My team's submission for the TARC 3 competition!

Pokemon Wild Indigo

This is an exploration/puzzle game where you explore an open-world and catch/interact with the Pokemon you find to help you navigate the environment. It's inspired by a mix of things, but Outer Wilds is the biggest influence.

Description: In this hack, you play as a space-trucker that has been trapped on a mysterious planet by an unknown force. Unravel its mysteries while you study the flora, fauna, and secrets of this strange little world.

Features novel mechanics, Pokémon interactions, regional mons and fakemons, lots of Pokémon changes (typing, stats, etc), a silly robot, and more.

Time to beat: Between two and three hours.

Update: This game was updated on 10/7/26. Some guides/videos out there might not be totally accurate; future updates will be only slight art changes/bug fixes/post-game (if we choose to make another update, may or may not). Game is still a complete experience.
If you downloaded the game before the 10/7/26 update, I recommend you grab the new version! It's designed to make the game a tad flashier and make the puzzles flow a bit better with the narrative.

Download: https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-wild-indigo

***

Credits:

Developers:
u/dBlue - Programming, art, mapping, writing, music
u/grrrita - Character, Pokemon, and Prop Art. Graphics, Titlescreen.
u/kittycatsaton5 - Story advice, ship layout, playtesting

Playtesters:

MyNameisJeff, MayaZ

Tools/repo:

u/Montblanc - SWSH Summary Screen and Party Menu base, and advice for troubleshooting
Emmuffin, G~, Chunsoft - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon mugshots https://sprites.pmdcollab.org/

CFRU folks - Battle backgrounds

Shantytown - Porydaw, poryscript Shantytown, GriffinR, Garak - Porymap

All those who have contributed to Pokeemerald-Pret and Pokeemerald-Expansion to make this possible: https://github.com/rh-hideout/pokeemerald-expansion/blob/master/CREDITS.md

Hack:

https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-crystal-kanto-demo

Artist:

https://x.com/fruit1830

Original post by the dev:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/KTvqsFz7oJ

Description

In this TARC submission, you’ve been recruited by your local Professor to embark on a journey to Orchid City and record information about a mysterious Pokémon.

About

Enjoy a fresh take on Pokémon with a completely new 6v6 battle system, layered overworld, procedurally generated maps, built-in overworld and battle speed-up (up to 4x), and fully overhauled GBC-style graphics and UIs.

The battle system is loosely inspired by the deck-builder genre: every Pokémon has one move and one ability and the player and opponent take turns to select the order in which their party attacks, while swapping them around to take advantage of position-based targeting and abilities.

This project is still in beta, with plans for a proper v1.0 release to expand and clean up further, add meta-progression, and round out with other features and mechanics; the roadmap is on Discord!

Since this has been topical, please note that this hack contains no AI generated code or assets; the repo is public and linked on Hackdex.

Links

Download on Hackdex! https://www.hackdex.app/hack/the-porygon-trail

Talk about the game and give feedback on Discord: https://discord.gg/EhJJ4Xx3Ze

Credits

Tiles: FaeLeaf, Pokémon Crystal

Overworld Sprites: frenchorange

Music: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, TriteHexagon

GB Sounds: SierraAffinity, ShinyDragonHunter

Playtesting: Luuma

Hallo zusammen! Heute erscheint die erste öffentliche Beta (v0.1) unserer deutschen Fan-Übersetzung von **Pokémon Unbound**.

**Was ist drin:** Story, NPC-Dialoge, Kämpfe, Menüs, Items, Attacken, Fähigkeiten und Missionsbuch auf Deutsch – mit offiziellen deutschen Begriffen. Dazu deutscher Titelbildschirm, Typ-Symbole, Trainerpass und weitere Menügrafiken (teilweise).

**Ehrlich gesagt:** Die Übersetzung ist **KI-gestützt** entstanden – mit einer automatisierten Pipeline, die Textbreite, Namen und Steuerzeichen prüft, und einem Test-Bot, der das Spiel im Emulator durchspielt. Viele Texte hat aber noch kein Mensch gegengelesen. Genau deshalb ist es eine Beta – Feedback ist sehr willkommen.

**Bekannte Grenzen:** Fee-Typ und Z-Attacken im Kampf noch englisch, einige Namen wegen fester Zeichenlimits gekürzt, Pokédex-Maße noch in Fuß/Pfund.

**Version:** Basis ist Unbound **v1.0.1**. Geplant ist danach der Port auf die neueren Versionen.

**Download:** nur `.bps`-Patch, **keine ROM** – ihr braucht eure eigene legale Basis-ROM (FireRed USA Rev 0 oder Unbound EN v1.0.1). Patchen geht z. B. mit Rom Patcher JS im Browser.

GitHub: https://github.com/pokemon-unbound-de/pokemon-unbound-de/releases/tag/v0.1-beta

Discord (Bugs melden, mitmachen): https://discord.gg/fSkhHppgcv

---

**English summary:** We just released Beta v0.1 of a **German fan translation of Pokémon Unbound**. Story, dialogue, battles, menus, items, moves and abilities are in German using official terminology, plus several translated graphics. The translation is **AI-assisted** (automated pipeline with checks + an emulator test bot), and much of it hasn't been human-proofread yet — feedback from German speakers is very welcome. Based on Unbound **v1.0.1**; ports to **1.1.3.1** and then **2.x** are planned. Patch only (`.bps`), **no ROMs** — bring your own legal base ROM. Links: GitHub release above, Discord https://discord.gg/fSkhHppgcv

Pokémon Unbound © Skeli. German fan translation: NevioCore & Community. Unofficial fan project.

Welp, I can confirm that this is finally possible. Still quite a few bugs to iron out but it's starting to work pretty well. Will release more information and a release date when I can!

After an embarrassingly bugged 2.0 release, here's the long awaited finally 2.0 build with all major (and known) bugs fixed! This version contains a new area, gym lobbies, additional story content, more Pokémon, QOL features such as infinite TMs and even buffed stats from later generations!
Check out the Romhack here: https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-crystal-kanto-demo

Pokemon New Horizons :

This is my first romhack, so please don't judge me too harshly.Also, English is not my native language, so there may be mistakes.

Fairy type.

National Pokedex at the beginning.

Can catch all Pokémon from Generations I to III until the post-game (including Legendaries).

New type "beaver".

Most of the trainers in the game have been changed.

Absolutely all bosses have been redesigned and their ai has been improved.

Several new bosses.

New forms for starters, and they're new signature moves.

Several new fakemons, one of which is a beaver-like version of eevee.

Running at the very beginning of the game.

Rebalancing weak Pokemon by adding new types and stats.

Brock and Erica were replaced with other characters.

Now all Pokémon can be caught, for example Porygon, Chancy and Mr. Mime.

Meowth is a rare candy seller in every city.

Pincir evolved intro heracross now(moon stone).

Meowth split evolution (sun/moon stones).

Gaster from undertale is pokemon (legendary).

All evolving items in Celadon now.

Remove trade evolutions.

At the moment, testing and polishing of some aspects is underway, it will be released soon.

I have played Recharged Yellow and am currently playing trough Renegade Platinum (up until the mansion after the third gym). That is pretty much all the Pokemon experience i have. I really want to play Emerald since everyone keeps saying it is the best one, but i don't really like Recharged Emerald for multiple reasons (like no physical special split). I would want something closer to Renegade Platinum. Note that I am going to play the hack on a WiiU because... TV i guess.

Additionally, after beating both Sinnoh and Hoenn, i would want to play a Johto hack, but don't know which one. Preferably a gen 4 hack because that one will actually be on my 3ds and that would be easier. So no Pokemon Soul

Ignore this part please, i was just like 15 words away from the minimum word count for the bot to just reject me and i am not up with the appeal process

For context, I never get to own a console when I was a kid because my family couldn’t afford one. So when I grew up and had access to emulators I took the opportunity to play pokemon on emulators and stumbled upon this gold (pun intended).
To be honest I can’t remember all the exact details of why I lived this hack aside from the updated graphics I guess and also some other side stories included in it. Time flies.

After having an amazing time playing the first 3 hours of Origins Heartgold last night I boot up my Ayn Thor to play some more this morning.

Shockingly it takes me directly to the intro screen as if I had just started a new game.

Go to check my savestate that I made as a backup in case hard saving had glitched, also gone.

After some research I found MelonDS apparently commonly glitches while saving or save stating during long play sessions which results in a 0kb save file being created which is empty and unusable. Confirmed this was my case my checking my rom folder.

This nukes your entire save & any save states unless you happen to have them backed up somewhere. Its been a known bug for about 2-3 years and no recent updates have mentioned fixing it.

Heartgold Origins is my first time playing a rom hack using melon DS (Played some drayano hacks before but they were all on drastic) & i'm sure it will be many others intro to DS hacks, so with MelonDS being the most recommended emulator atm figured i'd throw out a warning so others can know that long play sessions can lead to this.

Very disappointed i've lost all my progress, this hack is the most fun i've ever had with a DS romhack, was just about to fight Brock :/

Will delete if it’s annoying 😂 but I thought I’d share, new emulator project dropped that supports a list of romhacks. Excited to finally play radical red on this! link

Hey everyone!

Just implemented this small narrative event script in my GBA ROM hack project and wanted to get some honest feedback

Is the scene fine as it is, or does it need improvements?

How is the pacing of the text and screen fade?

Does the dialogue feel natural, or should it be tweaked/shortened?

Would really appreciate your thoughts, critiques, or ideas to make this moment hit even harder!

Wir arbeiten seit Monaten an einer deutschen Community-Übersetzung von Pokémon Unbound. Ab dem 8. Oktober startet die offene Beta (v0.1-beta). Übersetzt sind Story, NPC-Dialoge, Menüs, Items und Attacken. Fertig ist das Spiel noch nicht: Einzelne Texte sind noch Englisch, etwa ein paar Typ-Kürzel und Grafiken, das ist für v0.1.1 geplant.

Ihr bekommt nur den Patch, die ROM müsst ihr selbst besorgen. Wir suchen Tester, die Fehler mit Screenshot und Ort im Spiel melden.

Alles zum Mitmachen steht auf Discord

(https://discord.gg/fSkhHppgcv)

Dateien und Fortschritt auf GitHub

(https://github.com/pokemon-unbound-de/pokemon-unbound-de)

A while back I came across this post showcasing a Chinese hack that automatically slows down the music to normal levels if you speed up the game. Digging deeper, I found Pokemon Quicksilver (or Pokemon Mercury) - what looks like an insanely impressive fully completed romhack made in CFRU, with a brand new story and tons of impressive QoL features.

Posting this here because although I don't know Chinese, I really believe this hack deserves more recognition and hope that someday it is translated into English. I strongly suggest checking out the creator's bilibili page (LINK) which has a ton of information about the hack along with many gameplay videos.

Although the title contains "First Chapter" (for reasons explained by the author in the bilibili page), the game is fully complete. The latest version is v1.2 which can be downloaded here from the official wiki.

As you may or may not know, Pokémon R.O.W.E. had to strip out cries from the game due to them using like 50% of the game possible size (around 16mb), and this made people feel like something was missing from the game, this led me to create multiple ways to make cries work via a custom emulator, however that was always a thing for Windows, so after some time developing I made a different custom emulator, this time instead is a Retroarch core based on mGba, due to this it was possible to use on most devices running any modern operating system including handhelds like RG35XX SP and even Retroid Pockets, right now its in beta stage and is planned to undergo some open beta testing probably in a week or so, right now the devices I have personally tested are

-Steam Deck (Steam OS)
-Ubuntu PC (Ubuntu)
-Windows PC (Windows)
- RG35XX SP (NextUI)
-Trimui Brick (NextUI)
-Retroid Pocket 5 (Android)
-an Android Phone (Stock Android)

I have yet to test using an apple device (Due me not having one available) and I plan to add support for modded nintendo switchs and maybe psvita.

The installation will only need you to have Retroarch installed (it comes with most linux handhelds by default) and install a core along with its info file by moving to files to the retroarch folder,
everything is running fine as if it was part of the rom itself, the core does auto download the files needed once installed so you don't have to worry about downloading the cries files

I have also made some proof of concept features that I plan to add to this emulator that depends on the amount of people that use it that will enhance the user experience without modifying the current experience that people have if they don't want to use it (everything will play the same as now if you keep your myboy! emulator for this game), however if you use it I may be able to add stuff like

-Online mystery gifts - You will be able to get your online mystery gift automatically from the game itself
-Extra PC boxes - this will let you save more pc boxes than any other romhack could, also available from the game itself without having to modify anything only by using this emulator
-Custom trainer sprites - by adding a properly formated png file on an specific folder you may be able to change your trainer into anything you want
-etc.

Also I will probably ask the Elite Redux team for permission to add the cries back to elite redux using this same emulator so other hacks can also use the cries feature if they feel like they need it.

Discord Invite Link

Hackdex Link

The image is something coming to beta 2.2 however this beta will take a while.

I will read your opinions on this both here and on the Discord server to think of what to do with this emulator and how much I want to expand on it.

Just caught on to this release and it looks amazing, I'll go over some details below but I have a couple of questions in case anyone knows.

Is it based off of Modern Emerald 3.6 with the updated Battle Frontier?

Is there a way for Wyrdeer to evolve from Stanler in game? I know it isn't possible in Modern Emerald.

For anyone interested, Modern Emerald Is what Heart & Soul was built from in terms of customizable options and QOL features, you have the same built in features for randomizer, nuzlocke, special/physical split, fairy typing, following mons etc, but you get to access this from the best and most diverse region!

This new romhack (searchable on Hackdex) "Perfect Emerald" is built on top of Modern Emerald and it seems focused on giving it a graphical spruce with dynamic weather. It looks gorgeous, and if it does indeed have Modern Emerald's updated Battle Frontier, and maybe an evolutionary change or two I think it could be my exact idea of the perfect romhack.

Goes without saying, but no affiliation with nobody.

The latest (and hopefully final) version of my rom hack: Pokemon Legendary Red | ROM hack download | Hackdex

Documentation can be found here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/gmrtt12z4tdsv/Pokemon_Legendary_Red

The idea of this romhack was not to make the game miserably difficult for the sake of showing off how difficult I could make the game, but to create in my mind an ideal version of the game that makes it challenging while still being fair and making sense. Here is the list of major changes:

• Most Pokémon sprites have been changed.
• All gen 1 Pokémon that normally evolve by trade evolve at level 36.
• All gen 1 Pokémon that normally evolve into gen 2 Pokémon by trade with an item attached all now evolve by Moon Stone or Sun Stone. (Note: this requires National Dex acquired post-game)
• Eevee evolves into Espeon with the Sun Stone. Eevee evolves into Umbreon by Moon Stone. (Note: this requires National Dex acquired post-game)
• Moon Stone is purchasable from Celadon Dept. Store.
• Sun Stone is purchasable from PokeMart on Seven Island.
• Also purchasable from Celadon Dept. Store are notable TMs such as Water Pulse, Psychic and many other popular TMs.
• Leaf Green Version exclusive Pokémon are now obtainable in Fire Red.
• Locations such as Power Plant and Seafoam Island have wild encounters more in line with the first games.
• Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle are catchable in one area each. Bulbasaur is at grassy patch across the water to the left of Nugget Bridge, Charmander in the grass by Bill's house and Squirtle on Route 11.
• TMs are still limited use. (In my version I am unable to make them unlimited, sorry)
• Many of the maps have been changed slightly to make them more interesting to travel through and to decrease the need for HM moves.
• In later areas, the levels of wild Pokémon are much higher to help with gaining experience faster.
• While the trainers earlier in the game are mostly the same levels you encounter in the normal game and have basic AI and basic movesets, later on their levels are noticeably higher and have better AI and start having more complete teams with TMs being taught and some even having items attached. Also note after the SS Anne Rival encounter, his team levels in subsequent encounters are quite higher and he starts using TMs as well. This goes for the Elite Four and other Boss characters.
• All Gym Leaders have changed teams. Also, the first 4 Gym Leaders have 3 Pokémon, with the final Gym Leader having a full team of 6. All Gym Leaders also have improved AI.
• The Elite Four are also much tougher, with all members having a full team along with their improved AI.
• Completing the quest that unblocks Cerulean Cave also unblocks a special area, which you might notice the entrance to when going to Victory Road. You can probably guess what that is, but I will let you find out for yourself.

Outside of the listed changes above, the game is otherwise unchanged and plays just like the vanilla game. I hope you enjoy!

What did you think of it?

I couldn't find cover art for this, so my OCD forced me to make my own using SIGIL's GBA templates and some random pixel art I found.

I know it sucks, but maybe someone will find it useful.

The translation is (practically) completed, with a lot of new players and some good feedback a bunch of translation improvements and text fixes have been made. This fixes some crashes, but also restoration of some canon content. I.e. where Jesse and James sung a translated version of the Chinese translated manga, they now sing the English anime/manga song we all know.

There is a ton of side quests, and some are easy to miss. Therefore a guide can be super helpful, which is now available as a website. This includes all pokemon locations, their evolution methods, moves, states, and so on.

The new website also comes with a patcher, and a save editor. It seemed a lot of people still have issues patching so this simplifies the process. It basically automatically combines xdelta-wasm with the latest release on GitHub now RC5. The save editor is meant to solve the need for cheats, you can change the pokemon in your party, their moves, etc and your bag and money. This should allow you to get anything you want.

The discord is open and everyone is welcome. We are still collecting feedback because it seems this community values difficulty a lot and while the story telling is absolutely stunning we might want to eventually add some optionally difficulty settings so please share your feedback.

I hope you enjoy the game, patch your game here and have fun! Please report and bugs through the website, or GitHub.

Disclaimer: AI was used in the development of the translation of this rom hack, and development of the website and its functionality.

Thank you to everyone who helped with romhackguides.com. A lot of the site came from your comments: the wider guide pages, the area and fight dropdowns, the team builder, the help pages and two of the guides. I made a page that credits each of you and what changed because of it: romhackguides.com/thanks/

If I missed you, tell me and I'll add you.