Gaming Transferring Pokémon from a Red Cartridge into the Virtual Console version.

Commanderraf

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Greetings:

I hope anyone has a solution for this. Many years ago I bought a GB Transfer device so I could make a backup of my Pokémon Red cartridge save file before the internal battery ran dry since that game meant a lot to me (and I was sincerely bummed out when you couldn't transfer the Gen I/II Pokémon to the third generation).

Fast forward to late 2015, when it was announced not only that the original Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow games would be released on the Virtual Console, but also that the Pokémon caught in those versions would be transferrable to the Pokébank and, later this year, they would be able to be transfered to Pokémon Sun/Moon.

So I had this weird idea. Since not many people had backed their old Pokémon cartridges' save files, could it be possible to use the backup file in the new Virtual Console games? I paid and downloaded Pokémon Red on my 3DS, tinkered about with the microSD card and, after noticing which file was the one created when making a new game on the VC's Pokémon Red, overwrote that file with a copy of my original Red save file.

But no. When launching the game on my 3DS it stated that the save file was corrupted. Damn it, Nintendo, way to crush my dreams.

Anyway, researching more online I found out that, what I wanted to do is possible, but only if I... jailbreak (is that the right term for Nintendo hardware?) the 3DS to crack the encription of the savefile and substitute it with the Red cartridge's one.

The thing is that I'm not risking my 3DS nor the games and the Nintendo Network/My Nintendo/Whatever-it-is-called-this-month account I have downloaded or linked with it. Call me a prude, but I'm not taking that chance.

Fortunatelly, I have my old, original 3DS -the one I'm using is the New Nintendo 3DS XL- which I'm willing to risk to get my dear pocket monsters into the next generation.

So, anyone has any kind of pointers to get me going in the right direction? What black magic to I have to do on my original 3DS to jailbreak it, install the Pokémon Red rom, substitute the save game with my original Red cartridge save file and then transfer my Pokémon to the New Nintendo 3DSXL Virtual Console Pokémon Red game?

I thank you in advance and any kind of help will be appreciated.

-Commanderraf

P.S. I'm making this question on the forums because the Ask! page doesn't display the "Make a question" button for me. Sorry if it is in the wrong place.
 

Finn_

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What version is your 3ds on? If your 3ds is on 11.0.0-33, then it's going to be difficult for you to do this at all without taking apart your 3DS and modding the hardware.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

On a side note, the format for the save files of VC Pokemon Red and Cart Pokemon Red could be completely different, as a lot of things were changed in the VC Pokemon Red, making this process a lot harder than a simple drag and drop.
 

DavidRO99

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Greetings:

I hope anyone has a solution for this. Many years ago I bought a GB Transfer device so I could make a backup of my Pokémon Red cartridge save file before the internal battery ran dry since that game meant a lot to me (and I was sincerely bummed out when you couldn't transfer the Gen I/II Pokémon to the third generation).

Fast forward to late 2015, when it was announced not only that the original Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow games would be released on the Virtual Console, but also that the Pokémon caught in those versions would be transferrable to the Pokébank and, later this year, they would be able to be transfered to Pokémon Sun/Moon.

So I had this weird idea. Since not many people had backed their old Pokémon cartridges' save files, could it be possible to use the backup file in the new Virtual Console games? I paid and downloaded Pokémon Red on my 3DS, tinkered about with the microSD card and, after noticing which file was the one created when making a new game on the VC's Pokémon Red, overwrote that file with a copy of my original Red save file.

But no. When launching the game on my 3DS it stated that the save file was corrupted. Damn it, Nintendo, way to crush my dreams.

Anyway, researching more online I found out that, what I wanted to do is possible, but only if I... jailbreak (is that the right term for Nintendo hardware?) the 3DS to crack the encription of the savefile and substitute it with the Red cartridge's one.

The thing is that I'm not risking my 3DS nor the games and the Nintendo Network/My Nintendo/Whatever-it-is-called-this-month account I have downloaded or linked with it. Call me a prude, but I'm not taking that chance.

Fortunatelly, I have my old, original 3DS -the one I'm using is the New Nintendo 3DS XL- which I'm willing to risk to get my dear pocket monsters into the next generation.

So, anyone has any kind of pointers to get me going in the right direction? What black magic to I have to do on my original 3DS to jailbreak it, install the Pokémon Red rom, substitute the save game with my original Red cartridge save file and then transfer my Pokémon to the New Nintendo 3DSXL Virtual Console Pokémon Red game?

I thank you in advance and any kind of help will be appreciated.

-Commanderraf

P.S. I'm making this question on the forums because the Ask! page doesn't display the "Make a question" button for me. Sorry if it is in the wrong place.
Pokemon Red is GBA? If not then you can't from my knowledge
 

Swiftloke

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What version is your 3ds on? If your 3ds is on 11.0.0-33, then it's going to be difficult for you to do this at all without taking apart your 3DS and modding the hardware.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

On a side note, the format for the save files of VC Pokemon Red and Cart Pokemon Red could be completely different, as a lot of things were changed in the VC Pokemon Red, making this process a lot harder than a simple drag and drop.
There was? I though it was just the vc that changed :unsure:
 

Finn_

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There was? I though it was just the vc that changed :unsure:
They added the ability to transfer the pokemon from the VC Red to Pokemon Bank. Not sure how much of the game code that changes, I assume the game saves in a format that's easily readable by Pokemon Bank
 

Commanderraf

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Hi. Sorry for taking so long to answer, but it's just been one of those weekends.

What version is your 3ds on? If your 3ds is on 11.0.0-33, then it's going to be difficult for you to do this at all without taking apart your 3DS and modding the hardware.



Checking my old 3DS' system settings, it's at Ver. 9.5.0-22U. I'm keeping it offline in case that system software version can do the trick.


On a side note, the format for the save files of VC Pokemon Red and Cart Pokemon Red could be completely different, as a lot of things were changed in the VC Pokemon Red, making this process a lot harder than a simple drag and drop.


According to a page on digiex.net, they are compatible. Actually, the most trouble would be getting the original cartridge into the size of the VC one (32,768 bytes), but that's easily fixed if I use a Game Boy emulator on my PC, run the save game (which I remember doing back when I did the original backup of the cartridge save file to see if it had indeed saved the saved game) and exporting it; that should create a 32,768 bytes file.
 

ThisIsDaAccount

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If your 3ds is on 9.5 and you have access to the Homebrew Launcher, then just use svdt or JK's save manager in .3dsx format (never tried that one). After getting a file with the right size, rename it to sav.dat, and use svdt to import it into Pokemon Red.
 

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