they will never make a new game that can trade/battle with the new games again. the programming is different and it has absolutly nothing to do with the link. its like...trying to put a gba cart in a transfer pack for pokemon stadium/stadium 2. it simply cannot be done (well...regardless of the fact that it wouldnt even fit). true, you were able to trade between r/b/y/g/s/c, but the programming for those games and advance games are so different, that even if you were to be able to trade, the older games would possibly crash. this is called making money. you buy one thing, then a new thing comes out and the old stuff become obsolete. its a never ending cycle. in fact, i can already tell you that if there is a pokemon game for nintendo DS, you probably wont be able to trade with that and ru/sapph/emerald/firered/leafgreen. so basically, then your games would all eventually be "left in the dust". its something you have to accept XWAMAN. so i guess you aren't getting emerald now, huh? in fact, maybe you shouldn't get any pokemon game ever again. i mean, if you really are gonna "leave your games in the dust", then whats the point of buying them? just because its not compatible with the new games doesn't mean you still can't have fun with it. i know i am getting emerald even though we will probably get a pokemon game for DS and it won't be compatible, i'll still play emerald.