Pokemon players praise “fantastic” Emerald setup
The Pokemon CompanyPokemon Emerald players are praising one fan’s unique setup that allows them to avoid one of the biggest pitfalls of the Game Boy Advance era.
One of the great tragedies of being an old-school Pokemon fan is the knowledge that all the Pokemon we bred as kids are gone. This is due to the batteries on the cartridges going dry over time, wiping the save files forever.
The Gen 1-3 era of Pokemon games required batteries to save the game and keep track of the movement of time. Unfortunately, these batteries have a shelf life, which means these cartridges only remain active for so long.
From Gen 4 onward, the Pokemon games no longer required batteries, so save files are a lot safer than before. Because of this drawback of older titles, though, players have devised ingenious methods for preserving the quality of their cartridges while keeping save files safe.
Pokemon Emerald fans are praising one player’s amazing setup
A user on the PokemonEmerald Reddit has shared their setup for playing the game on PC, which eschews the usual emulation practice for a device that plays Game Boy Advance cartridges on a laptop with a BlueTooth controller.
“This is why I love Reddit. Never heard of this before but I just ordered one and now I’m excited as hell,” one user writes, while another says, “I love your setup!”
The device used to play the cartridge is called a GB Operator, produced by Epilogue. One of the advantages of this device is that it can easily back up your saves & internal clock. So, if the cartridge battery dies, you can preserve the save while replacing it with a new battery.
While the GB Operator uses emulation to run games, it requires the original cartridges to run. It even has the means to detect if the player is using a duplicate cartridge, which is a major issue for collectors, especially as the retro Pokemon games keep going up in value.
The Pokemon Company has yet to rerelease any of the Gen 3 games on the Nintendo Switch Online app, which means most players are forced to rely on emulation to play these old titles in their original form, as the batteries keep dying.
There are resources for players who wish to keep using their original Game Boy Advance Pokemon cartridges, even if it means investing in some new hardware. At the very least, players can experience the old games without worrying about dying batteries screwing with their saves.