As we all know, what we typically think of as RBY is quite different from what we'd be playing if we were linking Game Boys to battle with actual 1st generation Pokémon game cartridges. And for good reason. The RBY metagame we know and love couldn't have evolved without the mitigation of various issues that are recognized as being greatly unbalancing and/or making luck too big of a factor compared to skill.
But it's not just bans and rules that separate what we play from the real thing. It's also the near-inevitable existence of differences between the mechanics of the original games and the mechanics implemented in simulators. That's why, for example, Wrap wasn't even a thing until just a few years ago, and now it's recognized as a significant force in the metagame. And it's why we only recently made the momentous discovery that Normal types cannot be paralyzed by Body Slam, which means we've played the game wrong for about 15 years, and most if not all of the competitive matches and tournaments played prior to the discovery are essentially invalid. The metagame, beloved though it be, has in fact been greatly influenced by major and minor mechanics errors from its very beginning and throughout its history. In a way, we've only just begun to actually play RBY.
Or have we? We still don't comprehensively know every last detail of cartridge mechanics. It seems all too likely that, at some point down the line, the metagame will yet again be overthrown by another important new discovery.
Okay okay, I'll just come out and say it: I want to try battling with the original Pokémon games. Many of you may think that's madness. Madness? Perhaps. It may be. But is it any greater madness than 15 years of Chansey and Tauros and Persian and Snorlax all being susceptible to paralysis from Body Slam? I think not.
I'm sure playing the actual games would never replace playing under the civilized rules we all take for granted, but that doesn't mean they're not worth playing at all. I long to experience "the real thing", if only just for fun and nostalgia and to satisfy my curiosity. But in fact I suspect it may be good for more than just that. I suspect that a halfway-decent Link Battle metagame could actually develop, if enough people played enough times. Surely, luck would be a bigger factor than we're used to, but that in itself doesn't spell doom for meaningful competition. There might be an increased chance of losing when you play better or winning when you play worse, but in the long run wins and losses would balance out to paint accurate statistical pictures of players' relative skill levels (so it's not enough to just play once or a few times; you have to play a whole lot if you want good results ;P). And of course, the ability to play the odds is itself a type of skill.
If you didn't know, the Game Boy emulator BGB can be used to link and play Game Boy games over the internet. I haven't actually done it yet, but it seems pretty easy. And there's a great save file editor that can function as a team builder. But make a backup copy of your save first, because one time for some reason it erased all of my Pokémon in Box 12. Not sure what that was about. But really it's a great save editor if you backup your saves.
I have, in fact, constructed a team which I hope would perform well in Link Battle RB Ubers. By "RB" I mean just Red and Blue, meaning that only Pokémon and moves available prior to the release of Yellow are legal. In Ubers this appears to make no significant difference as to movepools, but one interesting consequence of it is that Mew is banned, because the first Roman-alphabet Mew distribution came after the first Roman-alphabet release of Pokémon Yellow (I think it would probably be better to have Mewtwo banned instead, but hey, I don't make the rules, I just interpret them ;P). Of course I plan to also make Link Battle teams for RBY and RBY+Stadium and even RBY+Stadium+Gen2Tradebacks, but I feel like it's only right to start at the beginning and then progress in chronological order.
Aside from the RB specification, I think a few basic rules would be beneficial, despite the anarchic spirit of Link Battle. I propose a rather minimalist system of but a single clause: The Normal Gameplay Clause, which means your team can include anything that you could theoretically obtain without hacking or taking advantage of glitches. However, once the battle begins, all glitches are fair game (as they must be). This means, for example, you can't start a battle with more than 32 current PP for Wrap, but if its PP underflows during the battle then that's perfectly fine.
So if anybody wants to try a Link Battle according to those terms, then that would be awesome. PM me if you want to arrange a BGB battle. I'm generally only available on weekends and Friday nights, and probably minus Sunday once school starts, but I can usually plan ahead to make time on another day if need be.
But it's not just bans and rules that separate what we play from the real thing. It's also the near-inevitable existence of differences between the mechanics of the original games and the mechanics implemented in simulators. That's why, for example, Wrap wasn't even a thing until just a few years ago, and now it's recognized as a significant force in the metagame. And it's why we only recently made the momentous discovery that Normal types cannot be paralyzed by Body Slam, which means we've played the game wrong for about 15 years, and most if not all of the competitive matches and tournaments played prior to the discovery are essentially invalid. The metagame, beloved though it be, has in fact been greatly influenced by major and minor mechanics errors from its very beginning and throughout its history. In a way, we've only just begun to actually play RBY.
Or have we? We still don't comprehensively know every last detail of cartridge mechanics. It seems all too likely that, at some point down the line, the metagame will yet again be overthrown by another important new discovery.
Okay okay, I'll just come out and say it: I want to try battling with the original Pokémon games. Many of you may think that's madness. Madness? Perhaps. It may be. But is it any greater madness than 15 years of Chansey and Tauros and Persian and Snorlax all being susceptible to paralysis from Body Slam? I think not.
I'm sure playing the actual games would never replace playing under the civilized rules we all take for granted, but that doesn't mean they're not worth playing at all. I long to experience "the real thing", if only just for fun and nostalgia and to satisfy my curiosity. But in fact I suspect it may be good for more than just that. I suspect that a halfway-decent Link Battle metagame could actually develop, if enough people played enough times. Surely, luck would be a bigger factor than we're used to, but that in itself doesn't spell doom for meaningful competition. There might be an increased chance of losing when you play better or winning when you play worse, but in the long run wins and losses would balance out to paint accurate statistical pictures of players' relative skill levels (so it's not enough to just play once or a few times; you have to play a whole lot if you want good results ;P). And of course, the ability to play the odds is itself a type of skill.
If you didn't know, the Game Boy emulator BGB can be used to link and play Game Boy games over the internet. I haven't actually done it yet, but it seems pretty easy. And there's a great save file editor that can function as a team builder. But make a backup copy of your save first, because one time for some reason it erased all of my Pokémon in Box 12. Not sure what that was about. But really it's a great save editor if you backup your saves.
I have, in fact, constructed a team which I hope would perform well in Link Battle RB Ubers. By "RB" I mean just Red and Blue, meaning that only Pokémon and moves available prior to the release of Yellow are legal. In Ubers this appears to make no significant difference as to movepools, but one interesting consequence of it is that Mew is banned, because the first Roman-alphabet Mew distribution came after the first Roman-alphabet release of Pokémon Yellow (I think it would probably be better to have Mewtwo banned instead, but hey, I don't make the rules, I just interpret them ;P). Of course I plan to also make Link Battle teams for RBY and RBY+Stadium and even RBY+Stadium+Gen2Tradebacks, but I feel like it's only right to start at the beginning and then progress in chronological order.
Aside from the RB specification, I think a few basic rules would be beneficial, despite the anarchic spirit of Link Battle. I propose a rather minimalist system of but a single clause: The Normal Gameplay Clause, which means your team can include anything that you could theoretically obtain without hacking or taking advantage of glitches. However, once the battle begins, all glitches are fair game (as they must be). This means, for example, you can't start a battle with more than 32 current PP for Wrap, but if its PP underflows during the battle then that's perfectly fine.
So if anybody wants to try a Link Battle according to those terms, then that would be awesome. PM me if you want to arrange a BGB battle. I'm generally only available on weekends and Friday nights, and probably minus Sunday once school starts, but I can usually plan ahead to make time on another day if need be.
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