Crystal hack: Pokémon October (DEMO 1 RELEASE)

[Gs33022]

Pokémon October

With Pokémon October, you are a trainer in the Kansai region, based off of the October/November 1998 beta maps found in the Pokémon Gold and Silver source code. Prepare to traverse Generation II as you've never seen it before, featuring an extended plot, increased prominence of both old Pokémon as well as new ones, new and beta music, a fixed level curve, beta cries, and other features.

Do note that this hack is made using the MBC30 mapper, which is found only in the Japanese Pokémon Crystal. This increases the ROM size to 4MB instead of the typical 2MB, and as such is only supported by more modern emulators, such as mGBA, BGB, and SameBoy. See the chart in the GitHub repo for a full list of compatible emulators. However, this also has allowed for more features, including following Pokémon, smoother animated sprites, and the Orange Islands as an upcoming postgame area in addition to Kanto! It can be played on an emulator that does not support MBC30, but animations and following Pokemon will be disabled. However, everything else will function normally, and the demo is playable from start to finish, up to Route 33, shortly after Morty (the 4th Gym). A patch file, not the ROM itself, will be provided for download in the thread.Patch this to a Pokémon Crystal ROM using the popular Lunar IPS, or the online MarcoBledo ROM Patcherjs, or any other ips patching tools that you may have at your disposal.

The current version is Demo 1. The ROM to be patched is Pokémon - Crystal Version (UE) (V1.1) [C][!] with the MD5 sum of 301899B8087289A6436B0A241FBBB474.

If you downloaded the previous version, the newest releases features 16-bit item indexing, which unfortunately means that you will need to start over from the beginning. However, it is well worth it, considering that many reported unavoidable crashes have been fixed, as well as tweaks and other minor additions.

We'll try our best to maintain save compatibility for future demos. In the meantime, please report any bugs that you might come across on the thread or the GitHub repo.

Features

• An extended plot
• All Kanto and Johto Pokémon, plus select SW99 Pokémon and other beta designs
• Beta cries, sprites, and Trainer classes
• Following Pokémon (MBC30)
• Smoother animated sprites (MBC30)
• Beta music
• Sweet Honey that functions exactly like gen 2 beta
• A completely redesigned Pack interface based on 1998 beta
• And more!

Credits
Scarlax: animated sprites
Pik, BloodlessNX, Kam, Poket, BimbelyGimbly, Soup,, Rool: various sprites
Darkshade: overworld Pokemon sprites
Celadonk: custom music
FroggestSpirit, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm: music ports
AtmaBuster: walking/follower system base
Shadow Ball, Traiyu, Quent: maps, story, dialog help

The GitHub repo, for those interested in building it from source (includes additional information as well): https://github.com/pokeachromicdevs/pokeoctober

Bugfixes and Features in Demo 1

Spoiler:

Bugfixes

Fixed sprite animation issues, e.g. Aipom, Bellignan, Hoppip
Weird Route 30 glitched lass is gone
Follower no longer spawns on top of people
Pokemon icons in party menu now are consistent
Switching Pokemon order in party no longer messes up walking Pokemon
Fixed Route 46 snow collisions
Fixed aide crashing in Elm's Lab after getting the Pokedex
Fixed wrong badge assignments
Fixed Stanley's phone call crashing
Fixed some false-positive MBC30 detection quirks
Applied the fix for overworld callback ROM bank limitation

Features

Switched item indexing system under the hood (requires replaying the game from the beginning)
Ballerine now has an animation
Added footprints for Aggroswine, Fennecurse, Gorotora, Koalyptus, Kotora, Orefry, Orijoey, Raitora, Germifrost, Kiwacki, Snouwrbun, Terrachnid, Tricules
Guide Gent in Cherrygrove City is mandatory now
Adjustments to dialog, etc.
Aide in Elm's Lab now accounts for Elm having left the lab, he will now give you the Everstone on behalf of Elm
New "Game Boy Color only" screen
Some sort of crash handler

 

[PerceptioN95]

Looks cool.

Got screens of the following pokemon?

Also the map, it looks a lot like base johto, I'm not too familiar with the spaceworld demo's so maybe that is why.

But afaik, lake or rage was a town, but in your map it seems like it's a point of interest.

 

[Inner Rhymes]

This looks really good. I'm glad to see another iteration of the space world demo, that too with following Pokemon adds so much charm.

 

[SwouseyJay]

I noticed 2 glitches when I played it. The first one was that Hoppip's front sprite glitches out when it moves, and the second was the Zephyr Badge was not on my badge page, but the Hive Badge was. I only had one badge, so that's pretty concerning.

 

[Gs33022]

Hi all! Demo 1 has been officially released, and you can find all the changes in the thread, which has been edited. Enjoy!

 

[Made In Sweden]

And the Bulbasaur in Sakura Shrine crashes the game when you try to remove its item on MGBA and Bizhawk but otherwise excellent work. If I find anymore bugs I'll let you know.

 

[Marky Vigoroth]

After the Pokémon Gold 97 hack, making a hack based on the later 98 demo i something I did not know I wanted.
I congratulate you so far.

 

[looneyman1]

is the phys/special split in this?

 

[looneyman1]

I think none of the hold items actually work, I had a togepi hold the flee feather and the switch in's turn was unable to play out, and the everstone doesnt work either.

 

[Gs33022]

Thank you for the reports!

 

[HarleyRayquaza]

Hey! I've played this hack until the end of the current demo and I've loved it, the new spritework and animations are especially brilliant!

Are you going to include some more of the beta designs in the finished hack? I've been considering making a hack that reuses the majority of the scrapped designs, so if you're planning to include more of them then I'd be happy to assist with some of the sprites!

 

[Gs33022]

Hi! Yes, we are planning many, many more! If you're still available, it'd be very appreciated!

 

[Marky Vigoroth]

Hi! Yes, we are planning many, many more! If you're still available, it'd be very appreciated!

I feel relieved that you responded to this thread again!

 

[Gs33022]

I feel relieved that you responded to this thread again!

thank you so much for enjoying my hack! Is there anything you'd like to see in future updates?

 

[RaccoonSlime]

I don't want to be that person, but when is the next update comming out?

 

[Marky Vigoroth]

thank you so much for enjoying my hack! Is there anything you'd like to see in future updates?

Right now, there is nothing I want. I am just waiting.
Then again, I tend to play only finished hacks.

 

[Gs33022]

I don't want to be that person, but when is the next update comming out?

we are working through some programming glitches, but the hack is still alive!

 

[TheEndOfTheRoad]

One of the better Spaceworld hacks, especially since it includes nearly EVERY single beta Pokemon from the '96, '97, '98, and '99 prototypes. Really hope the rest will be added, even if just as like... side evolutions or something. Like "do you want to evolve into beta Girafarig or the modern version".

 

[TrueBlue69]

we are working through some programming glitches, but the hack is still alive!

Bug report here. I had 0 pp on Confuse Ray with Bipulla and when I used Ether. The PP was not restored (emulator used: Gambatte)

Edit: Also I played the whole thing it was awesome (obviously I didn't show the bug)

 

[tadashi89]

Is there a way to reset the in-game RTC? For in case I goof up the time?