____________________________________________ | | | # # | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| | | || || | | || ---------------------- || | | || NDS_Master || | | || PRESENTS || | | ...... || ---------------------- || ...... | | ...... || || ...... | | ...... |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ...... | | o ________________________ o | |_________| |---------|--------| | |_________| _________|_|_________|________|_|_|_________ | ___ \ ________________________ /__ __ | | |___| | ||__| |__|| | | PictoChat FAQ | | | _ | | | | _| |_ | Version 1.0 | (X) | | |_ _| | | (Y) (A) | | |_| | Copyright 2005 | (B) | | | NDS_Master | | | |________________________| | |________/ Nintend[]DS \________| | |MIC. [] | |____________________________________________| ================= Table of Contents ================= 1. Copyright 2. Introduction 3. Entering PictoChat 4. Touch Screen Only Controls 5. Button Only Controls 6. Uses of PictoChat ============================ 1. Copyright 2005 NDS_Master ============================ This guide is property of NDS_Master and is copyrighted and protected by United States copyright laws and international treaties. Therefore, the use of this guide in any websites, publications, or any other public documents is illegal and strictly prohibited. This guide may not be posted on the Internet, or any publications, without my express, written permission. If you wish to use this guide you must contact me with your request. =============== 2. Introduction =============== The Nintendo DS, Nintendo 's new portable gaming device, hit the market on November 21st. Along with the system itself, gamers soon discovered to free things that came with the system. There was Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, a demo cartridge that came in the box. There was also PictoChat, a feature built into the system itself. PictoChat was not a game; instead it was a program that let people communicate between two to sixteen DS systems. This is a guide on how to use PictoChat. If you had questions on PictoChat, you have come to the right place. Check it out! ===================== 3. Entering PictoChat ===================== PictoChat is easy to use. To access PictoChat, start by opening up your DS. Make sure that it is charged up, and then press the POWER button. The system will turn on, and it will bring up the start-up screen. Tap the touch screen or press a button to move onto the next screen. On the next screen, touch the PictoChat button (or select it by using the D-Pad and choose it with the A button). Next it will take you to the PictoChat entrance screen. From that screen, select one of the four chat rooms. It displays how many people are in each chat room on the right side of the chat room buttons. After you have done that, you will enter PictoChat. Once you have entered PictoChat, you can draw and send messages to other people in the chat room. Refer to the control modes for more information on what all of the buttons in PictoChat do. ============================= 4. Touch Screen Only Controls ============================= There are two methods that people can use to use PictoChat. There is the touch screen only method, and there is the button only method. Since PictoChat was created partially to display the abilities of the Nintendo DS, the touch screen only method has the most features. When you run PictoChat, you will see that there are things on both screens. The top screen is where you see messages that you or another person has sent. The bottom screen, which is also the touch screen, is where you compose messages to send to other people. Since the top screen is only for display, the bottom screen is the only thing that is important for touch screen only controls. Top Screen ------------------------------- Signal Strength>|_||NDS_Master| I guess this is | |--|---------- PictoChat |<----Message Display | |----------------------------| Area | |DSFan | This is one of the | | |------ best features for | Scroll -------->| | the Nintendo DS!!! | Indicator | |----------------------------| | |NDS_Master| | | |---------- \ / /\ |_| | | | | /--\ | | | ------------------------------- Bottom Screen ------------------------------- Scroll Buttons-->|--|____________________DSFan_|x|<-Exit |--|NDS_Master|<--User Names ^ | Erase/Draw------>|--|---------- | |--| Drawing Area | Thick/Thin Lines>|--| | |--|____________________________| Keyboard |--| |Send | Select ------->|--| Keyboard |-----|<-Take Back Button Buttons |--| |-----| |--| |Erase| ------------------------------- ------------ Drawing Area ------------ On the top half of the bottom screen, you will see a large white area. This is the drawing area. There are a few, fine lines through the drawing area. This is the area where you draw messages. Using the stylus, draw on the drawing area. Where ever you touch with the stylus, it will draw a black lines. Using the stylus, you can draw pictures and messages. -------- Keyboard -------- Directly under the drawing area, you will find a keyboard. It is easy to use the keyboard. Simply touch a letter on the keyboard, and it will appear on a line in the drawing area. If you hold the stylus against the touch screen when you select a letter, you can drag the letter to the exact place that you want it on the drawing area. ----------- Send Button ----------- To the right of the keyboard you will find three buttons. The top button is the send button. When you press the send button, it will send whatever is on the drawing area to the other people in the chat room. ---------------- Take Back Button ---------------- Below the send button, you will find the take back button. If you press this button, the last message displayed to the message display area. By using the scroll buttons, you can change which message is the last one in the message display. ------------ Erase Button ------------ Under the take back button, you will find the erase button. Press the erase button and it will erase everything in the drawing area. This is useful when you simply want to erase everything you have wrote without sending the message. ----------------------- Keyboard Select Buttons ----------------------- To the left of the keyboard, you will find several buttons that will change the type of keyboard. There are five different keyboards that you can choose. Some display characters from foreign languages, while other display many types of symbols. ---------------- Thin/Thick Lines ---------------- Above the keyboard select buttons, you will find the buttons that adjust the thickness of the lines that you draw. You can choose from either thick or thin lines. This does not affect lines that you have already drawn; it only affects the lines that you draw after you press it. ---------- Erase/Draw ---------- Above the thickness buttons, there is the erase and draw buttons. If you select the erase button, you will erase everything that you touch on the drawing area. Be careful though, as the area that is erased is much larger than the area that you draw. Choose the drawing button to resume drawing. -------------- Scroll Buttons -------------- At the top, left corner of the bottom screen, there are two scroll buttons. If you press the up scroll button, you will scroll up through the messages. If you press the down scroll button, you will scroll down through the displayed messages. Using the scroll buttons, you can change which message you bring into the drawing area with the take back button. ---------- User Names ---------- In a small area on the left side of the drawing area, you will find your user name. Press it to see you special message. On the top of the touch screen, you will find the user names of other people in the chat room. Press their user names to see their messages. ----------- Exit Button ----------- On the top, right corner of the lower screen, you will find the exit button. Choose this button and you will exit the chat room. ======================= 5. Button Only Controls ======================= It is possible to use PictoChat without using the touch screen. If you only use buttons, you can use every feature except the drawing feature and the buttons that are associated with the drawing feature (erase/draw buttons, thickness buttons). You also cannot view the special messages of people in the chat room, and you cannot choose the exit button. The button only control method provides an excellent way for people to use PictoChat without going through the trouble of trying to use a stylus. ------------------ Using the Keyboard ------------------ When you use the button only method of controls, you will spend most of your time using the D-Pad. Press the various directions on the D-Pad to select different letters on the keyboard. Press the A button to put those letters on the drawing area. If you want to change the keyboard, press the Y button to cycle through the five different keyboards that are available. When you press the X button, you will cycle from having Shift on, Caps on, and both Shift and Caps off. This makes it easy to quickly select uppercase and lowercase letters. --------------------------- Sending/Taking Back/Erasing --------------------------- As soon as you have finished writing your message, press Start to send it. You can also take back the lowest message displayed on the message display area by pressing the Select button. If you hold down the select button for a few seconds, it will erase everything that is in the drawing area. --------- Scrolling --------- To scroll through past messages, press the L and R buttons. The R button scrolls up through past messages, and the L button scrolls down through past messages. ==================== 6. Uses of PictoChat ==================== Okay, so Nintendo has added this great feature to all of its DS systems. This feature, PictoChat, allows you to chat with people within the wireless range. The only problem is that the wireless range of the DS is small (probably due to FCC regulations), and you can only communicate with people that you could easily talk to. Since the DS has such a short wireless range, the ways that you can use PictoChat are limited. Anyway, here are a few ideas of when it is good to use PictoChat. I will add more ideas when I think of them, and people can also submit ideas to me. -------------- Movie Critique -------------- This is the time that I find PictoChat most useful. When several people are gathered to watch a movie and a few people have the Nintendo DS, then there is something fun that you can do. During the movie the people with the Nintendo DS can write about and comment on the movie without disturbing the other people in the room. It is a great thing to use when you want to make comments about a movie while other people want to silently watch the movie. -------------------------- Room-to-Room Communication -------------------------- This is another great way to use PictoChat. When two people have PictoChat, they can talk with each other from different rooms of a house. This is one time when you can use PictoChat without standing right next to the person that you are talking to. If you are in two different rooms you could also turn the sound up and leave PictoChat on. Whenever one person needs to talk with the other, they can simply send a message and PictoChat will beep, alerting the other person that someone sent a message to them. -------- Have Fun -------- Whether you are next to someone or not, the most important use of PictoChat is to have fun with it. Since it has so many features, there are many fun things that you can do with PictoChat even though you are close to the person that you are talking to.