I forgot about Italian. That's supported, too LOL. Also, as for why I chose to just compare the first character in the function instead of a more obvious fix, it was the lazier solution lol: 1 small hex number change vs. adding a bunch of new instructions
Could you check the THIRD letter instead of the first? Looks like it's V for Ruby and P for Sapphire. or if(!gamecode[1].equals("A") || !gamecode[2].equals("X")) { return 2 } else if(gamecode[3].equals("V")) { return 0 // Ruby } else if(gamecode[3].equals("P")) { return 1 // Sapphire } else { return 2 } I don't like the way the first line looks, but I don't know what limitations exist in this programming language (namely, if you can do something like gamecode[1,2].equals to check the first two characters.
@@Rot8erConeX what's your first if for? can't we just remove that and do: if(gamecode[3].equals("V") { return 0; } else if (gamecode[3].equals("P") { return 1; } else { return 2;}
your skill and talent as a programmer and pokemon lover blows me away! you bring so much to the pokemon community, always making new things in old games, and posting all sorts of engaging content that you just can't get from other poketubers. i'm always excited to see what you post next!
Absol, you are a fucking saint for doing this. Box really didnt seem to have many people doing anything for it, but to have a well-known, mainstream PokeTuber actively fixing this game's problems is truly amazing. I happen to own a PAL copy of Box, so I cant wait to try these out.
Dude honestly I got the widest grin around 3:03 when you showed off all of your international Pokémon games. You have such a fun type of presentation with your videos, I love them so much
As a programmer myself, it's uplifting to see others putting work and dedication into preserving or fixing old software (or in this case restoring functionality where there was a deficit). Nice video as always Matt!
Insanely cool Matt! This might actually get me to use Box more often, it's basically the final resting place for my living dex at the moment. Thanks for all the work you put in for this and Rumble!
This is really cool! I hope someone someday does a fan translation into English for the Platinum update of My Pokemon Ranch. As a kid, I had a very odd obsession with it and never quite got over the disappointment of them never bringing the update outside of Japan.
oh my god I'd kill for this. when I wanted to replay gen 4 I had to reset PLATINUM instead of diamond like I originally wanted to because diamond was the one connected to ranch and I waited for years and the platinum patch never came so platinum was the one that I had to reset when I didn't want to.
I need to say it man, I love when I see this sort of work you've done for the series happen time and time again. Infact, your Rumble weekend mod was one of the things that has sparked my ongoing project, which is both a preservation mod, and then a true mod of the 3ds version of Pokemon Shuffle. Fantastic work as always, and thank you for the work you've done, it really is inspiring!
As someone whose prized piece in their gamecube collection IS American Pokémon Box, I was THRILLED to see this upload! I ran into all the same hurdles in my time spent with the game, even doing the trade work around for my japanese copy of Leaf Green! I make it a mission to get those necessary 100 dex entries before mass dumping the living dex I have to insta complete the dex in my gen 3 files. I'm always on the lookout for new things being unearthed from this title, and I'm overjoyed to see it come from my favorite Pokétuber! You really went above and beyond with this one. From the raw work in fixing the strange connectivity requirements, to the beautifully organized editing and visual aids, to the transitions! Fantastic video! I'd love to see more content like this from you! Thanks so much for spending this much needed time with my favorite gamecube title!
I was just finishing watching the Scarlet movie after I put it on hold for a month (as I hadn't beat Scarlet yet and finally have done so today), and this appears!
Have you ever thought about doing a Pokewalker shiny hunt? I recently saw this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fwdrrjFRbuQ.html, it's the first real Pokewalker shiny that I can see on the internet, it involves removing the shiny lock but I thought that might interest you because of your recent video on lock removals. In theory you could also combine it with a level 100 gauntlet but that would involve between 600,000 and 1.6million steps, and while not impossible it would take a while. But you often go on walks in your gauntlet videos so maybe it could be like a side project?
thank you finding methods to preserve this! i know tools like pkhex and such make it easier but i love doing the pure way of using games like stadium 2, my pokemon ranch, they all have unique features that deserve to be remembered and salvaged! as a kid it was always cool to see hardware interact in neat ways so having more ways to store pokemon is always welcome. can't wait for the platinum update for ranch! it will come someday!
I’ve always wanted something like this! Now I can use my Japanese Pokémon Box instead of spending thousands of dollars for an American copy. Would love to see an update video too if you figure out the issues at the end of the video.
I know this is 8 months old but in regards to the part where you edited the code to check the ROM header ID (i.e AXVE) wouldn't it have been easier to remove the region indicator from it? Instead of changing the header detection to look for "A" but instead had it check for "AXV" for ruby and "AXP" for sapphire, then both games would still be detected as their respective versions with their appropriate languages. Across all regional copies of Ruby and Sapphire the only thing different is the region indicator. So E for US copies, J for Japanese copies, I for Italian, you get the idea. Just a little suggestion in case you ever decide to update the compatibility code in the future!
This is genuinely so cool, it's pretty insane that you were able to do all of this. I actually just picked up a Japanese copy of box around a month ago for my region modded GameCube. I also picked up some Japanese gen 3 games (with the excuse of using them for box when in reality I just wanted more for shiny hunting) either ways this is a really cool video and I never thought I'd ever see something like this, thank you for your contributions to the community over all these years man
Thank you! I'm using the universal version in my gen 3 completion run.. you saved me a lot of time and for that I'm grateful! And no worries I make regular backups so I won't come here crying if something goes wrong.. all the best!
It's because I myself am too attached to my Pokemon! I remember spending a whole day as a kid trading everything off my Ruby version so I could restart the file
Absol, idk if it's possible or not, but did you think about making Emerald and FRLG to be playable in adventure mode? I think that because it's emulation, this might be really complicated... Since you would need to actually port the roms into the Pokemon Box Rom, and then make it if it detects leaf green for example, it will go and boot up the lg rom with the save file from the gba...
I want to test out the implications of it sometime! I think there's a chance I can get it working if the save code for ruby/sapphire isn't too specific
That's fascinating. I sadly never got to own Pokemon Box because... sweet mercy it was expensive. No one I knew owned it and I am convinced it never reached my neck of the woods. Glad to see more things covered about this game. Didn't even know about those restrictions, at least now most of the heavy lifting has been done for those who have modified their consoles to be able to work around some language barriers and these ridiculous requirements.
in NA it was only ever sold in NYC to my knowledge, so if you didn't go to the Pokemon Center in NYC in the early 00s you've got no option (we love when companies force you to resort to piracy because they literally don't offer the goods or services you want to pay for)
If you can do this with My Pokemon Ranch then I would seriously play Gen 4 more often. I keep running out of box space in those games, especially Soul Silver, and have no choice but to transfer to later gens to free up slots. Just implementing the Japanese exclusive Platinum update, adding HGSS support, and removing the restriction to transfer between save files would be enough to get me back into those games again.
The first issue is a holdover from the Stadium games. You can’t withdraw Pokémon (at least in Stadium 2) into a different save file until you meet a Pokémon caught requirement
So... the pokemon box games that cost full price to transfer pokemon data outside of the games directly... wouldn't let you connect with the other versions just because why not and it works fully as intended? (PS: I really like you taking a dive into these games it's really interesting good vid!) Weird. Also nice shades they give a sick programmer look
Ranch is on my list of projects in the future. I want it to be compatible with all Gen IV games, localized with the Platinum update, and also with no silly restrictions like that. Honestly the biggest hurdle is that Ranch's files are archived in a way that no one has been able to figure out in 16 years...
I had been thinking about trying to create a patch for Pokemon Box that adds in the ability to run Emerald, Fire Red and Leaf Green. It absolutely can be done in an extremely hacky way.
It's a shame some of Box's features don't work on Nintendon't (unless it was fixed recently) because I'm not paying a million dollars for a physical copy.
Holy shit wow. Thank you! Do you think you can somehow fix the game crashing when playing any of the gen 3 games (adventure mode) when playing on a Homebrewed Wii?
I use my modded GameCube and use box ALOT, this is AMAZING!!! There’s so many new ways to start a new playthrough and this has so many uses, thank you so much absol! 😎
Great work man! I did something similar with the JP colosseum bonus disk to make it work internationally. I also wanted to make a patch for the JP exclusive platinum Pokémon ranch but I can’t find a dump of the game anywhere online
If anyone wants me to explain the code lines he changed in depth @ me and I'll try the best I can. To start off, when checking the strings for what version it is detecting, there is a simple solutrion for this. It is merely checking the string title given for the instance of the game, as one may be able to tell. Simply create an array (or brute force by doing or statements) and check for every single name at once, (though this may make every copy just ruby) OR create your own statements to check individually for each version of the game within the same 1 statement so it will actually return the proper game. The reason why it is soecifically giving you ruby isnt just because its checking for ruby in that statement. In fact, in C code the only way to true/false boolean is to return either a 1 or a 0. If the statement is true that it is ruby version, it will boot up as so, if it is false that it is not ruby, it will switch over to sapphire, if it can't meet either requirement it will do what I already said and check for language, game version, etc. You need to either take that piece and modify it towards the true statement, or, you can copy the safe check confirmation in ruby for compatibility to every other statement. Since I can't see the full code, I'm assuming this may be an issue because before that, there must be some sort of all encompassing statement that defaults it to checking for if ruby is true. That needs to be changed somehow to get rid of compatibility gateway most likely. If someone send me the code or shows me a way to access it I could probably help seeing as I do have some experience with C and it is one of my more favorite languages (if it is C, it seems like it though you never know)
Something stupid though is that the north american version doesn't support french (unless I am wrong and there is a french canadian version of it out there which would still be stupid) because well, Canada is bi-lingual
Honestly thank you so much for making the different language games compatible. As someone who has all 5 games in all 6 languages, it's a big relief to not have to do all that trading lol
So wait a minute - are you telling me that my North American GameCube and North American Emerald can connect to a PAL version of Pokemon Box, and get me an Extremespeed Zigzagoon egg?? Is that what I'm hearing? I'm currently minmaxing the Battle Frontier's Battle Pyramid and E-Speed Linoone is on my wishlist but being locked behind a $2,000 paywall is obviously quite the deterrent.
You would need a PAL gamecube to run the PAL box, but a North American Emerald can connect to it, yes! (the modified version of the game works with all regions regardless)
This is amazing work! I've been personally trying to crack the code on My Pokemon Ranch's region locking and version exclusivity (so it could work with Platinum and HGSS), but I've been unable to figure out where the game points for it. 😔 Is there a chance you'll be taking a look at that game next?
Pro grammer Matt to the rescue! Good to know my Italian Leaf Green version is in good hands in the off chance I need to connect it to a Pokemon Box that I don't own (yet 👀)
I've been using this since it was released, i have a bunch of different language gen 3 games, so its is so damn useful having just one storage for all of my pokemon. I'm finishing my living dex there too. Thank you, really, i was one of the people trading foreign pokemon to my english emerald in order to have them in the american version of Pokemon Box On a kinda separate note, i was thinking the other day that it would be cool to have the updated version of My Pokemon Ranch for non-japanese games, but i imagine that is so much more work than this that probably its never gonna be done. (specially with the translation and all of that stuff)
I'm working on my gen 3 living dex.... I'm new to modding gamecubes, how do I mod the gamecube? Lol. Is there a specific way to mod it? If you have a video that would be awesome.
What a fantastic video! I had no idea Pokémon Box even existed until now, but I'm immensely impressed by how you managed to improve it! Your work in researching and patching these games is endlessly commendable, and I'm very sure it's very useful for anyone using this service. Terrific work as always, Matt!
I get its just a translation, but Rojo Fuego gives me life Also, if you were to uhm… *j a c k s p a r r o w* a version of box would you be able to use the patch on it?
would it be possible to release a version that omits the language fixes since those are the only parts that aren't basically perfect (or better yet do the not lazy fix)
I have no idea if it's even possible, but this makes me wonder if you could get roms of FR/LG/Emerald running this way too? The idea of playing through the gba link cable (which I have) instead of a game boy player (that I don't have) is really exciting
I am pretty dumb when it comes to this stuff, how do I apply this to my gamecube and Gameboy games? I have physical copies but know nothing about modding or anything like that
It's from a series of figures known as "scale world" and yeah it's weird! I will say, though, that the Spanish version was translated with Spain in mind and not Latin America, so there are some weird dialect differences
I never would have put two and two together that Box's Adventure Mode was just emulated ROMs using your cartridge's save file. Completely explains why we can't use Emerald or FRLG in Adventure Mode!
Thank you!! This is SO awesome. Had me nodding my head vigorously at all the annoyances you brought up, especially the trading between cartridges taking a whole day to do (once upon a time when I didnt have box 🤡) From what I've read about Adventure Mode, it seems like a pain to edit to dive into the code for. It's a pipe dream now, but do you think it will ever be possible for a patch to exist that allows FRLG/E to be played in Adventure Mode? Of course it would have to include copies of all the ROMs, so technically it'd be more like a romhack and of dubious legality buuut..... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I know this has nothing to do with the video but what are those Poke Balls on your shelf? I have recently gotten the itch to find some way of collecting Poke Balls (be that 3D print or otherwise) so those immediately caught my attention. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Love this project! I'm currently seeing if I can do a similar region unlocking within Colosseum/XD, but I'm having trouble finding anything useful within Dolphin debugger or my decomp. Do you have any tips or resources you'd recommend?
I would put the first one to 20-30 Pokémon because you do require at least one Pokémon in your party and one for box and so you would have to come back later for the other two starters sure 10 Pokémon would have good but to easy
The reason for PAL/NTSC versions having differing compatibility on games, is because the connected GBA with the cart is used to check the actual ROM version to load in for the Game Boy emulator portion. All the European ROMs are present on the disc of the PAL version with each revision of it on there, to take the differing versions into account.
2:48 I LITERALLY HAVE ALL OF THOSE GAMES IN THAT EXACT ORDER but a spanish leaf green instead of fire red. wth. and yes. pokemon box is, indeed, painful!!!!
Thank you so very much for everything that you have done for this community. Not only in the past, but even with just this single patch. Much respect to you! Also, any thoughts of making this open source by chance? I would love to actually give this a deeper look in my free time to perhaps learn from. Thank you again regardless for making this!
talk about timing, I JUST snagged a copy of pokemon box myself (JPN), and was just going to trade my US Emerald pokemon to a copy of JP Emerald to transfer them. You’re a godsend for this patch dude
