Pokémon Emerald

Pokémon Emerald is an updated version of Ruby and Sapphire that pits the player against Team Aqua and Team Magma, adds a new Deoxys form, and introduces the Battle Frontier.

Development Info Prototype Info Notes Bugs

Debugging Tools#

To do: Search for more.

Sound Check#

Japanese Emerald has a Sound Check like Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, and LeafGreen, and akin to the latter it was removed in localizations.

To access it, patch 0x301AC to 21 83 0E 08 to replace the Options entry on the main menu with a call to Sound Check.

The changes to the "stereo" entry in the Driver Test made in FireRed and LeafGreen were carried over to Emerald.

Unused Music#

Emerald contains all the unused tracks with the same IDs from Ruby and Sapphire, except the track at ID $01D3, the Goldenrod Radio Tower invasion track from Gold, Silver, and Crystal, which has been removed. This game also contains the entire soundtrack from FireRed and LeafGreen, although only a few music tracks from that particular soundtrack are used in Emerald.

In the sound test, the tracks from FireRed and LeafGreen are prefixed with "RG". MUS-KAIHUKU remains unused; it is now labeled MUS-RG-KAIHUKU, and its new ID is 01ED.

Unused Map Data#

The maps from the Pokémon Festa 2002 demo of Ruby and Sapphire are still in Emerald, but their event data has been deleted.

The Magma Hideout maps used in Ruby and unused in Sapphire are also unused in Emerald, as well as the Contest Hall, Seafloor Cavern, Cave of Origin, and the unused Lilycove City Poké Mart maps from Ruby and Sapphire. The unused duplicate landmark names for Meteor Falls, Fiery Path, and Jagged Pass also remain.

The landmark name for the version-based evil team hideout from Ruby and Sapphire is now unused. Pokémon caught in the old Magma Hideout or Aqua Hideout preserve their caught location, but it is rendered as "HIDEOUT" (Japanese: アジト, Hideout) like in Ruby and Sapphire.

The quirky landmark C4 from FireRed and LeafGreen is now unused and was renamed to "SPECIAL AREA" (Japanese: あかみどりとくしゅ, Red & Green Special).

Navel Rock and Birth Island have their own landmarks for Emerald as IDs D3 and C8, respectively, whereas the original IDs from FireRed and LeafGreen are AE and BB. This distinction may be important as there is no known distribution of the Aurora Ticket for Japanese Emerald, meaning that Deoxys caught in Emerald's Birth Island could be treated as illegitimate if their language byte is set to Japanese.

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: How is such a Deoxys recognized by modern Pokémon games and services like Bank?

Emerald added an optional rival fight in Rustboro City. In the released game, you cannot walk out the city without triggering a cutscene with the rival that registers the rival in your PokéNav and prompts for a fight. You can get around this line of triggers only by teleporting back to Petalburg by never using the Pokémon Center in Rustboro and then using Teleport or by blacking out, in which case you never run into your rival. Perhaps because of this potential situation, there is another trigger in front of the doorway into Mr. Briney's house, and this will trigger a different cutscene with the rival (where the rival exits Mr. Briney's house) which also registers the rival and offers the same battle as the Rustboro cutscene. However, due to a programming oversight, the trigger in front of Mr. Briney's house is never activated, so this cutscene is left unused in the map scripts.

Unused Graphics#

Sprites#

Shiny Celebi#

For the sake of consistency, every Pokémon in every game is given a Shiny variant, and Celebi is no exception. However, because the only way to obtain it legitimately was through distributions, the Shiny version of Celebi was left unobtainable through normal means. This sprite may still be seen (in a lighter hue) if a Shiny Pokémon Transforms into a Celebi. Like "standard" Celebi and many other Pokémon, the sprite is identical to that of Ruby and Sapphire, where it was similarly unobtainable. While Shiny Celebi was previously available in Pokémon Crystal, it was solely locked to the Japanese version and couldn't be brought up to future games. This changed with the 3DS Virtual Console release, which allowed Celebi to not only be caught in any language version of Pokémon Crystal, but could also be sent into future games via Pokémon Bank.

Tilesets#

Unused Birch Spritesheet#

There is an unused uncompressed sprite sheet in location 557A90 to 55A94F in between the used Birch opening sprite and palette. This contains the following clockwise from top left:

• A duplicate of the used Beauty Trainer Class sprite.
• An unused seemingly early design of Professor Birch with both hands in his pockets and different-colored shorts.
• A duplicate of the Birch sprite from the opening sequence in Ruby and Sapphire, unused in Emerald.
• A duplicate of the Birch sprite used in this game's opening sequence.

Unused Greta Color#

To do: Image.

A unused color exists in Greta's palette; a dark yellow color, likely meant for the hair color. Greta in the final game uses her skin tones for her hair's darker colors.

Unused Weather#

The unused weather types from Ruby and Sapphire remain so in Emerald.

Unused Wild Held Items#

Some Pokémon, when encountered in the wild, have a chance of holding an item. Held item data also exists for some Pokémon which cannot be caught in the wild in the final game, rendering such assignments unused.

Altering Cave#

As with FireRed and LeafGreen, Mareep, Aipom, Pineco, Shuckle, Teddiursa, Houndour, Stantler, and Smeargle were also meant to replace the Zubat found in Altering Cave after using Mystery Gift.

The event distribution was probably scrapped because the evolutionary lines of these Pokémon can be obtained from Colosseum. They can instead be found in Emerald in the extended area of the Safari Zone (except Smeargle, which is found in Artisan Cave instead). There is a change from FireRed & LeafGreen however: Each of the wild Pokémon can hold an item that could not otherwise be obtainable 5% of the time in Emerald!

The Japanese version of the Altering Cave text is the same as in FireRed and LeafGreen, but with "Outcast Island" switched out for "Route 103." The English version, meanwhile, was retranslated from scratch.

Thank you for using the MYSTERY
GIFT System.

There appears to be a rumor about
rare POKéMON sightings.

The sightings reportedly came from
the ALTERING CAVE on ROUTE 103.

Perhaps it would be worthwhile for
you to investigate this rumor.

ふしぎなおくりもの　を　ごりよう
いただき　ありがとう　ございます！
さいきん　１０３ばんどうろ　にある
へんげのどうくつ　で
めずらしい　ポケモンが　でる　という
うわさが　ながれてる　ようです
ぜひ　いって　たしかめて　みては
いかがで　しょうか？

Altering Cave Held Items#

The Pokémon encountered in Altering Cave are programmed to each have a 5% chance of holding an item that are exclusive to this location, and this event. All items cannot be obtained anywhere else in Emerald alone.

Berry Juice#

The only source of Berry Juice in any of the Generation III games would've been as a held item on wild Shuckle in FireRed and LeafGreen, but the item is effectively unused because the Altering Cave event was never used. Wild Shuckle in Emerald instead hold Oran Berries when encountered in the Safari Zone. If, however, a Wonder Card containing the Altering Cave event was injected into a Pokémon Emerald save, wild Shuckle & Aipom(!?) would have a 5% chance of holding a Berry Juice.

BERRY JUICE

きのみジュース

A 100%
pure juice
that restores HP
by 20 points.

きのみ　１００パーセント
ポケモンの　たいりょくを
２０　かいふくする

Unused Text#

• Script “Text_ThisIsATestSignpostMsg” contains a test message, which was localized:

• Pokémon 0000 (Ten question marks) is an error handler which doesn't appear under normal gameplay. However, if caught by manipulating the game, its fully-coded Pokédex entry can be seen. Note that the text has been re-translated for this game (though the Japanese entry is identical to Ruby and Sapphire's).

To do: Rydel's text mentioning the bike stored in the PC is still present but unused because Key Items cannot be stored anymore

Development Text#

Multiple cases of miscellaneous development text are present in the ROM.

GameFreak inc.
TEST PRINT
P0
P1
P2
P3
RFU WAIT
RFU BOOT
RFU ERROR
RFU RESET
RFU CONFIG
RFU START
RFU SC POLL
RFU SP POLL
RFU START
RFU SEND ERR
RFU CP POLL
RECOVER START
DISSCONECT
RECOVER SUUSES
RECOVER FAILED
PokemonSioInfo
CLOCK DRIFT
BUSY SEND
CMD REJECT
CLOCK SLAVE
CHILD
PARENT
SEARCH

pokemon ruby version
sapphire

Build Dates#

2004 06 30 18:43

2005 02 21 11:10

2005 07 01 18:30

2005 07 07 18:00

2005 07 11 16:55

Regional Differences#

Carryovers#

A lot of the changes which took place in Ruby and Sapphire still apply here, and thus won't be discussed.

Introduction Cutscene#

Japan	International

The screen which precedes the opening cutscene had its copyright dates updated.

Title Screen#

Japan	US

In addition to the game's logo being changed for the international versions, the title screen received some changes in the English version. The Japanese version has the words "Push Start Button" flashing, and there is no space between "Game" and "Freak", which makes it read "© 2004 GameFreak Inc.". In the English version, "Press Start" flashes instead, and the copyright notice has been updated to read "© 2005 Game Freak Inc." with a space between the two words.

e-Reader Support#

Similarly to Japanese FireRed and LeafGreen, Japanese Emerald contains e-Reader support and its Mystery Gift system uses it in addition to the Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter, specifically for the Pokémon Battle Card-e+ Emerald set that changes the NPC Trainers encountered in Trainer Hill. When in Wireless Adapter mode, its Japanese name is ふしぎなおくりもの (focus on the giver), while in e-Reader mode its Japanese name is ふしぎなもらいもの (focus on the receiver); both names were translated as Mystery Gift in English.

Like Ruby and Sapphire, Japanese Emerald also supports the Mystery Event system (ふしぎなできごと), which requires the e-Reader. It was used for the Eon Ticket distribution between December 9, 2006 and January 5, 2007 for Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald in Japan.

Overseas, Emerald only supports the Wireless Adapter mode of the Mystery Gift system from FireRed and LeafGreen, although it still contains code for Mystery Event and the e-Reader mode of Mystery Gift.

To do: Confirm this last part.

Player's House#

Japanese Emerald has a minor audio oversight where the moving Vigoroth incorrectly use Machoke's cry, which was fixed in western releases of Emerald. These Pokémon were changed from Machoke in Ruby and Sapphire, where they play their correct cry.

Faraway Island#

The Old Sea Map is an event item that allows the player to board the S.S. Tidal from Lilycove City to access Faraway Island and subsequently catch Mew. However, as it was only distributed in Japan during Pokémon Festa 2005, the item is unobtainable in western versions of Emerald, thus rendering the associated content unused.

To do: Other unused content beyond the item icon should be here, too.

Birth Island#

Because the AuroraTicket was never distributed to Emerald in Japan, Birth Island, and thus the ability to catch Deoxys, is completely inaccessible in the Japanese version. The only way to obtain Deoxys in the Japanese version of Emerald is by trading one from FireRed and LeafGreen.

Sootopolis City#

There is an NPC in Sootopolis City who would host battles using Mystery Gift, leaving only the NPC and the stairs blocked by trees. However, no e-Reader Cards were released for this feature even in Japan, as the only Battle-e cards released for Japanese Emerald were for Trainer Hill rather than Sootopolis City.

To do: Check whether it's Mystery Gift or Mystery Event in Japanese Emerald.

Trick House Puzzle Room 4#

Japanese	English

In the international versions, the layout of Trick House Puzzle Room 4 was altered to make two passageways wider. The first boulder was also removed; in the Japanese version, it's a beginner's trap since the player can block the narrow passageway if they push the boulder to the right.

Despite the change, it's still possible for the player to get trapped in the Trick House in all versions.

Aqua Hideout Dive Glitch#

Watch on YouTube

In Japanese Emerald, due to a bug, it is possible to Dive in the deep water tiles found on Aqua Hideout B2F after saving and rebooting the game. Because the water is not programmed to lead anywhere, the game throws the player back to warp 0 in entry 0 of map group 0, which is Petalburg City.

This was fixed in the international versions of Emerald by not allowing the player to Dive in any circumstances.

This does not happen in Ruby and Sapphire as the entrance to the Magma/Aqua Hideout (game-dependent) is blocked after obtaining the Mind Badge, which is required to use Dive outside of battle.

Special Wallpaper Layout#

In Emerald, players can unlock custom wallpapers by giving special codes to Walda's father in Rustboro City. In the international versions, the ribbon background and the cross, bolt, and Plusle symbols were removed. The latter two may have been removed due to semi-unintentional resemblance of the Red Cross.

References#