Universal Pokemon Randomizer (randomizes gen1-5 games)

[Dabomstew]

Introduction
This program allows you to customize your experience playing the Pokemon games by randomizing many aspects of them. This means that the Pokemon you get at the start of the game, the Pokemon you fight in the wild and the Pokemon trainers have can all be made completely different from the original game.

About

So this is a randomizer for all the Pokemon main series games currently out (the (U) versions, anyways). I'm posting it here because it's an example of quite a lot of different ROM hacks, and also because a fair amount of research/code written by members here & other forums was used in its creation

The randomizer has been worked on for a while now, so quite a few of the minor issues have been resolved since the first release.
This is the first randomizer *program* (to my knowledge) to support Gen4, or Gen5 outside of the original B/W.

Known Issues:

Spoiler:

General

• The randomiser may not function at all on Windows systems with certain custom themes installed.

Generation One Games

• (oddity) The people who give you Magikarp and Lapras still say Magikarp/Lapras even if you randomize them.
• (oddity) Brock says ROCK-type Pokemon no matter what he has, etc.

Generation Two Games

• (oddity) Brock says ROCK-type Pokemon no matter what he has, etc.

Generation Three Games
None for now...

Generation Four Games
None for now...

Generation Five Games

• A battle with Zinzolin isn't consistent with his other battles.

Acknowledgements/Credits

Spoiler:

Many people have put countless hours of their time into researching the structures contained within Pokemon games over the years. Without the research done by these people, this randomizer would not exist, or would have taken a lot longer to create
Instead of trying to note where I found every single piece of information used in the randomizer's creation, I will acknowledge the major sources of information that were used, as well as some of the main contributors of said information.
The creators of the external components I used will also be acknowledged. These components have been used appropriately subject to their respective software licenses.
Thanks to the efforts of those acknowledged below, my time spent making the program was mainly focussed on just that - putting the pieces together to create the program itself. I did, however, do my own research where things were too undocumented for my liking (or the documentation was hard to find), and this research can be seen in the comments of the program's source code where appropriate.

Sources of Information
The Skeetendo community is full of hacking information regarding the GameBoy/GameBoy Color Pokemon games and was an invaluable resource in my development of the randomizers for these games.
Similarly, ProjectPokemon contains a lot of useful information to aid users in hacking the Nintendo DS Pokemon games. The research done by members such as andibad, Kaphotics & Bond697 helped the Generation 5 portions of the randomizer get off the ground.
The Pokecommunity is the largest English-language Pokemon ROM hacking community, and also contains a wealth of useful information, especially information relating to GBA/Generation 3 Pokemon games.

Tools Used
Not all the functionality I was implementing was documented anywhere, but some of the functionality did already have tools available. Analysing the output of the tools below was another important part of the implementation of this program.

• A-Starter & A-Trainer by Hackmew
• Attack Editor Advance by Scizz
• Attack Editor GB & Poke Edit GB by thethethe
• Item Image Editor & Pokemon Red/Blue Trainer Editor, by Swampert Tools
• PPRE by ProjectPokemon.org
• YAPE by Silver314
• NPRE by pichu2000

Libraries/Programs used in the Randomizer
The NDS games introduced a lot of file formats, for which great programs have already been written that handle them. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I have included these programs inside the Randomizer, under the appropriate software licenses.

• Generation 4 text handling is processed by a Java port of loadingNOW's thenewpoketext.
• Generation 5 text handling is processed by a Java port of SCV/ProjectPokemon's pptxt.
• NDS ROM extraction & creation is handled using Java-ported code from ndstool.
• arm9.bin decompression & compression is achieved using a Java port of CUE's BLZ compressor.
• Decompression of LZ11-compressed images is achieved using the DSDecmp library.

The Randomizers that came before
Credit also goes to those who made randomizer programs before this one was released, for the inspiration!

• The original Emerald randomizer by Artemis251
• Artemis251's Red/Blue randomizer
• pateandrew's randomizer for gen2/3 games
• Another R/B randomizer by Ubuntaur

Downloads
The release is available attached here. The full source code (on google code) is also available under GPLv3. It's written in Java - all the dependencies used were ported over by me (except DSDecmp which had a Java version already)

[andibad]

is nice tool is on JAVA :D

[Dabomstew]

I released a new version, 1.0.1, of the randomizer which fixes a few issues. I have also included a new "Internal Config" version which should work for people who were getting "cannot find Advance.tbl" or similar errors before.

Improvements are on their way, including better foreign language ROM support and a few more options.

[Krobelus]

This is by far my favourite Randomizer now, you did amazing work!

I have one suggestion; perhaps a patch alongside the National Dex that allows for all 649? Maybe another random option that randomizes the items you find on the ground.

Other than that this is pretty amazing. Great work.

[Dabomstew]

Krobelus: The randomizer already does pick from all the Pokemon available in the game, rather than just the local Dex. This is why National Dex patches are useful (and necessary, at least in FRLG, to allow non-Kanto Pokemon to evolve). (If you mean patching Gen3 games to add all 649, that's beyond my abilities for now). Item randomization could happen, though not in my immediate plans.

@All: A new release [1.0.2] is out which allows for randomizing abilities, along with some other improvements.

[Krobelus]

I did mean to allow all 649 Pokemon to become available.

Great job. What other features do you have planned at the moment?

[Dabomstew]

Originally Posted by Krobelus

I did mean to allow all 649 Pokemon to become available.

Great job. What other features do you have planned at the moment?

The closest you're going to get for now for randomised 649 Pokemon in generation 3 is using this randomizer here which supports the FireRed 649 hack being made by members of this forum, to an extent. If/when a more formal/complete release of that comes out I might support it too, but it's not part of my plans right now.

There aren't a whole lot of sane things left to randomize - items on the ground, the thing you suggested, is one of the few that would be feasible. Current work on the randomizer is largely focusing on making sure everything works for every version (allowing static Pokemon to be changed in the DS games, for example) and quality of life improvements (National Dex patches, cool little ASM hacks, etc, which come as I get inspiration to make them).

[sabrino]

Thx.

This is pretty awesome. I dreamed about it, you did it.

Really thx, i'm going to talk about it on french boards (because i am French yea) because i hope he'll be soon the main randomiser ever.

Thx again.

And I have a request about the next features..

Randomize the evolutions (lol i'm weedle *evolve* helo i'm slaking)! And add randomly a number (or suppress a number) of evolutions (lol i evolve 3 times).. And modify the evolution levels of pokemons...
I don't really know if this is feasible but... it would be cool.

[Akwarelek]

Hey,
this tool is really awesome, you did great job. I am a fan of Gen II and this is a great opportunity to beat this gameonce again. Some things, though, have been randomized too far. In my game, Heracross is an electric type learning Zap Cannon at lvl 6 and Thunder at lvl 12

I might make similiar tool to this one day, for gen II exclusively...

[Aryan143]

Well this tool is awesome! I got Ledian as a starter of Dragon type with max special attack and Outrage!

[Dabomstew]

Thanks for the latest feedback. If I do make an "evolution randomiser" that would definitely go under a "crazy options" section!

I have released a new version, 1.1.0, of the randomiser. This adds support for randomising move tutor moves, among other improvements and fixes. There's also a patch available inside for Gen1 and Gen2 games which changes them to use the Black/White-style EXP gain calculation system, inspired by what the Liquid Crystal team did in their Gen3 hack.

More to come!

[Krobelus]

Originally Posted by Dabomstew

Thanks for the latest feedback. If I do make an "evolution randomiser" that would definitely go under a "crazy options" section!

I have released a new version, 1.1.0, of the randomiser. This adds support for randomising move tutor moves, among other improvements and fixes. There's also a patch available inside for Gen1 and Gen2 games which changes them to use the Black/White-style EXP gain calculation system, inspired by what the Liquid Crystal team did in their Gen3 hack.

More to come!

That is amazing! Leveling in BW has made it so much easier and quicker!

I would like to suggest random items (that you pick up) and random evolutions?
[Edit] Random Abilities would be awesome too!

[Aryan143]

The new versions are amazing. Wurmple with Pressure OMG!

[schimmdog]

New here so sorry if this post stinks of noobness. I want to randomize my pokemon pearl using this tool but cant because some sections a grayed out and all my starter pokemon choices are '------' I googled everywhere and this is the only place I found that may be able to provide help.

[Flaze]

I can't get it to patch Pokemon Red (U), the program itself says it's been patched, but when I run the rom itself the game hasn't changed at all.

[AlejaKaiser]

You gonna add compatibility with spanish roms in the future? This tool is amazing to do nuzlocke, but I prefer play the game in my native language (You can see that I don't speak very good english)

Nice Work. Cya~

[Dabomstew]

OK, quick responses:

@Krobelus: All the stuff you suggested has been suggested before, and most of it might eventually happen. As for abilities, that option is already available!

@schimmdog: I think you've emailed me about this too, but in any case, try a different base ROM.

@Flaze: No idea what's going on here - does the same happen with other games?

@AlejaKaiser: The randomiser already supports R/B/Y and D/P/Pt/HG/SS (generation 1 and 4) Spanish ROMs, with more to come in the next major release, probably 1.2.0.

[Stomphoof]

How easy is this software to use on a Black/White ROM or a HeartGold/SoulSilver ROM?

[sabrino]

Hello~

In fact, l played recently Pokémon Dungeon 1.

It could be really awesome if you could randomize the wild pokémon, or the starters, or the event pokémon (like absol..)..

This is actually not a priority. But I think it could be a good option for originals..

By the way, for everyone. This software is the easier and more complete randomizer you could find on the internet.. Don't hesitate anymore!

[BLockwood]

Originally Posted by Flaze

I can't get it to patch Pokemon Red (U), the program itself says it's been patched, but when I run the rom itself the game hasn't changed at all.

Is your rom patched with any other patch? I managed to successfully patch my Red rom which is the same version as yours...

On topic: This is simply amazing, I have never used a randomizer before so I can't compare but this is fantastic! I feel like a five year old catching all the pokemon just to see the new types and the new movesets (i was stupidly amused when my normal/flying onix wanted to learn fire punch).

Awesome work once again!

[alethiometer]

I feel I have to post here to say thanks very much for creating such an amazing tool!

I've recently started doing nuzlocke runs and also watched a couple of randomizer nuzlockes which got me interested in randomizing pokemon as I go along. I've not used the features which allows you to change movesets, types and other trainers pokemon. All I've done is remove the need to trade evolve, randomized all wild pokemon and also the legendaries etc...

I've been playing SoulSilver, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the guard at the gate in Goldenrod who usually asks you to deliver a message attached to a Spearow in fact gave me a Salamence called Kenya!

Great work with this tool!

[Time2]

This is a great tool, though the catch rate option doesn't seem to work, at least with Emerald.

[Garbagecollector]

I Have a Huge Problem
in Soulsilver i cant do any trainerbattle and can cant visit any house after violet city and the city just ends because everywhere its just blackground where i cant go on

[C_r_e_a_m_p_u_f_f]

Because of you I will never stop playing Pokémon games... wasn't that the whole point? So, all Generations it would work on... right? (SEEL used Sacred Fire!) This is the best creation ever.

[lukerules117]

I cant get it to work help me