Alright friends, let me walk you through how I finally hacked modern Pokémon mechanics into good ol’ FireRed. Been itching to play with abilities and physical/special split for ages.
First Step – Grabbing My Toolkit
Cracked open the laptop Monday morning, coffee in hand. Dug through my cluttered downloads folder for FireRed v1.0 US ROM – yeah you know the exact one. Almost panicked when I couldn’t find the decompilation project files from last year, but thank Arceus for cloud backups.
Installed three main tools:
- Pret’s decomplier – messy folder structure but works
- Porymap – total lifesaver for editing maps
- HexManiacAdvance – made my eyes cross at first
The Nightmare of Physical/Special Split
Tuesday was brutal. Thought I’d copy-paste type data from newer games. NOPE. Took two hours just to locate where moves store their damage categories. Wrote down addresses on sticky notes until my desk looked like a detective’s bulletin board.
Found this ancient GameFAQs thread explaining how to flag attacks as physical/special. Edited byte by byte in HexManiac while double-fisting energy drinks. Messed up Rattata’s Tackle damage calculation three times before nailing it.
Abilities Almost Broke Me
Wednesday’s project was adding abilities. Modified base stats to include ability slots – surprisingly smooth. But implementing effects? Pure chaos.
Spent four hours debugging Static causing paralysis. Turns out I forgot to program immunity checks. My character kept paralyzing HIMSELF every time he touched wild Pikachus. Absolute facepalm moment.
Stayed up past midnight testing Overgrow. Finally cheered when Bulbasaur’s Vine Whip glowed blue during low health. Woke the dog. Worth it.
Quality of Life Tweaks
Thursday was cleanup day. Added running shoes indoors – easy peasy. Modified Pokécenters to heal all at once instead of playing that jingle six times. Best change? Made HM moves deletable without wasting TMs.
Final Testing Madness
Friday felt like defusing bombs. Ran through Viridian Forest like a speedrunner checking for crashes. One bug corrupted save files every time a Pokémon leveled up indoors. Nearly had a heart attack. Eventually traced it to overwritten trainer data in Pallet Town.
Now it’s Sunday and my game boots without exploding. Still has quirks – apparently Butterfree learns Earthquake at level 3? Might need another coffee run before fixing that one…