Re: “If you were in the Pokémon games, what would you pick as your team?”

I’ve had somewhat limited exposure to video games as a kid—there were a few games that I played a ton of, but I didn’t play a wide variety of different games. Out of the games I did play, Pokémon is one of the games that I played a lot—my first Pokémon game was Yellow Version, I’ve played the games fairly seriously up until Generation IV, and I’ve at least had some degree of gameplay exposure up until Generation VI.

After people find out that I like Pokémon and even collect Absol cards of every type, variant, and language I can find, a lot of people ask what team I would have if I was a gym leader or another NPC in the Pokémon games.

I don’t think I would be the type of person to run a Pokémon Gym. I’m not really the type of person to look up to someone like people look up to gym leaders, or otherwise place people on a pedestal and respect them more than any other human being simply because of their status. Naturally, that means that I don’t want other people to do that to me either—I firmly believe that I am just a regular person who doesn’t need special treatment.

In alignment with that philosophy, I wouldn’t necessarily want to be a gym leader. However, I do like the idea of being in a Pokémon game as somewhat of a random encounter, similar to how you hunt Suicune, Raikou, and Entei in Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal—I am simply out exploring the lands like any other trainer, but with some luck, you can run into me and battle me out in the wild.

Scizor

Moves: U-Turn, Bullet Punch, Swords Dance, False Swipe
Ability: Technician
Nature: Adamant

I think Scizor would be a good lead for my party. It has a priority same-type attack bonus (STAB) move in Bullet Punch to quick­ly clear out wild encounters, Swords Dance to buff attack for longer battles, and U-Turn if he’s in trouble and needs to switch out.

I also like the idea of having False Swipe in the moveset, a move that otherwise would make no sense except for lore purposes. When I was younger and played Pokémon Gold on the Game Boy Color, Scizor was literally the Pokémon I used to catch wild Pokémon by bringing them down to 1 HP using False Swipe, and I think leaving that in acts as a nod to the practicality of my team and an indication that I am just a regular Pokémon trainer out catching and training Pokémon like everyone else.

Togekiss

Moves: Air Slash, Tri Attack, Flamethrower, Fly
Ability: Serene Grace
Nature: Timid

Back when I used to play Pokémon Showdown, I ended up picking Togekiss as my special attack sweeper (and I don’t quite re­mem­ber why). The Togepi evolution line isn’t particularly my favorite or anything, but I guess Togekiss has grown on me up to the point that I’d want to include it in my team.

Similar to False Swipe being on Scizor above, I like the idea of just randomly having Fly on Togekiss, as that would make sense lore-wise that I am a random encounter because I’m out adventuring. However, if I were to be implemented in a static location any­where, I would probably replace Fly with something like Ominous Wind to fully commit to the Serene Grace gimmick.

Espeon

Moves: Psychic, Hidden Power (Ice), Grass Knot, Substitute
Ability: Synchronize
Nature: Modest
Gender: Female

My second favorite Pokémon is Eevee. I like the fact that Eevee just looks like a normal pet that you could have in real life. I also like potential, i.e., the capacity and power of being able to do many things and/or whatever you want is very appealing to me. Eevee obviously has a lot of potential, considering that it can evolve into several different Pokémon of different types and stat dis­tri­bu­tions.

I like the idea of having a “pair” in my party, and Eevee evolutions seem like the best way to do that. Espeon and Umbreon also represent balance—light and dark, offensive and defensive—another one of my core values.

Espeon is strong but fragile. Umbreon is “there to protect her,” but I also like the idea of Espeon being able to stand up for her­self when needed, so I have her built as a special attacker with Substitute for a bit more durability.

Umbreon

Moves: Curse, Payback, Protect, Wish
Ability: Synchronize
Nature: Careful
Gender: Male
Item: Leftovers

I wouldn’t really consider myself an avid shiny hunter, but after I finish the storyline and have beaten the Elite Four a countless number of times, I do end up looking for some new things to do in-game. Umbreon would be a shiny on my team, not nec­es­sar­i­ly be­cause I’m enthralled to shiny hunt an Eevee, but mainly simply because I like the visuals of the blue in the sprite.

As you’d expect, Umbreon is on the team to break up the opponent’s momentum and try to put a stop to any sweepers that may have had an opportunity to set up. In theory, Umbreon could also support his partner Espeon by casting Wish for her to help her recover from the health penalty of using Substitute.

Empoleon

Moves: Aqua Jet, Swords Dance, Metal Claw, Earthquake
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Adamant

I like having a bit of chaos and unpredictability in my life. I know it’s become a meme now to “never let anyone know your next move,” but I do think there is real value in doing things in an unconventional way.

Empoleon is generally used as a special attacker (and sometimes a bulky one), so being a Swords Dance attack sweeper with a priority STAB water-type move that also gets boosted by its ability, a STAB steel-type move that can even further increase attack, and an all-around solid move in Earthquake is very powerful.

Absol

Moves: Night Slash, Psycho Cut, Stone Edge, Superpower
Ability: Super Luck
Nature: Adamant
Item: Scope Lens

My team wouldn’t be complete with my favorite Pokémon, Absol. Considering it is my favorite, if I were to spend time shiny hunting anything, Absol would be first in line, so I decided to put a shiny variant on my team.

In addition to its looks, another aspect of Absol I really like is its lore. It is often referred to as the Disaster Pokémon because it comes down from the mountains to warn people of upcoming disasters, but because of the timing, many people think it is Absol it­self that is bringing the doom. Because of this, I’ve specifically built my Absol around the theme of luck—both its ability and item increase its critical hit ratio, and three out of its four attacks inherently have higher critical hit rate.

Absol would be my signature Pokémon, and if the game allows me to have an overworld sprite, Absol would be the one standing by my side.

If you’d like to make a fan game or write fan fiction themed around Pokémon that includes me, keep in mind that you do not have to ask public figures for permission prior to including them in works of parody or transformative content, as long as you are not infringing on their right of publicity or com­mitting com­mer­cial appropriation.

With that being said, I actually enjoy seeing creative fan-made content, as long as it is not intended to falsely discredit my reputation, spread false in­for­ma­tion construed as statement of facts, imply any commercial endorsement or agreement, or otherwise be made in bad faith. If you plan on in­clud­ing me in your personal projects, you may use my team and lore from above, but also feel free to modify it in any way you’d like to fit the format of your work.

 

—§—

 

I guess I’m collecting Pokémon cards now

This post is over 6 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Pokémon was the first game I actually really got into as a kid, but I was only ever a fan of the Game Boy games and not the Trading Card Game (TCG). I never really found much pleasure in collecting or possessing material goods in general, and that tendency continues on to this day as an adult – I’d much rather have money, knowledge, and electronic possessions rather than large collections of physical souvenirs.

The only Pokémon TCG card I ever owned was a random Psyduck that I think a friend gave me for free. I didn’t really see the purpose of owning them, because at that time, I didn’t even know how to properly play the card game. I also thought it was a complete waste of money to own Pokémon trading cards (the magnitude of wastefulness probably also amplified by the fact that I didn’t actually make any money back then).

 
As a small child, my favorite Pokémon was Eevee. I felt like flexibility, adaptability, and diversity was a very important characteristic, and Eevee was able to do that – it could evolve into a fire, water, or electric type. I started liking Eevee even more when Pokémon Gold and Silver came out and I discovered that Eevee could now also evolve into a dark or psychic type as well.

I still like Eevee to this day, and Eevee remained my favorite Pokémon for a while – not only because I still liked the concept of Eevee, but also because I didn’t really pay that much attention to Pokémon to really know much about the hundreds of new Pokémon that were being released since the Johto expansion. However, I’ve recently been paying closer attention to the new Pokémon games and the mega evolutions, and I discovered a Pokémon that I think is my new favorite – Absol.

One clear advantage that I think Absol has over Eevee is its appearance. If you know me in person, you know that I really like white clothing (most of the casual t-shirts I wear are white, and I have a thing for white jackets). A secondary favorite color of mine is anything on the grayscale spectrum. Our good buddy Absol happens to naturally be both of those colors, all while having a stylish and fashionable fur arrangement and horn accent. Ask me to pick a favorite “real” color that isn’t white, gray, or black, and I will say I like the ferocity and power of the color red … and Absol’s shiny form just happens to be red.

Absol also has some empathy-inducing lore behind it. Absol is considered to be the disaster Pokémon because every time people see it come down from the mountains, disasters occur. Surely, Absol is the one causing them, right? Of course, Absol is actually misunderstood – it comes down from its natural mountainous habitat to warn civilization about natural disasters coming because it’s able to sense it, not because it’s causing the destruction itself.

 
Even though I’ve never been a fan of collecting cards, and I still don’t really have much of an interest in doing so, I never said that I was actually against it. In an attempt to explore different opportunities and try out things I never got to do as a child (even though I didn’t actually particularly even want to do this as a child), I decided to start a very small Pokémon card collection of only Absol.

Why Absol? I would obviously pick one of my favorite Pokémon, but I decided to go with Absol instead of Eevee because I didn’t want to create a snowball effect of wanting more and more Pokémon cards. My mission is to try and collect all the Absol cards, and once that is complete, I can put the project on hold, admire my collection, and wait until more new Absol cards come out in future expansions. If I were to do that with Eevee, I would have a very easy progression to wanting to collect all the Eevee evolution Pokémon cards as well, and I’m trying to do this as a side hobby purely for fun, not to drain my entire entertainment budget into it. And even then, Absol still has quite a few cards available; not only are there multiple versions of Absol printed, but all of them come in different languages as well.

I’m looking to spend no more than about US$100.00 on my initial purchase (which would include a binder, sleeves, and as many cards as possible), then spend no more than about an hour a week searching for good deals on card vendor and auction websites to try and round out my collection. I would imagine that the time investment would start waning down to just a few hours a month once I get a hold of all the cards in common circulation, and have narrowed down the empty slots in my collection to just rare foreign cards.

 
When I want to do something, I tend to go all-in, so I spent a bit of time doing some research on all the Absol cards in print right now. I’ll be using this as a reference for how much more progress I need to make to complete my English and Japanese collection, before moving on to foreign languages (which I’m finding may include, but is not limited to, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Dutch, and Russian). I also have the cards listed in order of release date, which is how I will be organizing my physical collection.

I’ll be coming back to this blog post once in a while and making some edits to the table – checking off cards I purchase, and adding more cards that I discover exist.

 

Card name Expansion Release date Rarity Number
 
Forina’s Absol
Movie Commemoration VS Pack 2003 . 07 . 19 008/019 🇯🇵 $6.00
Movie Commemoration VS Pack 008/019 🇯🇵 €9.60
Pokémon Card Gym Official Start Lottery 040/ADV-P 🇯🇵 $17.50
 
Absol
EX Dragon 2003 . 11 . 24 Rare Holo 1/97 🇺🇸 $5.99
EX Dragon Rare Reverse Holo 1/97 🇺🇸 $3.89
Rulers of the Heavens Rare Holo 048/054 🇯🇵 $6.57
 
Absol
EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua 2004 . 03 . 15 Rare Holo 96/95 🇺🇸 $7.79
7-Eleven Pokémon Fair campaign 034/ADV-P 🇯🇵 $9.81
7-Eleven Pokémon Fair campaign 035/ADV-P 🇯🇵
 
Absol
EX Legend Maker 2006 . 02 . 13 Rare 15/92 🇺🇸 $0.49
EX Legend Maker Rare Reverse Holo 15/92 🇺🇸 $0.99
EX Legend Maker Rare 15/92 🇫🇷 $6.52
Mirage Forest Rare 072/086 🇯🇵 €6.99
 
Absol
EX Holon Phantoms 2006 . 05 . 03 Rare 18/110 🇺🇸 $1.93
EX Holon Phantoms Rare Reverse Holo 18/110 🇺🇸 $2.59
EX Holon Phantoms Rare 18/110 🇩🇪 $3.52
EX Holon Phantoms Rare 18/110 🇫🇷 $5.41
Mightyena Quarter Deck 006/015 🇯🇵 $3.00
 
Absol ex
EX Power Keepers 2007 . 02 . 14 Rare Holo ex 92/108 🇺🇸 $8.99
EX Power Keepers World Championship 92/108 🇺🇸 $0.99
World Champions Pack Rare Holo ex 060/108 🇯🇵 $11.09
 
Absol
Secret Wonders 2007 . 11 . 07 Rare 21/132 🇺🇸 $0.99
Secret Wonders Rare Reverse Holo 21/132 🇺🇸 $2.39
Secret Wonders Rare 21/132 🇩🇪 $3.35
Secret Wonders Rare Reverse Holo 21/132 🇩🇪 $4.10
Secret Wonders Rare Reverse Holo 21/132 🇫🇷 $5.41
Shining Darkness Rare DPBP#417 🇯🇵 $4.46
 
Absol G
Supreme Victors 2009 . 08 . 19 Rare Holo 1/147 🇺🇸 $1.49
Supreme Victors Rare Reverse Holo 1/147 🇺🇸 $1.69
Supreme Victors Rare Holo 1/147 🇫🇷 $5.41
Beat of the Frontier Rare Holo 064/100 🇯🇵 $5.00
 
Absol G LV.X
Supreme Victors 2009 . 08 . 19 Rare Holo LV.X 141/147 🇺🇸 $3.49
Supreme Victors Rare Holo LV.X 141/147 🇩🇪 $6.72
Beat of the Frontier Rare Holo LV.X 065/100 🇯🇵 $5.00
 
Absol
Triumphant 2010 . 11 . 03 SuperRare Holo 91/102 🇺🇸 $2.99
Triumphant SuperRare Holo 91/102 🇩🇪 $10.65
Triumphant SuperRare Holo 91/102 🇫🇷 $9.62
Lost Link SuperRare Holo 027/040 🇯🇵 $9.99
 
Absol
Plasma Freeze 2013 . 05 . 08 Rare 67/116 🇺🇸 $1.99
Plasma Freeze Rare Holo 67/116 🇺🇸 $0.79
Plasma Freeze Rare Reverse Holo 67/116 🇺🇸 $0.59
Plasma Freeze Rare Holo 67/116 🇫🇷 $4.31
Spiral Force R 033/051 🇯🇵 $4.00
 
Absol
Roaring Skies 2015 . 05 . 06 Rare Holo 40/108 🇺🇸 $0.49
Roaring Skies Rare Reverse Holo 40/108 🇺🇸 $0.49
Roaring Skies World Championship 40/108 🇺🇸 $0.25
Roaring Skies Rare Holo 40/108 🇫🇷 €4.50
Roaring Skies Rare Reverse Holo 40/108 🇫🇷 €5.50
Emerald Break R 034/078 🇯🇵 $4.99
Emerald Break R 034/078 🇰🇷 $4.99
Premium Champion Pack 077/131 🇯🇵 $4.49
 
Absol-EX
Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection 2015 . 05 . 29 XY62 🇺🇸 $2.49
Battle Festa 2014: 12 Play Point prize XY-P 🇯🇵 $19.50
 
Mega Absol-EX
Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection 2015 . 05 . 29 XY63 🇺🇸 $2.69
Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection Oversize XY63 🇺🇸 $3.49
Mega Absol-EX Premium Collection Code Card 🇺🇸 $1.49
Battle Festa 2014: 12 Play Point prize XY-P 🇯🇵 $19.50
 
Absol
Alola Collector’s Pin 2-Pack Blister 2016 . 11 . 18 Holo XY178 🇺🇸 $4.00
Pokémon Card Gym Karen Night Battle 🇯🇵 $10.00
 
Absol
Guardians Rising 2017 . 05 . 05 Rare Holo 81/145 🇺🇸 $0.79
Guardians Rising Rare Reverse Holo 81/145 🇺🇸 $0.49
Guardians Rising Rare 81/145 🇩🇪 $4.34
Guardians Rising Rare 81/145 🇫🇷 €5.00
Guardians Rising Rare Reverse Holo 81/145 🇫🇷 $2.10
Strength Expansion Pack Sun & Moon 038/051 🇯🇵 $2.50
 
Absol
Team Up 2019 . 02 . 01 Rare Reverse Holo 88/181 🇺🇸 $2.29
Team Up Rare Holo 88/181 🇺🇸 $1.95
Team Up Rare 88/181 🇫🇷 $5.41
Team Up Rare Holo 88/181 🇫🇷 $5.09
Team Up Rare Reverse Holo 88/181 🇩🇪 $3.86
Dark Order 2018 . 10 . 05 Rare 023/052 🇯🇵 $3.99
Tag All Stars 2019 . 10 . 04 Rare Holo 075/173 🇯🇵 $2.49
Tag All Stars 2019 . 10 . 04 Rare Reverse Holo 075/173 🇯🇵 $4.49
 
Absol
Cosmic Eclipse 2019 . 11 . 01 Uncommon 133/236 🇺🇸 $1.18
Remix Bout 2019 . 07 . 05 C 043/064 🇯🇵 $1.99
 
Absol
Grimmsnarl VMAX Starter Set 2020 . 03 . 27 001/020 🇯🇵 $4.07
Champion’s Path 2020 . 09 . 25 Uncommon 038/073 🇺🇸 $0.54
Reverse Holo 038/073 🇺🇸 $1.08

 

—§—

 

I went on my first Pokémon GO gym run today

This post is over 7 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

As long as you haven’t just been completely disconnected from the Internet for the past few weeks, you probably know of Pokémon GO, the new augmented reality game that uses GPS to inject Pokémon into the real world and encourage you to get out and hunt for Pokémon.

Although I’ve been a fan of Pokémon since I was a little kid, I never really got into Pokémon GO because of how busy I am. During work days, I watch our family business and do a lot of other work, so I end up having no time to go outside and look for Pokémon or battle at gyms. During weekends and off days, I usually still do even more work online, and use all remaining time to rest and relax.

On top of all this, it doesn’t help that it’s been pretty hot outside.

Nevertheless, I got persuaded to go outside and go on a Pokémon GO gym run today by Mike. If you’ve been reading my blog posts lately, you probably remember him – he’s one of the masters and co-owners of Keumgang Martial Arts Academy, and he’s in quite a few of the photos I’ve posted recently of the albums and videos I filmed at demonstrations and events.

The nearest Pokémon GO gym to the martial arts academy is a water tower nearby, so Mike and I walked over there.

Mundelein Water Tower

This gym was occupied by Team Mystic (which is our team), and was guarded by Pokémon with combat power of over 1,000. Unfortunately for me, I don’t actually play that much, so I only had Pokémon with combat power of 100 or less. Meaning, this trip was almost entirely useless for me. Apparently battling Pokémon of your own gym is supposed to help train you, but that was obviously not happening, because I wasn’t able to defeat anything.

Mike, however, plays this game a substantial amount more than I do, and so does Chris, the other co-owner of the martial arts academy. When we came here, Mike brought Chris’ phone as well, and he was playing on both phones at the same time.

This is Mike battling the gym two times at once:

But, as we were battling the gym and trying to raise our prestige, we noticed that it was falling faster than it was rising. I walked over around the corner of the fence surrounding the water tower, and noticed that there were other Pokémon GO players sitting on the ground against the fence, presumably trying to take over our gym.

Tragically, they succeeded.

But, Mike wouldn’t have any of that. Once the gym got neutralized, he reacted quickly by putting in one of his own Pokémon into the gym again, stealing the “claim” away from the other team that had just defeated us.

Moments later, I notice the other guys rage quit, get up, and walk away.

gg

 

—§—

 

Lavender Town Syndrome

This post is over 12 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Earlier today, my friend Benjamin Chow told me about an interesting disorder he ran into called Lavender Town Syndrome. For those of you who don’t know, I have a pretty solid knowledge of the fundamentals of Pokémon and psychology, and Benjamin thought I would be a good candidate to ask for more information about this syndrome. Unfortunately, I had not heard of it before today, so I went online and did some research about Lavender Town Syndrome to find out what it was and make a judgment of if it is real or not.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pokémon, Lavender Town is a small town from the original first generation Pokémon game series that contained the Pokémon Tower, which is a tall building that housed the graves of dead Pokémon. The environment in this town is down and depressing, and the music that plays in the background is haunting and eerie.

Lavender Town made its first appearance in Japan in the Pokémon Red and Green versions on February 27, 1996. Supposedly, shortly afterwards, there was a peak in the number of deaths of children aged 8-12, which is the target audience of Pokémon games. These deaths were generally suicides by young children, and the suicides were preceeded by headaches, migranes, irritability, and violence. After some investigation, people started claiming that the cause of these deaths was the music found in Lavender Town.

If you want more detailed information about Lavender Town Syndrome, you can Google it and read it from other websites.

http://google.com/search?q=Lavender+Town+Syndrome

The main proposal of those claiming Lavender Town Syndrome is real is that the creators of the Lavender Town music encoded a special sound wave in the track that only undeveloped ears can hear. When young individuals hear this, they would be driven crazy and start doing things they would normally not do. Adults would not be able to hear this special sound wave because they have fully developed ears. Basically, what they are attempting to say is that there were binaural beats encoded into the Lavender Town music and it caused children to act unnaturally.

Going off of just this information, I can disprove that binaural beats, or anything that children can hear that adults cannot, affected the children.

First, the only way something can be heard by children and not heard by adults is if the pitch of the sound is extremely high. On average, those who are 18 years of age or higher cannot hear anything higher-pitched than 17 kilohertz. Thus, if children were to be affected by something that adults cannot hear, it must be something that is greater than about 17 kilohertz.

Next, by definition, binaural beats are two different sound waves, one fed into each ear, that have different wave lengths, causing beating sounds which affect brain waves to stimulate or relax the mind. To have any effect on the brain, the sound waves that create the binaural beats must have a frequency of 1 kilohertz or less. Thus, if the sound waves are greater than 1 kilohertz, they would not have any subliminal effect on the brain.

On a side note, there is no evidence that proves (or even suggests) that you lose your ability to hear low-frequency sounds as you get older. Thus, any low sound has an equal probability of being heard by both adults and children.

Putting this all together, if binaural beats were what was causing children to exhibit violent and/or suicidal behavior, adults would have been affected as well. However, the discoverers of Lavender Town Syndrome explicitly state that individuals with fully developed ears cannot hear what is causing these behaviors. In conclusion, the two proposals ([1] the cause of this behavior can be heard by underdeveloped ears but not by fully developed ears, and [2] the cause of this behavior is binaural beats) are contradictory and inconsistent.

In case that’s not enough to convince you that Lavender Town Syndrome is fake, I found an interesting discrepancy in the evidence the discoverers of Lavender Town Syndrome provide.

Supposedly, on April 12, 1996, an eleven-year-old child named 京极 勝女 (those are Asian characters and might not render properly on all machines or devices) died after showing obstructive sleep apnea (ceasing to breathe while sleeping), severe migranes, otorrhagia (bleeding from the external auditory canal of the ear), and tinnitus (auditory hallucinations). That seems normal until you take a closer look at the name. The first, third, and fourth characters in the name, as expected, are in Japanese because this occured when the game was only available in Japan. However, someone who is Chinese, Japanese, or is familiar with Asian characters will immediately notice that the second character is not like the others. That’s because the second character in the name is in Chinese.

Unless Japanese people started randomly putting Chinese characters in their name for a short period of time (which I’m sure they did not), 京极 勝女 is not a real person, but rather a made-up name by someone who didn’t quite check his/her sources and simply put together some characters to form a name. (For those of you who do not understand the oddity of something like this, think of it this way: if you are American, would you randomly put a Russian character in your name simply because the inhabitants of both the United States of America and Russia are light-skinned and look aesthetically similar?)

If the discoverers of this syndrome are so desperate for people to believe them that they create false evidence like this, then I think we can all rest assured that Lavender Town Syndrome is just a myth and we can continue playing Pokémon without any concerns.

 

—§—

 

How to Play Pokémon Black/White on the Computer

This post is over 13 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Step-by-Step Instructions with Screenshots

  1. Download No$GBA from one of the following links.

    (I recommend downloading it here rather than elsewhere because the following links point to pack­ages that I have put together with all the necessary files. If you’re worried about getting a virus, wear rubber gloves first.)

    http://mediafire.com/?c1njn9489pue8yq (Primary)
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14198989/NO%24GBA.ZIP (Mirror)
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9VmxRhybymWcmw5S20yYUt4QkU (Mirror)

  2. If you get prompted for a password at any of the above links, it is Parkzer.com.

  3. Acquire the Pokémon Black and White ROMs by dumping data from a physical cartridge, or searching for alternative solutions on the Internet.

    (I am not providing links here because possessing these ROMs without meeting certain cir­cum­stances is a violation of US copyright laws.)

  4. Extract the NO$GBA.ZIP archive that you just downloaded.

  5. Drag the ROMs that you downloaded into the BATTERY folder.

  6. Return to the main NO$GBA folder and open NO$Zoomer.exe. When prompted, find and select the ROM that you wish to play.

  7. Open the PKMNBW.TXT file and copy the code under the game version that you wish to play.

  8. Press F2 or go to Options → Cheats to open the Cheats interface. Paste the code you just copied into the text box, give it a name, select Action Replay DS, then click OK. After it appears in your cheat list, double-click it to enable it.

  9. Reset the cartridge by clicking on File → Reset or hitting the * key on your numpad.

  10. Begin playing. Hit F11 if you need to adjust the emulator settings.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Why am I unable to run the NO$Zoomer.exe file on my Mac?

    Executable (.exe) files are not compatible with Mac operating systems. This emulator software works for Windows operating systems only.

    If you want to play Nintendo DS games on your Mac, search for a compatible emulator on Google.
    http://google.com/search?q=Nintendo+DS+emulator+for+Mac

  2. Why is my ROM not working?

    Make sure you have the original English version of the ROM, rather than a translated or patched Japanese version. The English versions are usually labeled (U) for USA or (E) for English.

    If that didn’t work, try downloading it from a different source, as the one you are attempting to use may be corrupted.

  3. How do I save the game?

    Open the in-game menu by pressing the Q key on your keyboard (or, if you changed the controls, whichever key corresponds with the X button on the Nintendo DS). Click on the Save button.

    If this doesn’t work, make sure that you unarchived the No$GBA folder to a freely writable directory. For example, your My Documents folder is a freely writable directory, while your Program Files folder is not (it requires administrator authorization).

    If you user profile is set as an administrator, you can also try running NO$Zoomer as an administrator. To do this, right-click on the file and click “Run as administrator.”

  4. What are other Codebreaker or Action Replay codes I can use to cheat?

    I don’t know any; search for them on Google.
    http://google.com/search?q=Pok%E9mon+Black+and+White+cheats

  5. Why is wifi not working?

    As far as I know, the wifi built into No$GBA is not compatible with the wifi used with the ROMs. I’ve seen some work-arounds, though, and some other emulators may have wifi compatibility with Pokémon games. If you want wifi, you will have to search on Google and experiment with emulators and software yourself.

  6. Why is the No$GBA crashing, malfunctioning, or not working?

    I did not make it, so I don’t know. For more information about No$GBA, visit its official website at NoGBA.com.

 

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