The Pokemon series is my least favorite game series of all time!
Because for the past nearly two decades, I've needed to test them often, save progress, check rtc.....
I want to punch Dr. OAK in the face, when every time he shows up.... and the Mom. annoying.
The last however long on forums has soured me more on pokemon than is probably reasonable... I can only imagine playing flash cart and emulator developer.
Timeline of greatest hits here.
If EZFlash started in the GBA that means the GBC at the time was probably spared. I imagine it had some troubles with goomba included in EZClient though, not least of all because goomba color did not get made for a while and thus was limited to GB only titles (which would struggle to link with original carts).
So first round of pokemon on the GBA.
First two gem named games. Both have RTC. Now the EZ2 did have it but the EZ1 less so, fortunately I guess there were other patches made available.
Also had the nice fun of them using large saves that had not been dealt with before but that was still happening often enough so probably not that bad.
Emerald would later appear and need another, no Scene patches either for quite some time.
Fire Red and Leaf Green were fairly tame as things go actually.
Pokemon Pinball I think was fairly normal as these things go.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Red Rescue Team had some fun with the save.
Don't think anybody really cared about the GBA video containing pokemon, but I am probably wrong.
"Can I use it with pokemon stadium on the gamecube?" For reference this probably would reach out speaking to the flash the original game had (now SRAM because flash cart) and thus would need a GC hack.
DS time.
Despite it being an awful game, and likely scarcely remembered today, then Pokemon Dash was an early DS game/early ROM released. It was also one of the more annoying games to patch if memory serves so some even used it as a test.
Don't recall any fun with Pokemon Trozei/Pokemon Link but I am sure there was some. Also had the then Japanese only mystery dungeon, and Pokemon Ranger not so long afterwards, so probably got some fun getting translation requests or people using awful 5 minute machine translations.
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl now bust onto the scene. It was still early enough that anti piracy was not in full force and pokewalker was not a thing yet.
Another Mystery Dungeon title, well technically two.
Pokemon Ranger as well.
Pokemon Platinum Version arrives and with Diamond.
Not sure where in all that anti piracy kicked into full gear but it was somewhere in there. Now we get hundreds, if not more, checks to find in the games.
HeartGold and Soul Silver next up. Welcome to the world the Pokéwalker. Support was not a thing (can't download a pokewalker) but
Pokemon Pearl now.
New Pokemon Ranger to sort out.
Pokemon Conquest was still worked on for the last kernel never released if memory serves (this was in the middle of the DSi and 3ds updates blocking flash carts and needing constant workarounds).
You probably were spared Black 2 and White 2 as the support had stopped for the EZ5i by then.
Learn with Pokemon - Typing Adventure also would have appeared and worked with a custom bluetooth keyboard. We have since seen a hack use network options to fake the keyboard but I am sure there would have been much whining for it, even if there are a billion typing tutors out there.
The EZ 3 in 1 was open sourced during this so you probably also got people using third party stuff wanting to be able to use Pal Park to pull games from the flash carts to the DS titles, original and otherwise. The large saves for pokemon also came back here when multi game for the 3 in 1 NOR was attempted (all the save space being used up by 2 pokemon titles even if all the storage was not thanks to trimming) and I believe this is also what saw such things not be made outside of a beta EZ5 kernel.
That is before the weird and wonderful hacks that might not work so well outside forgiving emulators, or not work when linked together, and save editors that do more to break games that not. Oh and cheats to work, possibly for another region or version than they were made for. Oh and can you make the game run faster like I do in the emulators, can I also use the save I made on this random emulator too?
All the while the pokemon fiends are beating at the door of your support sections wanting a fix, for all three regions + Chinese hacks/translations (usually made pretty quick) + maybe the eventual Korean version + actually Europe quite often gets 5 more versions (Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the UK) + various 1.v1 v1.2 and beyond (though this would probably not have been as bad).
Not sure how many flash carts that would have been at once during that but possibly up to 5 at any one point and never less than 3 save maybe for the last DS stuff.
Pokemon probably also being the main reason for including RTC (which is more to fit on a board plus greater drain on batter) in GBA things. Technically it is used in a random megaman offshoot (the 4.5 that saw a translation somewhat recently), Boktai and possibly a Tony Hawk game but I imagine the fans of those would have been invited to use a patch instead (boktai would already be missing the solar sensor).
Saturday dude. 
JM 
