Which game to hack? pros and cons for FireRed vs Emerald

[Rabbles the BInx]

So, yeah, I already started on my first hack, in FireRed, but I'm noticing there are things I'd like that don't exist within FR, but there are also aspects of FR that I think I'd miss, if I switched to Emerald, so I'm gonna make a list of pros and cons, and see if anyone can help me decide

FireRed Pros:
Arguably easier to work with than Emerald
Secondary region
Already have 8 maps finished, and switching ROMS, now, would set me back, at least a few days


Emerald Pros:
Regional Pokédex (Which I'm gonna need)
Go-Goggles/good desert area tiles (A good chunk of my region is going to be desert)
Tram (again, something I need)
Seems like there are more tools for E than FR

I'm not sure which I'd prefer, though

 

[C me]

For you it looks like you should keep going with Firered.

FireRed has a regional Pokedex.
You can easily put in desert tiles and have the sandstorm stuff happening.
Emerald has a tram?
More tools for FireRed but it's pretty much the same.

 

[Banjora Marxvile]

The only thing I see about Tram in Emerald is the Cable Car. Emerald does not have a Tram system at all, and FR could be edited to have a Tram instead of the Hi Speed boats.

 

[Crizzle]

Emerald has a bigger and better selection of music but thats it.
FireRed is much better to hack. The FR ROM has much more free space. Emerald is a pain to hack, stick with FR.

 

[Banjora Marxvile]

Emerald has a bigger and better selection of music but thats it.
FireRed is much better to hack. The FR ROM has much more free space. Emerald is a pain to hack, stick with FR.

Also a bigger map name bank, more features with Ruby stuff (like Match Call) as well as the Battle Frontier. Music is not all. Also most tools work with Emerald too making it not a "pain to hack" anymore.

 

[Rabbles the BInx]

The only thing I see about Tram in Emerald is the Cable Car. Emerald does not have a Tram system at all, and FR could be edited to have a Tram instead of the Hi Speed boats.

In this case, I was referring to the Cable Car. I called it a tram, because it reminds me of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I had thought about using the boat, but I wanted to use that for a railway system, to connect two regions.

Are we sure FR has a regional Pokédex? I was under the impression that it just limits the dex to the first 151, until you "get" the national dex, but I wanted to be able to alter the regional order, and which appear in it, without altering the National dex order, something I know can be done with Emerald, since I've seen a tool for it, but I haven't seen for FR. Plus, yeah, Battle Frontier and Contests, which I had forgotten to list.

That being said, if FR seems like the better choice, to you guys, you're probably right.

 

[BluRose]

Spoiler:

In this case, I was referring to the Cable Car. I called it a tram, because it reminds me of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I had thought about using the boat, but I wanted to use that for a railway system, to connect two regions.

Are we sure FR has a regional Pokédex? I was under the impression that it just limits the dex to the first 151, until you "get" the national dex, but I wanted to be able to alter the regional order, and which appear in it, without altering the National dex order, something I know can be done with Emerald, since I've seen a tool for it, but I haven't seen for FR.

Plus, yeah, Battle Frontier and Contests, which I had forgotten to list.

Spoiler:

That being said, if FR seems like the better choice, to you guys, you're probably right.

FR does just limit the national dex to obtain the regional.
I do believe that people have managed to make a regional in FR, though. Probably Spherical Ice? It doesn't seem to hard, to be honest.

Battle Frontier is easily insertable; FBI made all of the ASM really necessary and has published it. However, the default and bugless Battle Frontier exists in Emerald, yes.

I've also heard people call Emerald a more complete base overall; it fixes various glitches from the previous Gen III games. FR has JPAN's base going for it, but all of the mainly useful things have been ported over to EM already.

This part is entirely subjective, but I like FR's art style more than I do EM's...

EDIT: Another thing FR has going for it is the multiple World Maps system, what with Kanto and the Sevii Isles. Has anyone even managed to do more than one World Map in Emerald?

 

[Flowerchild]

While I do agree with the rest of the posts here saying Firered seems to be the best overall, I'm just gonna drop a link to this post by Lost detailing the pros and cons of the various ROM choices.

Good luck!

 

[Rabbles the BInx]

So... I assume contests are definitely not an option for FR hacking?

Oh, well, I can get by without that.

 

[Banjora Marxvile]

EDIT: Another thing FR has going for it is the multiple World Maps system, what with Kanto and the Sevii Isles. Has anyone even managed to do more than one World Map in Emerald?

Technically no I think but Emerald has the Battle Frontier map if that wasn't being used, idk if any work has been done into that yet though.

 

[Crizzle]

Technically no I think but Emerald has the Battle Frontier map if that wasn't being used, idk if any work has been done into that yet though.

But there are issues with using the BF maps for other purposes. The pause menu is different in the BF than it is on the normal maps, which can be inconvenient. Though, I'm sure someone has probably made a fix by now.

 

[Rabbles the BInx]

Yeah, I'm gonna just use FireRed. Now if I can just figure out what to change in the scripts for giving starter Pokémon out, I'll be in pretty good shape.

 

[pokeraiser]

well, I love emerald more than Fire Red because I played it as kid.. And I love the music from it too.. But Fire Red is better for hacking so i'm gonna import emerald music to Fire Red.