The Optimal Gen 1-2 Setup

[Artisan]

Have you ever wanted to keep your saves from your cartridge Gameboy and Gameboy Color games? I'm not asking for you to replace the battery, that's more an issue of when. The real solution you should be thinking about is save file data transfers. These games are extremely portable.

If you want to play the games you can use the not backlit GBC, or the backlit GBA SP. But if you already have an Android then Pizza Boy has the best free option. No advertisements, you can load saves from Google Drive to your phone files, and it does it's job well.

Now how do we transfer saves? I use the Epilogue for the cartridge save to move to the PC. But you can also use a slew of other options available online.

What if I own a 3DS, a PC, and not a smartphone? Then you would use the 3DS, homebrew it, and use Checkpoint with your files you have or start a new save. And this is optimal, because you can max IVs/EVs on your irl PC, and transfer using Pokemon Bank to get hidden abilities. A lot of Pokemon save tools are on Project Pokemon Forums and are safe to use.

What if I'm on a budget? Well then use the Epilogue and keep the cartridge safe on the PC of choice and you get the full experience. Or just emulate if you can't afford a cartridge.

However without the cartridge, you cannot play Pokemon Stadium 1-2 to it's fullest, but if you do have the cart, then make sure you have an adapter for the GB games, that attaches to the controller.

I would say look into N64 emulation and see if there's Gameboy attachment support, but that would only be on PC. The N64 Nintendo Switch Online services do not support any external save importing, so you would be stuck with rentals.

So there's so many ways to play the same thing, and some extensibility based on where you play, but never worry about the battery. Those can always be replaced. Emulators and the 3DS Virtual Console do not have the battery problem of course.

[Tiger21820]

I use emulators to play! I also have a Red and Crystal hack!

The Pokémon Stadium 2 (US) item transfer is actually very helpful for storing those items that just keep taking up valuable PC space, and it even does Mystery Gift, so you can get those decorations for your room without IR emulation! Though if you want to use IR, gbe+ is the best (and only) emulator for handling that stuff! There even is a GBC homebrew program that lets you create custom Mystery Gift trainers and transfers! This is the only way to get the Unown Doll, Tentacool Doll, and Pikachu Bed using the IR function without a save editor or Gameshark as those three decorations are unused! Look them up on google if you want to try those for yourself! You can also use the Mystery Gift program to give you a Gorgeous Box and Normal Box if you don't want to play Stadium! You can get the Gold and Silver Trophies much easier that way! (Or you can play my Crystal hack, and buy them from a shop (Probably Pewter City's shop), and trade them to your game if you can't do that! Find an isp patch of the hack in the Pokémon ROM Hacking forum to try it for yourself!)

Not to mention that Lyn, Morgiana and Kougyoku are playing as well! (Well, at least Gen 2! Joy, Arial, and Maria will play Gen 1 at some point!)