Pokémon on the spot within the parameters for the original events. Essentially, it's BMF's own custom event Pokémon software.

The original machine placed a footer at the bottom of the save file with shorthand distribution information as a sort of marker, which prevented someone from getting multiple Pokémon from a distribution in a row. This tool also replicates this behavior, though the lock-out from obtaining more Pokémon from a distribution can be turned off in advanced settings.

Technical limitations

None of this should impact the experience of a casual user of this tool, but for those in the weeds of event Pokémon data, I've provided a list of how these Pokémon differ from the originals below:

• The original machine had an incremental TID system where every time someone obtained a Pokémon from the machine, the TID of the given Pokémon would go up by one. So the first person to get a Pokémon that day would get the TID of 00001, the second 00002, and so forth. This is really only relevant to the non-egg Pokémon, because when eggs hatch, they get the trainer information of the player. Regardless, BMF does not emulate this system, and instead randomizes the TID anywhere from 00000 to 65535, the minimum and maximum possible TIDs generation 2 can generate, respectively. The actual original machine could have theoretically went to numbers that high, though it's unlikely there were enough people using the machine on the daily for that number to get even close to just a thousand, much less 65535. I've kept full randomness instead of weighting the TID to lower numbers as a subtle nod to where these Pokémon came from. (It is possible with the advanced settings to pick a specific TID instead, however.)
• The letter in the "PCNYx" trainer name, unless picked out by the user in the advanced settings, is randomized between a/b/c/d, instead of depending on which of the four machines was used to distribute the Pokémon, which obviously doesn't apply here.
• Whatever algorithm was used to randomize Pokémon data in the original machine is not replicated here, instead being replaced with JavaScript's built-in Math.random() command whenever a random number has to be rolled. Combined with the lack of an incremental TID system, Pokémon generated by this tool are more likely than not a TID-DV mismatch.
• The footer placed at the bottom of the save file to prevent someone from getting multiple Pokémon from the same distribution is formatted in a custom way for BMF and is not in the original machine's format, though it is left at the same offset, 0x7FF8-0x8000.
• Some distribution odds (including shiny chances) are known, but the vast majority are not. The odds of receiving a specific Pokémon species, and of receiving a shiny of that species, are roughly inferred for most distributions, following the pattern of datamined distributions having the shiny odds add up to 15%.
• Information on the Suicune distribution that ran from October 18th 2002 to October 24th 2002 is missing, and as a result, its moveset and shiny odds could be wrong.
• This is the one change that's definitely a good thing - this tool does not have the small-yet-not-insignificant chance of destroying your save file! The original machine was shoddily put together enough that it would often destroy save files, and staff were instructed to give people free products from the store as compensation if this were to happen. Still don't know how they managed that one. (You should still keep backups of your saves before using this tool just in case, though!)

Transferring from Virtual Console to Bank and Home

Most of the Pokémon from this tool can be transferred to Bank and then to Home out of Virtual Console Gold/Silver/Crystal, with some restrictions:

• Mew cannot be transferred at all. The only Mew allowed out of VC versions is the officially distributed "GF" Mew.
• Celebi has to be leveled to level 30 or above to match the official encounter in Ilex Forest.
• Pokémon with special moves they can't usually learn need the special move removed from their moveset.

These Pokémon may pass through Pokémon Bank and Home, but since the PCNY event Pokémon were never distributed to Virtual Console, they are not actually legitimate event Pokémon. Transfer at your own risk and BMF is not responsible for any issues that may arise if legality checking is changed in the future, nor does BMF condone transferring illegitimate Pokémon to modern games. Do not use these Pokémon in online play where it could harm other people's experiences!