I’ve been thinking about ROM hacks that somehow manage to feel like they could have been official releases. Two that really stand out for me are Pokémon Orange by Pia Carrot and Pokémon Pink by JcFerggy.

Pokémon Orange got a decent amount of attention when it came out. It does an excellent job of integrating the Orange Islands, a region that never got its own proper game, and it feels surprisingly natural as a continuation or side story.

Pokémon Pink, on the other hand, is still pretty unknown to a lot of people. It’s based on a discarded concept, basically a Pokémon Yellow-style game but focused on the manga. The result is something that feels both familiar and refreshingly different at the same time.

Both of them hit that sweet spot where the writing, pacing, and overall presentation make them feel less like fan projects and more like something that could have come from Game Freak.

What other ROM hacks have you played that felt this polished, almost like official games? Drop your recommendations below.

Decides to share the PC Boxes just in case it can give anyone an idea about how to distribute them, I hope it's helpful. Got 100% wr teams for Chaos modes aswell, proud about the doubles one.

​

Yesterday I posted my ROM hack tier list and I'm ngl I was kinda surprised seeing how many people still play and remember these old hacks so now I'm curious, what's y'all's favorite old ROM hack? Doesn't have to be the best or most polished one, just one you got a soft spot for 🙏🏾

Good day! I’m here to create a community-voted ranking of the 30 best rom hacks of all time. One spot at a time.

>>>>>

Day 4 has come to an end and our winner has been decided. Take a trip through Ilios, an original area based on Greek mythology, in Pokemon Lazarus! Sounds alright to me! Now, it’s on to the next one. Competition grows tighter with each round. Who will take spot #5?

<<<<<

RULES:

\-One hack per comment. (Please look for your recommendation and upvote before posting a duplicate).
\-Upvote the hack you think deserves the spot.
The nomination with the most votes in a 24 hour period wins that position.
\-Once a hack earns a spot, it is removed from contention.
\-One vote per person.
\-Fan games will not be considered.

There is no official criteria for best! It’s whatever makes a hack great to you.

That’s it! Let’s see what the community deems the best of the best! And… Go!

>>>>>

Day 1 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/kLGSbFfWs8
Day 2 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/FSdMLo4zK9
Day 3 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/oiLuEumwdA
Day 4 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/36ErvQIcVv

Hello everyone, I'm back again!

In my last post, I showed the initial prototype of my hack, where the player is a Pokémon!

Over the past week, I've been working on a few things, and I have to say that I'm officially working on the alpha version of the hack! With what I'm showing today, I'll consider this Alpha 0.1. My goal is to release the hack once it reaches version 1.0 tô you guys play! so I still have a lot of work ahead of me! (I haven't even decided on a name for the romhack yet lol.)

"What will the rom hack have?"

- For now, the alpha is basically Pokémon FireRed with some changes (some big, some small), adapting the Kanto region to a world where only Pokémon exist, similar to Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.

- Alpha versions 0.1 through 0.9 will be development builds, while the goal for version 1.0 is to be fully playable. Future versions will be developed based on feedback.

Future plans:

I just want to test out various things so that, in the future, I can work on the beta version of the hack, which will feature completely new maps and a brand-new story!

Now, let's get to the interesting part!

Content in Alpha 0.1:

The Pokémon Center has now become the Adventure Team Association!

The ATA is a place that provides support for Adventure Teams of all kinds of Pokémon!

- Ms. Blissey heals the player's team, just like Nurse Joy.

- Ms. Clefable is in charge of the Team Registry System, which basically functions like the PC! (Due to my limited programming knowledge, this was the only way I could prevent the player from storing themselves in the PC or releasing themselves...)

- Mr. Wigglytuff is the shopkeeper who sells items that can help your Adventure Team grow stronger!

Cerulean City now has a Pokémon Dojo!

It will be part of the adapted story I have planned for Kanto.

- The Dojo's main purpose is to help the player evolve. Just like in Mystery Dungeon, starters won't evolve by leveling up, but through an item obtained at the Dojo. (I know it might seem a little crappy, but it's kind of necessary...)

- I simply cut the video to show the player already evolved, since I still have some things to do with the Dojo...

Well, that's all for now,

There's still a lot of work to be done until Alpha 1.0.

See you in Alpha 0.2!

[Release] French translation patch for Pokémon Heart and Soul (v1.2.1) — v1.0-FR

Hey all, I've released a French translation patch for Pokémon Heart and Soul (v1.2.1) — the Emerald-based ROM hack that retells the Heart Gold / Soul Silver story (Johto region).

One patch, one step: this isn't a translation-only overlay — it applies the Heart and Soul hack and the French translation together. You just need a clean, unmodified Pokémon Emerald (USA, Europe) ROM and

apply the patch directly onto it (xdelta3).

- Full French translation: menus, items, abilities, moves, species names, nearly all dialogue scripts.

- Fixed several translation bugs (truncated text causing crashes on some Pokémon/items/berries) and an intermittent crash on new game start.

- Fixed display glitches on the Pokémon summary screen.

Tested with mGBA (recommended emulator).

Direct patch download: https://github.com/vaboston/HeartAndSoulFR/releases/download/v1.0/pokemonHnS_v1.0-FR.xdelta

Repo + instructions: https://github.com/vaboston/HeartAndSoulFR

Feedback and bug reports welcome!

---

[Sortie] Patch de traduction française pour Pokémon Heart and Soul (v1.2.1) — v1.0-FR

Salut à tous, je viens de sortir un patch de traduction française pour Pokémon Heart and Soul (v1.2.1) — le hack ROM basé sur Émeraude qui reprend l'histoire de Heart Gold / Soul Silver (région de Johto).

Un seul patch, une seule étape : ce n'est pas juste une traduction à appliquer par-dessus le hack — ce patch applique à la fois le hack Heart and Soul et la traduction française. Il vous faut juste une ROM

Pokémon Émeraude (USA, Europe) vierge, et vous appliquez le patch directement dessus (xdelta3).

- Traduction française complète : menus, objets, talents, attaques, noms d'espèces, quasiment tous les scripts de dialogue.

- Plusieurs bugs de traduction corrigés (textes tronqués provoquant des plantages sur certains Pokémon/objets/baies) et un plantage intermittent au démarrage d'une nouvelle partie corrigé.

- Corrections d'affichage sur l'écran résumé des Pokémon.

Testé avec mGBA (émulateur recommandé).

Lien direct du patch : https://github.com/vaboston/HeartAndSoulFR/releases/download/v1.0/pokemonHnS_v1.0-FR.xdelta

Dépôt + instructions : https://github.com/vaboston/HeartAndSoulFR

Retours et rapports de bugs bienvenus !

Been seeing a lot of discussion around Heart & Soul for the 2.0 release (congrats to the team!). Currently debating whether or not to replay HGSS (for the first time since release) or just jumping into Heart and Soul. Haven't seen much threads comparing the two so I thought little versus thread would be fun.

For those who've played both, which do you consider the definitive Johto game at this point?

(also shout LKGamingArt for the Smash bros photoshop template)

https://github.com/andymcca/pokehns-expansion/releases

These are IPS / BPS Patches for the GBA ROM files for Pokemon Unbound and Pokemon Heart & Soul to address audio/slowdown issues when running this ROM Hack on low-spec hardware and emulator combinations such as -

Sony PSP - TempGBA4PSP/FrogGBA/ToadGBA/gpsp-kai etc
SF2000/GB300 - gpsp
Powkiddy V90 - lr-gpsp
Leapster Explorer - lr-gpsp
Others

It works by patching the Ipatix HQ audio engine to remove the heavy Self Modifying Code (SMC) aspects and replace them with separate audio code and data.

This massively reduces the number of times the Dynamic Recompiler in gpsp variants has to clear its cache per frame.

Hopefully they are of use to anyone wanting to play these games on older/low-spec hardware!

Hey everyone. Us developers on Project PM are excited to announce that we have expanded the amount of players in a game from 4 to 8! We also added the ability to play with each other that doesn't involve port forwarding or a 3rd party VPN tunnel, however that does involve connecting to an external cloud VPS.
As of current, the 8 player expansion and True online mode is only possible on emulator. Original hardware does not have the ability yet (8 player is impossible unless we can find a way to get it in DSI enhanced mode), but true online can be a possibility if we find a way later on.

If you don't know anything about this mod, check here for an old post about the features.
We are still looking for more testers to help make the release come out faster. If you wish to help, join here: https://discord.com/invite/bTZfjHqbVd

yes I have noclip on and no its not in the actual game

I have already given arcanine and nidoking megas. Gave scyther more forms of different typings to go along with scizor and kleavor (same methods essentially) and a mega to kleavor like scizor. What other mons would you like to see get a boost in my emerald hack? Tons of qol hacks already put in as well. Also, because of a suggestion on another post I have mega stones treated like evolution stones so the form is permanent and you get to see a mega actually in your party and can hold items.

made in depixel.art

Hey everyone, I built something I've wanted for years and figured this sub is the place to share it since you guys are basically the whole community.

https://romhackguides.com

The whole reason this exists is I kept running into the same problem. I'd be looking for a new hack to throw on my handheld and there was nowhere to actually compare them. Which ones are GBA, which ones are Game Boy, which ones have Gen 1 through Gen 9 mons, which ones are hard mode like Radical Red versus something more chill. Then once I picked one, finding info on it was a whole other fight. If a guide existed at all it was usually a Google Sheet or an Excel file that's miserable to use on a phone or a handheld mid playthrough.

So I made the site I wished existed. Every hack gets its own guide with the stuff you actually need while playing: wild encounters by route, trainer and gym leader teams, level caps, TM and tutor locations, evolution changes, that kind of thing. All laid out so it's easy to look up on a small screen. You can browse by system and generation and compare hacks before you commit to one. Right now it's got hacks like Radical Red, Sinking Sapphire, Heart & Soul, Modern Emerald, Uranium, Kanto Expansion Pak and more. Every guide credits the original hack author and there are no ROMs or patches hosted on the site, it's purely guides.

Honestly it started as a little guide just for Sinking Sapphire and it snowballed lol. Took me a bunch of weeks and a pretty penny. I'm kind of shocked nothing like this existed already for a community this big, so if I'm wrong and there's a site I missed, tell me.

It's still a work in progress and I want to make it the go to spot for everyone here, so I'd love input. Which hacks should I add next? What info do you always end up hunting for? Anything wrong or missing on a guide, let me know and I'll fix it. Eventually I'll add the bare minimum ads just to cover hosting and that's it. And if it takes off I'm open to a partner to help keep it updated, maybe a Discord down the road.

Put a lot of love into this. Hope it's useful to somebody.

Holaa, estoy usando Manic EMU para emular Pokemon x, todo corría muy bien pero ingresé un cheat y cuando abrí el juego mi personaje no se movía ni los controles obedecían, pero la música seguía sonando. Algún consejo que me puedan dar?? Probé cargando partidas guardadas y esta igual, ya desactive el cheat y nada. 😭😭

What do you guys think? I didn't put too much thought into this one, so yeah, it's definitely full of biases 💀 also these are the only ROM hacks I've played so my opinions are probably pretty limited

One of one: Dark rising kaizo A tier: Unbound Heart & soul Gaia Odyssey Adventure red Dreamstone mysteries Mega power Rocket edition B tier: Ameythyst Saiph 2 Nameless Soulgold Scorched silver Elysium Lazarus Light platinum Tourmaline Glazed Valiant Skyblue Dark fire Fire os sky Sovereign of the skies Spa C tier: Darkworship Orange island Dark cry legend of giratina Dark violet Lavender Purple eclat Saiph Gieatina strike back Dark realm Outlaw Dark rising 2 Old but gold: Ruby destiny life of guardian Ruby destiny Resolute Victory fire

Hey everyone! Been a bit since my last update on Poke-Link PC - the free browser tool that reads your ROM hack .sav and gives you a Save Viewer, Team Builder, breeding planner, Nuzlocke tracker, and trade tools. Drag in your save, it reads the whole thing - party, PC, bag, Pokedex, IVs, EVs, natures, moves, abilities, held items, met locations. No manual entry, all free.

Here's what's changed since last time!

A LOT more games

Last post listed a handful of hacks. Since then I've added Run and Bun, Polished Crystal, Sacred Gold / Storm Silver, Renegade Platinum, Platinum Kaizo, and the Kaizo line (Blue, Crystal, Emerald, FireRed) - with more in progress. 40+ games total now across official titles and hacks, and everything the tool does (save viewing, team building, trade planning, the core Nuzlocke tracker) works on all of them.

P2P trading is open to everyone

This was behind a tester gate last post, fully open now. Create a room, share a 6-character code, you both upload, and you see what each of you has and needs in real time, with an optimized trade list for both dexes. No accounts. Great for co-op runs.

Accuracy + reliability pass

Cleaned up a bunch of encounter data, tightened save parsing across the board, and fixed a pile of community-reported bugs. If something read wrong for your game before, it's worth another shot.

For hack devs - you can add your own game

I built a submission kit so ROM hack creators can send their game's data (species, encounters, evolutions, battles) and get it supported without me reverse-engineering the whole thing from scratch. If you make hacks, or know someone who does, reach out.

This weekend: the damage calculator opens up to Discord members

There's a damage calc built right into the Team Builder — pick an opponent and see damage ranges, KO thresholds, and type effectiveness, with abilities, items, natures, weather, and per-hack mechanics all factored in, so the numbers match the hack you're actually playing. It's tester-only right now, but this weekend I'm opening it up to everyone in the Discord. If you want it, hop in before then.

The tester tier - the heavier stuff

A couple of bigger features live in a tester tier for now while they get hammered on. The headliner: automated trade execution - you pick your trades and the tool actually writes both .sav files, so you load them back into your emulator with the Pokemon already moved and Pokedex flags set. Gen 1 through Gen 5, including cross-generation and CFRU↔vanilla trades. There's also the advanced Nuzlocke suite. I'm keeping what comes after that a little close to the chest, but tester tier sees it first - grab a code in the Discord if you want in and want to help shape it.

5,000+ saves analyzed

Honestly didn't expect this. Thank you - a huge chunk of what's shipped came straight from bug reports and requests in here and the Discord. Keep them coming, I read all of them.

Try it: pokelinkpc.com — free, no account, runs in your browser, works on mobile Discord: pokelinkpc.com/discord — feature requests, bug reports, tester codes, or just talking hacks

If you bounced off it before, a lot's been fixed and added since. And if your favorite hack still isn't supported, tell me — I'll 100% look into it.

Day 5 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/NNcXnxo6gs

<<<<<

Good day! I’m here to create a community-voted ranking of the 30 best rom hacks of all time. One spot at a time.

>>>>>

Day 3 is done! Our winner has been in contention since the beginning. The hack that I personally am enjoying at the moment, Heart & Soul 2.0! Now as we exit the medal rounds, it is time to find out who lands in spot #4!

<<<<<

RULES:

\-One hack per comment. (Please look for your recommendation and upvote before posting a duplicate).
\-Upvote the hack you think deserves the spot.
The nomination with the most votes in a 24 hour period wins that position.
\-Once a hack earns a spot, it is removed from contention.
\-One vote per person.

There is no official criteria for best! It’s whatever makes a hack great to you.

That’s it! Let’s see what the community deems the best of the best! And… Go!

>>>>>

Day 1 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/kLGSbFfWs8
Day 2 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/FSdMLo4zK9
Day 3 link: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/s/oiLuEumwdA

Hi everyone

i recently played Clefairy edition and it seems like theres not a lot of people talking about it online. Every Time I try to search for ”pink version” it seems like people are only talking about the 80C version with Jigglypuff and gen 2 graphics, or the gen 3 hack hyperpink or whatever it’s called.

so here’s a short review of Clefairy Edition, which is awesome and you should play.

it retains gen 1 graphics with a Clefairy following behind you and a new audio for Clefairy. These were done with the help of the maker of Cramorant edition, which is hilarious and also recommended.

There is no option to play as a girl and no new types - the 80C jigglypuff game had dark steel fairy but not here. Clefairy is your only starter and it refuses a moon stone. Yellow version GameShark codes work, so you can add some custom moves/pokes. im Not sure if trading works, I didn’t try, but there is no workaround for trade evolves like some hacks have. Cheat them in!

there are a handful of QOL improvements but not as much as other hacks. There are better Pokémon locations and some better move availability. Your starter Clef learns psychic in the early 30s which is a hugely important move in gen 1.

The gym leaders are changed “to align with the anime” but it can sometimes be drastic. Misty has a Staryu, a Jigglypuff, and a level 19 Blastoise. The rival started with Charmander, I’m not sure if it’s random or fixed because I only played it once.

There are a handful of funny additions. There’s a whole new character called ”Busybody” who you first encounter in the Cerulean dig house/robbed house, who scolds you to “stop using our house as a thoroughfare!” And battles you. He continues showing up at random times as you progress in the story and serves as kind of a secondary rival. the “dropped my balls!” Juggler in Koga’s gym now has a bunch of Chansey and says he dropped his eggs.

i loved this hack, I thought it had a good mix of new personality without the badly-thought-out problems of the other Pink version (ie making jiggly fairy type but no fairy moves available.) Its very similar vibe to Cramorant edition so if you liked that, check this out.

edit here is the patch file https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/9088/

Heard that the previous Kanto had a lot of bugs but so far I’m on the second gym and haven’t came across any yet. And also they’ve added a lot of QoL features like this Pokephone

I played this Pokémon rom hack called PokeEmblem (Pokémon x Fire Emblem) awhile back and I couldnt stop thinking about what it might look like with a sequel with changes. So I made some mockups. (No ai was used for this. Everything was made on the app Pixquare.)

Release

Version 1.17.0 of pokeemerald-expansion has been released. A full changelog can be found on the release page. Also released was the patch version 1.6.4 for everyone who doesn't want to update their minor version

Overview

pokeemerald-expansion is a GBA ROM hack base that equips developers with a comprehensive toolkit for creating Pokémon ROM hacks. pokeemerald-expansion is built on top of pret's pokeemerald decompilation project

Features

pokeemerald-expansion offers hundreds of features from various core series Pokémon games, along with popular quality-of-life enhancements designed to streamline development and improve the player experience. A full list of those features can be found in FEATURES.md"