Time twisting in Pokémon G/S/C?

[BlackDragon]

Hmm... in the "advanced" Pokémon games, the game keeps track of the time and day.Nice touch. But when you're dealing with an emulator, things gets complicated. Using the emulators 'Pause' function also freezes the clock, and when you 'save state' you save the time as well... which means than when you load the state you return to that time.
I found out those things by experience, which means that the timer on my Pokémon Crystal game is waaay off by now. It complicates things.

So, how do you manipulate the clock? I know that the timer is based on a 'side-file' which the emulator generates - it isn't set in tha *.SAV file itself. But beyond that, I don't know much. Maybe there exists some gameshark codes for changing time? Probably not, though. So, what I need is some instuctions: How can I mess with time? http://www.emuxhaven.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/fortunesmile.gif

[brightman]

There's a code for it. On the title screen you press a whole bunch of buttons (something to the effect of start+select+a+b or any subset of this).

[BlackDragon]

You're thinking of the Select+Down+B trick, right? That only works for Pokémon GOld and Silver...

[brightman]

ook. In that case you'll have to do something else...

[BlackDragon]

Thanks, man. That's a lot of help. Really. http://www.emuxhaven.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

It must be possible to do it by editing that little .spx (or whatever) file that the emu generates... it only contains about 8 'letter', but it's coded so I don't know WHAT to change into WHAT.

Anyway, it seems safe to assume that since there's an in-game time-changing feature in Gold and Silver, it would be in Crystal too, right? But how come no-one knows how to activate it...

It's logical that it should be possible to change time. After all, if someone who owned the game moved to a different time zone (say, from Washington to New York), the time would be several hours off. So the question is: How is it done?

[brightman]

Here:

From http://www.cmgsccc.com/sub/index.php?id=222

Enter GameShark code 010464CF and run game from beginning. At first picture before main menu (NEW GAME, CONTINUE, OPTION..) appeared you press button A and you will see clock reset dialog (like Gold and Silver). !DEACTIVATE GameShark CODE NOW! and enter valid password (same system as at G/S).

[BlackDragon]

Thanks a lot, man... I'll go up and try it out now.
But... one thing: All the Pokémon G/S/C codes I've seen to date begins with either 91 or 01... and I've never yet seen a 01 code work. The 91 codes always seems to work without a hich, though. Does it have something to do with jap/american versions? Anyway, I'll try it, but I don't have high hopes. (Praying feverently to the almight GameGod)

[brightman]

The 91s and 01s just depend on the address at which memory should be changed (by the cheat). So it can be anything the GB memory holds. I guess most of the stuff you want to change just happen to be in the 91s.

[playguy]

The next version of PlayGuy will correctly deal with the Real Time Clock on MBC3 Timer games. The clock should be consistent whether you pause for extended periods of time, save and load states, or just use traditional battery backed SRAM.

I have tested preliminary code and it works great so far in Pokemon Crystal (U)[C][!]. Basically the game saves the computer system time along with the RTC registers. When you open a game or savestate, it calculates the elapsed time since it was last opened. However, I have not ruled out the possibility that a game may become confused should the Real Time Clock make sporadic changes mid game, as is the case when pausing or loading a save state. I will have to verify functionality with more games to see if this success holds.

I have also considered adding a dialog to allow one to directly manipulate time in the emulator.

JC