ROM hack: Difference between revisions

This article does not yet meet the quality standards of Bulbapedia. Please feel free to edit this article to make it conform to Bulbapedia norms and conventions.

Hack games, also known as fangames or bootlegs, depending on the circumstances, are video games that have been edited or altered. While many honest fans distribute hacks of Pokémon games for free over the internet, some unscrupulous people have been known to sell them in the guise of legitimate games.

Pokémon Diamond and Jade

The most well known examples of bootleg games are the notorious Pokémon Jade and Diamond, the second of which should not be confused with the official Generation IV game, Pokémon Diamond. In actuality, these games were the poorly translated versions of another game, Keitai Denjū Telefang. Pokémon Jade was sometimes released on the Game Boy Color on the same cartridge as Pokémon Crystal, but could also be found as a standalone cartridge. The hacks also had numerous glitches that the original game did not have, such as the inability to load a save properly.

Pokémon Chaos Black

Another famous hack is Pokémon Chaos Black, which is a hack of Pokémon FireRed. It was released on the Game Boy Advance. The description on the back is a dead give away that it is a hack, as there is a missing accent on the "e" in "Pokémon". Despite that, it has the Official Nintendo Seal. The description is:

Pokémon Chaos Black Version is the final game presented by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in the third generation of games for this series. Being touted for adding additional features absent from other Pokemon games in the past, this game begins in Hoenn on a mission too keep Team Magma and Team Aqua from unbalancing Groudon (ground) and Kyogre. Trainers will want to call on their best strategies ever due to the fact that this is one of the most challenging battlefields delivered in a Pokémon game. Pokémon fans are sure to have no problem meeting this challenge and showing off their skills while doing so.

Pokémon Green Translation

A fan-translated version of Pokémon Green that was released for the Game Boy Color. It was poorly translated, and the characters were often mixed up and made no sense. It also had many grammar mistakes and spelling errors.

Pokémon Adventure

Pokémon Adventure is a hack of Sonic Blast, a game for the Sega Game Gear. It has five levels, and the intro sequence is a few Japanese Pokédex screenshots from Gold and Silver. The game was exactly the same, including the enemies, with the exception of Sonic the Hedgehog, whom is replaced by Pikachu, and all the rings are Poké Balls.

GBC Sapphire

A copy of Pokémon Sapphire was released for the Game Boy Color. It is completely different from the normal Pokémon Sapphire, but has good graphics and minor spelling mistakes.

Pokémon Naranja

Pokémon Naranja is a hack of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire in which the player plays as either Ash or Misty and goes around the Orange Archipelago. Naranja is Spanish for Orange. Celebi appears on the box art and title screen.

Pokémon Quartz

Another hack of Pokémon Ruby, released by the author as a patch file intended to be played by VBA users who already owned the Ruby cartridge and had downloaded its ROM image. The bootleg version's box art is a Gyarados. The game has a great deal of spelling and grammatical errors, which result from the hack being translated from Spanish. The game also contains swearing, profanity, and adult themes, normally absent from Pokémon games. Pokémon Quartz replaced all names and graphics of traditional Pokémon with new, made-up Pokémon, about three quarters of which work very similar to identically numbered Pokémon, but many of which have either different learn sets or different types. The game takes place in a region known as "Corna", a heavily edited version of Hoenn, but requires the player to navigate a very different series of paths during gameplay.

While the best-known bootleg cartridge as played on the actual GBA contains serious glitches and errors, the current patch file release works well with VBA when the patch is applied to a legitimate image of an actual Ruby cartridge.

Pokémon Shiny Gold

Screenshot from ShinyGold

Pokémon Shiny Gold is a total conversion of Pokémon FireRed that turns the game into a Gold and Silver remake, much like how FireRed is a remake of Pokémon Red. It is considered to be one of the best and highest-quality hacked games, and was runner up on Hack of the Year 2007 at Pokécommunity, a popular general Pokémon forum. The game is originally only available as a ROM for the computer, and as such, has been released in separate parts with updates. However, some people have taken the hack and put it onto game cartridges. In response to this, at the beginning of the game, a note from Zel (the creator or the hack) says that the game should be returned if it was bought as a cartridge. The game features changes to allow Pokémon that evolve via time-based events or trade, by other methods available to the player (for example in Shiny Gold, Scyther evolves into Scizor by using a Moon Stone rather than by trading while holding a Metal Coat), due to the fact that many Gameboy Advance emulators not being able to allow trade in games, and to also allow the player to get all the Pokémon in the game easier to get. The game also features many events which were not available in the original game, as well as many Generation III Pokémon being rarely found in some areas.

Pokémon Prism

Pokémon Prism is a hack of Pokémon Gold. This hack completely overhauls the original game, and also won Hack of the Year 2007 at Pokécommunity. It takes place in the new region of Naljo, with new music, new Pokémon types, and more. It also allows the player to change their sprite into another sprite, as well as their color. It also has crafting systems (which will later have its own leveling-up system), and the ability to send a Pokémon out of its Poké Ball outside of battle. Like other hacks, this one is being released in separate parts with updates.

External Links

• About hacked games