Pokemon Trading Guide

Hello, everyone, and welcome to my first ever guide. This is a guide for those of you who have been playing Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal who have been trying to trade between ROMS. I'm not linking to any ROMS, nor will I tell you were to get them, that's up to you. Anyway, I had been searching the net to a way to trade between the games through emulators, and all I came up with were guides for using VBA Link. Sadly, I found VBA Link didn't work for the first and second generation Pokemon games, though it does with the GBA Pokemon games. So, I searched for another emulator with link capabilities, and ended up right back on Emulator Zone downloading the program I would end up using TGB Dual. Naturally, the help me for TGB didn't help at all, so I ended up experimenting for a while before finally figuring it out. Now, I'm here, sharing for this infomation with you.

Now, before we begin, I must warn you, THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I HAVE DONE BY MYSELF, FOR MYSELF. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBLITY FOR ANYONE'S SAVE FILE BEING MESSED UP BY USING THIS GUIDE. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! ALSO, I HAVE ONLY TESTED THIS WITH THE SAVE FILES MADE BY VISUAL BOY ADVANCE AND MASTER BOY (GAME BOY EMULATOR FOR THE PSP). FIRST READ THROUGH THE GUIDE, THEN MAKE A SMALL TRADE. IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE GUIDE, SEND ME AN EMAIL AND I'LL FIX THE GUIDE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

With that out of the way, here's what you'll need:
1. A reasonably fast computer. If your computer can't run anything circa 1997, or is on an OS below Windows XP, this will not work well for you. Try upgrading.
2. ROMS of the first (Red, Blue, and Yellow) or second (Gold, Silver, Crystal) generation Pokemon games. Again, I'm not telling you were to get them, that's your job. (I haven't tested this with second gen games yet, so anyone that does, don't be afraid to let me know. It's for the greater good.)
Update: This guide is now confirmed to work for Red/Blue - Yellow trades. Thank you Ida for pointing this out.
3. Save files from these games. Note: Save files must be in .sav format. Visual Boy Advance (VBA from here on) and Master Boy creates saves in .sav format.
4. 7zip (Only for those of you using Master Boy) to place your save file back in the .sav archive on your PSP.
5. TGB Dual (TGB from here on), downloadable here. http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/gameboy/tgbdual.html

Okay, if you have all of that, let's get this underway.

Step 1: The Initial Steps

The first thing you should is unzip TGB to someplace you'll remember (like My Documents or the Desktop) IN IT'S OWN FOLDER and run it. Don't bother running any ROMs yet, you just want it to create a folder called 'Save' which will be very important later. Now, go to Options-->Folders, and click the little '...' button across from Save, and navigate to the save folder it just created. I don't know why, but every once in a while TGB likes to reset that location, so do it every time you want to make a trade.

Next, set the keys for GB2 by going to Options-->Keys. My suggestion, make the A and B buttons a and s on the keyboard, up/left/down/right to i/j/k/l (think WASD on the right side of the keyboard), and start to '\'.

Finally, regardless of what emulator you use beforehand, move your character into the Pokemon Center and in front of the Link Center lady. This mean fewer movements on the part of your character, and fewer keystrokes for you. (Thank you Luke for that suggestion.)

Step 2: Backup

The first part of this step is mearly a precaution in case something goes wrong. Create a folder somewhere and copy your save files into it. (If you are using VBA, simply copy and paste the .sav file into the folder. It should be in the same location as the ROM itself. If you are using Masterboy, navigate to '(Drive Letter)/PSP/GAME/MasterBoy/Roms GBC/SAVE' to find the game saves (they are in .gz format), use Winzip or 7zip to extract the .sav file from the archive, then copy and paste it.)

Next, copy and paste (yes, again) the save files into the 'save' folder TGB created.

Step 3: Make Your Choice

This is important step. When running TGB, it can read the original .sav file when loading a ROM in GB1, but in order to read a save in GB2, it must be in .sa2 format. So, you have to choose which version you are going to use as the primary (GB1) and secondary (GB2) games. For me, Blue is the primary and Red is the secondary. You can do it the opposite, and mix it up even more adding Yellow to the mix. Regardless of which version you choose as primary/secondary, LEAVE THE SAVE FILE FOR THE PRIMARY VERSION ALONE. As long as you tell TGB to read saves in the save folder it created, nothing has to be done to it. For the secondary game follow these steps:
1. Open the 'save' folder.
2. Go to Tool-->Folder Options, click the View Tab, and uncheck 'Hide extensions for known file types".
3. Now that you can see the extensions of the save files (like 'Pokemon Red.sav'), rename the extention .sa2. Just delete the v and add a 2. Don't mess with the file name at all.
4. When Windows asks if you're sure you want to rename the extension, just say yes.
That's pretty much it.

Step 4: The Trade

Now for the main event. First, mute the sound. Just trust me on this one. Next, run TGB and load the primary game by going File-->GB1-Load. If the game doesn't load the right save file, make sure you link TGB to the right save folder as discussed in Step 1. Load the secondary game by going File-->GB2-Load. A small window will popup next to the main TGB window. Don't forget the controls for GB2. When both games have loaded successfully, go through the in-game trading process. (It's easy to figure out, so I won't go over it here). Once you're done, access the in-game menu ('Enter' for GB1 and '\' for GB2), and go down to Reset. The games will reset, and you'll be outside of the Link Center with an updated Pokedex and the traded Pokemon in the respective parties. Save the game as normal, and close TGB.

Step 5: Rename and Replace

With the trading done, go back into the save folder and change the extension on the secondary save back to .sav. Now, if you are using VBA on your computer, simply copy and paste the updated files back into the same directory as the ROM. If you are using Masterboy, plug in the PSP, activate USB, navigate back to '(Drive Letter)/PSP/GAME/MasterBoy/Roms GBC/SAVE', right click the archive and scroll down to 7zip-->Open Archive, and drag and drop the updated file into the archive, answering yes when asked if you want to overwrite.

(If VBA gives you a warning when you try to run the ROM after a trade, just click 'Okay' and the game will load fine.)

Step 6: More Trades

Simply follow Steps 1-5 again to make more trades. Just remember to back up your save files before starting.

That's it everyone. Again, if you have question, need assistance, or see a problem in the guide that needs to be fixed, don't hesitate to send me an email about it.

All images, ideas, videos, stories, shorts, internets, air, water, land and whatnot are the sole property of Jeremy Florence (aka Blood Angel 266) unless otherwise noted. Seriously, don't be a jerk and steal my stuff.