Emerald hack: Pokémon Citrite Version [Alpha 1.3.1 FINAL EDITION]

[Alexander Nicholi]

Pokémon Citrite Version

Alpha 1.3.1 Final Edition, released January 2024

Quick stats

Initial publication date: April 6, 2015

Current release version: Alpha 1.3.1 Final Edition

Current release date: January 6, 2024

Original fanhack author: Alexander Nicholi (SITE | GITHUB | X.COM)

ROM base: Pokémon Emerald Version (en-US) SHA-1 checksum f3ae088181bf583e55daf962a92bb46f4f1d07b7

Introduction

Welcome to the PokéCommunity Forums' original thread for my second public Pokémon fan hack, Pokémon Citrite Version. I created this game quite a long time ago, when I was only 16 years old! Needless to say, a lot has happened since then – I have grown up, gotten married, and forged a career in informatics which really found its feet through the creation of this video game. Furthermore, this fan hack, and its prequel, Pokémon Dragonstone Version, demonstrated not just my technical ability but also my creative talent as a game designer. This would set the stage for the founding of ARQADIUM in 2016 and later Xion Megatrends.

Developing Pokémon Citrite was my running excuse to learn nearly everything there is to know about the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It was with Citrite in mind that I became an ASMAGICIAN, as we used to be called. Later on I achieved things in Pokémon ROM hacking that had never been done before, such as the game's 600-tile 8bpp title screen – at the time, this was only considered possible with FireRed! As I continued, Citrite grew in its technical ambition, and out of frustration with bit rot I reformed the codebase to use a novel method I invented myself called source-patching. An early alpha-grade redux of Citrite using this method is viewable on GitHub even today. At the start of 2024, I decided to give Dragonstone and this game a final re-release of sorts, to commemorate how influential they were for me, showing you all what became of me thanks of them, and finally archiving them in several redundant, fool-proof ways so that they are never lost again. Long live Pokémon Citrite Version!

Several YouTubers did let's plays and/or walkthroughs of Citrite over the years, but the three that stuck out the most to me were those authored by Fitzhogan11, Gohan's Tips, and Ducumon a.k.a. Pokemoner. I have embedded the pilot episodes of their coverage in the Walkthroughs section below. Thanks guys!

You may remember the old thread looking a bit different. You can view it as it was for years before the final edition's commemorative thread rewrite on Archive.today by clicking here.

Concept

Pokémon Citrite was my first serious game development project, which I embarked on at age 16 off the heels of a bit-rotted Dragonstone ROM. While this thread on the PokéCommunity appeared in 2015, I had started a now-lost thread on the defunct Pokémon Hackers Online forums nine months prior, in the summer of 2014, where Citrite truly debuted. The first major map I authored was the Amalthea Jungle, but I had much bigger ambitions, having created a coherent region north of Johto called Tohjo (map below). I decided that the game would be heavily story-driven, unlike most canon Pokémon games, and therefore would benefit from having four gyms instead of the usual eight. Additionally, I restructured the Pokémon League so that the standard vying for the Championship is sidelined in favour of the game's post-apocalyptic storyline involving Ground Zero and the player's radioactive immunity. The narrative was to build up through an iterative exposition by the player, culminating in a grand reckoning with a hurricane and the powers of the weather trio in the northern sea beyond Port Azure. Once the main storyline was completed, I had hoped to backport the Kohto region from Dragonstone in a reduced fashion, buying myself some developmental headwind through deduplicating effort in making maps and scripts to get back to finishing that first game of mine after all. As you know by now, things did not pan out that way, but rather they went even better as I went farther than I could have imagined.

This game ends after the player saves Cheryl from freezing to death on the slopes of Mt. Massive. As this is the final edition release, there will be no more updates to this game for features nor bug fixes. See the Known issues section if you are stuck.

Screenshots

Playthroughs

Known issues

Maximilien Cleaners entrance leads to a misplaced destination warp, causing a soft lock

Do not enter the Maximilien Cleaners in the southern Grand Prairie to avoid this

Comet Dust item description is not terminated and causes the game to freeze when viewed in the bag

Do not pick up the Comet Dust hidden item in Amalthea Jungle to avoid this

First time arriving in the Musa Stronghold holding cell, the fence opening is not jumpable

This is not a soft lock! Simply regular-save your game and reset and the script will work properly, allowing you to escape

Additional media

Downloads

Alpha 1.3.1 Final Edition: IPS | XDelta | ( base64-encoded gzipped IPS | XDelta )

IPS patches are the conventional method and is the easiest on Microsoft Windows using Lunar IPS. XDelta is easier if you are used to a Unix-like command line, such as those on macOS (brew install xdelta) or GNU/Linux (repo). If the direct downloads are broken for some reason, I kindly invite you to download the base64-encoded backups uploaded to GitHub Gist, decode them into binary, gunzip them, and then apply them as usual. My CDN has been fairly reliable for the last few years, but anything could happen, so there you go.

Source-patch redux: GitHub repository

Follow the INSTALL.md file's directions to get started. You will need a clean ROM file of Pokémon Emerald (the same one you need for patching, see SHA-1 checksum above to be sure). If you cannot find this, it can be built from source using pret's pokeemerald decompilation.

 

[Fun Size]

Oh cool a mystery type of story! Will you be replacing tiles and OW sprites or are you staying with the default ones?

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Oh cool a mystery type of story! Will you be replacing tiles and OW sprites or are you staying with the default ones?

With all of the tilesets (outdoor, indoor, cave, etc) I'm going to be splicing together the tilesets from Ruby, FireRed, and Emerald together into my own blend. I don't think there are any complete tileset collections out there that have the natural feel I want that Nintendo's has :P

I'm hoping to do palette changes with all of them as well, if you're curious. Not quite yet, though.

 

[Jukai]

Everything's looking good so far! I'll have to try out the alpha for myself, though. I'll give you some feedback once I do!

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Everything's looking good so far! I'll have to try out the alpha for myself, though. I'll give you some feedback once I do!

Thanks!

I thought I should share, with the event with Hinkage – if you collect all four of the shards out of the caves he'll take them and give you something in return for them. If you meet him and don't have all of them though, you won't be able to go back to get them. I thought that'd be interactive!

 

[Percy]

The hack name Citrite sounds familiar. Anyway, I'll test the alpha later!

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

The hack name Citrite sounds familiar. Anyway, I'll test the alpha later!

KhaosKnight worked on a hack he mentioned in his Emerald titlescreen tutorial called Pokémon Citrine. Maybe it's that? I checked for this name.

And thanks!

 

[Percy]

KhaosKnight worked on a hack he mentioned in his Emerald titlescreen tutorial called Pokémon Citrine. Maybe it's that? I checked for this name.

And thanks!

Ah, yes, it is Citrine! I followed that tutorial once!

 

[BlackStorm20x]

The hack name Citrite sounds familiar. Anyway, I'll test the alpha later!

I thought it was this at first:


lol But I'll test the alpha as well!

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Alpha 1.0.1 has been pushed!

We've got a new map to explore, some trainers, and that means plenty of reason to grind your starter and maybe catch a mon or two. It's going to be a bit difficult without a PokéCentre, huh?

On the plate for alpha 1.0.2 are some bugfixes in Hinkage's script, some potential palette changes, and... maybe more trainers? I don't know. :)

 

[Le pug]

Keep up the good work Alex, as always you know I'm here to help. Diegoisawesome is the person who made the intro patch via this thread here: click me

 

[Percy]

Oh yeah, I found out who made the FF byte patch. Here's the thread to it.

 

[Cayo]

Mind if I ask how long the alpha is? Sorry, I just don't like playing short alphas.

Looks and sounds really good though!

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Mind if I ask how long the alpha is? Sorry, I just don't like playing short alphas.

Since it's alpha 1.0, there isn't that much content just yet, unfortunately. I'd gander around maybe 10-20 minutes of gameplay thus far.

Just for reference, though: all of the game's content (at least until postgame) will be implemented in the alpha. I'm going to speed through area + event creation because the beta will be where I round out and fill in all of the details, sugar and spice.

Looks and sounds really good though!

Well thanks!

Speaking of which, alpha 1.0.2 is pushed!
The bugs in the Hinkage event have (hopefully) been fixed, some downsizes have been made with battles in the Amalthea Jungle (this isn't a challenge game), and I've sharpened the overworld palettes as well.

Alpha 1.0.3 should have a new event, and also the climax of the jungle with a closed off Amalthea Village... mysteries await!


UPDATE
I have pushed alpha 1.0.3!
Unfortunately one of my tools glitched and the promised palette changes for the overworld didn't carry on. To make up for that, I did an extensive edit of all of the overworld palettes, the main cave palettes, and the palettes of a lot of the people sprites!

Along with that I have made a massive update with the OP layout and its content. There's 24 brand-new screenshots straight outta the latest release, and the post's font has been changed to Play (thank the PokéCommunity for its web fonts!)

Also, another cool addition: Character profiles! Pictures and descriptions of the hero, Hinkage, Nicholi, and Alex have been released. I hope you enjoy that :)

 

[Danno]

Loving all the Meowth stuff. ;D Also, interesting concept, I hope there'll be some cool destroyed building tiles.

 

[Gray-_-Hatred]

Impressive indeed. This Hack is an original piece. I look forward to its completion, A feature I especially look forward to is the Military Factions.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Impressive indeed. This Hack is an original piece. I look forward to its completion, A feature I especially look forward to is the Military Factions.

There'll be all sorts of angles that the story will take.

You have Hinkage and his MEGA Corporation, who more or less takes a neutral stance to the events and an alliance with the player, while his organization is riddled with bureaucracy and concern for business. Then you have the GKIP, and while Nicholi has your back and is a cool guy, the rest of the organization is more or less vigilante with a warped concept of justice (not plain evil). Then you have the Provisional Pokémon League headed by Alex and an unknown Elite Four who act as a voice of reason and hope for the people but often get swept up in the tabloids. The factions are purebred criminal vigilante groups who take advantage of Tohjo's extremely decentralized authority to do what they want. They have grunts lost in the life of crime and scientists lost in curiosity, all doing wrong. It's not like you'll be stopping them, though - I wouldn't be so cliché! ;D

 

[Gray-_-Hatred]

There'll be all sorts of angles that the story will take.

You have Hinkage and his MEGA Corporation, who more or less takes a neutral stance to the events and an alliance with the player, while his organization is riddled with bureaucracy and concern for business. Then you have the GKIP, and while Nicholi has your back and is a cool guy, the rest of the organization is more or less vigilante with a warped concept of justice (not plain evil). Then you have the Provisional Pokémon League headed by Alex and an unknown Elite Four who act as a voice of reason and hope for the people but often get swept up in the tabloids. The factions are purebred criminal vigilante groups who take advantage of Tohjo's extremely decentralized authority to do what they want. They have grunts lost in the life of crime and scientists lost in curiosity, all doing wrong. It's not like you'll be stopping them, though - I wouldn't be so cliché! ;D

Dang! I like where this is going. This is definitely one of the Darker hacks. Very grim. I love that kind of stuff! Keep it up, I assume there will be choices you make that can effect gameplay?

 

[Lyfegurl]

I just tried out the alpha for this game and it was very interesting. Felt kind of weird not having like a potion or two before entering the forest and being surrounded by trainers. Died a few times not to waste the one potion i found before getting the whole lot later. So far the game is really good and interesting so keep it up. I don't mind testing anymore phases of the game you post. {<3}:){XD}

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Announcing... our biggest release yet!

My sincerest apologies for the slack with my pushes to Citrite. I lost my (crappy) Windows computer and just got a development environment set up on Arch Linux, and have been juggling school and other real life things... so yeah. At long last, alpha 1.0.4!

This alpha is a big update since it brings in our first town, completely mapped and scripted inside and out, in addition to a very complex and fancy centerpiece event when you start out. It was a lot of scripting with the Red Alien command-line compiler (no XSE or PKSV), so I'm glad it's finally done. :b
There's also now a place for you to heal your Pokémon. Which is great for a lot of you. :)

So... what are you waiting for? Download it!


If you don't have time to play right away, here are some teasers from the release:

Thank you for reading, and playing too!