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Emerald hack: Pokémon Modern Emerald (Complete, 2.3.1 Released! Following Pokémon, Modern Battle Frontier, and more!)

Hi all, bit of a newer rom player here. Using an anbernic to download/play.

I've been searching for the gba file for this game for a bit now and cannot find it. What am I missing?

You have to patch an emerald file with the author's attachment.

Also, how do you get the Arceus egg? I already beat the Elite Four the second time, but Steven just says the same dialogue. Do I need to catch every legendary or any other requirements?

Thanks
 
Hello,

Thank you for this amazing rom hack. I love the options that you provided at the beginning. I usually don't post, but this seems like the perfect emerald upgrade so I just wanted to share some suggestions that might improve it even further!

1. Would it be possible to speed up certain aspects of the game?
Battle transitions and Pokémon Centres takes too long which makes the experience tedious and less enjoyable. I usually use the 2x speed or more on the emulator but that ruins the soundtracks which itself is a treat. Even a 50% increase will make a noticeable pleasant difference.

2. Would you be able to add more trainers on the battle frontier?
One of the reasons I appreciate this rom hack is that you updated the battle frontier which usually gets overlooked. The battle frontier is supposed to be the place where all the recognized trainers gather and having key characters like the rival/ Wally/ gym leaders/ elite four and champion mixed in there would spice up the post-game experience so much more than battling against random trainers.

3. Could you add an option to use the Ruby/Sapphire colour palettes.
This is nit-picky but I feel that the colours from Ruby/Sapphire look much better on the player/rival and even the text box than the light green.

Thank you again for the amazing work. I hope at least number 1 would be something you consider. In the meantime should I work on my patience to enjoy it as it is.
 
Hello,

Thank you for this amazing rom hack. I love the options that you provided at the beginning. I usually don't post, but this seems like the perfect emerald upgrade so I just wanted to share some suggestions that might improve it even further!

1. Would it be possible to speed up certain aspects of the game?
Battle transitions and Pokémon Centres takes too long which makes the experience tedious and less enjoyable. I usually use the 2x speed or more on the emulator but that ruins the soundtracks which itself is a treat. Even a 50% increase will make a noticeable pleasant difference.

2. Would you be able to add more trainers on the battle frontier?
One of the reasons I appreciate this rom hack is that you updated the battle frontier which usually gets overlooked. The battle frontier is supposed to be the place where all the recognized trainers gather and having key characters like the rival/ Wally/ gym leaders/ elite four and champion mixed in there would spice up the post-game experience so much more than battling against random trainers.

3. Could you add an option to use the Ruby/Sapphire colour palettes.
This is nit-picky but I feel that the colours from Ruby/Sapphire look much better on the player/rival and even the text box than the light green.

Thank you again for the amazing work. I hope at least number 1 would be something you consider. In the meantime should I work on my patience to enjoy it as it is.

Hi! Thanks for your words. Let's see...

1. Yes! In version 1.3 you will be able to select "Fast intros", which is an option that speeds up considerably entering battles. It's completely optional, which I believe it's important. I personally don't really like it, but why not give an option! Also, disabling attack animations will disable PKMN animations which means that the game will get even faster. Also, remember that if you mash A or B you skip the "delays" that the game sets in between animations and text in battles. It's not automatic, as I don't really like it, but maybe I will include it as an option. Pokémon centres, on the other hand, are WAY faster by default. Other than that, I'm afraid I won't be able to do it.

2. That's... actually a good suggestion! Having the gym leaders and elite four members as participants on the Battle Frontier can be fun! Of course, they will be mixed so it will be difficult to see them but not impossible! Added to the list!

3. Now with this one... I prefer the emerald one. It's also an emerald modernization, so I'm not going to change it. As an option? Well... I can't promise I will do it but I will have a look. It's probably more difficult than it sounds!


You have to patch an emerald file with the author's attachment.

Also, how do you get the Arceus egg? I already beat the Elite Four the second time, but Steven just says the same dialogue. Do I need to catch every legendary or any other requirements?

Thanks

Turns out that you can't rematch Steven in the original game! I assumed you could, so I expected him to be available in the rematch section of the Pokenav, meaning that the second rematch (and thus the arceus egg event) will never trigger in the currently published update.

Good news: I have already fixed it. It's pretty easy.
Bad news: I have been working on a 1.3 update with LOTS (LOTS, really) of changes, meaning that when the update comes you will need to use a new savegame because older ones will be incompatible.

So, if you want, you can:
Spoiler:


Sorry about it! I literally playtested the game without rushing quite a few times but never got to Steven's part so I never noticed. Thanks for bringing it up!
 
I have some questions regarding your ROMHack that I want to ask here, if you don't mind:

1) When you said "Don't expect new moves from later generations", does it mean that moves from Gen 4 onwards isn't included in the game?
I understand not including all the moves from Gen 4 and after since it's an enhancement hack, however that would mean that a good chunk of moves aren't included in this hack, and so the Pokemon's movepool might be severely limited. I wouldn't mind if you're not including the moves introduced in the newer generation however I think it wouldn't hurt to include moves from Gen 4 at least, since it's the generation where the Physical, Special split was introduced for the 1st time and this hack does include physical special split.

2) What kind of newer, post Gen 3 Pokemon are included in this hack?
I know for certain that pre/evolution of pre-Gen 4 Pokemon introduced in Gen 4 are included in this game. But does your hack also include evolution of pre-Gen 4 Pokemon that were later introduced in late Gen 8 and in Gen 9? Like Ursaluna, Wrydeer, Kleavor, Annihilape, Farigiraf, Dudunsparce? From the evolution list that you posted above, it seems that you probably didn't include these latest evolutions. If so, are you planning to add them in some future update? Speaking of new evolution, are there any regional forms in this hack? I wouldn't mind if you didn't include regional forms.
 
I have some questions regarding your ROMHack that I want to ask here, if you don't mind:

1) When you said "Don't expect new moves from later generations", does it mean that moves from Gen 4 onwards isn't included in the game?
I understand not including all the moves from Gen 4 and after since it's an enhancement hack, however that would mean that a good chunk of moves aren't included in this hack, and so the Pokemon's movepool might be severely limited. I wouldn't mind if you're not including the moves introduced in the newer generation however I think it wouldn't hurt to include moves from Gen 4 at least, since it's the generation where the Physical, Special split was introduced for the 1st time and this hack does include physical special split.

First of all, the physical and special split is completely optional. You can enable or disable it via the "Gamemode" name at the start of the game or at Birch's lab. Next update will allow enabling or disabling it via the options menu. Secondly, Pokémon movepool has been heavily modified to be like a mix of Gen IV and Gen III. Certain Pokémon can use moves that were available in Emerald but they were not allowed to. Eg. Swords Dance Skarmory. All Pokémon had their movepool modified taking into account a mix of the original split and the new one. Eg. Flygon.
Thirdly, this hackrom doesn't include Gen IV moves because it's a Gen III hackrom. I know it hinders many Pokémon, but I want it to feel true to its generation. However, at the same time, I know it would be nice to have Dark Pulse as a Special Dark move for example. For this reason, for the next update, I decided to include around 9-10 moves from Gen IV to compliment those types that didn't have physical/special moves in their movepool (Dark Pulse, Psycho Cut, Focus Blast, etc.)

2) What kind of newer, post Gen 3 Pokemon are included in this hack?
I know for certain that pre/evolution of pre-Gen 4 Pokemon introduced in Gen 4 are included in this game. But does your hack also include evolution of pre-Gen 4 Pokemon that were later introduced in late Gen 8 and in Gen 9? Like Ursaluna, Wrydeer, Kleavor, Annihilape, Farigiraf, Dudunsparce? From the evolution list that you posted above, it seems that you probably didn't include these latest evolutions. If so, are you planning to add them in some future update? Speaking of new evolution, are there any regional forms in this hack? I wouldn't mind if you didn't include regional forms.

There was a list with all the added Pokémon in my personal document but has been moved to "4. Pokemon changes". You can have a look at the Pokémon list below Deoxys.

Currently, up to Yanmega are included in this hack but for the next update I have Annihilape, Dudunsparce and Farigiraf. There are no plans to add more Pokémon than these ones (the Gen IX were planned from the start but I lacked sprites, followers, etc.), but I left some spaces for it just in case.

There are no plans for regional forms, ultra beasts, legends Arceus Pokémon, etc.

---------

Speaking of that, I'm finishing update 1.3. You can have a look at some of the changes already, again, in my personal document. Light grey rows are the new changes made for 1.3.
 
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Thanks for the reply. That's great to hear that you're including some moves from Gen IV to diversify the physical/special movepool of each type. Gen IV is the defining generation which didn't just added the physical special split for the first time, but also added great number of moves which compensated for the lack of physical/special moves for certain types. Like Ground types getting Earth Power or Fire types getting Flare Blitz. I hope at least some of these moves are added in the next update.

As for the new evolution, it's great to hear that you're adding evolutions from newer generation, however I looked into the "Pokemon Changes" Spreadsheet and I couldn't find any mention about the Hisuian evolution. It'd be great if you're adding them too, since you're already planning on adding the new evolution from Gen 9. For the regional forms, I assume you wouldn't add them, but you're planning to add them, you could introduce them as a trade gift from an NPC who's a "tourist" from another region looking for the other variant available in the game.

I have another question about abilities. How many abilities are there in this game? Did you include some newer abilities from past generations? What about Hidden Abilities? I guess they are not added in this game since it doesn't include newer mechanics from generation past Gen 3.
 
Hey everyone! I just released version 1.3 of Modern Emerald. This update has a LOT of changes. Just have a look!

Spoiler:


For the next weeks, I will fix any important bug that comes out. Be sure of reporting it to me! But there shouldn't be many of them, thankfully.
Also, unless someone suggests something I really, really like this will be the last big update in a while to not mess with savegames and such. I need to rest a bit... But you can suggest anything anyway.

And lastly, if you want to play version 1.2 you can still download it from my github page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the reply. That's great to hear that you're including some moves from Gen IV to diversify the physical/special movepool of each type. Gen IV is the defining generation which didn't just added the physical special split for the first time, but also added great number of moves which compensated for the lack of physical/special moves for certain types. Like Ground types getting Earth Power or Fire types getting Flare Blitz. I hope at least some of these moves are added in the next update.

As for the new evolution, it's great to hear that you're adding evolutions from newer generation, however I looked into the "Pokemon Changes" Spreadsheet and I couldn't find any mention about the Hisuian evolution. It'd be great if you're adding them too, since you're already planning on adding the new evolution from Gen 9. For the regional forms, I assume you wouldn't add them, but you're planning to add them, you could introduce them as a trade gift from an NPC who's a "tourist" from another region looking for the other variant available in the game.

I have another question about abilities. How many abilities are there in this game? Did you include some newer abilities from past generations? What about Hidden Abilities? I guess they are not added in this game since it doesn't include newer mechanics from generation past Gen 3.

Just don't expect all the moves from Gen IV. Again, I added only 9 moves to help certain typings, and that's it.

And about Hisuian forms, no, they won't be in this game. Sorry about that. Same for regional forms, or any other Pokémon that hasn't been added yet. This could change in the future, but not in the near one as I'm too burned out of programming the game. It's fun, but holy hell it can be tiring sometimes...

Abilities are exactly the same as they were and are in Gen 3. There won't be any change, and new Pokémon have old abilities. It's a design choice.
 
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This mod is incredible! The fast battle transitions have me hooked, but the whole thing plays really well with all of these QoL improvements.

One thing stands out to me to suggest: the day/night shading looks wonderful (I have yet to see if there's a dusk period, but night looks great— I LOVE day/night in Pkmn games!), but going from a dark (2am) overworld into Emerald's bright green battle UI would feel better if the battle backdrop matched the time scene (like in "ROWE", how it matches morning/afternoon/dusk/twilight). No idea how difficult that'd be to implement but it's really immersive to explore the world at night and have the battle backdrops match. (And, if there were an option for a "dark battle UI" as is used in "Blazing Emerald", that'd be extra slick too.)

In any case, thanks for gathering such an awesome number of QoL tweaks into this romhack! 👍🏻
 
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This mod is incredible! The fast battle transitions have me hooked, but the whole thing plays really well with all of these QoL improvements.

One thing stands out to me to suggest: the day/night shading looks wonderful (I have yet to see if there's a dusk period, but night looks great— I LOVE day/night in Pkmn games!), but going from a dark (2am) overworld into Emerald's bright green battle UI would feel better if the battle backdrop matched the time scene (like in "ROWE", how it matches morning/afternoon/dusk/twilight). No idea how difficult that'd be to implement but it's really immersive to explore the world at night and have the battle backdrops match. (And, if there were an option for a "dark battle UI" as is used in "Glimmering Emerald", that'd be extra slick too.)

In any case, thanks for gathering such an awesome number of QoL tweaks into this romhack! 👍🏻

Thanks! I really appreciate your comment.

About the day/night system working in battles... it was working with the old DNS system. I tried to make it work but couldn't, so I decided to focus on more important features. I still want to find a way to enable it, though. Same as, for example, not having the EXP bar in the Battle Frontier. These features may come in the future.
 
Just don't expect all the moves from Gen IV. Again, I added only 9 moves to help certain typings, and that's it.

And about Hisuian forms, no, they won't be in this game. Sorry about that. Same for regional forms, or any other Pokémon that hasn't been added yet. This could change in the future, but not in the near one as I'm too burned out of programming the game. It's fun, but holy hell it can be tiring sometimes...

Abilities are exactly the same as they were and are in Gen 3. There won't be any change, and new Pokémon have old abilities. It's a design choice.

IIRC, I don't think there were any good special Ground type attack, or a Fire type attacks before Gen 4. What if there is a physical Fire Type Pokemon whose only access to physical Fire type move is Fire Punch/Flame Wheel? Regardless if you don't want to include them, then that's that.

Regarding Hisuian Pokemon, I was talking about the evolution of pre-Gen 4 Pokemon which was introduced in PLA, like Ursaluna, Kleavor and Wyrdeer. I honestly don't mind if there are no regional forms.
 
Thanks! I really appreciate your comment.

About the day/night system working in battles... it was working with the old DNS system. I tried to make it work but couldn't, so I decided to focus on more important features. I still want to find a way to enable it, though. Same as, for example, not having the EXP bar in the Battle Frontier. These features may come in the future.

Ahh, gotcha! I had read most of the thread, but not the latest release's "spoiler" tag(/changelog) to notice you had literally just moved to this better DNS. My bad! Haha. If you get around to connecting the battle backdrops to it again, then great— the mod plays & looks great either way 😊 Thanks again 👍🏻
 
I wanna report a bug I found when grinding my Weedle. I caught a Ralts and it gave me enough exp to get Weedle to level 7 to become Kakuna. However Weedle didn't evolve for some reason. Not to mention it plays the Victory Fanfare twice. I'm guessing the Exp from Catching a Pokemon bypasses the Evolution sequence when a Pokemon gets to the level it needs to reach Evolution.
 
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I wanna report a bug I found when grinding my Weedle. I caught a Ralts and it gave me enough exp to get Weedle to level 7 to become Kakuna. However Weedle didn't evolve for some reason. Not to mention it plays the Victory Fanfare twice. I'm guessing the Exp from Catching a Pokemon bypasses the Evolution sequence when a Pokemon gets to the level it needs to reach Evolution.

Turns out that the game itself is not prepared to obtain exp. then giving the player the caught pkm and then trying to evolve. This is why the music is also looped. I'm trying to figure out what I can do in this case, but if it doesn't work I might remove the feature. In fact, this code has a second, visual bug that has been bothering me and I recently "patched" but not solved it so I might as well not have broken features in the game.

Thanks for reporting it.
 
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I just played 1.3

Love the new updates! I'm just trying to figure out how to find/fight the special trainers in the battle frontier (Rival/Leaders/E4). Do I need to meet any specific requirements?
 
I just played 1.3

Love the new updates! I'm just trying to figure out how to find/fight the special trainers in the battle frontier (Rival/Leaders/E4). Do I need to meet any specific requirements?

Thanks!

The game divides all frontier trainers into 8 tiers. The more you win and play, the higher tier trainers the game will use. Special trainers only appear in tiers 6, 7 and 8 so they are quite rare. Gym leaders/E4/Wally appear at 6+ and Champion/Aqua-Magma Leaders/Red-Leaf at 7+. The 8th tier is just all trainers from tiers 6 and 7, so they appear as well.
 
Hi there
I'm playing 1.3 (latest version) and I'm running around on route 110 trying to find Oddish with modern encounters, and have been trying for the past 45 minutes give or take at both daytime and nighttime hours, and I'm not seeing it. Am I just getting absurdly unlucky or is it just not there unlike ORAS and normal Emerald?
 
Turns out that the game itself is not prepared to obtain exp. then giving the player the caught pkm and then trying to evolve. This is why the music is also looped. I'm trying to figure out what I can do in this case, but if it doesn't work I might remove the feature. In fact, this code has a second, visual bug that has been bothering me and I recently "patched" but not solved it so I might as well not have broken features in the game.

Thanks for reporting it.

Is the Second Bug not having the Pokedex display after capturing a pokemon? I also forgot to mention a graphical glitch I found. If you don't have the Physical Special Split enabled, and if you use select to swap the move list in battle. The pp sign and switch will look glitchy. Because the Icons are not Present.
 
Hi there
I'm playing 1.3 (latest version) and I'm running around on route 110 trying to find Oddish with modern encounters, and have been trying for the past 45 minutes give or take at both daytime and nighttime hours, and I'm not seeing it. Am I just getting absurdly unlucky or is it just not there unlike ORAS and normal Emerald?

You're not unlucky! My first idea with "Modern Spawns" was to use them after becoming champion, so I deleted some Pokémon that appeared too much as Oddish. Later on, I changed my idea to make something akin to "Default Spawns + Extras" but I had to redo some routes. Route 110 and some other ones had some Pokémon from the Original Emerald removed and I forgot to re-add, for example, Oddish or the 1% Seedot in Route 102. I just re-added them in version 1.3.1.

Is the Second Bug not having the Pokedex display after capturing a pokemon? I also forgot to mention a graphical glitch I found. If you don't have the Physical Special Split enabled, and if you use select to swap the move list in battle. The pp sign and switch will look glitchy. Because the Icons are not Present.

Thanks! These small bugs are very difficult to find. Already fixed it for 1.3.1.
Pokédex displays not showing up is a feature I wanted that, funnily enough, solves 2 bugs (one of them is solved now anyway).

-------------------------------

Speaking of, 1.3.1 update is out! All bug fixes. Changelog:

  • Fixed the EXP. per catch code (thanks Lunos for his code and quick fix, and SPazzzi95 for finding a bug that has been around that code for like 2 years lol ). The sound still loops 2 times, but it's not a big deal.
  • Fixed Swapping moves in battle with Physical / Special Split option disabled showing garbage graphics. Thanks SPazzzi95 again.
  • Re-added some Pokémon to their original encounter zones with the option "Modern Spawns" enabled. If you see other Pokémon that should be there just like the Original Emerald but for some reason they are not showing up after many many tries, please report it to me.
    Spoiler:
  • Extra buffs and moves for Slugma and Magcargo so they are not as bad.
  • Fixed 2 follower sprites (Charizard and Annihilape).
 
Could the Battle Backgrounds from Pokemon ROWE or Glimmering Emerald be included. Whenever the day night cycles in battles are implemented again? Those ones I've seen look really nice.(correct me if I'm wrong) Something I wanna suggest. Shouldn't Trainers on "Modern Spawns" have the full 423 roster to have in thier teams, not just thier Vanilla Emerald teams? Also I found another anomaly, the Cut hm still has its disc as a grey normal type color, not the green grass type.
 
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You're not unlucky! My first idea with "Modern Spawns" was to use them after becoming champion, so I deleted some Pokémon that appeared too much as Oddish. Later on, I changed my idea to make something akin to "Default Spawns + Extras" but I had to redo some routes. Route 110 and some other ones had some Pokémon from the Original Emerald removed and I forgot to re-add, for example, Oddish or the 1% Seedot in Route 102. I just re-added them in version 1.3.1.



Thanks! These small bugs are very difficult to find. Already fixed it for 1.3.1.
Pokédex displays not showing up is a feature I wanted that, funnily enough, solves 2 bugs (one of them is solved now anyway).

-------------------------------

Speaking of, 1.3.1 update is out! All bug fixes. Changelog:

  • Fixed the EXP. per catch code (thanks Lunos for his code and quick fix, and SPazzzi95 for finding a bug that has been around that code for like 2 years lol ). The sound still loops 2 times, but it's not a big deal.
  • Fixed Swapping moves in battle with Physical / Special Split option disabled showing garbage graphics. Thanks SPazzzi95 again.
  • Re-added some Pokémon to their original encounter zones with the option "Modern Spawns" enabled. If you see other Pokémon that should be there just like the Original Emerald but for some reason they are not showing up after many many tries, please report it to me.
    Spoiler:
  • Extra buffs and moves for Slugma and Magcargo so they are not as bad.
  • Fixed 2 follower sprites (Charizard and Annihilape).

Hi there,

Thanks a bunch for making this rom hack and it really is the emerald experience. I'll have to keep up my Single Battle tower streak, as I have not yet to find any special trainers, even after like 150 battles, but hopefully I'll see somebody!

Can you help to check if Tangela is really in the Safari Zone? I feel like I've been hopping on the bike in the SouthWest area forever... I even found two Charmander, which I assume are rare spawns. I'm almost done with my National Pokedex and this Tangela is killing me!

NEVERMIND: I looked in the wrong area. Sorry about that!

Is Hoppip a rare spawn on Route 122? I've been surfing for ages and haven't found Hoppip or Skiploom.

Thanks again!
 
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