Pocket Monsters - Red Version ROM

Pocket Monsters – Red Version is a GB ROM Hack by Dracrius based on Pokemon Red. It was last updated on March 15, 2023.

Description

Pocketrgb is a Gen 1 disassembly, based on the Japanese releases titled ‘Pocket Monsters’ shortened to Pokémon. The goal was to create the best 1 to 1 translation of the Japanese games that I could manage since none exist to date! Many have made “Uncensored” or what I like to consider improved “Localization’s” where they restore the dialog mostly and really good ones like pokejp (the base pocketrgb-en is forked from) will also restore 99% of the visual elements except the Japanese version of the Logo. Now while these are nice I found they failed to give me any substantial sense of change to make me want to play them. As such I often felt like they should be paying more homage to the original source material if they really wanted to call themselves a translation.

Enter Pocketrgb-en where I have taken the time to compare videos of the intro’s and screenshots of the games to pixel perfectly match the colors and timing of the original Japanese games. As it came as a surprise but every ROM hack version of Green and even Bulbapedia’s listed colors for Green were wrong presumably being best guesses rather than actually doing the math based on the output of a Japanese ROM. I also went on a massive bug hunt and solved a slew of common issues. With the cherry on top being my real pride of the project which is having replaced EVERY Pokémon, Character, Place and Badges name with translations of those used in the original releases.

If you have ever wanted to re-experience the joys and wonders of Gen 1 like you never have before join us in Pocketrgb-en. Where you will relearn the names of your favorite Pokémon and Places. While fighting old rivals and gym leaders. All with new and unexpected names. Each interaction gains new life as you see the many references and details lost in even the localization of names!!

Features

• Completely Restored the Japanese release Title Screens right down to Copyright dates and capitalization differences.
• Compared timing of Intro and Title to be frame accurate to the Japanese Releases
  * Restored the title screen scrolling and Woosh sfx for R/G
• Restored the “Presents” Under the Game Freak logo.
• Restored Japanese SGB Palettes and Boarders (Slight tweaks: Blue – Aligned pokéball shadows to a centre glow rather then all over the place, Red – Kept the word “Red” centred rather then making it off centre like jp)
• Pocket Monsters Blue Version’s wild Pokémon data has been edited to the Japanese release. Pocket Monsters Green Version uses US Blue’s wild data.
• Pocket Monsters Red and Green now use the original Cerulean Cave layout.
• Pocket Monsters Red and Green use their Overworld and Pokémon graphics from their original release.
• Fixed Glitch where Haunters from in-game trades wouldn’t evolve.
• Restores the original flashing lights for the moves “Thunderbolt” and “Hyper Beam”.
• Restored the original map border layout from the Japanese versions.
• Pokédex rewritten using the official translation from Fire Red, but with restored references like Cloyster enduring a napalm bomb or Ponyta jumping the whole Tokyo Tower
• Censorship Removed (drunk Old Man, praying man at the museum, the Tunguska incident Scientist)…
• References removed from the official translation are Restored (Kanto map, Myracle-Cycle bike store, Pokémon mansion journals written in singular and its last entry)…
• Checked trainer lines and other text against Montblanc’s Binary hack
• Gym leader names in the trainer card are restored.
• Restored text box boarders from Japanese releases
• Restored Flower animations for Red and Green
• Swap the trade Nidoran(m) to (f) and changed the nickname to the one used in the jp release (CHAPPY)
• All other trade Pokémon nicknames were restored to English translations of the ones used in the Japanese releases
• Blue version script fixed for the in-game trades (evolving Raichu, etc.)
• Pokémon version name in the credits have been replaced
• Aerodactyl and Kabutops fossil sprites Ported from the Japenese releases
• Replaced Character names with the Romaji names from Bulbapedia
• Replaced Player and Rival Name Options with JP equivalents
• Replaced all Town/ City Names and Slogans to match Translations of the JP Releases
• Replaced the badge names with their original color based names after seeing the connection to the JP slogans
• Replaced Team Rocket with Rocket Gang
• Replaced all 151 Pokémon + MissingNo. with the Trademarked / Hepburn Japanese names
• Replaced SAVE with REPORT to match how the Japanese games refered to it as writting in your Pokémon Report
• Replaced Move and Item names that lost part of their original meaning in localization
• Created a full DMG+Color conversion called PocketRGB-DX based on Jojobear13’s shinpokered‘s implementation of Pokémon Yellow’s hack of using SGB Palettes

Known Bugs

• All Multi-Player Battle Engine and Single-Player Battle Engine Bugs (except Unexpected Counter Damage) Listed on the pokered Bugs-and-Glitches Wiki are fixed
• Original wild Pokémon battle tile detection behaviour restored, removing the Old Man glitch that never happened in the Japanese releases
• All Game Engine Bugs Listed on the pokered Bugs-and-Glitches Wiki have been fixed except cut able trees growing back, the players ability to jump on npc’s, and the ability to use a pokédoll on the ghost Marowak. As I consider these things that could possibly be intended design or interesting “features”.
• All Graphic and Audio issues have also been addressed from the pokered Bugs-and-Glitches Wiki although I did not remove the Artacuno cry from the binoculars (I think a destorted cry is better then no cry at all)
• All Scripted Event Bugs are addressed except for facing the guard (Think of it like the player being fed up with being stopped haha I always have)
• The save system has also been adjusted to handle mid-save shutoff corrupted saves

Useful Links

Pokecommunity

Github