This is another "I'm alive" message. I know updates were scarce these past two weeks, but there is not much news right now, and even though I thought I would be pretty much done with school after my AP and IB tests, we now have so many projects due, limiting my time to work for this site. School ends for me on June 12th (not really, since we have to practice for graduation afterwards), but after that, I should be 100% free to devote myself to this website. Just 2-3ish more weeks!
The surprise was not ready for this weekend, but it most definitely will be for next (and it WILLLLL - I know my punctuality sucks because of school and everything, but it WILL). :p
In the meantime, if you want to speculate what the surprise is, post in this thread. Winner gets a cookie.
Still busy with school projects! Random and fast update! Sometime this weekend we might have a huge surprise!
American Battle Revolution - IGN.com has posted two new English videos of Pokemon Battle Revolution, displaying the game's widescreen capabilities. The announcer / narrator in Battle Revolution is revealed by these videos to be the same narrator from the Pokemon anime, Ken Gates, and not the original narrator from the two Pokemon Stadium games. The game is set to launch June 25th in the USA for around $50.00.
EDIT on Sunday Night: I am STILL busy with school projects this weekend, and probably will continue to be for the earlier part of this week. Just a few more weeks of high school left, and I will be able to devote so much more time to this site...
Sorry for not updating recently. Since it is the end of the year (especially since it's Senior year in high school), our teachers are throwing every project that they can at us, including video projects, PowerPoint presentations, and in-class skits (for English, Bio, Math, Spanish, Gov, etc.). It feels like I have been working on a project every night this past week, and I STILL have one I.B. test left (Espanol, yo). So, I will try to get in an update before the weekend.
On a website-related note, we will have a HUGE surprise around next weekend. It is one that has taken one full year (as of June) to get to version one.
Shining Darkness Update - As we reported over two months ago, the third Diamond and Pearl set (following Mystery of the Lakes, the second D/P set) will be named Shining Darkness, featuring Darkrai. To recap from our April news story on the set, "It will be released on July 5th in Japan, with the pre-constructed theme decks featuring Dialga Lv.X and Palkia Lv.X. It will also contain many legendary Pokemon, including Entei, Suicune, Raikou, Lugia, Ho-Oh, and Mew, as well as the Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur evolutionary lines." Today, the official Japanese TCG website updated with pictures of the Lv.X's that will be featured in the theme decks, Dialga and Palkia (however, no other new information was revealed about the set). The website also promises that every single Pokemon from every generation will be represented on at least one card by the fifth Diamond and Pearl set, although with Kadabra having been gone from the TCG since [Skyridge], the statement may not hold true (although you never know, since it does say "EVERY" Pokemon). You can also download wallpaper celebrating the set (which is pictured in the second thumbnail below) by saving the link under the thumbnail that corresponds to your screen resolution. More info should be coming out next month on the set, so stay tuned to PokeBeach!
More D/P Scans - More scans have been added to our [Diamond and Pearl scan page], and more will come either later tonight or tomorrow. These scans were sent to us by TorterraKing, and half of them were edited by Shakespeare, since I am still trying to study for my AP/IB Bio tests tomorrow. If you have any cards we are missing, please scan them at 300 DPI (or, if you do not know how to do that, about 1.5x larger than the current scans), give us your name, and send them to wpmpb@pokebeach.com. Thank you!
Mystery Dungeon Sequels - Thanks to NGCFrance and Filb.de, we now know of two Pokemon Mystery Dungeon sequels that are going to be revealed in next month's issue of CoroCoro, the two games being named Time Expedition and Darkness Expedition (click the CoroCoro scan to the right for a larger picture). The two games will be different from the previous Mystery Dungeon series in that the player must join a guild to train and become more powerful, with the guild leader being Wigglytuff, and its right-hand Pokemon being Chatot. This time around, however, the purpose of the games will be to explore and find treasure, rather than to rescue, as with the previous Mystery Dungeon games. The player will also be able to choose their character from either Munchlax, Pikachu, Piplup, Chimchar, Turtwig, as well as 11 other Pokemon not yet known. The two games will be released sometime this fall, and it is presumed they will be Wi-Fi compatible.
Today I will be studying for AP/IB Bio, which takes place on Monday and Tuesday, but I will be working on scans later tonight. If anyone can provide any other scans from their D/P pre-releases, please tell us in this thread (so that others do not scan the same cards), scan them at 300 DPI, and send them to wpmpb@pokebeach.com. You can see what cards we are missing by viewing the [Diamond and Pearl set list / scan page]. Also, we want to make sure that the card quality is higher this time around than what we have accepted for other pre-release cards in the past, so if you have a scanner that make the cards look distorted (such as scan lines on the cards or discoloration), you do not have to go through the trouble. ^_^; Thank you to anyone who helps out - you will be credited on the main page if your scans are good-quality!
A huge surprise (unrelated to the Modified Card-Dex) will be coming to PokeBeach within the next few weeks! Look forward to it - it's something completely unexpected that will replace something extremely popular.
Diamond and Pearl Set List, Info - Today I spent seven hours in testing (with six hand-written essays and 55 multiple choice questions over the course of an AP and IB exam), only to come home to an e-mail from a classmate telling me that there is a "group" project due tomorrow that I have to work on tonight - what a "fun" day! So, I only have time to post the set list tonight, which you can view by [clicking here]. The set list is also now accessible from the right menu, so you do not have to go searching for this news story in the future to find the link. We also have discovered that the Diamond and Pearl booster packs, which contain 10 cards now instead of 9, have an extra uncommon card as the additional card. The distribution of packs is now as follows: 5 common cards, 3 uncommon, 1 rare (or holo card), and 1 reverse holo. More scans will be posted when I have extra time!
Testsss....... 7... more... dayzzzzz... In the meantime, "The Wi-Fi League is booming, so now its even easier to find people in real-time to battle or trade. Don't forget the normal forums for the discussion of everything else involving Diamond and Pearl, which is also popular." :p
D/P Scans and Info - We have exclusive pre-pre-release scans of Diamond and Pearl, the next TCG set! If you want to participate in a pre-release to play with these cards and own them, you should search for one near you and read what pre-releases are all about. This would be the PERFECT time to get back into the TCG if you have not played in a while, and it is also a good time to force your friends or family to play the game as well. You get to keep your cards, build a 40-card deck, meet other Pokemon fans, and have a fun time playing the game in a tournament (some pre-releases even have other side-events, and since D/P is out for the DS now, some may even have D/P DS tournaments). Pre-releases take place this weekend and next weekend, so attend one if you can! Also note that the TCG now has a few new rules with this new Diamond and Pearl set, which you should learn, understand, and memorize before you attend a pre-release. If you need any help with the new rules, feel free to post on our forums.
As for other items you receive at the pre-releases, everyone will be given 60 card sleeves, featuring Lucario (pictured right - click for larger image). Since these are available at pre-releases, they are probably legal for other Pokemon Organized Play tournaments in the future, although this is not confirmed for sure, yet. The pre-release card you receive for this set is Luxio, the evolved form of Shinx. The reverse holos in this set are like the old EX Ruby and Sapphire reverse holos - everything is holo, other than the picture. Also, is it just me, or are the name fonts, the placement of text (Dusknoir), and the enlarged PokePower and PokeBody fonts (Dusknoir, Rhyperior, etc.) incredibly annoying to look at? It seems like 1st edition Neo Genesis all over again.
Since I have two tests tomorrow, I did not have time to edit the scans to look "purty," so they are only edited for size (some scans look "squished" because I did not edit them, like Elekible - the card's font in real life is not like that). Click the thumbnails below to view! You only need to click one image to view all of the scans - just hover over the right side of the image after it has loaded, and click "Next" to scroll through the remaining scans. If the picture viewer makes your life difficult, you can right-click the thumbnails and open the links of the images. We will have more scans and the full set list tomorrow (which I do not have time to put up tonight), so be sure to check back!
[Images No Longer Available]
If you want to discuss this set, post in this thread on our forums.
So even though I have tests, a partially broken website, and a headache, I decided twenty minutes ago that I was bored. In doing so, I made a phenomenal discovery.
- After establishing that I was going to be receiving Diamond and Pearl TCG scans later this week, I decided to go work on [my new, updated layout] (still a work-in-progress) for a minute or two.
- When I added in a new section to the top-link bar on the new layout, "Wi-Fi League," I decided it was time to show the layout to my forum members, who could comment on it. So, I posted this thread on our forums, asking for opinions on it.
- I then decided to go on AIM and ask a classmate about our AP Gov test tomorrow, so I was distracted for a few moments from Pokemon.
- When refreshing my forums, there was a new post in the thread I had just posted, so I visited the thread, read the post, and went back to working on the layout.
- In working on the layout, I became bored again, so while randomly scrolling down on the page, I clicked "[Old News Archives]" in the left menu and began reading old news I posted years ago.
- Okay, I'm bored again, especially with having to read all of that light blue background behind black text that was burning my eyes.
- Hey, let's go to the newer old news archives, which are the numbers down on the bottom of the main page! In doing this, I came across the April Fools joke I made two years ago about the Pokemon named "Chance." I thought of how funny it was and how some people believed it.
- Again, I became bored. So then, I just rolled back in my chair and started thinking about my tests. Then my mind drifted to the Pokemon, Giratina, and how I thought it was scary, since I associate it with testing time (don't ask why).
- Hey! People made April Fools jokes this year, too. One was about a "Pokemon Opal," which featured Giratina.
- After thinking about this, I randomly and suddenly typed "PokemonOpal.com" into Firefox.
Say what?!?! PokemonOpal.com actually exists?!?! And what's more - it actually redirects to Nintendo.com, the distributors of the Pokemon games?
Wow, could this actually be reserved by Nintendo because a fourth generation game, Pokemon Opal, is coming out in the future, and they don't want anyone taking the domain name? Just to be sure, let's check out who "PokemonOpal.com" is registered to.
Registrant:
Nintendo of America Inc.
4820 150th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052
US
Domain name: POKEMONOPAL.COM
So there you have it, folks. Could this be the next Pokemon game, since there is already a website reserved for it? Only time will tell - this does not mean it is "for sure," so don't take it as fact just yet, or as proof that Pokemon Opal is the next game. Nintendo could just be reserving anything Pokemon-related, although this is very coincidental and suspicious.
EDIT: In doing further research, it appears that PokemonTopaz.com and PokemonAmythest.com are also registered. These two names, along with Opal, were registered in October of 2002, meaning that Opal being the next game holds much less merit due to the year it was registered. This might just mean that these COULD be future Pokemon game NAMES that Nintendo wanted to reserve in case they ever used them. A while back, when FireRed and LeafGreen were released, Pokemon "Water Blue," or something similar to that name was discovered registered in a Japanese trademark database, but that game or name never came to be. Still, even though this seems now to be disproved, it's interesting that Nintendo would go out of their way to reserve those website domains.
