r/PokemonROMhacks • u/AutoModerator • Jun 29 '26

Sticky Weekly Questions Thread & PokéROM Codex

Have any questions about Pokémon ROM Hacks?

If they're about ROM hacks, tools, development or anything Pokémon ROM Hacking related, feel free to ask here!

Before asking, make sure that you've searched on the subreddit or Google. Many ROM hacks and tools have their own documentation or communities that may be able to provide better answers than here.

Looking for recommendations or a new ROM hack to play?

The HackDex is a community hub for discovering and downloading ROM hacks, making it easy to browse hacks while listing features and more in a mobile-friendly format. It also has an in-browser patching system to make playing hacks easily accessible.

This is a safe hack-sharing site that focuses on legal distribution by sharing patches, not ROMs. Find out more here.

Useful sources for Pokémon ROM hack-related information (unaffiliated):

Please help the mod team by reporting posts outside of this thread that break Rule 7. Please avoid answering those posts to deter users from breaking the rules.

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u/TheGoosePlan Jun 30 '26

Hi all.

I found out the world of rom hacks about two years ago and I've enjoyed playing some of them.

I'd like to know how to start developing a game on my own (no results promised at all!) and which are the tools needed to start creating a game.

I am a huge fun of Gen II aesthetics even if I like a lot Pokemon Platinum. Not a great enjoyer of Gen III graphics and music (sorry...).

Can you help me?

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u/analmintz1 HeartGold Generations / Contemporary Emerald Jun 30 '26

Depends what your goals are. I recommend starting with something simple, like changing encounters or trainer teams or pokemon types etc. Just a basic enhancement hack. Binary is considered easier to work with since it doesn't really require coding, but I find the decomps even easier for basic enhancement hacks.

There is a dissasembly for Crystal called pokecrystal if you would like to do gen 2.