In 2007, a programmer by the username of 'Poccil' created a scriptbase for the lightweight game engine RPG Maker XP called Pokémon Essentials. Phoenix Rising subverts Pokémon tropes by not featuring gyms or the Elite Four.īut hacked roms have serious limitations and are akin to trying to write a novel by reorganizing the pages of an already existing one. 'We came together in the sense that we love playing Pokémon games and we all want to put our stamp on what we'd want to see in the main series,' he says. That's where Gavin Marshall, the game director on Pokémon Phoenix Rising, first began experimenting with building his own Pokémon game.

Over the years, hundreds of these hacked roms circulated the internet-each one a unique perspective on what its creator loved about Pokémon. When emulation made it possible to play Pokémon games on PC, it didn't take long before fans began hacking those roms, reassembling and modifying the bits and pieces to build their own version of a Pokémon game. That feeling of crafting your own narrative is something that fans of Pokémon carry with them outside of the games into their communities.'įor most, that meant roleplaying new adventures on forums or posting original fan art and custom Pokémon designs. The Pokémon you catch, the battles you fight, it always feel unique. 'Every time you have a Pokémon adventure, it's totally different from every other time you play a game. 'There's some kind of universal element to every kind of Pokémon game that's all about making your own stories,' Involuntary Twitch says. The premise of one day leaving behind the comforts of home to explore a world full of magical creatures wasn't just captivating, it was inspiring. When the animated series and subsequent Game Boy games kicked off the first golden age of Pokémon, it captured the imagination of an entire generation. Many of these projects owe their existence to the early Pokémon forum boards of the '90s. Pokémon Phoenix Rising, for example, incorporates a much more involved storyline with branching quests. Right now, there are at least a dozen fan games being developed by people just like Involuntary Twitch and JV-each one with its own unique spin on the Pokémon universe. Pokémon Uranium might be the one fan game on everyone's lips, but it's only a small portion of a much larger Pokémon community.

Pokemon Uranium features new Nuclear-type Pokémon that are irradiated version of their regular forms.

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