Red hack: Thief Red

Gotta steal 'em all!

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/5e233dug2v11l1z/thief-red-1.2.ips
ROM Base: Red Version

Play through the original Red Version story with a twist--you can steal trainers' Pokémon.

Rules:
1. Poke Balls, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls are now named Thief Balls, Robber Balls, and Burglar Balls.
2. You can capture trainers' Pokémon using those balls.
3. You cannot capture wild Pokémon.
4. Your Pokémon do not gain experience.

Mateo said:

Interesting idea. I added an unused Thief Ball item in Red++ a while back because I thought about making that possible in Pokémon Forever (you'd find the balls in Rocket places).

Enough about that though, seems interesting. I'm gonna try it out after work.

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Yeah, the idea of stealing pokemon isn't new. But I think the idea of forcing you to use only stolen pokemon that don't grow stronger is new. If you play it, let me know if it's actually fun. I can imagine it being pretty difficult later on, but who knows. Maybe I'l even play it. *gasp*

Huh, this is interesting with the whole no exp thing. I'll try it out.

Looks like its gonna be a really challenging game!!!

Seems good! I might play this later!

Interesting idea, but I don't think I'll play it. It's not something personal against the game, but I don't like the first 2 generations. If I'd ever decide to play a ROM hack based on a 1st-2nd generation game, it needs to be a big edit of the original game.

Last night, I started an actual playthrough to see how the game felt. I've gotten just past the S.S. Anne, and it's pretty fun so far. It's fun to try and anticipate which trainer pokemon will be useful for the upcoming section of the game. I'd say it's slightly more challenging than the regular game. For example, right now I'm about to face Lt. Surge. However, my three strong pokemon are Misty's Starmie, a level 19 Goldeen, and Gary's level 18 Pidgeotto. All of those are weak against electric attacks. So, my next strategy is going to battle trainers east of Vermilion City and see if any of them have a ground type Pokemon I can use to spam against Lt. Surge.

I give it an 8/10 so far.

I may play this later on this year, but thinking it all the way through it seems like an interesting concept. Consider the Elite Four: Lorelei's Pokemon are weak to Bruno's Pokemon, who are weak to Agatha's Pokemon. That's pretty interesting and I'm sure that would make the end of the game difficult. I know for sure that I'd take Lorelei's Lapras/Dewgong and Agatha's Gengar.

Wait, does the battle end automatically when you catch the trainer's Pokémon?

Sceptile90 said:

Wait, does the battle end automatically when you catch the trainer's Pokémon?

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No. Catching a pokemon is just like making it faint. The battle only ends if it happens to be their last pokemon.

I'm at Celadon City and I've started to notice a game breaking glitch, every now and then catching your opponent's Pokemon causes items in your inventory to disappear including key items like HMs and the Lift Key.

Wings Don't Cry said:

I'm at Celadon City and I've started to notice a game breaking glitch, every now and then catching your opponent's Pokemon causes items in your inventory to disappear including key items like HMs and the Lift Key.

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Hmmm... That sounds bad. I'm not sure what could cause this off the top of my head. I'll try to reproduce this problem tonight. If you can get a save state where this happens consistently, that would help.

Wings Don't Cry said:

I'm at Celadon City and I've started to notice a game breaking glitch, every now and then catching your opponent's Pokemon causes items in your inventory to disappear including key items like HMs and the Lift Key.

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I uploaded a new patch that fixes this bug. I'm really surprised I didn't notice this earlier... Sorry about that. Your save file will still work, but I think you mentioned you lost some key items :(.

EDIT: Someone noticed the Old Man battle triggered an infinite loop. I uploaded version 1.2 with a fix for that.

I just beat the game. It was a fun idea but it was way too easy in that you could just catch any tough Pokemon that was thrown at you. It only took me two or three hours to get through the whole thing as I skipped most of the trainers. Maybe it could be made more difficult/interesting if instead of stealing trainers' Pokemon you get a trainer's best team member after you win a battle. In any case, thanks for making this.

ablahblah987 said:

I just beat the game. It was a fun idea but it was way too easy in that you could just catch any tough Pokemon that was thrown at you. It only took me two or three hours to get through the whole thing as I skipped most of the trainers. Maybe it could be made more difficult/interesting if instead of stealing trainers' Pokemon you get a trainer's best team member after you win a battle. In any case, thanks for making this.

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Thanks for playing through. I kinda figured it wouldn't be any harder than the original game--just a fun twist.

I really enjoyed this, probably my favorite Pokemon hack I've played in the last year. Have you considered doing another form of this, but for Gold or Silver? I liked it with Red, but I feel the fact that Psychic is so overpowered, I got by so much of the game with Hypno, and then Alakazam.

IceKrabby said:

I really enjoyed this, probably my favorite Pokemon hack I've played in the last year. Have you considered doing another form of this, but for Gold or Silver? I liked it with Red, but I feel the fact that Psychic is so overpowered, I got by so much of the game with Hypno, and then Alakazam.

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Glad you liked it! I'm planning on doing the same thing for Crystal Version sometime soon.

DO NOT talk to the old man and have him show you how to catch pokemon; neverending loop of Oak chewing him out for using the thief ball.

Wow, what an interesting concept! Does the battle end as soon as you capture a trainer's Pokémon (and you can only catch one), or do you keep on fighting?

Darklust said:

DO NOT talk to the old man and have him show you how to catch pokemon; neverending loop of Oak chewing him out for using the thief ball.

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Are you playing version 1.1? I uploaded version 1.2 a couple days ago that removed the Old Man battle.

Lost Heart said:

Wow, what an interesting concept! Does the battle end as soon as you capture a trainer's Pokémon (and you can only catch one), or do you keep on fighting?

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You keep on fighting. Stealing a Pokemon is essentially the same as making it faint--except it gets added to your party.