All Stacomi, all the time

A blog dedicated to any and all infromation that can be found on Star Communicator for the GBA

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Everything I know about the development of Star Communicator☆

Basically everything I can assume or was able to find out about the development of Star Com put into one post for your reading pleasure. I only have one primary source so much of this would be guess work and I don't have defined dates for many things.

I don't know when development started. I just know that Ms. Salucoro (the character designer for the game) joined sometime in May 2000. (or at least that's when she mentioned it) Development may have started around this time but I can't be 100% sure. Maybe the basic idea and some programing was done before? Placeholder designs? Don't know.

diary (05/18)

The game was showcased at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2000. Only the pet raising part was available on the show floor but the Mobile System GB support was mentioned. Only one screenshot of the game can be found from this event and it's of the dog like Stacomi (named Cook in the final) in the beta room.

(from https://archive.org/details/dengeki-nintendo-64-issue-55-december-2000 )

The floor pattern is slightly different from the room as it appears in the final rom but it could be a quirk of the capture method used. The exact number of characters in this build is unknown but there were at least two, the dog and cat.

While not seen in this magazine, there is an image of the purple cat like Stacomi (who would be named Kokichi) from the Salu Diary of September 2000. Not confirmed but this would have to be of the same build (or at least a very similar one) as the one that would have been at TGS Fall 2000.

diary

The game was only on GBA consoles, not displayed on any tvs so photos are harder to come by, but that does mean that a game pak of this build exists, somewhere...

Not a game event but the tie in comic found in Comic Cue Vol 9 released in November 2000. Many characters in the game were seen here. Cook, Lollo and Spica (menu lady) were called by name while Kokichi, Kojiro, and Piyo are cameos in the backgrounds. Booltal is not seen in this comic but (check note.)

The game was meant to release on March 21st, 2001 as it was stated to be a GBA launch title, but the game was delayed sometime between late 2000 and January of 2001. There is no stated reason for the delay. There is some magazine coverage of Star Com from March 2001 as this was the intended release window of the game and then a sort of dead area (as far as I know) when it comes to features before the actual release.

Sometime before the release, the Star Communicator Channel website went live. It basically hyped up the game by talking about the online features and the characters. Does not look like it was updated much after release though...

ようこそ！スタコミ★チャンネルへ

The game released on July 26th, 2001.

I don't have much after this besides your normal magazine ads but there was the shutdown of the online services in December 2002. this was because of the end of the entire Mobile System GB service. I say this would be the end of the main lifespan of the game as half the game was the online features and sending emails to others.

I did confirm that players could call each other directly, so the game could continue, just without the Star Communicator HomePage that was on the main servers. That server had the item downloads and the BBS board used to find other players (without needing their phone number). Could be more features I don't know about yet.

The note from before:

Not related to Star Com, but there is a comic Spe*Tra from around the same time also created by Ms. Salucoro. In the second chapter there is a character that bears a striking resemblance to Booltal. At the end of the episode they are arrested and never seen again (I know this because I bought all of Spe*Tra). Well there are 3 parts to SpeTra. Act 1, Act 2 vol 1, and Act 2 vol 2, except vol 2 has never been seen. All the online places to buy this comic only have Act 1 and the first part of Act 2. Shit I need to explain SpeTra more.

It's a comic about these two space delivery workers. Rayet and Wolf. They live and work from their space truck doing odd jobs around the area and stuff. I liked it :)

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Calling between mobile adapters WAS possible!☆

Before I thought that contacting another player with only the phone and adapter wasn't possible but I was mistaken because it WAS POSSIBLE!

電話番号を選択して下さい

This translates to something like: Please select a phone number. And this image:

The communication between the two GBAs is when players called each other. The SCC 55 station here is being used to represent the main servers of the game.

Two players could call and communicate and even marry their Stacomi without the need to contact the main server/ home page. One player would call the other and the communication would begin. There is other text in the game stating that the minutes and seconds spend connected were also tracked.

This also solves a second mystery I had about the game.

After raising a Stacomi for the first time there will be a heart icon added to the selection when writing emails. In the place where items could also go. I wasn't sure if this functioned the same as purchased hearts from the home page before, but with this new method of connection explains this. Unlocking hearts this way must have been to give players the ability to marry their Stacomi, without having to go onto the main server and download hearts from there.

(Note: 5 hearts need to be sent to the partner Stacomi of the opposite sex in order for them to get married. Both must also be adults.)

So the full feature set would look like this.

Between two users with the mobile adapter and their cell phones:

Send messages (email)

Marry Stacomi to each other

When connecting to the Star Communicator Home Page (the main servers.)

Find players from all over Japan with the BBS without the need to exchange phone numbers and call (in the Star Wedding section.)

Read news

Purchase and download new items

Purchase hearts for Star Marriage

Users Voice section (Q and A with the character designer Mizutani Salucoro.)

Salucoro section (connected to her website??)

On a different note...

This is the first post after the 3 year anniversary for this blog! I made this blog as a place to store all the info I have about Star Communicator. To make sure that it doesn't die with me if I suddenly dropped dead one day. So if even just one person found this blog useful, then I have succeeded.

I'm not the most active because I only post when I have something interesting enough to say. Or find some new information about the game. That and I started going in person to college and have less time to figure out how GBA games work.

It's a extremely niche blog, so I don't expect to go viral or get any 'return on investment'. I'm just doing this because I love Star Communicator and won't shut up about it.

This year's art:

Last year's art was when I first started using Clip Studio and was still getting used to it. Looking back I can tell because I went a little overboard with the decoration brushes (imo). Clip Studio is my main program now (switching from Medibang) so now I'm much more used to it and I have a new display tablet! (My first one btw :3)

This is Ruby, who is meant to be like a mascot/persona for the blog but I really don't post art much here. She does have a game version that is used in some posts as a example Stacomi. The red dog. The drawn version has more details though like the glasses and bits of fur, she is meant to have these details btw. And the blue and white cat with her is Marble. Who was meant to be another mascot but I never got the chance to use her yet. She's a blue cat in game, without the pattern. She's normally an adult Stacomi but here she's a child slime. Just cause I felt like it.

I like to say that Marble is a year younger than Ruby. So while Ruby just grew up and became an adult here, Marble is a year away from growing up but is still around the same age as Ruby. (like Ruby would be 18, Marble would be 17.)

I also wanted to feature some parts from the beta room because that was my first major find, for any video game really. It was the first time I found something that was unused in a game on my own and my contribution to the Cutting Room Floor.

The laptop in the back is just the full version of the blog. but the colors of the laptop are based on my own lol.

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Star Communicator at Tokyo Game Show, Autumn 2000!☆

Dengeki Nintendo 64, issue 55. Source: Dengeki Nintendo 64 (電撃 ニンテンドウ64) - Issue 55 December 2000 (600DPI) : MediaWorks : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Star Communicator was featured as part of Konami's booth at Tokyo Game Show, Fall 2000! This may have been the first public appearance of the game! This would have been September 23rd or 24th of 2000.

While it does not look like the game was on any larger screens, there were GBA consoles where people could play the games.

Summary of the game as seen at TGS fall 2000. Found on page 37.

The screenshot used here is the same as the one found on the IGN website and this may be the source of the image. The description mentions the Mobile Adapter GB but it does not look like the game had the mail features showcased at TGS 2000. Or at the very least the writer here did not use them. The number of players, release date, and the price were unknown at this time. The summary mentions other characters but only the dog character Cook is seen here.

I think this might be the very first version of the game (that we know about). There is another picture of the game that I discussed before from the SaluDiary website of the character designer Mizutani Salucoro, but that one clearly features the plaid flooring.

diary

This image was posted on September 6th so either the version of the game used had the color of this floor changed or its a quirk of how the picture was taken in the article.

I notice that when the game is seen on the GBA hardware or on a screen the colors are different, like how the space background is a dark blue. But in direct screen captures (like my emulator in this case) the space background will be a dark purple color. The background in the article is the correct blue color so it was likely a picture taken of the GBA console.

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Kind of a wiki but very unfinished☆

I made kind of a Wiki like thing for Star Communicator because I felt like it but I also hate the fandom website so Google Drive it is. It is VERY unfinished and unpolished at the moment. The formatting between sections is not consistent and it only gets worked on whenever I have something new to add or get around to fixing a few things. The information is there though, this is just something I originally made for just myself but now I've got the nerve to 'release' it in a way. (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)

(Working on the wiki be like-)

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Minigame Glitch!☆

There is a glitch where you can grow your Stacomi without having to play the minigame! The steps are below :)

1.Select any of the minigames to play (Panel Slider, Color Fall, or Star Groove) and complete the minigame, getting your cash pay out.

2.Back in the minigame menu, select a different game to play but DO NOT press A to continue to the full game. Instead you will press B to go back to the minigame selection screen.

3.In the minigame menu again, you can redo step 2 with a different game or Star Slots but you can only do this step with each minigame once every in game day.

What is happening is that the game only gives you the parameter changes when returning to the menu after the first game is cleared legit, not only at the end. This seems to be some type of programming oversight or mistake that was made! Minigames can only change parameters once a day and you cannot get money with this method as the money is only given at the end of the game after clearing.

It took me a while but an actual glitch has been found, and a useful one at that!

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Nearly full game guide!☆

A Full(ish) guide to Star Communicator

A Full(ish) guide to Star Communicator This will be the fullest guide I can make for the moment on how to play and progress in Star Communic

A full guide for playing Star Communicator! This (along with the item guide) should be enough for anyone to raise a Stacomi and reach the credits of the game. Has details about the menus, tools, and observations I have made during the time I have spent playing this game. I learned most of this through trial and error but with this guide you should be able to (hopefully) skip the error part!

This was intended to be posted with the whole second anniversary of the blog but I got busy with college stuff.

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Hart Box☆

Image of the heart box as seen in August 2001 issue of Nintendo Stadium. Well, here it is called a 'hart box'.

This screenshot seems to be taken from an earlier version of the game as in the final release, the Heart Box has its title spelled correctly. The weird thing is that, this magazine issue came out AFTER the game released! All the other images seen in the article match the released game, except for this one.

This same image of the 'hart box' was found in the March 2001 issue of The 64 Dream.

This is the first post made after the 2 year anniversary for this blog! I didn't have anything to post in January and I started college again so I didn't have as much free time as I did before, but I was still thinking and doing some things, one of my projects will be in the next post after this one. Its not any new information or anything, but its more like everything I learned while playing, like a guide... >:)

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Protected areas of save data that cannot be erased in the options menu!☆

This is the options screen. The option on the bottom is to delete the game data. The others (from top down) are for the cursor speed, turning the sound on and off, and what room the Stacomi will be in (it's like a wallpaper).

Using the options the player can format the game to get rid of any Stacomi on that save and start over. All data about the Stacomi (inculding of past Stacomi) will be erased along with the player profile data.

It looks like the game erases all data but there is certain data that CANNOT be deleted with this option. Saved mail and the address book are not deleted when the save game is erased. This data would have to be removed manually. (like going into the mail box and deleting everything found there, or erasing the address book manually).

As for data downloaded from the network, I have not found a save with any downloaded items on it so I can't see what happens with these items. Various places do mention that when downloading a new item, the old one will be overwritten so is formatting the save data not enough to delete downloaded items? Are downloaded items part of the same protected area of save data like the mail? I have found no places that mention any other ways that downloaded items can be lost... (unless erasing the save is so obvious that no warning for such a thing would have been needed).

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Proper Comic Scans!☆

I finally got the time to properly (using adobe scan) document this comic! It can be found here in this google drive folder along with the other Star Communicator materials I have gathered and released!

For the link to the folder itself please click ⬇

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Item Guide Repost☆

Sutakomi Item chart ver1 Unfinished

List and Info for all Sutakomi: Star Communicator Items Ver 1 A document with a chart of Stacomi Items and what they do. The format is item

Just a post of the item guide yet again since the old one may have been hidden under newer posts. You use the items to grow the Stacomi, usually buying multiple items a day.

On my first playthrough I didn't know what to do and it took 100 in game days to grow the dog into a adult! Hopefully with this guide and the knowledge on how to use items you will not make that same mistake and waste all your time!

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Source for this particular image!☆

This image is from a issue of Weekly Famitsu released in February or March of 2001!

Weekly Famitsu, February or March 2001? inside cover (book) Game Boy Advance Greatest Catalogue ゲームボーイアドバンス グレイテスト カタログ 週刊ファミ通 600dpi : famitsu : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The link for where I found this issue.

[stacomiallthetime]

☆All about Jobs☆

The end point of the game where giving the Stacomi a job will send them away and show the player the credits. There are a total of 8 jobs to choose from and each has different required parameters for your Stacomi to successfully get the job. They are as such: (note that the names were translated via google translate and may not be correct)

SCC Antenna Team

ＳＣＣアンテナ乗組員 : ＳＣＣの中継アンテナポッドでの作業員を求む。アンテナに乗り込むと半年アンテナ生活ですが、その後半年の休暇があります。体力に自信のある方は是非。

SCC Communication Officer

ＳＣＣ通信士 : 情報処理専門の通信士募集。一人一人が宇宙の通信を支える重要な仕事ですが誰にでもできる簡単な仕事です。お気軽にお問い合わせ下さい。

SCC Communication Team Leader

ＳＣＣリーダー通信士 : ＳＣＣのリーダー通信士求む。情報処理専門の通信士チーム、もしくは、中継アンテナポッドのチームの管理が主な仕事です。

Household Stacomi

家庭用スタコミ : 家族の一員として、家庭内での専属通信士として、よりよい暮らしを提供するために一般家庭に所属するスタコミを求めます。

Corporate Communications Specialist

企業専属通信士 : 有名宇宙企業の専属通信士はＳＣＣからチームを編成して企業に入社します。企業秘密の厳守ために専用のスタコミネットワークを形成するのが仕事です。

Space Exploration Team

宇宙未開エリア探索隊 : 宇宙未開エリア探索隊に同行するスタコミを求めます。未知なる世界への扉を開く重要な仕事です。テレパシーと体力に自信のあるスタコミは是非！

SCC Development Department Communicator

ＳＣＣ開発事業部専属通信士 : ＳＣＣ開発事業部はスタコミを使った通信マシンの開発、未知の電波・言語を研究する部署です。知力、テレパシー能力に長けているスタコミを求めます。

SCC Headquarters Communication Officer

ＳＣＣ本部通信士 : ＳＣＣの本部の第一級通信士。通信管理エリアで活動中のスタコミの管理、指導が主な仕事です。知力、体力、テレパシー全てが優秀なスタコミを求めます。

The name and description of each job was taken from the memory of the game.

The jobs higher on this list are easier to get while the jobs at the bottom of the list require the most parameters/ care given to the Stacomi. Parameters are stats of a Stacomi that can be raised by giving them items (either bought from the shop or found out in space) or feeding them certain kinds of food (also found in the shop or space.)

To even apply for a job the Stacomi must be an adult. Once selected the application is processed near instantly. If the Stacomi is rejected, the player is told to try again after improving their skills (raising the parameters with care). If they are accepted then the ending sequence of the game will begin.

After the credits the player can choose a new Stacomi to begin raising and the cycle starts again. While playing with this new Stacomi though, the player will receive emails from their last character with updates about their life after getting a job. There are three sets of text for each type of Stacomi for all 8 jobs they could get.

While the Mobile System GB services for the game were up there was a second way to reach the end of the game. By purchasing hearts on the homepage and connecting with another player over the network, the player's Stacomi could get married and would leave the player that way. The following text is likely played out during this ending (likely spoken by the menu lady.)

お疲れさまでした。次は%sチャンの子供をお頼みしますので、よろしくお願いしますね。

今までご苦労様でした。%sチャンも立派なスタコミに育ち結婚することができました。

The next Stacomi the player raises would be the child of the previous Stacomi that got married. Update texts are sent this way too, 3 emails for each type of Stacomi.

The job update texts and the child update texts are found in the google doc below.

The texts 2 electric bogaloo

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Experiments with Tools☆

When the alien enters the ship to rob the player, the only item available is the fan. But I have figured out what value controls the item selection (hex 03000798 to be specific) and can now change the item during the event!

Using the Give Item tool to chase off the alien. No menu came up when using this tool.

They react more to being clicked in general than to the specific tool. You can chase them off with any tool! Even actions that would normally bring up a menu like the Food and Give Item tools do not bring up their respective menus when used in this manner. Surprisingly, even the claw that grabs items from outside the room, can be used to interact with the alien inside the room.

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Differences with Star Groove☆

There are promotional materials for Star Communicator that show what appears to be an earlier version of the Star Groove minigame.

A screenshot of Star Groove as found in The 64 Dream magazine, March 2001 issue. Note the spacing and order of the arrows at the top of the screen.

Star Groove as seen in the August 2001 issue of Nintendo Stadium. This is taken from (very likely) the final game.

The section where the player hits the arrows is more spaced out in the version of the game found in 64 Dream, while the final game has them close together.

In the beta(?) the order of arrows goes (Left) (Up) (Down) (Right). However, the final game uses the order of (Left) (Down) (Up) (Right). The arrows are using the same sprites and colors so it seems that just the positions of the directions in the hit area were switched sometime between March 2001(?) and release.

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Arrows in my Star Communicator!?☆

In the Star Groove minigame the arrows the player must hit are normally represented by four different colored ships that face the same direction. But the actual background seems to have arrows that are more similar to Dance Dance Revolution than anything!

The arrows that the player hits are sprites in the game. This background though seems to feature these DDR like arrows but they cannot be seen during gameplay. Looks like they may have been covered up by the arrow sprites that are used in the game.

[stacomiallthetime]

✧Star Cursor✧

It's the hand cursor form the game, now made to be used on a pc! I was trying to get a screenshot of what the cursor looked like in use but windows does not capture the cursor when taking screenshots ￣へ￣

It is a part of the materials folder on google drive with the scans of the manual as well. On windows you can go to Mouse Properties - Pointers - click Browse - and find the . cur file that was downloaded. It's only the one cursor so none of the other actions like clicking will change the appearance, only the default state of the mouse.

Have fun ☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

[stacomiallthetime]

☆Manual Scans☆

I have scanned the manual for Star Communicator and it is available on the linked google drive folder above! This is my first time scanning anything on my old printer so some pages may have been tilted a bit. Enjoy the scans! They may be found in other places as well!