Goodness, do you ever sleep?
I just learned that 7-11 has espresso shots with their coffee. So, no. :P
Really though, thanks for the response. I'm studying computer science right now and am looking for a project to work on. I might just make a ROM hack of my own. It seems like it could be a great learning experience.
As a CS major, I think this is a great idea. You tend to have two kinds of classes, the abstract mathematical ones with things like finite-state machines and algorithmic complexity, and the low-level actual-computer ones concerned with implementation details like how memory works. Assembly language is IMO one of the best ways to learn the second kind. Even a "low-level" language like C still lets you declare as many variables and functions as you want, and the compiler sorts it all out. And its type system may not be as abstract and powerful as something like Haskell, but it still prevents a lot of bugs at compile-time before your can learn from them.
Assembly has no such safeguards. The bug I fixed in 2.0.1 where three of the four Unown panels crashed? I had deleted three sections of code because the labels at the top weren't referenced anywhere, but it turns out they were still accessed by taking the address of a fourth and adding to it. (And because I had the file's whole change history in Git, I didn't even waste a lot of time tracking down the error.) Fun! :P Anyway, pokecrystal's a good place to start because so much is done with macros that it's
like using a high-level language for simple things, but to write original features you'll need to think about the hardware.
Unless I am mistaken, Ninetales can't learn Shadow Ball under any circumstances in the Faithful version. I assume you just copied over the Pokemon teams to Faithful, moveset and all?
Actually, even in the Faithful version movesets are the same, since I tend to change types in ways that already made sense to me. Ninetales learns moves like Shadow Ball and Psychic in vanilla Crystal, so I debated making it Fire/Ghost or Fire/Psychic, and decided that centuries-old kitsune are more like spirits. (And wanted another Ghost-type.)