A faithful, save-compatible expansion of Pokémon Red, built directly in the original Gen I engine.
This repository is a fan-made fork of pret/pokered, a source-code disassembly of Pokémon Red and Blue. It reconstructs the Game Boy games as editable RGBDS assembly: maps, dialogue, encounters, battle logic, graphics, audio, and saved data all live in this repository and assemble into playable ROMs.
The fork extends the reconstructed Game Boy engine directly at source level. Pokémon Red is the primary design target; the Blue and Blue debug builds exercise the shared engine and catch regressions.
The result aims to feel like a surprisingly expansive version of the cartridge you remember.
Kanto now rewards curiosity with new optional encounters, hidden scenes, restored unused ideas, and answers to a few old playground rumours. Familiar places can reveal something unexpected when revisited with the right Pokémon, item, or piece of knowledge.
Characters remember what happened, notice particular lead Pokémon, recognise old partners, and respond to the player's progress. Small moments connect people, places, fossils, legends, and later discoveries with a light touch.
All 151 Pokémon can be obtained through solo play on one cartridge. Wild areas have stronger identities and occasional rare finds, while Gym Leaders, rivals, the Elite Four, and other important opponents use fuller, purpose-built teams and movesets. Additional challenges enrich the middle and end of the original journey.
A restrained quality-of-life layer adds faster movement, reusable TMs, contextual HM use, move remembering and forgetting, automatic PC-box rollover, clearer battle feedback, fast text, improved weak moves, and selected Gen I bug fixes. These changes remove friction while preserving the game's limitations, rhythm, and personality.
This overview keeps discoveries broad and spoiler-light. Readers who want every addition can consult the complete feature catalogue.
The original story, maps, progression, presentation, and strange compact charm remain the foundation. New content should look, sound, and behave like something that might always have been hidden inside the cartridge.
Subtle clues should make secrets discoverable. Familiar characters should remain recognisable even when their battles become more interesting. Conveniences should reduce needless repetition while retaining the oddities that make Gen I memorable.
The project is designed for round-trip compatibility with an unmodified Pokémon Red save. It preserves the original save layout, Pokémon structures, and established identifiers, reusing reserved space for new persistent state.
Added maps temporarily suspend saving to keep stock-save transfers safe. Return
to an original location before moving a save back to a stock cartridge or ROM,
and always keep a backup of the .sav file when transferring between builds.
Every full build runs an automated save-ABI check. It can also be invoked directly:
make check-save-compatInstall the required tools, including RGBDS 1.0.3, by following INSTALL.md. Then clone this fork and build it:
git clone https://github.com/wiigg/pokered.git
cd pokered
makemake builds pokered.gbc, pokeblue.gbc, and pokeblue_debug.gbc, and
checks the protected save layout. To build only the primary Red ROM:
make redCompiled ROMs remain local build outputs under the repository's ignore rules.
scripts/contains map events, NPC behaviour, battles, and scene logic.text/contains map dialogue and story text.data/contains tables for Pokémon, moves, trainers, encounters, maps, and other game content.engine/contains shared battle, overworld, menu, item, and Pokémon systems.gfx/contains the source graphics assembled into the ROM.ram/defines the original Game Boy memory and saved-data layout.- The root assembly files compose those pieces into the final ROM banks.
This project is made possible by the reverse-engineering work in pret/pokered and by the RGBDS Game Boy development toolchain.