FireRed hack: Pokemon Mars [Demo version released!]

[Far Way]

THIS HACK HAS BEEN SCRAPPED.

PLOT
Red is an experienced teenaged trainer on a groundbreaking quest. A few years back, after defeating the Elite Four for the 3rd time, he agreed to an upcoming project. He didn't know what this would be, just that it would be fun and adventurous on all sides. Now, the time has come for him to play his role in this project. Red and a partner are going to Mars in a space shuttle built by none other than Kanto's own Professor Oak. However, when he arrives during a Martian general election, he finds out that one of the candidates, Fortitudo, is a very corrupt person on the inside. Can he reveal Fortitudo's secret once and for all? Or will he just be dismissed as just an "earthling"?

FEATURES

• New alien forms of Pokemon
• No rival. Rival was instead reworked into a partner to aid you in your space mission.
• Aliens in disguise, sneaky aliens that dress like humans but soon turn out to be aliens desperate for battle
• Ability to explore Pallet Town and Viridian City while still on Earth
• Mars has its own version of the Pokemon League and Gyms
• More to come soon!

SCREENSHOTS
Screenshot library also available on Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/dLJSh

CREDITS
As of right now, I'm working on this hack as a one-man band. I want that to change. I actually need quite a bit of help with sprites, tiles, as well as some other things I might need. If you are willing to help, PM me for more info.

TOOLS USED
A-Map
A-Text
A-Trainer
NSE
Overworld Editor Rebirth Edition
LSA Intro Text Editor
XSE
Visual Boy Advance
More tools will be used as I progress on the hack.

AWARDS
N/A

DOWNLOADS
Alpha 0.1.0 (Special Demo Edition) is now available for FireRed ROMs version 1.0. (Find that yourself, by the way.) It goes all the way up to the first gym, and some alien Pokemon are included.

If you've made it this far in my post, thank you for reading this! It really helps as I am a beginning hacker and need support and enthusiasm to keep myself going.

 

[Seiyaryu]

Looks so cool man! Looking forward to seeing those alien Pokemon, such a unique idea!

Good luck :)

 

[Xertified]

Damn, this looks pre-tty good.

Anyways, good luck in the hack!

 

[Crizzle]

Looks like an interesting idea, though theres a lot of work to do.
Good luck.

 

[Far Way]

Thanks, everyone! I now have a definite list of what will be included in the special demo version, which I am hoping to release on May 28th or 29th. is now released!

• The story all the way from start to first gym
• The first explorable city in Mars is yours to visit
• Five alien Pokemon can be found in grass: Pikachu, Eevee, Growlithe, Zubat, and Ditto.
• The first part of the main plot

Of course, no hack is perfect. If you find any glitches, PM me about the glitch and I will give you credit for finding said glitch. Glitches found via cheats or unfinished areas of the game do not count.

Also, to end this on a good note, here's a reveal of the alien version of Pikachu!

 

[zealot]

This looks both hilarious and awesome. Good luck!

 

[Far Way]

Quick update. The demo version of Pokemon Mars is now available for download! It can be found as an attachment. Remember, you need a v1.0 FireRed ROM and an IPS patcher. If there are any issues, questions, or concerns, feel free to ask me on this thread or via PM. Thanks!

 

[miksy91]

I didn't try out your demo, so it could be covered in the game, but from what I see from the plot here, Red isn't given information on what the project is about. Or also, why is the project important?

Without playing the demo, I take it Red and his friend are taken to Mars with a rocket or other kind of a "space vehicle" of some sort which will probably cost a lot of money. Therefore Prof. Oak (or some team he's working with) should have at least some specific reason for taking Red and his friend to Mars. If nothing else, he might be interested in you recording the pokedex information of the species you can meet in Mars because they're indeed different from the "same" pokemon you can see in Earth.

Also another thing I'd recommend thinking about a bit more would be pokemon gyms and league in Mars. Is there a specific reason behind competing there? Maybe there doesn't have to be, as Red could realize that pokemon gyms and league exist there as well, and he just happens to compete there as a sidequest. After all, professor probably sent him to do something else instead. But this should somehow be mentioned in the game as well if Red aims to become the pokemon master while he didn't go to Mars to do that.

Hope you didn't take this as bad criticism towards your hack. I personally like the idea of the story you have come up with, but by these points I wanted to let you know that if you want to make the hack feel realistic, there have to be reasons behind things happening the way they do. So since you have decided to come up with a plot that isn't totally "you're 10 years old and want to become pokemon master", you have to spend a little bit of time thinking "Why? (does this thing happen)" when you decide to come up with something different.

Good luck to the hack though! :) These points I mentioned here apply to many other hacks as well, not just yours. In fact, even if someone makes a general "10 years old and want to become pokemon master" storyline, (s)he should still think about why the plot changes the way it does during the game.

 

[Fuwafuwa]

I've played through it a bit and no matter what I do it always freezes after I get the pokedex and I have no idea why.

 

[Far Way]

I've played through it a bit and no matter what I do it always freezes after I get the pokedex and I have no idea why.

Have you tried pressing A? (I mean the Z button if you are using VBA.)

 

[Far Way]

I didn't try out your demo, so it could be covered in the game, but from what I see from the plot here, Red isn't given information on what the project is about. Or also, why is the project important?

Without playing the demo, I take it Red and his friend are taken to Mars with a rocket or other kind of a "space vehicle" of some sort which will probably cost a lot of money. Therefore Prof. Oak (or some team he's working with) should have at least some specific reason for taking Red and his friend to Mars. If nothing else, he might be interested in you recording the pokedex information of the species you can meet in Mars because they're indeed different from the "same" pokemon you can see in Earth.

Also another thing I'd recommend thinking about a bit more would be pokemon gyms and league in Mars. Is there a specific reason behind competing there? Maybe there doesn't have to be, as Red could realize that pokemon gyms and league exist there as well, and he just happens to compete there as a sidequest. After all, professor probably sent him to do something else instead. But this should somehow be mentioned in the game as well if Red aims to become the pokemon master while he didn't go to Mars to do that.

Hope you didn't take this as bad criticism towards your hack. I personally like the idea of the story you have come up with, but by these points I wanted to let you know that if you want to make the hack feel realistic, there have to be reasons behind things happening the way they do. So since you have decided to come up with a plot that isn't totally "you're 10 years old and want to become pokemon master", you have to spend a little bit of time thinking "Why? (does this thing happen)" when you decide to come up with something different.

Good luck to the hack though! :) These points I mentioned here apply to many other hacks as well, not just yours. In fact, even if someone makes a general "10 years old and want to become pokemon master" storyline, (s)he should still think about why the plot changes the way it does during the game.

1. Yes, one of the reasons Oak wants to send Red to Mars is for the Pokedex entries.

2. I didn't really want to make gyms obligatory in the first place. They're just there to help you train your Pokemon. However, the Pokemon League is a big part of the story.

Thanks for the response!

 

[Fuwafuwa]

Have you tried pressing A? (I mean the Z button if you are using VBA.)

Yeah, none of the buttons work.

 

[Far Way]

Yeah, none of the buttons work.

That's odd. Could you try recording it on video and putting it unlisted on YouTube? You can PM me the link.

 

[Fuwafuwa]

That's odd. Could you try recording it on video and putting it unlisted on YouTube? You can PM me the link.

Yeah sure, I play on my phone so I don't know how well it'll go but we'll see.

Edit: So it turns out I can't record on my phone but I'll be getting a new phone in about a week so I'll see what I can do then, sorry.

Edit the second: oh gosh, redownloaded everything and uh well it's just really messed up.
It keeps flashing between the last two photos of the character. I'm sorry I have no idea what happened.

 

[Far Way]

Yeah sure, I play on my phone so I don't know how well it'll go but we'll see.

Edit: So it turns out I can't record on my phone but I'll be getting a new phone in about a week so I'll see what I can do then, sorry.

Edit the second: oh gosh, redownloaded everything and uh well it's just really messed up.
It keeps flashing between the last two photos of the character. I'm sorry I have no idea what happened.

I see. That actually happened to my friend. Try downloading your ROM from a different source. Remember, it has to be a v1.0 ROM from the USA.

EDIT: Make sure the ROM explicitly states that it's USA and v1.0.

 

[Fuwafuwa]

I see. That actually happened to my friend. Try downloading your ROM from a different source. Remember, it has to be a v1.0 ROM from the USA.

EDIT: Make sure the ROM explicitly states that it's USA and v1.0.

Thanks, (For some reson v1.1 is fire red (independant) v1.0 is fire red (squirrels) idk why)
Aaaanyway, still experiencing the freezing problem. I'll be using a walk through walls cheat to progress for now (I don't know how not getting the pokedex will affect the game but we'll see)
I'll record the freeze as soon as I can.

 

[Far Way]

Thanks, (REDACTED) idk why)
Aaaanyway, still experiencing the freezing problem. I'll be using a walk through walls cheat to progress for now (I don't know how not getting the pokedex will affect the game but we'll see)
I'll record the freeze as soon as I can.

That's a good temporary solution. However, you also will need to cheat to get past the guy in front of the shuttle door. It's because he'll only move after you get the Pokedex. Meanwhile, I'll try to find a solution if more people have this issue.

EDIT: You're not allowed to talk about places to find ROMs.

 

[Fuwafuwa]

That's a good temporary solution. However, you also will need to cheat to get past the guy in front of the shuttle door. It's because he'll only move after you get the Pokedex. Meanwhile, I'll try to find a solution if more people have this issue.

EDIT: You're not allowed to talk about places to find ROMs.

I managed to walk into the wall then to the door and I've played to the end of the demo now and I was just wondering if you were planning on anything for the alien pokemon other than different sprites such as alternative typings, movepools, stats et cetera.
Also oh gosh I didn't know I've edited that comment now.

 

[Far Way]

I managed to walk into the wall then to the door and I've played to the end of the demo now and I was just wondering if you were planning on anything for the alien pokemon other than different sprites such as alternative typings, movepools, stats et cetera.
Also oh gosh I didn't know I've edited that comment now.

I'll consider those new additions. Glad you enjoy the hack!

 

[Fuwafuwa]

I'll consider those new additions. Glad you enjoy the hack!

No problem, it's definitely super unique concept and it seems super cool.
When I do manage to record the freezing thing would it be ok for me to point out a few other minor bugs?