Emerald hack: Pokémon Altair & Sirius Minus

Pokemon Altair and Sirius. The first entries in a series followed by Pokemon Vega and later Pokemon Procyon and Deneb, and is often seen as the prequals even though they technically came first. Also considered to be a "Grandfather of ROM Hacking" in the Japanese scene, where the games were only in Japanese and untranslated until somewhat recently. (The original JP versions were first released around 2010 with some future updates released after)

But much like the series' later installments, its difficulty can be a problem.

Although personally I didn't find Altair/Sirius to be anywhere as challenging as Vega when I played through it, getting past certain battles did require a fair bit of grinding in some form (either over-leveling or EV training which was what I did), and I did see others get stuck trying to beat some battles too.
The EV training bit being recommended could also be said for Vega and Procyon/Deneb.

Basically I saw that there was a demand for a Minus version, so after asking Dr. Akimbo for the a-okay, here we are.

This is meant to be a difficulty patch that balances the game to be "easier" and more in-line with the difficulty from the main series games.
In general there are level and moveset adjustments on various important trainers.
The level curve will be more similar to that of Emerald, though trainers encountered later in the game will be at a higher level closer to that of BW2. While it's still meant to have some semblance of a challenge, they are balanced in a way that you will likely not need to do much additional grinding compared to the regular versions of these games.
To give you an idea on the level curve:
Features & Notes:

Screenshots

DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/file/5ppyxhkp34cp24g/AS_Minus_20210225.zip/file
Both versions are included. Patch one of your choice to a clean Emerald ROM.
The patches are complete/finished games and may only be updated in the future for further improvements or bug fixes.

Credits/Special Thanks
A note on link compatibility with regular Altair/Sirius
Known bugs:

Amazing for those who want an easy way of beating boss. Great Hack!

Oh my lord. We needed this, I didn't find Altair and Sirius that bad when I lasted played them, but back then I used save states. Can't wait for an honest run!

I recently played Altair and the EV training mattered so much. I was able to beat the level 100 boss with Pokemon at least 10 levels below. It also helped that I Thiefed items from the Elite 4, who had competitive items like the Choice Band. Hantama with Choice Band is a monster. Anyway, this is a great idea. Altair/Sirius aren't as hard as Vega, but they certainly needed loads of polish.

SevenChurches said:

I recently played Altair and the EV training mattered so much. I was able to beat the level 100 boss with Pokemon at least 10 levels below. It also helped that I Thiefed items from the Elite 4, who had competitive items like the Choice Band. Hantama with Choice Band is a monster. Anyway, this is a great idea. Altair/Sirius aren't as hard as Vega, but they certainly needed loads of polish.

Click to expand...

Don't mind me asking this doubt since I am not sure fi it's related to Altair or Sirius, but hypothetically assuming I use thief on an opposing Pokemon holding a choice band, but i still lose, will the item still be held by my Pokemon? Thank you!

kisekisifr said:

Pokemon Altair and Sirius. The first entries in a series followed by Pokemon Vega and later Pokemon Procyon and Deneb, and is often seen as the prequals even though they technically came first. Also considered to be a "Grandfather of ROM Hacking" in the Japanese scene, where the games were only in Japanese and untranslated until somewhat recently. (The original JP versions were first released around 2010 with some future updates released after)

But much like the series' later installments, its difficulty can be a problem.

Although personally I didn't find Altair/Sirius to be anywhere as challenging as Vega when I played through it, getting past certain battles did require a fair bit of grinding in some form (either over-leveling or EV training which was what I did), and I did see others get stuck trying to beat some battles too.
The EV training bit being recommended could also be said for Vega and Procyon/Deneb.

Basically I saw that there was a demand for a Minus version, so after asking Dr. Akimbo for the a-okay, here we are.

This is meant to be a difficulty patch that balances the game to be "easier" and more in-line with the difficulty from the main series games. It is still meant to have some semblance of challenge.
In general there are level and moveset adjustments on various important trainers.
The level curve will be more similar to that of Emerald, though trainers encountered later in the game will be at a higher level closer to that of BW2. You are likely not going to need as much grinding as what would be needed for the regular versions of these games.
To give you an idea on the level curve:

Spoiler:

Gym 1: Lv13-16 -> Lv12-15
Gym 2: Lv18-21 -> Lv16-18
Gym 3: Lv23-28 -> Lv20-24
Gym 4: Lv29-34 -> Lv27-31
Gym 5: Lv34-37 -> Lv30-33
Gym 6: Lv40-44 -> Lv37-40
Gym 7: Lv49-51 -> Lv42-45
Gym 8: Lv55-59 -> Lv46-51
Elite 4 + Champion: Lv59-74 -> Lv52-60
Postgame: Lv74-80 -> Lv57-63
Lv100 battles -> Lv80

Features & Notes:

Spoiler:

Various locations in the overworld have been cleaned up/tidied
Traversing parts of the region will also be easier

Some very rare wild Pokemon have higher encounter rates in specific areas
Legendary Pokemon will also be easier to catch

Some other adjustments in general throughout the game to reduce tedium

Dusclops can now evolve into Dusknoir
The method is the same as in Vega, level it up to Lv48

It is now possible to escape from any floor of/Fly from the top of Sky Pillar
It wasn't possible to use an Escape Rope in certain floors or Fly from the top of Sky Pillar, likely to prevent the player from bailing out of the important battles that happen there. But since the player could just enter a different floor and escape from there, that ended up being somewhat pointless.

The Meteoric Legendary Trio now use their battle theme from Vega! But because of instrument channel limitations that were changed for Vega, I also changed the theme a bit to better fit with the rest of Altair/Sirius/RSE's soundfont. You can listen to it here:
https://youtu.be/JaW_mwE5YDI
Some other minor bugs and errors from regular Altair/Sirius were also fixed wherever possible.

Screenshots

Spoiler:

Depending on version, the overworld textbox frame will be in a different color

DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ja45tqv2qf9rz7m/AS_Minus_20201122.zip/file
Both versions are included. Patch one of your choice to a clean Emerald ROM.
The patches are complete/finished games and may only be updated in the future for further improvements or bug fixes.

Credits/Special Thanks

Spoiler:

The original Altair/Sirius/Vega team. They are still working on Procyon/Deneb, go check them out!
Dr. Akimbo and the translation development team for making the English translations.
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=324207 < This thread for notes on Emerald's Pokemon animations

AdvanceMap + XSE
PGE
HxD
Cry Editor
Hopeless Trainer Editor
GBA Graphics Editor
unLZ.GBA
Sappy

Scizor has a proper second animation frame based on its Diamond/Pearl sprites.

The Dusknoir sprites are taken from Vega. The second animation frame, however, is original but drawn from the Vega sprite.

A note on link compatibility with regular Altair/Sirius

Spoiler:

While these games are link-compatible with regular Altair/Sirius, the way that some Pokemon were adjusted/fixed made it so they're essentially incompatible with the regular versions. These Pokemon are:

Dusknoir, Ampharos, Scizor, Asphere-Sirius

Asphere-Altair from the Minus versions can be battled/traded with regular Altair, but not with regular Sirius. Asphere-Sirius from regular Sirius will be somewhat incompatible with both Minus versions. Depending on emulator, you might still be able to link up and battle/trade with these Pokemon.
It is recommended that you don't bring these Pokemon when linking up with regular Altair/Sirius if they are originating from a Minus version save file.

Known bugs:

Spoiler:

(Shared with regular Altair/Sirius)

• Under unknown circumstances, the pretty stone in the Alto Mare Move Tutor's House (bottom right-most house in the area) may already be "collected", even if the player has never entered Alto Mare before. A notice on the JP atwiki pages mentions this happening too, but doesn't mention which stones in the quest are affected (maybe it's not just the stone in that house?).
  (In Minus, a clearflag command was added to a forced one-time event, giving this issue a soft fix during normal gameplay. Though whether this affects something else in the game is currently unknown.)
• Re-entering the Hall of Fame after placing the Emerald in its Sphere Ruins alcove causes it to respawn in the room it was found in and closes up the hole giving access to the later half of the ruins. This means you'll have to re-do the portion of the dungeon where you pick up and insert the Emerald to re-enter the later half of the ruins.
• Viewing the Alto Mare ending also resets the items that appear in Regirock's ruins. No idea on what is causing this.

These also occur in the JP versions, whether they were intended by the original devs is unknown to me.

Click to expand...

Oh I'll be sure to check this out if I ever get the chance to replay Altair and Sirius again! Have a great day

Inner Rhymes said:

Don't mind me asking this doubt since I am not sure fi it's related to Altair or Sirius, but hypothetically assuming I use thief on an opposing Pokemon holding a choice band, but i still lose, will the item still be held by my Pokemon? Thank you!

Click to expand...

Yes you still keep the item, of course they get another one if you battle them again. I was able to Thief 2 Choice Bands from a certain Pokemon in the Elite 4 of Altair/Sirius.

Various locations in the overworld have been cleaned up/tidied
Traversing parts of the region will also be easier

Click to expand...

Got any examples?

PapaBear1 said:

Got any examples?

Click to expand...

Hmm, I suppose it wouldn't be easy to tell what's different unless you knew what the original area looked like.

To give you an idea on how some areas looked before:

Hello, loving this rom hack so far!
Idk if it's user error or something wrong with my game, but after I beat Brock at the gym, there's no events with the devon corp guy or Mr. Briney at the tunnel entrance, so I am unable to progress in the game. Is there a fix for this? Sorry if this is a stupid mistake or easy fix I'm just not getting.

Also, I received two miracle seeds in the forest - one a girl gave me to give to the "witch", and another when I came back and used cut inside the forest. But I'm not sure where the witch is in the forest.
Thanks for any help! :)

Eleth said:

Hello, loving this rom hack so far!
Idk if it's user error or something wrong with my game, but after I beat Brock at the gym, there's no events with the devon corp guy or Mr. Briney at the tunnel entrance, so I am unable to progress in the game. Is there a fix for this? Sorry if this is a stupid mistake or easy fix I'm just not getting.

Also, I received two miracle seeds in the forest - one a girl gave me to give to the "witch", and another when I came back and used cut inside the forest. But I'm not sure where the witch is in the forest.
Thanks for any help! :)

Click to expand...

Did you by chance use Teleport right after leaving the gym? Because the events for that scene weren't changed from Emerald (and R/S). Since Altair/Sirius are pretty much reskin hacks of Emerald, many of its events, progression/etc. before the postgame area will be the same as from regular Emerald.

You'll have to walk past the gym sign to trigger the chase scene event like in the GBA Hoenn games. In ORAS (3DS), that event starts as soon as you leave the gym without having to move.

As for the witch in the forest thing, you're gonna have to tell me where you found this NPC because as far as I could find, there is no mention of any sort of witch or a second Miracle Seed in Hoenn's early areas. That might've been for a different game altogether.

Hello! Did you add the physical special split?

New update is released. This version adds some move animations from Vega.

Tommy1234 said:

Hello! Did you add the physical special split?

Click to expand...

Sorry, there is no Physical/Special Split in A/S Minus.
And as of right now, I don't really plan on adding one any time soon.
Mainly because I want to focus on other projects and stuff elsewhere, but also because I felt the JP devs intended for the original versions to be played without one.

I really love this rom so far, but I have a question. How do I get planite, I have both stones to evolve stellith but It won't evolve!?

SlyRocket1990 said:

I really love this rom so far, but I have a question. How do I get planite, I have both stones to evolve stellith but It won't evolve!?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it seems that Planite is not in this game, only in Vega.

That sucks, oh well, thanks though.

I have a feeling my question isn't related to Pokemon Sirius/Altair Minus, but what is the shiny rate in Pokemon Sirius/Altair? I have tried to check websites that have information about it, but there is nothing. I am asking this question, because the days I have been playing this rom hack, I have gotten three shinies! The first one was a shiny Onix (who is my main member of the team), a shiny Torkoal and a another shiny Onix that I got minutes ago. I thought me getting the first two shinies was me having incredible dumb luck, but after encountering that other shiny Onix, I am convinced that the shiny rate is lower than in Pokemon Emerald. Again, I am sorry if this not the thread to ask this question. May you have a good day.

I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I made this account quickly to report an error. When you give the fossil to the Devon scientist, he receives it without any problems, but when you come back for it, he doesn't give it to you, it's more that he doesn't start any conversation or anything.

I'm playing in the Altair Minus Version and finished the main story and I'm doing the post game. I tried loading my game in Sirius Minus but the error persists.