Why Firered?

So many Rom Hacks I've seen use Firered as a basis, and I would like to know why. Is it easier? I have started mapping my Hack, Pokemon Painite version, and I'm using Emerald because it has all the music from Firered/ leafgreen, more space, and a clock, and I intend to use a day/night system, but is it easy to implement in Firered? Should I switch over? I've only got one map, but I really like it...

Also, why are the maps so small? I think I'd enjoy a longer lasting, bigger, and all in all, more difficult pokemon experience. I think I'm going to make money a bit more scarce in Painite Version, make you really decide if you want to stock up on Pokeballs, or save up for that Black Market Pokedex...

"Is it easier?" Yes. I tried making a ROM hack with Emerald. The ROM slowly degraded over time as I continued to hack it. It came to a point where the music was starting to get all messed up and such. It might be because I was repointing in wrong locations in Advance Trainer, but the problem is I had hardly used Advance Trainer at the time. So, you need to be very careful with what you're doing with Emerald. There's also a lot less support for it; people just seem to lean towards making tools/tutorials/etc. for Emerald.

"All the music from Firered/ leafgreen" Good point. There are also many more voicegroups available to use in Emerald. But, you can still expand the song table and add voicegroups even though it takes some work.

"More space" What do you mean? If you mean more ROM space, you can expand the FireRed ROM space to 16 mb or something like that.

"Clock" The clock is honestly useless. You have a clock in the corner of your computer screen.

"Day/night system" I believe I used DNS by prime_dialga in my Emerald hack and it worked fine. Use DNS definitely, though. I can't figure out how to use the seasons part of it, though. It requires you to make tilesets for each season, which is difficult.

"Why are the maps so small" Go into the header in Advance Map and you can change the map sizes..

Overall, Emerald DOES have more features like you said, but it's a more comfortable, safe experience with FireRed. I highly recommend starting with FireRed since you're new to this. Also, your first ROM hack will likely be pretty mediocre. I highly recommend that you use Pokemon Painite version or a different ROM hack even as a learning experience. I actually am doing a complete redo of my first ROM hack that takes place in the future of the same region. The maps are remodeled (and some cities built, some destroyed), there's a new story, etc.

When you do your first ROM hack, practice all sorts of skills to ensure you'll be able to create something great with your second or third hack. You could even do it on an Emerald ROM if you're up for it. Really, though, Emerald is not for beginners.

Aside from the above, another very good reason deals with nostalgia. A lot of hackers grew up with the old Red, Blue, and Green (I was a Gen II kid... So, I don't feel this as much) so it would be an obvious choice for them to grow attached to FireRed: it is pretty much just an upgraded version!

Emerald doesn't have much space so it can corrupt easily and FireRed is far more organized than Ruby. And if you don't insert graphics, FireRed's are naturally more appealing.

DIE hinkage

Well, as the others said, more space. Though if you really need more space, a rom can also be expanded.

AXELXu7 said:

Also, why are the maps so small? I think I'd enjoy a longer lasting, bigger, and all in all, more difficult pokemon experience. I think I'm going to make money a bit more scarce in Painite Version, make you really decide if you want to stock up on Pokeballs, or save up for that Black Market Pokedex...

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Pokemon games (the ones made by Nintendo) have generally been pretty easy. Although manking money scarce isn't the most awesome way to make a game tough you know. :p You can always go for tougher trainers ingame.

I've always felt that the main reason people hack FireRed over Ruby and Emerald is that the ROM is far better understood.

What I mean by this is that the various functions in FR are well documented and there are several hacks for FR to deal with FR's most obvious weaknesses.

The other biggy is probably that folk like myself and Darthatron personally hack FireRed, and throughout our time hacking it, we have produced several useful pieces of ASM which we have shared with the community.

It leads to a position where, if you want the "best features", you kinda have to hack FireRed. (Note, I'm not saying FR is better to hack than Emerald, but a lot of people seem to think that it is...)

Finally, there's the well documented (but tremendously poorly explained) corruption issues with Emerald.

In fact, in my opinion, Emerald is the best ROM hack base given its base features, and yet, I still personally prefer FR!

Jambo51 said:

I've always felt that the main reason people hack FireRed over Ruby and Emerald is that the ROM is far better understood.

What I mean by this is that the various functions in FR are well documented and there are several hacks for FR to deal with FR's most obvious weaknesses.

The other biggy is probably that folk like myself and Darthatron personally hack FireRed, and throughout our time hacking it, we have produced several useful pieces of ASM which we have shared with the community.

It leads to a position where, if you want the "best features", you kinda have to hack FireRed. (Note, I'm not saying FR is better to hack than Emerald, but a lot of people seem to think that it is...)

Finally, there's the well documented (but tremendously poorly explained) corruption issues with Emerald.

In fact, in my opinion, Emerald is the best ROM hack base given its base features, and yet, I still personally prefer FR!

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This in a nutshell. It's hacked more because it's been hacked more for so long. If someone comes around and makes cool features for Emerald, I'm sure there'd be more emerald hacks.

FireRed version is easier and the most tools are compatible with FireRed, but not with LeafGreen/Ruby/Sapphire or Emerald.

"Clock" The clock is honestly useless. You have a clock in the corner of your computer screen.

"Day/night system" I believe I used DNS by prime_dialga in my Emerald hack and it worked fine. Use DNS definitely, though. I can't figure out how to use the seasons part of it, though. It requires you to make tilesets for each season, which is difficult.

"Why are the maps so small" Go into the header in Advance Map and you can change the map sizes..


The Clock isn't useless, without it, how are you supposed to evolve Espeon/Umbreon,dustox/beautifly? Without the clock, the day/night system won't work. Plus, some people are playing these Rom Hacks on emulators on our phones. I have a Xperia Play, and it has controller buttons.

I meant why are the maps small in people's rom hacks? If you have the power to change it, why wouldn't you? Is it a bad gameplay mechanic? Does it make the load time longer? What are the benefits/detriments?

karatekid552 said:

Aside from the above, another very good reason deals with nostalgia. A lot of hackers grew up with the old Red, Blue, and Green (I was a Gen II kid... So, I don't feel this as much) so it would be an obvious choice for them to grow attached to FireRed: it is pretty much just an upgraded version!

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The nostalgia was graphical and audio-centered. I feel nostalgia when I play red/blue/yellow because of the 8-bit sounds and pixel graphics. I didn't feel nostalgia for firered or leafgreen...