Video Game Arithmancy

[Jason Tandro]

What are some recurring significant numbers that only appear in video games (this rules out traditional significant numbers 7,10,12,13 and 100. All others are valid)?

3 is a gimme, and I was originally gonna rule this out, but it has to be included, because it is a standard health/live indicator. 4 and 5 also fall under this category.

0 is a common one in old NES, SNES games because you were never sure if you would end up with a 0 life indicator and still be playing (like if you had 1 life, did you have 1 spare life or were on your last life?)

255 appears in Final Fantasy as the highest most stats (except HP and MP) can reach (at least in 7 and 8 ).

1.5 is the standard elemental weakness damage modifier. Sometimes 2.

What others are there?

[Freedan]

65535 appears here and there.

It's the highest value something can be in some games. EXP points in Dragon Warrior, money in Phantasy Star, elemental attribute points in CV: OoE, and several limits in Harvest Moon DS (among other things).

[tay120n64]

Jason Tandro wrote:

255 appears in Final Fantasy as the highest most stats (except HP and MP) can reach (at least in 7 and 8 ).

Ah, but do you know why?

255 is a max programming number and is used in many situations involving forms of internal data, especially in regards to memory storage.

Fun Fact: 255 is also the max number of Rupees in the first Zelda.

[Jason Tandro]

tay120n64 wrote:

Jason Tandro wrote: 255 appears in Final Fantasy as the highest most stats (except HP and MP) can reach (at least in 7 and 8 ). Ah, but do you know why? 255 is a max programming number and is used in many situations involving forms of internal data, especially in regards to memory storage. Fun Fact: 255 is also the max number of Rupees in the first Zelda.

It's just so cool that you know that, lol!

[inferiare]

Unless you're playing like... Star Ocean 3 or another game where 255 is the level cap, in most rpgs the level cap is 99.

[EverPhoenix]

tay120n64 wrote:

Jason Tandro wrote: 255 appears in Final Fantasy as the highest most stats (except HP and MP) can reach (at least in 7 and 8 ). Ah, but do you know why? 255 is a max programming number and is used in many situations involving forms of internal data, especially in regards to memory storage.

kinda true, kinda not.

255 is the last number in unsigned 8-bit binary (being 2^8 -1). most games would use this because for their purposes, 16bit is ridiculously large (i think thats the 65535) and they dont need negative numbers.

also, on the original topic: 99, 999, 9999. usually the max level in RPGs, max number of items you can hold, max hp, whatever. reasons? they only have/use a certain number of characters to display health, and no one wants to see their hp as 198/3AD. FF cool points to anyone who can read that as the number it actually is ^_^

also, as discussed by the grand list of rpg cliches, 3 is an important number too. it can be generalised to the number of important/playable female characters in a story. (think about it, lol)

heres another: 8. the number of badges in a pokemon game region

more importance for the number 3: the number of times you need to damage a boss in the DKC games before they switch to a different form of attack, or die. on that note, 9 is the number of times you need to hit King K Rool before he collapses for good.

[inferiare]

EverPhoenix wrote:

tay120n64 wrote: Jason Tandro wrote: 255 appears in Final Fantasy as the highest most stats (except HP and MP) can reach (at least in 7 and 8 ). Ah, but do you know why? 255 is a max programming number and is used in many situations involving forms of internal data, especially in regards to memory storage. kinda true, kinda not. 255 is the last number in unsigned 8-bit binary (being 2^8 -1). most games would use this because for their purposes, 16bit is ridiculously large (i think thats the 65535) and they dont need negative numbers. also, on the original topic: 99, 999, 9999. usually the max level in RPGs, max number of items you can hold, max hp, whatever. reasons? they only have/use a certain number of characters to display health, and no one wants to see their hp as 198/3AD. FF cool points to anyone who can read that as the number it actually is ^_^ also, as discussed by the grand list of rpg cliches, 3 is an important number too. it can be generalised to the number of important/playable female characters in a story. (think about it, lol) heres another: 8. the number of badges in a pokemon game region more importance for the number 3: the number of times you need to damage a boss in the DKC games before they switch to a different form of attack, or die. on that note, 9 is the number of times you need to hit King K Rool before he collapses for good.

Funny enough, a negative number being thrown into the mix is how glitches come to be in games. I think it's... Puzzle Quest? Or a similar game that if you go past level 255 in exp or something, it resets itself to level 1, though I don't know if it's a programming error or a deterrent to get to that level.

Also, FFX broke the standard 9999 as max damage with their break damage for the best weapons in the game.

[EverPhoenix]

rainichan wrote:

EverPhoenix wrote: tay120n64 wrote: Jason Tandro wrote: 255 appears in Final Fantasy as the highest most stats (except HP and MP) can reach (at least in 7 and 8 ). Ah, but do you know why? 255 is a max programming number and is used in many situations involving forms of internal data, especially in regards to memory storage. kinda true, kinda not. 255 is the last number in unsigned 8-bit binary (being 2^8 -1). most games would use this because for their purposes, 16bit is ridiculously large (i think thats the 65535) and they dont need negative numbers. also, on the original topic: 99, 999, 9999. usually the max level in RPGs, max number of items you can hold, max hp, whatever. reasons? they only have/use a certain number of characters to display health, and no one wants to see their hp as 198/3AD. FF cool points to anyone who can read that as the number it actually is ^_^ also, as discussed by the grand list of rpg cliches, 3 is an important number too. it can be generalised to the number of important/playable female characters in a story. (think about it, lol) heres another: 8. the number of badges in a pokemon game region more importance for the number 3: the number of times you need to damage a boss in the DKC games before they switch to a different form of attack, or die. on that note, 9 is the number of times you need to hit King K Rool before he collapses for good. Funny enough, a negative number being thrown into the mix is how glitches come to be in games. I think it's... Puzzle Quest? Or a similar game that if you go past level 255 in exp or something, it resets itself to level 1, though I don't know if it's a programming error or a deterrent to get to that level. Also, FFX broke the standard 9999 as max damage with their break damage for the best weapons in the game.

a levelup from 255 = 256 = 0 in 8bit, and im assuming 0 exp to get to level 1. so yeah its a bit of a glitch, perhaps.


and FFX just increased the cap to 99999. nothing too special. shame you need to go on stupid sidequests to get most of the weapons. (honestly, dodging 100 or so lightning strikes? no thanks)

[SoulBlazerFan]

I may be wrong, but I remember the max rupees in Zelda 1 going to 256, not 255. I remember this because I always thought it was such a weird number to stop at. Once again, I could be wrong tho.

[Jason Tandro]

I remember a designer of Sinistar talking (in a documentary that came with the PSOne Game William's Classic Arcade Hits) about how some kids would master a technique to have 1 life left, and die twice (once by being hit by a cannon and once by being eaten by Sinistar). This would set the life count to -1, which in the bit-storage would convert to 255.

19 is significant. It's the amount of hairs I pulled out last night when I died in Xenosaga after attempting to power-level Ziggarut 8.

[tay120n64]

EverPhoenix wrote:

tay120n64 wrote: Jason Tandro wrote: 255 appears in Final Fantasy as the highest most stats (except HP and MP) can reach (at least in 7 and 8 ). Ah, but do you know why? 255 is a max programming number and is used in many situations involving forms of internal data, especially in regards to memory storage. kinda true, kinda not. 255 is the last number in unsigned 8-bit binary (being 2^8 -1). most games would use this because for their purposes, 16bit is ridiculously large (i think thats the 65535) and they dont need negative numbers. also, on the original topic: 99, 999, 9999. usually the max level in RPGs, max number of items you can hold, max hp, whatever. reasons? they only have/use a certain number of characters to display health, and no one wants to see their hp as 198/3AD. FF cool points to anyone who can read that as the number it actually is ^_^ also, as discussed by the grand list of rpg cliches, 3 is an important number too. it can be generalised to the number of important/playable female characters in a story. (think about it, lol) heres another: 8. the number of badges in a pokemon game region more importance for the number 3: the number of times you need to damage a boss in the DKC games before they switch to a different form of attack, or die. on that note, 9 is the number of times you need to hit King K Rool before he collapses for good.

Well, tbh I knew my dissertation was only partly correct (much like this sentence), so I'm glad someone was able to fill in the holes. It had been several years since I had read about it.

I want to say that 255 also is the most extra lives you can get in the NES version of SMB using the Koopa Shell trick (in 3-1?) before you die. It may be less, but given that the next number would logically be 0, it would make since as to why you would so suddenly die. [To the uninformed: At the end of World 3-1 you can jump on a single Koopa Shell repeatedly to gain limitless lives. However, after so many, the life counter resets to 0 and you die instantly. This trick was also in a level in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but in this case the lives stop going up at 99.]

Oh, and DKC isn't the only game with the "3-hit Boss Mode" Rule. Most Mario games use the "3-hit" Rule, and I believe several other Rareware games did as well. It's a typical Platformer thing.

[Manibrandr System]

2147483647 = The highest amount of damage one can deal per hit in Tales of Graces before it overflows and deals negative damage.