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Pokémon Diamond and Jade

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This article is about the hacks of Keitai Denjū Telefang. For other games named "Pokémon Diamond", see Pokémon Diamond. For the Makon Soft game named "Pokémon Jade", see Sonic 3D Blast 5 (Game Boy).

Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Jade are bootleg hacks of the first pair of Keitai Denjū Telefang games for the Game Boy Color. Pokémon Diamond, not to be confused with the official Pokémon Diamond, is a hack of Power Version, and Pokémon Jade is a hack of Speed Version.

Overview[]

FakeTelefangBattle

A battle in Pokémon Diamond showcasing the poor grammar.

These bootlegs are best known for their extremely poor translations, which turns all of the text into English phrases that, while mostly grammatically correct, are incomprehensible in the context of the game. This includes phrases such as "Well, have you had curry?", among many others. Many characters and Denjuu also had their names changed. While some of these are slight changes, like Crypto being renamed Kuribute, others are more drastic and inexplicable, like Easydog, Chameraid and Fungmachine being renamed Hat, Ice Cream, and Game Boy respectively. Similarly, the character Kai is interchangeably called Boundary, Ken, and Kate.

Thanks to their infamy, copies of Pokémon Diamond and Jade were once easily available on auction sites like eBay, particularly during the early 2000s. While this was and still is against eBay's terms of service for listing bootlegs of video games, copies of both games still appear on the platform occasionally.

Glitches[]

Both Pokémon Diamond and Jade are infamous for introducing numerous glitches not present in the respective games they are hacked from:

  • Depending on the emulator, ROM or cartridge, selecting "Contin[ue]" when saved data is present will either freeze the games or cause them to act as if said data is absent. The data is actually saved properly, but these bootlegs are simply unable to load it. Via emulation, one can load a saved file from Diamond in Power or a saved file from Jade in Speed; the saved file will work correctly aside from the names of all befriended Denjuu being glitched. In the case of a cartridge, this can be fixed by unscrewing the back, and carefully replacing the CR2032 battery. This method is very simple with the original Game Boy cartridge version that says "GAME" at the top, as it has a Philips screw and a slot for the battery to easily slide in.
  • Pressing A+B+Select+Start simultaneously crashes the game, whereas on most Game Boy or GBC games this produces a soft reset. The reset routine is implemented by the cartridges themselves; given that the bootlegs instead crash, this routine was likely damaged in the translation process.
  • Dialing secret numbers crashes the game.
  • Selecting "Prop" when there are no items crashes the game.
  • Pressing any button after the Game Over screen crashes the game.
  • Rapidly pressing B in the phone menu sometimes crashes the game.
  • The player cannot input their own name for the protagonist, who is officially known as "Shigeki"; the protagonist is automatically named "Bek".
  • Denjuu cannot be nicknamed manually; they are auto-nicknamed, usually to shortened forms of their species' names, using the six-character limit already present in the original games. The Lampgela known as Noisy in Power and Speed is exempt from the "shortened form of species' name" pattern, as it is nicknamed "o" in Diamond and Jade.
  • The color palette in the opening sequence is incorrect. This glitch is caused by the removal of the logos that precede the title screens.
  • When custom tunes are played, screeching noises are often heard.
  • On Ion Island, there is a glitch that sometimes causes the door to lock after beating Gypsophi.
  • On some carts, vases cannot be picked up after saved data is reloaded.
  • When playing the game on the original Game Boy, the title screen will be invisible until the Start button is pressed, at which point it darkens and becomes visible briefly. The phone menu screen will also display a dark background around the letters.
  • The clock does not function in real time, as is evident in an emulator; when the emulator is paused, sped up, or slowed down, the clock will pause, speed up or slow down as well. In the original games, the clock always runs at a constant speed. Furthermore, each second in the game passes after every 50 frames instead of 60, making the clock run slightly faster than normal. This is due to the original Telefang using an actual RTC device in the cartridge; said RTC device is left out of the bootleg cartridge.

Related Bootlegs[]

Various alternate versions of Pokémon Diamond and Jade were released. Other bootleg games based on the hack, related to the original developers of the hack or otherwise, would also be released.

  • There exist Chinese versions of Pokémon Diamond and Jade, whose translation was likely the base of the English versions due to the similarities in dialogue between the two.
  • A German translation of this game also exists as well.
  • A Famicom port made by Waixing. This version was made from scratch and is only loosely based on the original, only retaining the basic plot. Namely, the battle mechanics are completely different and none of the music in the NES port is from the GBC version. It also has Pokémon from Ruby/Sapphire, such as Mightyena, Zigzagoon, and Marshtomp, dating this game to 2002 or later.
  • There also are Chinese versions of Keitai Denjū Telefang 2. Not surprisingly, the Power Version's bootleg is called "Pokémon Diamond 2", and the Speed Version's bootleg is called "Pokémon Jade 2". The title screen of Diamond 2 has a picture of Arcanine, a couple of Pokémon characters, as well as three diamonds on the bottom in a similar fashion to the title screen of the original Diamond. As for Jade 2, the title screen is composed of an image of the Dragon from "Shrek" with Pokémon characters and a jade on the bottom very similar to the jade in the original Jade box art.
  • There is also an English bootleg of Keitai Denjū Telefang 2 called Pokémon Ruby. Its title screen is similar to the Chinese version, but with Groudon instead of Arcanine or Charizard, and the text saying "Pocket Monster Ruby". Due to the similarities, it is suggested that these have the same origin. The Denjuu names are once again inaccurate to their original names. For example, Rex is called Leku and Doon is called Dorin.
  • Another version titled "口袋妖怪大集合" (Kǒudài yāoguài dà jíhé, or Large Pokémon Collection in Chinese) exists, which is the original Japanese version of Telefang Speed, but with all monsters in battle and on the map replaced with Pokémon. Interestingly, all of the monster names were replaced with the appropriate Japanese name of the Pokémon in its place.

Gallery[]

Title Screens and Screenshots[]

Box Arts and Manuals[]

Cartridges[]

See also[]

External links[]

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