Myrient says goodbye, 10 Pokémon FireRed ROM hacks that aren't $20, and more

👋 Hello and welcome to another edition of The Memory Core newsletter! This week was a huge one for news, so there's a lot to get through here.

For starters, it's time to say goodbye to one of the most useful game preservation services, Myrient. Then, a quick list of Pokémon FireRed ROM hacks for anyone who doesn't want to shell out $20 for a ROM on their Switch. Trust me, there are some great options.

Scroll to the end for a Nintendo lawsuit we can all get behind for a change.

Game preservation takes a big hit

This week Myrient announced that it will be closing shop at the end of the month.

If you haven't heard of it, it's a "fast and reliable video game preservation service with over 390 terabytes of organized collections publicly available for download." In other words, a massive repository of ROMs and game files.

Now, while I'm all for game preservation, it's also worth pointing out that this was one of the most accessible tools for downloading pirated ROMs. Unfortunately, these things often go hand-in-hand.

But it wasn't Nintendo or other copyright holders that shut things down. It was everyone else.

It seems that costs were beginning to mount, with the owner paying more than $6000 out of pocket every month to keep things online. That's on top of donations, which should give you an idea of just how popular it was.

However, it wasn't just individual users putting strain on the servers. The announcement also cites the emergence of "paywalled download managers" that charged people to download games from the site. Often, these were vibe coded by vapid hustle bros dedicated to sucking value out of everything good in the world.

As a result, the site will shut down on March 31. Data hoarders are already spearheading efforts to make sure everything (particularly rare games in danger of being lost) gets backed up.

That said, it's likely that all of this will return to sketchy sites filled with ads, pop-ups, and paywalls for the foreseeable future. Sometimes it's hard to know you're in the good times until they're over.

Pokémon FireRed ROM hacks

This is a little different from what I usually write about, but the recent re-release of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen on the Nintendo Switch gave me some conflicted feelings.

On one hand, these games are a big part of my childhood, and you should go play them if you haven't. These versions are almost entirely faithful to the originals, with the caveat that you can no longer name your rival Ass.

But they also cost $20 each, which is pretty egregious for what essentially amounts to a ROM file for a 20 year old game. A game that itself was a remake of a game from 1996.

So instead, I want to highlight some of the best FireRed and LeafGreen ROM hacks that really do make sweeping changes to the classic titles. Here are 10 my favorites:

• Pokémon Unbound: This legendary hack is a must-play for Pokémon fans, and it adds so much new content that it's a new game in its own right. This is a great starting point for Pokémon ROM hacks.
• Pokémon Odyssey: A mix of Pokémon and Etrian Odyssey, this one is less of a Pokémon game and more of a dungeon crawler. All battles are double battles, and it's incredibly polished.
• Pokémon Gaia: This is one of the first FireRed ROM hacks that gained a significant following, and it's still a classic to this day. It has a new region (Orbtus), with elements from newer games like Mega Evolutions.
• Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen+: For a more authentic experience, this ROM hack preserves the original games but adds even more quality of life improvements than the new release. And yes, it combines both games into one.
• Pokémon Liquid Crystal Version: More of a fan of the GBC games? Liquid Crystal remakes Pokémon Crystal using the FireRed/LeafGreen engine, but despite some promise, it appears to be forever stuck in beta.
• Pokémon FireRed Rocket Edition: As the name implies, you play as a fledgling member of Team Rocket. The story runs parallel to the original game, but you can steal Pokémon from trainers you defeat. You monster.
• Pokémon AshGray: For fans of the anime, AshGray rejiggers the story to closely follow Ash's story, catching the same Pokémon he does in the series. There's another called Orange Islands that follows the second season.
• Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu GBA: This is a "GBA demake" of the Switch title Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu. It's still a little rough around the edges.
• Sword and Shield Ultimate Plus GBA: Another demake, this time of Pokémon Sword and Shield. I haven't tested this one yet, but it looks promising.
• Digimon Nova Red: I never bought into the whole Pokémon vs Digimon thing, and this hack has the best of both worlds. It replaces the game's Pokémon with 350 Digimon, with many having five evolutions.

Remember, you'll need to rip the ROM from your own personal collection to patch these ROM hacks. Uncle Nintendo is watching.

Handheld highlights

💸 Last week AYN announced that the Thor and Odin 3 may see a price increase, and it was later pushed up to... tomorrow. The Thor Lite is the only model that doesn't see a price increase, but the rest are now anywhere from $10 to $40 more expensive. The Odin 3 Ultra is now discontinued. [Discord]

📈 Shortly afterward, Retroid, which is totally not the same company, announced that the base model of the Pocket 6 will increase by $15 starting on Monday, and the higher-spec models will be discontinued. It does look like the company is gearing up for another launch, but I'm afraid to learn the pricing. [Discord]

💊 Speaking of pricing, we still don't know how much the ANBERNIC RG VITA and RG VITA Pro will cost, but we do know that the Pro model will have a dual OS setup with Android 14 and Linux. This is in addition to GammaOS, which will be available from day one. I hope pricing doesn't kill it. [YouTube]

💪 It isn't exactly a handheld, but Lenovo announced a new compact gaming tablet, and it's the first to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. The 8.8-inch Legion Y700 Gen 5 will launch on March 18 in China, and it will launch as the Legion Tab (Gen 5) globally in May. Unfortunately, it will also cost $850. [Weibo] [9to5Google]

🪦 The OrangePi Neo-01 is "currently on ice." The Manjaro-powered Linux handheld has been in development for years, but the current memory crisis has made the product launch untenable. I wasn't a huge proponent of this one, but it's still a bummer for the Linux gaming crowd. [Website]

FPGA focus

💰 The Analogue Pocket is now back in stock, but with a $20 price bump. It sucks that this neat little FPGA handheld is now 20% more expensive than it was when it launched in 2021, but I guess that's world we live in now. I hope at the very least the company announces some new colors soon. [Analogue]

🍜 Taki Udon teased a new project, and this time it's a handheld. The company is still catching up on SuperStation One orders, but I'd love to see another FPGA handheld hit the scene. [BlueSky]

The emulator report

🌴 GitHub has finally removed the Nintendo Switch emulator Eden's repository, but the project will continue to be hosted on a private server. It was only a matter of time, since Nintendo sent a DMCA notice a few weeks ago, but I'd encourage you to consider donating to help keep it alive. You've seen what happened to Myrient. [Discord]

💮 3DS emulator Azahar continues to forge ahead, with several pre-release alpha updates dropping this week. The biggest thing to note is a new libretro/RetroArch core, which is now available for most platforms. This was in the works for nearly a year, but it's a big step forward for the relatively young emulator. [GitHub]

🆕 The iconic PSP emulator PPSSPP got its first update in six months this week, and it brings a revamped UI and some rendering and performance improvements. this is just in time for the RG VITA, which despite the name, it shaping up to be a solid PSP device. [Patch notes]

📦 An Android Xbox emulator called X1 BOX landed on the Google Play Store this week, but not without controversy. Built on the free and open-source Xemu project, the developer put a price tag of $7.99 on the listing (just as they did with his PCSX2-based PS2 emulator). Everything is still above board (the source code is available), but it rubbed some users the wrong way. The good news is that the Xemu team is already working on an official port, which will likely be free. [Play Store]

🐣 There's a new PS2 emulator in the works, and it's being developed separately from the well-established PCSX2 project. It's still early innings, but it does have the support of the ARMSX2 dev team, which incidentally also dropped a significant update earlier in the week. [Iris] [Discord]

Retro archives

🪖 A new fan translation of the PSP game Valkyria Chronicles 3 Extra Edition dropped this week, and it's much more complete than the 2014 version. The third entry in the series never received a global release, so this is your best chance to hop back in the trenches. [GitHub]

🗾 This week also saw the first fan translation of Dreamcast game Segagaga. Fans have been clamoring for a translation for decades, since it has a unique script filled with games industry inside jokes and meta content that's difficult to translate. Unfortunately, the team made heavy use of AI to make it happen, and apart from being morally questionable, the quality of the translation is also pretty suspect. [GitHub]

🍪 In better news, the niche 1999 Japanese game Cookie's Bustle has finally been freed from copyright hell thanks to the efforts of the Video Game History Foundation. A copyright troll had been issuing false DMCA notices to any Cookie content published online, but the team did its research, fought back, and won. I'd recommend reading the whole post, since it's a journey. [VGHF]

👾 Shmuplations dropped another translated interview, this time between Shigeru Miyamoto, Shigesato Itoi, and Seikou Itou from 1989. At this point the first MOTHER game was out, and a good part of the conversation is about design choices made for that game. It's an absolute treat for MOTHER fans (like me). [Shmuplations]

🚤 Dead Cells has been added to PortMaster, meaning the hit roguelike is now playable on wildly underpowered devices, including the R36S. Check out the interview to learn how it was done, or snag a copy of the game (preferably from GOG), and start the four to eight-hour compilation process in PortMaster. [The Bryant Review]

🧑‍⚖️ Finally, Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for the now-illegal tariffs levied last year. In case you missed it, the Switch 2 was delayed in the US by the sudden announcement of global tariffs, although the company ultimately decided to eat the tariffs and keep the price the same. Now, it's demanding a return of those costs, plus interest. Those will undoubtedly be returned to customers somehow, right? ...right? [Aftermath]