Pokémon Throwback

by RichterSnipes

version 211001 (2021 Oct. 01)

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Preface

There are tons of hacks out there that completely change up the Pokémon experience to make something new. But what if you just wanted something that attempts to improve upon the classic game that is already there? Pokémon Throwback is my attempt at doing just that. This hack incorporates new features and fixes into the 1st Gen remakes to try and create the most refined version of the original Kanto story available while remaining true to the GBA games at its core.

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Features:

Throwback contains a variety of patches that you can use at your own leisure: pick one or more things, or put the whole thing into the game.

GB Sounds
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Offering both new and old versions of audio tracks for a game is never a bad thing, as both have their own charm. This patch brings in the music from Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow. They're based right off of the code from the original ROMs, giving highly accurate results. They play off of the native PSG sound chip in the Game Boy Advance instead of DirectSound (save for one exception) to ensure minimal loss of sound quality.

To play the classic music, check your Key Items Pocket at the start of the game for a new item: the GB Sounds! The game saves which bank is in use, so saving with the 8-bit music on will allow you to keep them on when booting the game up (and vice versa). You'll also be able to play the music in stereo if you wish, with Gen I tracks now having some custom stereo panning. Mono is still suggested for GB Sounds, though.

Things to consider if you think something's off with any part of the sound:

[*]Any quirk in an emulator's PSG sound chip implementation will cause some things to not sound quite right. This is especially true of mGBA, where sounds are harsher and lower quality than they should be.
[*]The volume of the tracks is rather loud. It is the same level as it was in the original games. Lowering it would ruin the fade outs of songs, making them reach zero volume earlier than they should.
[*]"Jigglypuff's Song" is played back through DirectSound, not through the PSG chip. This is because duty shifting is a custom feature of the Gen I/II music engine, not a native part of the Game Boy's standard music library.
[*]The Game Freak logo sound heard in Throwback is from the Japanese releases of Red and Green. The later version heard in Japanese Blue, international Red and Blue, and Yellow uses duty shifting and is thus also impossible to recreate natively.
[*]Pitch bending doesn't play fully accurately in my experience. I can't say whether this is an emulation issue or a GBA issue, although it sounds satisfactory both ways.
[*]Modulation may not sound entirely correct. This is due to a variety of reasons, including lack of documentation, emulation inaccuracies, and even possible discrepancies between the GBA's legacy PSG chip support versus the Game Boy's PSG support. There appears to be more that I don't know about it, but it seems that no one around knows anything about it, either.

Catch 'em All
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You'll be able to obtain all Pokémon from the first two generations in this hack. They're all soundly located and dispersed throughout the game to keep in line with official releases. I've also tweaked some events for one-off Pokémon such as starters and legendaries. They're subtle and low-key enough to not feel too distracting or unfitting from the official game. Trade-evolved Pokémon still evolve through trade to keep with series canon, but you can also simulate trade using Bill's Teleporter at the Sea Cottage. No Hoenn Pokémon are in the game, but I do have plans for Hoenn in the future.

Two other things to note. First off, the title screen is now version-agnostic. And second, the post-game has been tweaked. The Sevii Islands are no longer accessible until after you beat the Elite Four, you'll receive the National Pokédex after you beat the game regardless of how many Pokémon you've caught, and you can obtain non-Kanto Pokémon whenever you want. This is all meant to streamline game progression and give the opportunity to use non-Kanto Pokémon in the main story.

Want to know where Pokémon have been moved in the wild? [B]Check the Wild Locations text file in the "Documents" folder for more information![/B] 

Wardrobe
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One of the presentation changes of FireRed and LeafGreen was new clothing styles for the main characters (the player and the rival). With this hack, I try to replicate the looks of their original looks with reasonable results. All relevant sprites, including the overworld sprites, battle sprites, and opening and credits sprites, have been changed to do so.

Want the female player character to not have a hat on? There's a patch for that! Use the Wardrobe mod patch by Karmageddon to let her hair run free, like her equivalent character in Pokémon Adventures.

Extras
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Do you want to enjoy some of the features and quality-of-life improvements from later generations? What about items that aren't in the vanilla game? This patch attempts to satisfy that craving of yours. With a varying array of fixes available, there's certainly something here to please you.

[*]The game now saves quicker.
[*]All unneccesary tutorial elements have been removed.
[*]TMs are infinitely reusable, and all Move Tutors will teach your Pokémon their moves an unlimited number of times.
[*]You now start the game with the Running Shoes and can run indoors.
[*]Cut down a tree once and it will be gone for the rest of the game.
[*]You can use Repels consecutivley as they run out.
[*]Poison no longer affects your Pokémon in the overworld.
[*]Stats affected by a Pokémon's specific nature are now color-coded in their Pokémon Info screen.
[*]The Egg-hatching field effects of the abilities Magma Armor and Flame Body have been implemented.
[*]Collecting items from the ground or from certain people now plays the proper fanfare instead of the Level Up tune.
[*]All Berries, excluding the Lansat and Starf Berries, are obtainable ingame (those two can be obtained through special means in the Catch 'em All portion of the hack). Check Cerulean City, Berry Forest, and Resort Gorgeous for changes.
[*]Berry numbers 21 through 30 now have their EV-reducing and friendship properties implemented. EVs are capped at 252 per stat.
[*]The Pokédex species glitch, roaming Roar glitch, roaming legendary IV glitch, Pomeg glitch, and Nugget Bridge bug are all fixed, as are various graphical anomalies.
[*]The deeper areas in Mt. Moon have been touched up.
[*]Wild Pokémon have had their held items tables updated to incorporate possible items from later games.
[*]Many items are now obtainable, including the Scope Lens, BrightPowder, Choice Band, Shell Bell, Mental Herb, White Herb, Light Ball, all mising flutes, all Poké Balls, and all non-Hoenn Mail types. You also now get a Lucky Egg at some point in the post-game. Check the file "Newly-Added Items.txt" for locations.
[*]You now turn to face trainers when they engage you in battle, even at Trainer Tower.
[*]Your rival now has unique taunts for you when losing to him at any point in the game. These taunts are taken from the unused text in Gen I.
[*]Translation errors and post-Gen I localization changes have been fixed or reverted, including blacking out, Gamblers, Ace Trainers, the Celadon Condominiums, and Space Shuttle Columbia.
[*]Green and Charine have been properly renamed to Blue and Janine, respectively.
[*]The Viridian Gym Leader, Elite Four, and Champion have had their parties restored to the slightly tougher levels and evolutions of Gen I.
[*]The Pokémon League lobby music is now the Pokémon League theme, and the Trade Center and Colosseum now play the Celadon City theme.
[*]The Game Freak opening now displays the word "Presents" as it should.
[*]The Jigglypuff in Pewter City's Pokémon Center spins just like it did in the Gen I games.
[*]The game's default text speed on starting a new game is now "Fast". The game engine has also been optimized.
[*]Eggs are no longer shown as healing at Pokémon Centers.
[*]All Rocket grunts will disappear from the game at the right time now.
[*]Moves that never miss will now correctly display their accuracy as "-".
[*]The extra delay in restarting map music after finding a hidden item with the Itemfinder has been removed.

You can also obtain random items when using Rock Smash on breakable rocks! Note that this is currently part of the "Catch 'em All" part of the hack instead of the "Extras" portion of it.

And More!
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[*]Decapitalization: This does exactly what you'd expect. All text is properly decapitalized the text in the game. Menu items and moments of actual shouting are left capitalized. Separate decapitalization patches are also included for new/changed text from the other parts of the hack.
[*]Higher Quality Cries: This patch inserts higher-quality WAV files for the cries of Kanto and Johto Pokémon. They're uncompressed and sampled at 13379Hz, the default sampling rate for the GBA Pokémon games (and the vast majority of GBA games, for that matter). Fair warning, though: This takes up a lot of free space in the ROM.
[*]Custom Learnset Changes: This patch alters Pokémon learnsets so they can learn all applicable level-up and Egg moves that are available to them from Generations III, IV, and V. Due to this altering the balance and main gameplay of FireRed, THIS IS NOT A PART OF THE MAIN THROWBACK PATCH. Intended for people looking to spice things up and want a change of pace with the game. Combine it with the Physical/Special/Status split for an experience more akin to later games!

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Patching and Usage

The .zip file should contain the complete hack, folders with the separate patches, decapitalization patches, the save compatibility patch, and various documentation for the hack. The main patch includes all Throwback patches combined into one except for the learnset changes. All text in the game is fully decapitalized—original or hack-added. Also included is a file with the name "rtc.asm." Don't worry about it, that's strictly for legal reasons.

If you want the full Throwback experience, just patch the main patch in the root directory to a vanilla FireRed BPRE v1.0 ROM. If you also want the learnset changes, apply that patch onto the ROM afterwards. Otherwise, check out the ReadMe file for more information on using the included patches.

Throwback runs fine on actual hardware. The only issue you may have is with the real-time clock. If you flash the hack to a cartridge that doesn't have an internal battery, the game won't be able to properly make use of RTC functionality. This will make obtaining Umbreon impossible. Players using emulators or flashcarts with built-in RTC support will be fine.

Check out the guides for wild Pokémon location changes, held item changes, and in-game event Pokémon. They're there to tell you what's changed and what to expect in the hack. The music documentation is there for people who want to delve deeper into music hacking. The documents primarily focus on PSG sound. The main documentation includes details and locations for everything inserted into the hack, as well as details and locations for most scripts changed in it. Only look at it if you're curious or are wanting to add your own things to the hack.

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I also have a Discord server set up for Throwback!

https://discordapp.com/invite/4f9ruYt

Feel free to join it if you're interested in staying up to date with the hack or want to talk about any technical issues you may run into. Or just hang out, if you like! If you have any suggestions for Throwback or notice any issues, feel free to bring them up. Just keep in mind that keeping the hack compatible with the official games is an utmost priority.

Anyone is free to use and modify these patches for their own projects so long as you give proper credit.

Enjoy your time in Kanto!
