Part 10: Pokemon Prime

08: Pokemon Prime

These events take place between the marill fiasco and me catching Missingno. I originally was going to include it in the big Missingno. update but couldn't find a way to make it work smoothly without being all confusing. So uh, enjoy



You may remember our run-ins with these guys. Originally I planned to have the update in which they appeared be a ZZAZZ centric episode, only to find out that apparently gameshark can't make ZZAZZ appear. We are forced to use the Mew Glitch. However we're going to be utilizing it a bit differently this time around, as there is more than one way of doing the Mew trick. This is one of those ways.



Remember this guy? We used him for teleporting out of a bug catcher's line of sight to obtain Mew. We're gonna do that again with another trainer, but he's gonna play another - far more vital - role.



Thanks to our horribly amazing supply of rare candies, Abra has evolved and has leveled up all the way to 94. We're stopping there, because we need Kadabra's "Special" stat to range in the numbers of 251, 252, 254, or 255. For some reason due to Kadabra's stat growth I was only able to make it's special 251, skipping all the other numbers for a just before and after one. Kind of annoying, but if bulbapedia hasn't lied to me then all should work fine.



The trainer we're gonna use is in the route between Saffron city and Lavender Town. It'll be faster to reach him from Saffron, but you could have some weird things happen if you haven't given the guards a drink yet...



If you haven't given any guards a drink, your character will do this weird thing where he immediately looks to the left and quickly steps to the right. It's not really dangerous or anything, but it was a bit strange.



Here's our trainer, a gambler! Again, there are plenty of other trainers that you can teleport/fly out of the line of sight, but excluding the Bug Catcher at the nugget bridge this Gambler tends to be the second chance most people utilize in case the aforementioned Bug Catcher has been caught.



The drill at this point is the same as usual. Stand one space in front of the Gambler's field of vision (for here, the space is in front of the door that leads to the underground biking path) and press start right when you go down, teleport out of there.



Well actually fly out of there! We want our destination to be Fuchsia city, because the route to the east contains a very special and unique pokemon.



Oh, make sure you fight a trainer before finding the pokemon, or else you won't be able to go to the start menu. For some reason pokemon battles don't count as a "finished battle" when the game is at this state (probably because you fly away from a trainer). Make sure you don't stand right in front of the trainer as he/she encounters you, or the game will freeze. Once that's done, go out and look for the pokemon! Expect some resistance though.



As a matter of fact, it might take you so long that you may run into a wild Weepinbell. I didn't even KNOW you could run into wild Weepinbell!



Hopefully you know what the novelty of ditto is. You see before Gen 2 ditto had a gimmick BESIDES being an organic sellout, he can transform into other pokemon!



Don't ask how, but I have a sinking feeling that kadabra is faster than ditto and any damaging attack it has would kill ditto in one hit. See the issue with ditto's gimmick is that it takes one whole turn to transform, more than enough to mash it into little pudding puddles. So make sure you have some sort of stat boosting move or something to give ditto time to transform into kadabra (or whatever pokemon you are using that contains the required special stat).



When the transformation is complete, beat the living um... I already said pudding... goo out of it? Make sure you don't use any moves that would lower its special stats, that would fuck this whole process up. Now I couldn't find a decent explanation to what I'm about to say, so if this sounds weird I apologize. From what I gather, it seems that when ditto transforms into a pokemon, the game registers you fighting a pokemon that has the same stats that ditto transformed from. Except downgraded in a way in that the stats wouldn't equal in a way that a level 1 ditto could immediately become a level 100 Mewtwo (as if it would have the chance to transform). Yet somehow, the game still registers the battle as one against a pokemon with a special stat as the same one ditto transformed into, so allegedly by the game's rational you did beat a pokemon with a special stat of 251. I dunno if ditto still works the same way in later games, but apparently there's some funky stuff you can do to him in Gen 2 (not involving daycare).



Anyway, with that done fly to Lavender and go west. You'll end up in the same route as the gambler, which means that start screen will pop up like usual and you exit out of it.



The game goes into battle mode, the music is that of a trainer battle so everything seems to be going fine...



FUCK



God fuck you bulbapedia I am never listening to you or any other glitch site again. I did everything right, correct special stat and everything, and I end up with this horseshit. Well... There's a ZZTZZ but I'M NOT FIGHTING IT. Also apparently all of my pokemon except .4 have turned into bulbasaur (.4 supremacy). The other trader has... a 4= h 94? Probably some sort of scrambled error message. Unfortunately the game freezes at this point. With my patience being thin (I am getting mad over glitches on video games what has happened) I decide to try out this ZZAZZ thing one more time with a special stat of 255 (Apparently kadabra was able to get to the stat).



Cutting out the middle man, we found the ditto, we killed the ditto, we flew to lavender, trainer battle music plays and thisbetterwork.



Would you look at that, the burning boat trainer (thanks for the name goons)! Normally I would be all "blabla same old" but it actually has a full party of pokemon this time around. Curious I decide to fight.



So the first thing Burning boat does is send out THIS monstrosity. I am calling it that for two reasons 1: I totally see an outline of some giggling fat dude in that mess 2: The cry this thing has... It breaks the game music. I can't explain it, it's like a demented (yet admittedly catchy) version of the tune that is playing at the moment. You'll hear it soon.

EDIT: It has been deduced that the music is a slowed down version of the champion battle theme.






Killing "8" didn't do anything, but the music continues to be bastardized, it plays like this throughout the entire battle. After killing 8 Burning boat has quite the... Exotic pokemon collection/




I'd be lying if I said this wasn't the more diverse parties I've seen glitches have throughout this playthrough (then again we haven't really met that many glitch trainers). Most of these pokemon (I think rhydon is the only one you can easily find) can be labeled as rare or only obtained once (such as Lapras and Mr. Mime). However, what REALLY throws me off is Burning Boat's last pokemon.



Yep, it's Missingno. Remember this is going on before we catch one ourselves, so I'm pretty damn confused here. Sources state that these glitch trainers mess up RAM which result in cases like this but that's such a lame explanation to me. _{i personify my glitches with an attitudereadmyficI don't really have one}



Aaand we got the same error and the same weird screen as before, only it's Oak walking around instead of a snorlax teleporting everywhere. This is considered normal by now.

Here's a video on the battle, enjoy the music!

So what happened? Why didn't ZZAZZ appear? Honestly, I don't know. Kadabra met all the requirements to be cloned and I did all the steps right. I tried it with 2 special stats, and by this point I spent about an hour on this whole trick (Ditto are FAR more rare than what I originally remembered).

Unfortunately, I can not duplicate the trick, so I'm gonna have to give in and just show you guys a well-recorded Youtube video on what happens. It's pretty good actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3iVFfKjklk (You probably know this but just in case the game is colored because the guy is most likely using a BGB emulator, which is like putting a GB game into a GBC. I would actually like to use BGB but I hate the interface and menu design.)

Okay, so you may want to know what happened in that video? Like, why does the player have exploding bulbasaurs? (that is far too funny for me to think about right now)

Well, to start the ZZAZZ glitch overwrites several game variables with the hex value 99. This is why there we were pokemon in the video that were level 153 because a hex of 99 is equal to the integer 153 in standard decimal. It is also associated with the letter C and the move "explosion", which is how the player's bulbasaur's knew more than one explosion, this suggests (more like definitely confirms because you can see the effects right there) that the glitch has made a huge change to the trainer's pokemon data. Oh! Also it seems that the hex value of 99 corresponds with Bulbasaur, explaining all of them in the party. You can kinda see it happening to my game when I got to the glitchy trade screen. Another thing this glitch does is somehow trick the pokemon into thinking they are not the original pokemon of the trainers, and act as traded pokemon. Since the glitch has upped their levels to 153 they will disobey because not even the final badge allows trainers to command traded pokemon that are over level 100. After fighting or escaping the ZZAZZ glitch (you can do so by throwing a poke ball, which ends the battle whether or not you somehow catch the opponent's pokemon) any other trainer you fight afterward will become the player's trainer sprite as well as their name, their transformed ZZAZZ name, or perhaps a different random glitched name. Most of the trainer's pokemon will be Charizard 'M (Red/blue)/Q (Yellow). We'll look into Charizard 'M soon enough, just know that ZZAZZ glitched trainers love to use them for now.

By the way, don't save after fighting ZZAZZ. The game will break and become corrupted, so you'll have to start a new file.

That's it for the ZZAZZ glitch! Unfortunately we weren't able to encounter it, however as an opportunist I thought of something while fighting Burning Boat. That thought is, whether or not we can catch his first pokemon, 8.



And well, catching it is perfectly fine! Just goes straight to nickname and everything. There isn't any entry on 8 that I know of, and I'm not really planning on keeping him. There are only a few things I wanted to check out for this... Pokegod? I don't even know.



A quick overview of stats and moveset. Not exactly... Impressive. It's pokedex number is 95, which is Onix, so I guess the defense and special stats make sense as well as the moveset. As a matter of fact I tried leveling up 8 and I pretty much got the same moves Onix would learn, no superglitch or TM or anything. Pretty dull in that aspect, however one thing you can't tell from the screenshot is that having 8 emit its "Cry" gives us a strange mix of one of the regular route songs.

Have a listen!

One more tidbit



Some items that would normally be usable in the overworld, I couldn't use after catching 8. Not so sure what that's all about, I can't say that the game still thinks I'm battling, because then I wouldn't have even been able to go to the start screen.

Sadly that was all I was able to do with 8. Not wanting another... Blocky, 8 was promptly stuffed into the box for safety. Oh and in case you're wondering, yes catching 8 does not make any sort of error appear, because the glitched trainer doesn't end up saying anything after the catching occurs. So was this all a waste of time? Of course not, as a matter of fact you could say that it was only training for our new pokegod, which we're going to obtain... Through the same mew glitch tactic.



H poke, you have waited too long for your power-levelling opportunities. Now you can finally be fed rare candies, so we can encounter our new friend!



H poke is interesting in that it learns conversion, a move where the user copies the opponent's typing. Normally, only Porygon and it's evolutions can use conversion. To be honest though, the only use I can think of for it is as a stat-like turn to use so ditto can safely transform into H poke when it has too.



Finally, at the beautiful level of 68 we have H poke's special stat at where it needs to be, 196. This really is some strange crap and I would have never believed in this if you told me about it when I was 10 or so. Then again I may be overestimating my young self, I believed a friend who told me there was a trainer stronger than Red hidden in the Ruins of Alph in crystal. I looked everywhere



Just took this screenshot to show that the process of ditto transforming into a glitch pokenmon turns out pretty smoothly... I expected worst to be quite honest.



Ladies and gents through the mew glitch I introduce to you A's little bro, a. Try not to confuse them, as they are different in some aspects. Most notably is that a appears a fucking POKEMON. Not just a bunch of scribbled garbage, I dunno if it's a whirl or a wrath, I just know the latter always looks angry. That thing doesn't look angry so...



Secondly, a's name is long. VERY long, anything that has a's name in it like a textbox will require MULTIPLE button presses to get through. There's just a bunch of blank space after the glitchy block following his name, it is actually really annoying.



There is a remedy, just give the pokegod a nickname! Doing so will delete out all the extra space. Unfortunately my mind went blank while doing this and I named a "A". So now I have two capital letter A's, and I didn't noticed what I just did until like 10 minutes later when I saved over the most recent file that was pre-a. So uh, to avoid getting confused, try to remember the original A has a bunch of glitch blocks around his name, and the new a just has a capital A for a name.

Also check out the weird characters in the nickname screen! I don't think I was able to even select them, just a tiny side effect I suppose.



For some reason after catching a his poli sprite transforms into the usual glitchiness. To continue the trend of interpretations I think this one kinda looks like an old guy, I see a beard. Now you may be wondering about a's current moveset and how it only knows bubble. Well, I can tell you that that blank space is NOT superglitch.



Here, you can see the moveset just fine in battle. It looks like what a poliwhirl/wrath would know at that level, so I guess that's okay. We will not settle for okay however, we have the power to turn these things into death machines, and that we shall do.



During level ups, a doesn't really learn many glitch moves. TM50 is the most notable one, but it's not even that impressive. Just doubleslap with insanely high PP and low accuracy.



As I continued to power level a an impasse appeared. It seems that a, in my game, can not go past level 42. After that the game just... Stops. I've read that it can go farther, but I've tried save stating right before the level and going up several times, the game froze every time. Sorry a, you were not meant to be the very best.



You do have the moveset of every 8 year old's dream however. Check out Egg Bomb, that's an attack move that regularly only Chansey can learn. It does just what the name implies... Throw an egg bomb.

To finish, let's check out a's glitch dex entry:

a
Pokemon #250
Type 1/Water (only visible if Pokemon is nicknamed)
Hex Value: C0
Starting Moves: Bubble, Hypnosis, Water Gun
Yellow Equivalent: 4 4 Hy

Base and Max Stats:
HP: 37, Atk: 0, Def: 40, Spd: 178, Spl: 19
HP: 277, Atk: 98, Def: 178, Spd: 454, Spl: 136

Learned Moves: Selfdestruct (Lv. 6), Horn Drill (Lv. 8), TM50 (Lv. 9), Nameless Glitch Move (Lv. 13), Pay Day (Lv. 14), Karate Chop (Lv. 24), Horn Drill (Lv. 31), Mega Punch (Lv. 32), Egg Bomb (Lv. 33), TM50 (Lv. 35), Mega Kick (Lv. 40), Nameless Glitch Move (Lv. 43), Nameless Glitch Move (Lv. 45), TM25 (Lv. 53), Mega Punch (Lv. 56), TM10 (Lv. 62), Lick (Lv. 71), Double Kick (Lv. 88), TM11 (Lv. 91), TM50 (Lv. 95), Double Kick (Lv. 96)

Learned Moves over level 100: String Shot (Lv. 119), TM29 (Lv. 120), <hangs when learned> (Lv. 121), Horn Drill (Lv. 123), Wrap (Lv. 133), Aurora Beam (Lv. 167), TM34 (Lv. 175), TM24 (Lv. 184), TM50 (Lv. 185), Horn Drill (Lv. 187), Double Kick (Lv. 192), Razor Wind (Lv. 193), <crashes when learned> (Lv. 195), TM29 (Lv. 197), Egg Bomb (Lv. 200), TM50 (Lv. 201), TM14 (Lv. 205), <crashes when learned> (Lv. 207), HM02 (Lv. 213), <hangs when learned> (Lv. 215), <crashes when learned> (Lv. 224), TM40 (Lv. 234), <crashes when learned> (Lv. 238), <crashes when learned> (Lv. 239), <crashes when learned> (Lv. 240), TM02 (Lv. 250), Karate Chop (Lv. 254), Horn Drill (Lv. 255)

TM Moves: Surf, Strength, Mega Punch, Mega Kick, Toxic, Body Slam, Take Down, Double Edge, Bubblebeam, Water Gun, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Submission, Counter, Seismic Toss, Rage, Earthquake, Fissure, Psychic, Mimic, Double Team, Bide, Metronome, Skull Bash, Rest, Psywave, Substitute

Encounter Flag: Poliwhirl encounter
Capture Flag: Poliwhirl capture

a can be encountered by performing the extended Mew Trick using a Pokemon with a Special stat of 192. This Pokemon usually turns into a Rhydon when first caught, so it needs to be caught twice.
It appears that a's end of name character is improperly placed (which means the name is not properly terminated), because there are three lines of glitch blocks surrounding the name. As a result, you must press the A button repeatedly in battle to scroll through the glitch's name before every action. To eliminate this, give a nickname to the glitch.
There are reports of a causing the game to freeze when it reaches level 9 and tries to learn the TM50 move.

Pretty much a direct c/p with description, as it's pretty much stated what I already said before. Although I am curious about TM50 freezing the game, I didn't have that happen to me, then again a was past level 9 when I caught it so that might be a factor.

THE EVENTS THAT TAKE PLACE FOLLOWING THIS BOLD MESSAGE HAPPEN AFTER CATCHING MISSINGNO. AND a. TRY TO NOT BE ALL CONFUSED. I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE.



Finally, we pretty much have only one thing left to do at Cinnabar. That is kick Blane's ass with our wonderfully overpowered Missingno.



Okay I lied, THIS is the derpiest sprite. Come on it looks like a dog.



Of course, after taking down Blane's Growlithe Missingno. downgraded back to level 100. Gamefreak just won't let me have any fun.



Then a ponyta killed it. Fluctuating states are not in my favor today.




Luckily, the reliable trio of H poke, .4, and Mew were able to take care of business (man Night Shade looked so cool in Gen 1). We get our volcanobadge, and bid farewell to wonderful Cinnabar Island.





EXTRA:




Here's a weird one, if you surf along the coast of cinnabar for pokemon, then leave and walk directly straight to the gym door, you get this message. That's not the weird part, the weird part is that dude chilling on the roof. Why is he there? No one really knows. He has been given the nick name of "Hanging Man" by some.