I talk about and I talk about and I talk about and I barely write about it. Ages ago (in internet time) I mentioned ‘discovering’ a Pokemon Pandora’s Box. Prepare to see the word ‘Pokemon’ a lot. Here’s the long version:
I have several different Nintendo DS units. They are all homebrew enabled, of course. I wish I could locate my presently AWOL launch DS since I have oddly fond memories of nearly setting my hand on fire doing a hardware mod for it for a Call For Help segment. It’s ok, it was only my right hand. I at least had the sense to protect my left! Anyway, I still have my imported Ice Blue DS Lite and my new DSi XL. Back in the old Blue and Red days, I also had several GameBoys. What can I say? It’s a bad habit. I totally forgot that I’ve had MultiConsoleSyndrome for so long! I also presently have two PlayStation 2s, two Wiis (neither are black, though), two PlayStation 3s (ok, one is borrowed since I’m never using the new firmware at the cost of OtherOS), and three Xbox 360s. Only two work. And I gave one of those to my brother. Anyway, with Blue and Red and many GameBoys, my brother and I could hook up the cables and trade any old time we wanted. This was mostly for version-specific Pokemon and to evolve ones like Graveler to Golem and Kadabra to Alakazam. When one of us wanted to start a new game, we’d also stash as many Pokemon as we could on the other person’s game, to be returned later. Most handy. Obviously this is not some super secret trick we discovered. It was merely a perk to having a gaming buddy and can be done for any Pokemon game. This, finally, brings us to Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Owning both carts is pretty unnecessary for obtaining other version Pokemon, thanks to the Global Trading System, but very useful for backing up your Pokemon like I just described. Before you can trade locally with other people, you need to play through the first 40-60 minutes of the game so that you can get to a PokeCenter AND get some Pokeballs for catching the useless Pokemon to trade. My SoulSilver would trade a high level Rapidash for a Rattata from the first route and, voila, I can restart on SS without losing anything I can’t get back later.
Now comes the actual ‘discovery’ that I’ve been playing with the last little while. I was backing up locally with all of my own Pokemon. Were people doing this online with ROMs? Yes, yes they were. Places like GameFAQs often have save files available to download, showing off files with 100% completion or certain time-limited bonuses for people that missed out the first time around. And, specifically for the DS, there are places online that also help you convert said save files into a format that works for your available tools. Hmmmmmmmmmm. I had to check it out.
OMG, IT’S FULL OF POKEMON
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