Well, this isn't particularly interesting, but I've finally managed to snag a copy of one of the many bootleg Pokemon ports that have been circling around Ebay for years- this one in particular being ChaosBlack. I bought it knowing full well it was going to be of hilariously low quality, and OH LAWDY, does it show. Relatively okay sprite edits with barely edited icon sprites, but since this version of the rom dates back to as early as 2006, when good Pokemon hacking tools had not yet existed, the sprites were most likely added into the game with primitive methods (like UNLZ.GBA), as one particular Pokemon, a poorly edited Cloyster, has its backsprite as its front, and when you look at the backsprite, it's hilariously glitched, with the sprite of the last Pokemon you used showing up using its own palette. In addition, a lot of the edited Pokemon had not had their catch rates edited, which means I was finding things with a 60-90 catch rate (Cloyster, Muk, Fearow) in early-game areas where they really shouldn't be.
And SPEAKING of early-game areas, the towns and cities I've encountered so far have no names- they appear as a blank text box when you walk through the towns (Route 1 and 2 were like this as well). Every wild capture you make in the routes shows up as a "fateful encounter", but the town names and route names still show up on the town map. The routes themselves are also horribly edited (most likely again using primitive tools- Most likely EliteMap since AdvanceMap hadn't existed yet), with jumping ledges all over the place, and areas blocked off until Cut is available.
Overall, it's definitely bad. I knew it was going to be from the start, but I'll probably keep playing to see if I can find anything else. I'm also trying to do some research into that game to figure out who specifically made it. Might possibly have a lead, but I'm not entirely sure. Hoping to find Quartz, Perla, DarkCry, Lugia's Ocean, Naranja and ShinyGold at some point since I know they all exist as well. I've seen them before, but never could snag them quick enough.
