First, allow me to introduce myself, since my only posts so far (aside from a quick jaunt in the arcade board) were inquiring about something in the for sale section months ago. My name is MasterFygar, and I'm a member of a small online group called the Pokemon Beta Alliance that is dedicated to preservation/discovery of elements in the earlier Pokemon titles that have been lost to time (specifically about games that were never released--a 3D RPG for the Nintendo 64 and a GameBoy Color game called Pokemon X that eventually became Pokemon Crystal). We've slowed in progress in our search for the beta versions of Gold and Silver (featuring Pokemon, items and locations that did not make it, and don't exist in the code of the final game), and now we're focusing on the Japanese version of Crystal, and the preservation of the 'fully patched' version.
I'm sure most Pokemon aficionados know this already, but the Japanese version of Pokemon Crystal could connect to Japanese mobile phones and allow battling, trading, and updates for the title... it was essentially the prototype of the system that was later implemented with the Global Trade Center in the DS titles, and was one of Nintendo's earliest forays into "network" gaming. Dialogue for certain characters was changed by these updates, and interesting side characters, such as a time-traveler named Chieko, who had interesting anecdotes for the player and would bring quizzes and minigames. This data was accessed by a device called the News Machine in the Pokemon Communication Center, the hub for connecting and interacting with the Mobile Adapter service.
The interesting thing to note is that these additional elements were apparently added by some form of patching: the data for Chieko, as well as the other minigames and events triggered by the Mobile Adapter service, does not exist in the retail ROM of the game. Because of this, and because of the suicide-save-battery in the GameBoy Color Pokemon titles (caused by the internal clock constantly draining the save-battery's energy), there is a bit of a predicament regarding this data. To access this information and data, a working save file is required... one that has interacted with the Mobile Adapter service and has taken advantage of the patches it offers.
Our current goal is to obtain a cartridge--or the data from a cartridge--with a working save state that has at least the infamous GS Ball update (the item that triggers the events that allow one to capture Celebi) of either April or May 2001; one with additional News Machine updates would be even better. ASSEMbler is known for obtaining and preserving rare and unusual games and versions of games, so we hoped we may be able to get some assistance from the members here. We have a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese and the only place we know of to look for such a cartridge is Yahoo Auctions Japan, where there is no good way of telling which cartridges have--or have not--interacted with the Mobile Adapter service. This step would not be necessary if a dump of a working save file with these patches has already been released but I have been unable to find anything of the sort thus far and don't think it's out there. Feel free to prove me wrong, we would be overjoyed about it. Any and all information, input and assistance is welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!
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Originally Posted by Cyberghost
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