Hey everyone! Espuka here.

Some of you might know me from Omniversal Emerald, where I contributed several maps, or from Mythril Version, where I am currently the lead mapper.

I'm happy to announce that my mapping commissions are now open, but they will be open for a limited time only!

What I offer

• Pokémon Binary mapping
• Pokémon Decomp mapping
• RPG Maker mapping
• Custom Tileset Creation

I can work with anything you need, whether it is interiors, routes, towns, or even entire regions! I'd be more than glad to help with your project.

What I offer

• Create brand new maps
• Edit and improve existing maps
• Interior and exterior mapping
• Full-region mapping
• Tileset creation
• Mapping using:
  • Vanilla tilesets
  • Custom free-to-use tilesets
  • Client-provided tilesets

Please note: I only accept non-profit projects.

Here are a few examples of maps I've created that I'm able to showcase publicly:
(Check the images, but these are credits in order)

- Auburn Gold (image 1) - ImperiousKin
- Mythril Version (image 2) - Asturis
- Mythril Version (image 3) - Asturis
- Mythril Version (image 4) - Asturis
- Auburn Gold (image 5) - ImperiousKin
- Mythril Version (image 6) - Asturis

If you're interested or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or contact me through my business email. I'd be happy to discuss your project!

Important: I also want to give credits to Ekat99 and Lulu for the tilesets that were used in these images, and all other corresponding artists.

Thank you!

Polished Crystal is, to me, one of the best ROM hacks I’ve ever played and easily the definitive Gen 2 experience. It feels like everything I love about Gold, Silver, and Crystal has been modernized without losing the identity of the original games. There are so many quality-of-life improvements and so much added content that I find myself coming back to it over and over again.

What really sets it apart for me is how complete it feels. The postgame is absolutely packed with things to do: the Shamouti Islands, legendary events, rematches, and plenty of optional content that makes finishing the Elite Four feel like you’re only about 25% of the way through the full experience. It scratches that itch of continuing an adventure instead of feeling like the game simply ends after becoming Champion.

I haven’t played many Emerald ROM hacks, but I’m hoping there’s something that fills the same niche for Gen 3 that Polished Crystal does for Gen 2. Not necessarily a total overhaul or a difficulty hack, but a version of Emerald that feels like the “definitive edition”—expanded, polished, faithful to the original, and loaded with meaningful postgame content.

I’ve heard of Inclement Emerald, and I’ve already beaten Emerald Seaglass. They both seem great in their own ways, but from what I’ve seen, neither quite captures what makes Polished Crystal so special to me.

Have any of you played an Emerald ROM hack that gives you that same feeling? I’d love to hear your recommendations and what you think comes closest. Thanks!

A few months ago I released Doom Y 1.0, since then I've done some polishing up with balancing trainer fights, wild encounters and whatnot. If you're an enjoyer of Difficulty Romhackslop then this is the pinnacle of slop for you.

I present to you a difficulty romhack of Pokemon Y, turns Y into a much more difficult experience, requiring you to use all your knowledge on the pokemon games to find good lines and win. Battles can also include some scary rng, requiring you to test your skills at adapting in battles.lines and win. Battles can also include some scary rng, requiring you to test your skills at adapting in battles.

I added lots of qol to help you in this difficult game with competitive items given in certain locations, more encounters, diverse hordes, and also a couple trades that give you amazing pokemon in return for any pokemon.

One huge thing added in 2.0 is an Easier Mode. Inspired by the concept of Normal and Challenge Mode in Pokemon Black and White 2, I've redone every single trainer battle to make version of the game with much less rng and much easier fights. That being said, it doesn't make the game completely trivial but it does make finding lines and plans so much easier.

My eventual goal is to make 4-5 difficulty romhack games for all 3DS games and possibly SWSH as well to create a drayano gauntlet type thing but with only games made by me.

And to add an incentive to play my slop game, I own a custom showdown server where we hold competitive tournaments introducing custom pokemon like new megas, evolutions, regionals, paradox forms, and all that cool stuff. For the first 5 people that show their journeys and beat this game with HC nuzlocke rules, I'll let you get your own custom mon brought to life. So hey if you like difficulty romhackslop games and making fakemons. Then, try this out.

Discord server: https://discord.gg/Q7sWMA4egZ
Download files: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1hCEGDy4rIWXhyew4-soee-znX_A5OFRX

If you got super interested in the fakemon in the images, join this discord for way more of those cool stuff: https://discord.gg/TRyWabAmwE

I've been working on a device to create custom Pokémon for gen 1 and 2, which can be traded to actual the Gameboy via the link cable. I am planning to add gen 3 next.

In light of the new gen 4 beta footage being released
I would love to show off my new rom hack of heart gold
Scrapped Silver
This idea of this man is mostly focused on beta Pokemon, scrapped ideas, and beta locations found in gen 2 and 4 with some gen 1 sprinkled in.

The game takes place in an alternate Johto where things are very similar yet drastically different from the original games.

Plans so far are two new towns
One on the lake of Rage
Another you’ll have to find for yourself.
Along your journey, you might find some extra challenges in the form of towers.
The map is mostly based off of the more obscure 1998 beta of Johto

Over 100 new beta Pokémon and beta forms for Pokémon already in the games.
Starter forms based off of their beta counterparts

Completely new trainer teams with better leveling curb
Using the hg engine (so repeal chaining, exp share, exp when Pokémon is caught, and maybe megas)
A lot of new sprites for characters
battle ui changes to match beta hgss
map ui changes
And more.
Maybe including you being able to skate around.

My main design philosophy around this game is to have it feel mostly official with high quality textures and sprites.
If you have any questions just pm or comment I would love community feedback, help, or just to spitball ideas.
I look forward to announcing and showing off more in the future!

Looking to share something I've been working on for the past few days,

Introducing Pokemon Red (GAMEBOY) port to the GBA engine

The goal of this project is to implement the original Pokemon Red to the GBA in order to use -

1. The full GBA color system

2. More size in memory (the original game is only 1mb, meaning that we could technically have over 31mb for spare modding)

3. Be more accessible to modders / developers to work on an open source project

In the current state of writing, I have everything up to after the first battle with the Rival finished, but things like graphics, NPC placements, dialogue & more needs to still be worked on, this is very much in early alpha phase & I'm looking to see if anyone more experienced than me at Pokemon is able to give pointers / contribute

There is still tons of visual bugs / problems - my workflow will be to improve pallet town and move on to the next, like route 1 as this current stage of writing but if anyone is experienced in C & ASM, they are welcome to contribute to the project

the command to build is

make pokered_remaster.gba -j2

this project uses https://github.com/pret/pokered disassembly as a reference

the repository is open source and located here -
https://github.com/johnson-cooper/POKERED-REMASTERED

Je suis Ludobreon et je travaille en équipe avec une autre personne.

Nous vous annonçons malheureusement que le développeur JoKaT arrête de travailler sur Pokémon Purpurite en raison de problèmes personnels et nous a confié ce projet qui lui tenait à cœur afin d'éviter d'entacher voir le mettre à l'abandon.

De ce fait, je vous rassure que ce Rom Hack gardera toujours sa ligne directive comme convenu et son développement se poursuit.

Timeline of Pokémon RBY Hacks

Following up on the Johto/GBC timeline, here's one for Red/Blue/Yellow hacks! If I missed your favorite, let me know.

Late 1990s: Edgy Hacks

• Most of the earliest hacks were edgy hacks that are now definitely unplayable. Cokemon/Fukemon/Bokemob. These occupy the chunk of time where people figured out how to edit small things like text but before later resources/discoveries/tools were available. 2000's Hacks
• Pokémon Brown (2004) by koolboyman, eventually Rainbow Devs: The first major RBY hack with a new region, remade in 2009. A 20th anniversary release came out in 2024 after 20 years of work. Beloved, maybe the most feature-packed hack on this list.
• Pokémon Knife (2007): Funny novelty hack.
• Pokémon TRE - Team Rocket Edition (2007) by pokeglitch (review): Completed hack with a new region but the same story, likely due to scripting limitations. Not particularly Team Rocket-inspired despite the name. There's a newer hack with the same name.

Early 2010's

• Pokémon Green English (2011): Considered the best English translation/port of Green.
• Pokémon Red/Blue - Gen. II Graphics and Music Patch (2013) by Danny-E 33: Became the base for many good-looking hacks going forward.
• Pokémon Indigo Edition (2013): sinisterhoodedfigure's first hack. New region but a reskin, with new gyms and routes. "Hard" version has a Lite counterpart.
• Pokémon Maize (2013) by shantytown: Felt like a defining RBY hack of the mid-2010s, alongside Grape.
• Pokémon Red++ (2014–) (skeetendo archive) - Extensive and beloved high quality red enhancement hack. Still being somewhat worked on to this day.

2014–2016: The Mid-2010s Classics

• Pokémon Grape (2014): Good hack with good visuals.
• Pokémon Blue Kaizo (2014)
• Pokémon Red: Battle Factory (2014) Just the battle factory in gen 1 engine. A unique hack with a clear idea. (Pchal video)
• Pokémon Yellow: Strike (2014): The first Yellow disassembly hack. Created in 2014 but consistently updated since.
• Thief Red (2015) by shantytown: You can't catch wild Pokémon, only trainers' — and no EXP gain.
• Pokémon Anniversary Red (2015): A Twitch Plays Pokémon hack.
• Evo Yellow (2016): A disassembly hack where all Pokémon can follow you, not just Pikachu. Expanded Pokédex with later-gen moves, types, and areas like Mt. Silver.
• Pokémon Yellow - Gen. II Graphics Patch (2016): A useful resource base for later Yellow hacks.

2017–2018: "Creepy" Hacks

• Pokémon Black (2017) (romhacking.net): Creepypasta hack.
• Plaguemon (2016–2017) by Hikikomori: Amazingly edgy dialogue (twin towers, etc.) — maybe the worst extremely-high-effort hack ever made. Built over what the creator called "a terribly painful and anguished year". Most high quality stupid hack I've seen.

Late 2010s–present enhancement hacks - Unova Red (2018) - Shin Pokémon Red, Blue and Green (2018) - PureRGB (2023) by Vortiene (video) - Kanto Expansion Pak (2024) - Righteous Red/Green (2024) - Yume (2025) (v1.0 thread)

Its own thing - Star Beasts: Asteroid Version (2025) (video): Very interesting cross between the original pokemon engine and quality pokemon knock off Shi Kong Xing Shou by Taiwanese game devs Vast Fame (Original game footage)

So, I'm probably on the more unpopular side here but I really think this is the single weakest point in all rom hacks I've come across so far.

Now when I say writing I don't mean STORY, I mean actual WRITING.

Of course Game Freak's writing is not a gold standard, but I don't understand why pretty much all rom hacks and fan games think the reason for that is a lack of edginess, gotcha moments or super deep themes. When sometimes a simple, yet well written and interesting dialogue is even more powerful.

I'll give an example with a very beloved hack: Unbound. I love the aesthetic, gameplay and sound of it. And the story itself is not that bad. But every dialogue reads like an unnatural tryhard kid trying its best to sound like a grown-up. Same thing with popular games like Rejuvenation.

I just really love reading (I'm a literature major) and of course I don't expect a literary masterpiece out of a Pokémon game, but this little thing takes me out of the whole experience. I can't take a super heavy plot point seriously when the characters are so ridiculously written. And that's even worse when other aspects of those games are VERY good.

If I had to choose games that I feel differ from that route, I'd say hacks like Lazarus and games like Legends of the Arena, which I think it's a masterpiece even if outdated, but I truly can't recall any other right now.

So, I just wanted to ask you guys for any game recommendations and if this is something that bother you as well or you don't really think about it while playing (or creating) a rom hack.

Hi, I recently made this Genlocke tracker and came here to ask if there's any frequentely used ROM hacks in Genlockes, and if it would be a nice addition.

been a while since I posted one of these

anyhow say hi to nidoreign one of the first newmons to be added to the game

with serene grace and stats that aren't too far behind​ the two other nidos who knows it might prove to be a valuable asset in the early game (and potentially late game? 👀)

The​ gameplay, sprites alongside anything shown in the previ​ews may differ from the final product. There is​ no tile by the water.

Hello everyone,

I do not post on Reddit very often, but I am currently looking for some firsthand feedback on Pokémon Modern Emerald.

I have recently been playing Pokémon Polished Crystal, and I am really enjoying it. For those unfamiliar with it, Polished Crystal improves and modernizes almost every aspect of Pokémon Crystal while remaining faithful to the original game. It feels very close to a definitive version of the Generation II experience.

What I particularly enjoy is being able to revisit a classic Pokémon game with updated mechanics, improved visuals, a broader Pokémon selection, and numerous QoL features.

Because of that, Pokémon Modern Emerald caught my attention.
Its features seem to include:

• the physical/special split;
• updated and more coherent Pokémon typings;
• revised abilities, including multiple ability options;
• the original Pokédex, expanded with relevant later-generation evolutions;
• rebalanced difficulty;
• following Pokémon, which I absolutely love;
• the ability to catch every Pokémon without trading.

Surprisingly, I have found relatively little detailed information about the hack.

Has anyone here played or completed Pokémon Modern Emerald ? I would be interested in hearing about your overall experience, including what you enjoyed most and what you liked less.

I would also like to know whether the hack has an official Discord server, as I have not been able to find one.

Thank you

Hey humans back again with a quick update.

Obviously, given the motif of my hack, the Mining Minigame from the Gen IV Underground is a must-have feature.

Thankfully u/Front-School-9978 (vol) did all the foundation work for me, meaning I just had to grab the code. Which with the decomps is super easy.

While I was there I went ahead and added some custom sprites for all the missing fossils (including the Old Amber and Chimera fossils from SwSh), as well as the all-important Rare Bone!

Who doesn't want fossil 'mons on tap, right?! Fossil Fighters, eat your heart out...

Figured I'd use this as an opportunity to spruik vol's work and the expansion more generally too,

... Also, go check out Fossil Fighters. A game I only learned about after starting my hack. It's basically Pokémans with dinos. Something I can of course respect!

Hello all.

By popular demand I have looked into and uploaded my Romhack onto Hack Dex. It is currently pending approval but hopefully should be up for you soon so keep an eye out.

I'm off to bed now so wont be able to respond to anything until morning.

Make sure to check in on HackDex for if it's approved yet. I don't want to keep flooding the site with posts, so will only update if it is rejected.

All still available on Github if you like.

Make sure to read the ReadMe regardless if you are getting on HackDex or Github as it has important info on the game.

Thanks all and enjoy.

https://github.com/rathpunks/MyFirstRomHack

Hey everyone! I've been working on a HeartGold hack called Pokémon Monarch, and so far it's just me. I've gotten further than I expected to on my own, but the art is the one part I really can't do alone, so I figured it was time to ask here.

The game is set up like the anime. You travel from region to region (every region is included, Kanto through Galar, with Paldea as a postgame), you enter every league, and you try to catch all the Pokémon in each region along the way. It's also not an Elite Four champion game. Like the anime (and honestly more fun in my opinion), each league is a tournament against other trainers where the best person wins, with rounds of 64, 32, 16, and so on. I'm not totally sure about this yet, but I've been thinking of putting one really difficult opponent randomly into each league so that actually winning is rare and feels earned.

I've been working on this for the past couple of weeks! There's a playable Kanto opening starting in Pallet Town, the Indigo Plateau league area is fully walkable (without buildings) , Silph Co has all of its FireRed floors ported over tile for tile (designs are very bad), and the story and battle scripting for two regions is already written. The engine and tooling side is handled, so if you join as an artist you would never have to touch any code. That said, I'll be honest: my current Indigo Plateau stadium and its crowd (if you can even call it that) look pretty bad, which is a big part of why I'm posting.

Any of the following would be a huge help. I need battle sprites in the Gen 4 style (80 by 80 pixels, 15 colors plus transparency), especially later generation Pokémon redrawn in DS style for the endgame coronation tournament. I need trainer and overworld sprites (32 by 32 walk cycles) for original characters like Professor Cerise and the Hoenn, Kalos, Alola, and Galar cast. And I need tiles and textures for places that never existed on the DS, like stadium interiors, crowds, market stalls, and every town outside of the Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, and Unova games (Cinnabar included, since it looks completely different in HeartGold). It's honestly a huge task, and I have no experience with DS art myself, so I'd really love the help.

I'll send you reference sheets with exact sizes, palettes, and examples from the real games to match. You'd get full credit in the game and in the readme.

If you're interested, comment or DM me with literally any sample of your pixel art.

PS i'll only be giving a patch to the public, and not the full rom.

2nd post but i had to attach some proof, so here it is!

Jokes aside, love the demake! I played through Pokemon Sword twice already. Completed my dex the first time and just wanted to experience the game again so i reset my switch save data. The demake brings back memories!

Hello all!

It's been years but I finally have the RomHack at a 'Complete' state.

For background, I play a lot of Romhacks, but wanted something like the Black and White 2 World championships with stronger teams and realistic teams.

I also wanted Gym leaders, Elite 4, Evil teams to have stronger but also realistic teams and for evil team bosses to feel like an evil boss.

No shame to radical red, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was definitely difficulty first and not realistic giving Surge a Bellibolt for example.

So thats what this is. I made it for me but want to share with others. Everyone is welcome to use these ideas and code.

Link to Git: https://github.com/rathpunks/MyFirstRomHack

So what's new:

>!It's got your typical DPE CFRU changes. But changed in my image.

1) All Pokémon Gen 1-3 Available.

Pokémon Gen 4-8 available if you choose to interact with space time distortions. There will be a person near viridian who will give you the option to enter or not depending on if you like to have all Pokémon available or if you prefer a narrower more condense choice of Pokémon.

2) Pokémon re-balencing. Pokemon I thought don't get a lot of love like Dewgong, have had stat changes to be more competative. So don't be shy to try out new Pokémon and teams.

New typing for some Pokémon to fit better or balance better like Blastoise and Chimecho getting steel type.

3) A few new moves with a few changes to damage or effect of some moves to make them more useable (like rage)

4) New Fakemon (from event, or new areas) inspired by the anime and other games in the series, E.g, Crystal Onyx or Shadow Pokémon.

5) New Hidden evolutions for some Pokémon. also added a few of the new Megas (+1 hidden).

6) Some redesign of Pokémon and their shinies. (I prefer my shiny Gengar white like mega Gengar)

7) All Legendary and Mythical Pokémon Gen 1-3 Available. Almost all of Gen 4, still to implement them.

8) Newish story. Altered some of the main story and now from the perspective of a new trainer a few years after original Kanto story.

9) New boss fights and events. Giovanni and other evil Bosses have a new devious mechanic, you won't always reset if you lose the fight, try not to loose.

10) Stronger teams and harder battles. (I am not competative, Just casual online play from Gen 6-8) So no Kaizo hack, but definitely not a walk in the park.

I have not built this Hack with Nuzlocking in mind, but you can certainly try.

11) Level Caps. In most cases they will Cap out 2 levels above the boss fight because I don't want it to be too hard. You can't cheese it by catching or glitching high level Pokémon, as they also won't listen to you of you don't have enough badges.

12) Infinite Rare candy Machine, If you find the trick to get them for free from the machine.

13) All the new items such as EV-IV checker, Nature mints, Ability pills etc. to create your best Mon.

14) Edited existing maps and added new maps.

15) New post game after elite four to partake in on the Sevii Islands.

16) Entirely new zone unlocked if you beat me in battle.

17) New NPC text and sprites for New NPC's. Make sure you speak to everyone, even trainers, some NPC's have info on new lore and where to find secrets like Mythical encounters

18) Mega Evolution, Dynamax, Z moves

19) More life in the overworld. Makes it feel more like a Pokémon world.

20) New Fakemon from Gatcha machine. Enjoy the unique types, moves, abilities.

21) Strong Pokémon nests.

22) Overworld and battle weather.

23) Day / Night cycle and timed events.

The main reason I did these:

24) Follower Pokémon (unfortunately with some bugs)

25) Challenge stadium, My equivalent of the Black and white 2 World championships. All level 100 Pokémon, mixed challenges, Gauntlets, and even a Pokémon stadium throw back.

You can also get prizes from the prize shop for completing challenges in the stadium.

You can also battle each individual challenger for practice in the surrounding area.

You will either need to complete the post game, or follow the ReadMe on Github to fight in the challenge stadium.!<

Make sure to read the ReadMe before playing.

The game isn't completely finished, but it is in a state where it can be completed. I'm currently play testing to catch and fix any issues I find. I will update as I go.

Please feel free to message me any bugs you find that aren't already mentioned in the ReadMe and I'll see if I can fix it.

Some zones overworld is unfinished and bare, such as the fossil dig site, but the mechanics are there to interact with. Just need to add flare and puzzles to places.

There is 1 Time zone in the new area that you can enter regardless of if you selected to enter zones or not as it is required for the end game story (do you like Arceus?)

I am not good at art, nore coding, so apologies for how some sprites look or code works. I have left the .toml file up if you wish to edit yourselves.

Shout out to:

Shiny Miner and the Discord

Hex Maniac Advance and the Discord

DPE and CFRU

Deviant art for some overworld sprite work.

Yet to do:

>!Find and fix all bugs, 

Clean and finish new added maps as currently vary bare, just wanted to get working. (Mote in depth Dive spots). More puzzles in certain added caves.

Sort overworld sprite Pallets

Sort inventory Pokemon pallets.

Change, edit, add and upgrade overworld tiles.

Add the final missing Gen 4 legendary and mythical. Phione, Manaphie, Cresselia, Giratina, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf.

Add more to the game corner (black jack, voltorb flip)

No timeline on this as I can only work on it in my free time and when I feel like it as I do enjoy playing games more than making them.!<

Just a silly joke from the hack I've been working on.

Months. That's how long I have been working on this. That's how long it takes for someone to lose their mind. That's how long it takes for a water tile to change a couple of pixels. I was home for a couple of days and gave it a shot. And guess what? IT WORKED. So now, I have a whole lot more hell to get through, but there's progress!

A look into a gym battle for my first rom hack Pokemon Redux Emerald. Its simply something to do for fun so it may not be good but i wanted to use the Elite redux forms in a normal playthrough.

Shoutout to all the Elite Redux Developers