Vol. 2, Issue 25 - Being a Pokémon Cheater
In this issue, I share a personal story of using cheats with Pokémon. We also have a recap of the latest Pokémon news, and the return of the Johto Times mailbag
Another week, another issue of the Johto Times newsletter! In Vol. 2, issue 25, I am sharing a personal story of cheating by playing Pokémon, the reasons that caused it, and why I ultimately decided that it wasn’t worth it. Maybe some of my readers can relate to it. Regardless, it was a fun trip back down memory lane, and I hope you enjoy it! In addition to this feature, there’s also a recap of the latest Pokémon news, and the return of the Johto Times mailbag!
If you would like to share something for the mailbag yourself, details can be found at the end of the newsletter. Enjoy!
News
The top 300 entries for the Pokémon TCG Illustration Contest 2024 were announced this week, featuring artwork of Pokémon with the theme “Magical Pokémon Moments”. The contest was announced in October last year and closed on January 31st this year. Over ten thousand entries were submitted and only two artists will win, with their artwork being used on an official Pokémon promo card! But shortly after the finalists were announced, the contest came under fire by users who noticed that some of the participants appeared to have used generative AI to create their entries. Understandably, this has upset people who didn’t make the final cut and clouds the integrity of the contest.
AI generated artwork has seen a huge rise in popularity over the past couple of years, and, as the technology continues to improve, it becomes more difficult to detect what is and isn’t real. It scrapes existing artwork and impacts the livelihood and good will of other artists who take the time to create their works from scratch. We hope that these claims are investigated thoroughly by The Pokémon Company and the judges, and if proven to be accurate, they will take appropriate action to disqualify those responsible. To the artists who worked hard to create incredible pieces of Pokémon art, congratulations on being chosen, and good luck!
Feature: Being a Pokémon Cheater
After beating the Elite Fours of Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Crystal multiple times and training up my Pokémon to high enough levels, there wasn’t a great deal to do and I had exhausted my efforts in the lands of Kanto and Johto. Despite my admiration for both of these games, I had grown bored with them and wanted to find new ways to explore them. There was a point in my early days of playing Pokémon where I wanted to use cheat codes to unlock new items, exploit the way the game worked, and most importantly: exploit my opponents.
I believe this first started with my neighbour David who lived two doors away from my house. One afternoon, we were battling one another on our Game Boys outside in the street; I had Pokémon Blue and he had Pokémon Yellow. I recall one of the Pokémon he had was a Mew, which was super powerful with health and stats way higher than a typical Pokémon would have. I had heard about Mew previously, but knew it was unlikely to have been legitimate since it was only available via an event or cheat device. Knowing I didn’t stand a chance, I stopped our battle and decided that I would need a cheat device if I was ever going to come close to beating him.
Some weeks passed, and I went to my local Gamestation store to purchase a cheat device called Xploder Lite, by a company called Blaze. By placing the cheat cartridge into the Game Boy and a game inside the cheat cartridge, you could input codes and make changes to the game, activating them on the fly by using the power switch at the top of the Xploder Lite.
Despite my initial plans for the cheat device, I decided I would explore my copy of Pokémon Blue beyond its conventional boundaries. One of the first things I used it for was to confirm my suspicions of PokéGods, such as the rumours about Bill’s secret garden where powerful Pokégod Pokémon were supposed to be hidden. It was great to confirm my suspicions that the rumour was indeed false. I was also able to confirm that a truck was indeed parked in Vermillion City, and that there was no Mew underneath it.
I explored many places across Pokémon Blue’s map, and was fascinated by how the world fit together I also recall my game crashing and restarting when I went out of bounds. I then took full benefit of the opportunity to give myself as many Rare Candies and Master Balls as I wanted.
Eventually I was using my cheat device to teach my Pokémon moves they wouldn’t normally be able to learn, and adjust their health and stats. By this point, I was using Pokémon Crystal to battle my friend Mason with a Victreebel that had Sky Attack, and my Charizard had so much health that it couldn’t be knocked out. I even used my device to bring Pokémon into the game I didn’t legally find, such as other Kanto Pokémon or additional legendaries. I would share the benefits with Mason, transferring over anything he wanted! I don’t remember trying to generate shiny Pokémon, but I feel like it is something I probably would have done.
While it was fun to see the surprise and horror on my friend’s faces as I destroyed their teams with my army of overpowered and manipulated Pokémon, I realised that using my games to obtain rare and powerful Pokémon and items lessened the overall experience. I acknowledged that I wasn’t having as much fun with Pokémon as when I played the games legitimately, so I retired my use of the device entirely, putting it back into its box and placing it under my bed where it was never used again.
I can understand why people would see the appeal of using a cheat device, and there were many of them around at the time, such as GameShark, Game Genie, and of course, my Xploder Lite. These devices are pretty obsolete nowadays as games have moved to new consoles where they can’t be used, but similar methods to manipulate Pokémon data are still out there. How many of us have obtained a hacked Pokémon (also known as genned Pokémon) via WiFi trades? Pokémon Home – the service that allows you to store and transfer Pokémon between games – implements strict background checks for genned monsters, and The Pokémon Company has been disqualifying more and more professional-level players who use teams with hacked monsters.
Back in the earliest days of Pokémon, trading to obtain every Pokémon was a significant challenge, and impossible if you weren’t able to travel to specific locations at designated times. Some countries, such as Australia, had significantly fewer official events than other places, and many never made it out of Japan. But thanks to online trading and Mystery Gift events, fans like me have an easier time of catching them all. With EXP candies and Bottle Caps, it’s now nearly effortless to train your Pokémon’s stats and level them up – much easier than it ever was during the 2000s.
Apologies to all the friends from back then who fell victim to my overpowered and broken Victreebel. They can rest assured that the cheat cartridge will remain in its box on my shelf until the end of time.
Mailbag
It’s been a while, but we are happy to return to the Johto Times mailbag! This week, we have some awesome artwork from a reader called Corylus from Germany!
Since my childhood I'm a huge Pokémon fan and as any child would do, I copied the illustrations of the box art and manuals. However, I never figured out how Ken Sugimori created those wonderful effects with watercolours. After some research I could find some tutorials, which were a huge help. It [is] important to use high quality watercolour paper, as they really make a difference. Using a wet on wet technique allowed for the soft gradients I was looking for and once it dried, I applied the shading. The line art itself was done using a g pen and ink. While difficult to use, it leaves a much stronger impact than regular pens.
Corylus, Germany
Hey Corylus! Thank you so much for sharing this awesome Dratini artwork! I’ve always been a huge fan of the watercolour art style that Ken Sugimori brought to lots of the early Pokémon products in the late 90s, and you’ve captured it beautifully. Keep up the fantastic work!
That’s it for another week! Be sure to share our newsletter with your friends and loved ones and help us reach even more Pokémon fans. For Discord users, you’re welcome to join our server for the latest notifications from our project. We are still open to sharing your mailbag entries, so if you have anything you would like to share with us, drop us a line by visiting this link to contact us directly!
I remember using the item copy glitch in Pokémon Crystal to get more master balls. I had it attached to my Ursaring so it ended up filling boxes with that Ursaring. The only time I used a game shark was at a friend's house to get Jirachi and Deoxis.
I had a similar cheat device called Monster Brain. It only worked with the gen 1+2 Pokemon games exclusively, it didn't have any compatibility with any other games. It had a nice gui for editing the pokemon in your party and bag items. It also had the ability to make save backups to restore later.
One time I completely ruined my friends save file because I didn't understand how the feature worked. I overwrote his save file on Crystal with a random file with almost no progress! I still feel bad about it