Kiera's Compatibility Guide

[kiera2]

There always seem to be heaps of questions around here about whether such-and-such format game will be compatible with some other game.. so I typed this up in the hope that it'll help a few of you out, and maybe make the whole compatibility thing a little clearer. I've kept it fairly specific to Pokemon for the most part.
Being from a PAL region myself, I've had quite a lot of experience importing games and experimenting with compatibility issues. With Pokemon especially I often import games from both Japan and the US. I own a PAL format GameCube, a Japanese format "Panasonic Q" which is a combination GameCube/DVD player, and a Freeloader, as well as Pokemon games for both GameCube and GBA in English and Japanese. Nearly all of this guide comes from knowledge I've gained from my own experience, some is things I've learned online. I don't mind if you use it elsewhere as long as you let me know first - it's my intellectual property, and while I'm not gonna sue anyone, it'd be a nice courtesy after the work I put in

I've divided the guide into five sections. PAL and NTSC explains just what these two words mean, and why they affect video game compatibility. GBA compatibility explains the compatibility between different types of GBA Pokemon games. GameCube compatibility explains compatibility with GameCube Pokemon games. GameCube to GBA compatibility explains, you guessed it, issues with connecting GBA and GameCube Pokemon games. Finally, the Freeloader section explains what this device is, and hopefully explores the answers to some common questions about it.

PAL and NTSC

Firstly, a little explanation behind these two words, because I see them thrown around all the time without people knowing what they really mean. PAL and NTSC, acronyms for "Phase Alternating Line" and "National Television Standards Committee", actually refer to different formats of televisions, not video games. Basically, the USA, Canada and Japan use NTSC televisions, while most of the rest of the world (including Europe and Australia) uses PAL. The specific differences are slight. PAL televisions have a slightly higher resolution of 625 lines, compared to NTSC, which has 525 lines. NTSC has a slightly higher refresh rate of 60 times per second, compared to PAL's 50 times per second. This is where the "60Hz" and "50Hz" options some games have come from - one Hertz is a unit of measurement meaning 'once per second.'​

Okay, technical stuff aside, the effect of this on us gamers is that slightly different versions of video game consoles are made to be compatible with the different types of televisions. Which is why a game from the US won't work on a console manufactured for use in Europe, and vice-versa. If you are thinking of importing a console of a different type to the one manufactured in your country, be aware that older televisions might not be able to display the different signal. However, nearly all televisions made these days are able to display both NTSC and PAL signals.​

GBA compatibility

I'm going to talk about this in relation to Pokemon, because I figure that's what most of you will be interested in here. Firstly, it's important to note that because a GBA doesn't need to display games through a TV screen, the PAL and NTSC differences do not apply to GBA games. A GBA (or indeed a Game Boy of any sort) from anywhere in the world will happily play games from anywhere else in the world. And so the only barrier to compatibility with Pokemon Game Boy games is language. If GBA games are in the same language then they are, for all intents and purposes, identical. There is no difference whatsoever in compatibility between an English-language USA GBA cartridge, and an English-language UK GBA cartridge. Both will work in exactly the same ways.​

In the past, the Japanese-language and English-language versions of Pokemon games were not compatible at all. You couldn't trade, battle, or anything else between them. However, this was changed with Ruby and Sapphire, and continued with Fire Red and Leaf Green. It is now possible to trade and battle between English and Japanese Pokemon games.​

When you trade a Pokemon from one language to another, all the Pokemon's stats and descriptions will automatically be translated by the game. The only exceptions are the Pokemon's nickname and Original Trainer - these will stay in the original language. If you trade a Japanese Pokemon to an English game, the nickname will still appear in the original Japanese characters. If you trade an English Pokemon to a Japanese game, the name will appear in English, but be shortened to five letters, which is the maximum for Pokemon names in Japanese. (Because of the way written Japanese works, you need less characters to express sounds.. even Quilava's Japanese name, Magumarashi, fits into just five Japanese characters.)​

Held-item and trade-induce evolution also works across languages. I've heard rumours of people having glitches with this, but have never experienced any myself after plenty of testing.​

GameCube compatibility

Again, I'm going to concentrate on the Pokemon GameCube games: Colosseum, Box, Channel, and the Bonus Discs available (Jirachi and Celebi). With GameCube games, the usual PAL and NTSC restrictions apply. As mentioned earlier, there are three types of GameCube games - NTSC for Japan, NTSC for the USA, and PAL. The three are not usually compatible - that is, you cannot play games of one type on a console of another type. A Freeloader will allow you to play games from different regions on your own GameCube, read the Freeloader section for more on that.​

There are also issues of memory card compatibility with GameCubes. The main issue here, though, is one of language. You can quite happily put PAL and US NTSC saves on the same memory card. However, put a Memory Card formatted for English-language saves into a Japanese GameCube, and it will not recognise the data. It will read the data as corrupted, and try to re-format the Memory Card. The same thing will happen if you try to put a Japanese-formatted Memory Card into either a PAL or US NTSC GameCube. However, memory cards themselves are not permanently either English or Japanese. Memory Cards are all the same until they are formatted, and even then you can re-format a Memory Card to be used in another language.​

Compatibility between two GameCube games is only relevant in one instance related to Pokemon that I'm aware of: The Colosseum Celebi Bonus Disc. The way this disc works is that it reads your memory card for your Colosseum save file. If it discovers that you've purified all 48 Pokemon, it will give you a Celebi. As the disc is a Japanese disc, it will be looking for a Japanese Colosseum save file. It will not recognise any other type of Colosseum save file. (Information on using the Celebi Disc with Freeloader is in the Freeloader section.)​

GameCube to GBA compatibility

As mentioned in the GBA compatibility section, there is no notable difference between a "US" and a "UK" GBA game. GBA games in the same language are exactly the same, compatibility-wise. So any English-language GBA game will quite happily connect to either a PAL or US NTSC GameCube game.​

Unfortunately, however, GameCube-GBA connections are not compatible across languages. This includes every GameCube Pokemon game to date, including the Bonus Discs. The US Jirachi Disc will not connect to any Japanese-language GBA game. A Japanese version of Colosseum will not recognise an English-language GBA game. Etc. So if you want to use, say, Pokemon from a Japanese GBA game on an English-language version of Colosseum, you'll first have to trade them over to an English GBA game to upload them.​

Freeloader

The Freeloader is a "boot disc" made to trick a GameCube into playing games of different formats to the one it was designed to play. It does not translate games. There are three formats of games that the Freeloader works with; NTSC games from Japan, NTSC games from the USA, and PAL games, which are from Europe, Australia, and a lot of the rest of the world. Normally, these formats are not compatible, and you would not be able to play a game of a different format to the type of your GameCube.​

However, the Freeloader allows you to play games from any region on any region of GameCube. For example, a US game on a PAL GameCube, a PAL game on a Japanese GameCube, or any other combination you can think of. Not only this, but the signal output from your GameCube will remain in the original format. For example, if you use a Freeloader to play an NTSC game on a PAL GameCube, the output to your television will still be in PAL format. This is useful for people who have older televisions that may not be able to interpret different signals.​

And there are complications involved, the main one being with Memory Cards and save files. As explained in the GameCube compatibility section, Memory Cards in different languages are not compatible. However, Freeloader allows you to save Japanese games on an English-language formatted memory card by making 'fake-Japanese' saves, which can be used and read by games using the Freeloader. The downside, of course, is that these are not true Japanese save files, and cannot be read by a true Japanese GameCube.​

Let it also be said that the Freeloader is not perfect. I myself have one, and while I have had few problems with it, sometimes games do not load up on the first attempt. There is always the question of whether the Freeloader will work with newly released games - every so often a new version of Freeloader is released to keep up. But overall I have had very little trouble using one, and it's a damn sight cheaper than buying a second GameCube.​

One question I've seen a few times is whether or not a Celebi Bonus Disc will work with a Freeloader, considering that the way it works is to search for a Colosseum save file on your Memory Card, and the fact that Freeloader does not create "true" Japanese save files. However, if you use a Freeloader to boot up the Celebi Disc, the Disc will read the 'fake-Japanese' Freeloader save file quite happily. I've done this myself.​

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So.. questions? Comments? Corrections? Let me know if there's anything else you want to know about, or if I've screwed up somewhere.

 

[Pokemon09814]

I'll just add a few things...
freeloader "fools" GCN's NTSC/PAL chip by software means in order to change. I'll explain each gamecube is able of reading discs of all regions but the chip is set to a different option e.g. 1 US 2 JAP 3 EUR so freeloader try to give a false access to GCN in order to play the game, unfortunately every few months nintendo is releasing the new games with a special boot code that is different so freeloder can;t work (that's why new versions of freeloader exsists).
It's not excactly reverse engineearing nor something really legal (at least you lose your guaranty of good operation) but it is posible to use a simple switch and bypass this special chip so you can play all region games (of course the legal disks) i have to search thogh if messing with region locks is legal but i guess that since companies sell DVD's that plays all region DVD movies that if you own a legal copy you can use it in an other teritory so freeloder is legal and the switch on the chipset propably is a not allowed modification.

 

[kiera2]

wtf, stickified

Thanks for the Freeloader info, I didn't know much about the technical side of things, only the practical side of what it does.

 

[pika_power]

hey would using jap game with jap disk on jap GC and trade to english work?

 

[kiera2]

hey would using jap game with jap disk on jap GC and trade to english work?

No. If you want to trade Pokemon from a Japanese GCN game over to an English GBA game you'll have to trade them to a Japanese GBA game first.

 

[pika_power]

No. If you want to trade Pokemon from a Japanese GCN game over to an English GBA game you'll have to trade them to a Japanese GBA game first.

thats what I said .

 

[kiera2]

thats what I said .

Oh, I get it.. I thought that when you said "jap game" you were talking about the 'Cube game.

 

[pika_power]

hey can you explain the hacked agmes thing I heard that stadium 2 erased your game if you had hacked pokemon can you explain what happens?

 

[kiera2]

I don't know about that. I've never used a cheating device like AR or GS.

 

[Vigoroth]

How can an older game recognise a newer game, like Ruby/Saphire(old) to Colloseum(new), and Mario Golf Toadstool tour(GCN, old) to Mario Golf, Toadstoll tour(GBA, new)?
And please forgive me for the wrong mario game names.

 

[Silhouette Shadows]

It's not about older games recognizes newer games. It's about newer games tricking older games into thinking that it is old as well. Ruby and Sapphire were programmed to have information temporarily downloaded into them in order to tap into the game. I have no clue about Mario Golf though.

 

[Vigoroth]

This question is about old games with older games.
How can you attach an item to a gsc pokémon and trade that pokémon with the held item to rbyg?

 

[Silhouette Shadows]

You can't. RBY did not let Pokemon hold items so they will either disappear or they will be held in memory and just not usable or perhaps you just cannot trade them.

 

[pika_power]

I tryed I tarded something over to RBY and back and the correct item was there namly the one I had traded it with I tihnk it saves the mem of snorlax on GSC then when it comes back it loads that with a few levels up if trained but what do I know I dont do any hacking ect.

 

[Shadow Umbreon]

This question is about old games with older games.
How can you attach an item to a gsc pokémon and trade that pokémon with the held item to rbyg?

You attach the item and trade as usual, the item won't show up in r/b/y/g but if you then trade it to a g/s/c game, the item you attached will be the one it's holding once it's in an environment where that information is read

 

[O Fortuna]

One question I've seen a few times is whether or not a Celebi Bonus Disc will work with a Freeloader, considering that the way it works is to search for a Colosseum save file on your Memory Card, and the fact that Freeloader does not create "true" Japanese save files. However, if you use a Freeloader to boot up the Celebi Disc, the Disc will read the 'fake-Japanese' Freeloader save file quite happily. I've done this myself.

Now, forgive me if I seem dense or am asking a redundant question here. What you're saying is if I wanted Celebi, I would need a Japanese GBA game (check), a Freeloader, a Japanese version of Colosseum and the Celebi disc. I could play through the Colosseum game and purify all 48 Pokemon and save it to my memory card via a "fake-Japanese" save file. When I load up the Celebi bonus disc, the disc would read my "fake-Japanese" save file and input Celebi, Pikachuu w/ Light Ball and the PP Max. Then I load my Colosseum save file and transfer Serebii and Pikachuu to my Japanese Ruby game and I'm set. From there, obviously if I want to I can trade Celebi to my Australian Sapphire for example. Is that correct? Once again, sorry if I seem dumb or am asking a redundant question.

 

[No_Idea]

I have been having a very drastic problem while trying to connect my sapphire to my colloseum game using the link cable. Every time I connect It says that the connection has been broken... Any help is deeply appreciated.

Thank You

 

[Nightwing]

is it this you guy are talking about:
http://www.ferretgames.com/imageupload/images/sl-gc10_2200_l41daff219542b.jpg

 

[kiera2]

Now, forgive me if I seem dense or am asking a redundant question here. What you're saying is if I wanted Celebi, I would need a Japanese GBA game (check), a Freeloader, a Japanese version of Colosseum and the Celebi disc. I could play through the Colosseum game and purify all 48 Pokemon and save it to my memory card via a "fake-Japanese" save file. When I load up the Celebi bonus disc, the disc would read my "fake-Japanese" save file and input Celebi, Pikachuu w/ Light Ball and the PP Max. Then I load my Colosseum save file and transfer Serebii and Pikachuu to my Japanese Ruby game and I'm set. From there, obviously if I want to I can trade Celebi to my Australian Sapphire for example. Is that correct? Once again, sorry if I seem dumb or am asking a redundant question.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

 

[Bulk]

If I wanted to trade a Pokemon that I snatched in Colloseum to my Fire Red Game, do I have to purify it or something before I can trade it? Sorry if this is a dumb question it's just I want to rent Colloseum but I won't if it's going to take me ages to purify Pokemon. Please help.