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Pokémon Gold & Pokemon Silver Virtual Console |OT| The Nostalgia Is Crystal Clear

So I bought both games on Amazon in hopes of getting the corresponding themes and Celebi codes only to learn that it’s literally impossible to get either unless you buy them directly from the eShop. I then tried contacting Nintendo directly and they proved to be no help whatsoever. Is buying one of the alternate language versions of Gold and Silver off the eShop my only hope at this point?
Good luck! I'm trying to get the exclusive Gold theme myself but have had no luck.
 

Robin64

Member
I can't get a Pikachu at all until Kanto? Are you shitting me?

<----- I wanted a Pikachu!

Edit: Though if I send one over from Yellow using the Time Capsule, it should be holding a Light Ball. Hmm.. But that's all the way in Ecruteak City. :(
 
I have an extra US Celebi code to trade for the Gym Theme. I purchased Gold and Silver from the e-shop and would really love the Gym Theme, if anybody wants to trade?
 
Turns out Heracross is a giant pain to get. Learned about "low encounter" trees. And then on top of that he can run away.

Finally found the right tree.

First Heracross ran.
Second one made me waste my only great ball and then ran.
Crit the third one.

Edit: Caught the 4th, but it's a girl which normally wouldn't be a problem if they didn't have lower attack in this game. Gonna keep trying bit a longer, but if it doesn't happen, then at least I got one.
 
Nuzlocke Update! Third Gym down and just made it to Ecruteak City!

Version: Silver
Badges: 3
Pokemon Dead: 0
Pokemon Owned: 22 (This includes evolutions)

Current Party:
Bayleef (Stassi) Level 19
Geodude (Dudebro) level 20
Pidgeotto (Coco) level 19
Flaaffy (Tsuyana) level 18
Beedrill (Stabi) level 16
Zubat (Sreek) Level 19

Pokemon in the bank:
Sentret (Tren)
Gastley (Wizwick)
Togepi (Eggberta)
Rattata (Triss)
Slowpoke (Estra)
Oddish (Zonni)
Spearow (Luggins)
Ditto (Copycat)
Paras (Vivina)
Sudowoodo (Rocktree)

Pokemon at the Daycare:
Rattata (Triss)
Exeggcute *can't remember what I named it XD*

Current thoughts: Third gym is down and my luck has certainly changed. I've gotten EXTREMELY lucky in a few fights, the stupid Miltank at the third gym would have wrecked my Geodude and possibly more but it missed going into its 4th Rollout which reset it and I was able to take it out without losing anyone then later on against Sudowoodo that I ended up catching it almost killed Bayleef (4hp on a crit from full) so thats good but on the other hand my luck with catching things has certainly gone downhill.

After spending an hour I caught the Exeggcute (15% chance in Azalea town) it just shouldn't have taken that long. Then in the route after the forest I ran into the Abra I mentioned before which teleported, then in the route above Goldenrod City I ran into a Ditto (4% chance) which sucks because Dittos are pretty much worthless in a Nuzlocke (it'll die before it can even Transform in any fight it would be useful) and I would have much preferred ANYTHING else I could have caught there. Then I did the bug catching competition and caught a Paras... Easily the worst possible option I had. Finally after catching the Sudowoodo in the route north of that I ran into a Vulpix (I LOVE VULPIX/NINETAILS!) and I had Zubat out (it had just learned confuse ray) so I confused it right away but it only lasted 1 turn and then it used roar to run away.

I'm still lucky in battle (no ones died yet) but my catching luck today suuuuuucks.

Zubat is almost ready to evolve in both level and happiness (for Crobat) so that'll be helpful, I didn't really happen upon a good option for the 4th gym so I'm mulling over my options. I'm taking the fight seriously though as I've wiped there many times due to that freaking Gengar and Shadow Ball but that was on the remakes so it may not be nearly as difficult here but the only reason the previous gyms were as easy as they were was because of Geodude who is basically useless here (Shadow Ball will one shot it even if I get it to level 25 so it evolves) going to go back and get the Eevee next and I'm thinking about maxing its happiness out and evolving it into one of the two options to deal with this next gym but I have a few other options (Rattata evolved with the dig TM I got in the national park, The slowpoke or Exeggcute I have are a few other choices I just don't know if they'll even be remotely enough) but right now I'm expecting I'll lose at least a few Pokemon in this gym, its the hardest gym by far until the 8th.

Mini Update:

Right after I made the above post I challenged the Kimono girls and the Espeon 1 shot my Zubat and Beedrill (the latter I was using as a sacrifice as it was also about to kill my starter as well) jesus that thing was strong. All the other ones were pretty easy I wasn't expecting it to wreck 2 of my Pokemon so easily, my Zubat was the highest leveled of any of my Pokemon at that time to (it was JUST about to level and evolve damn it!). I really underestimated it. Losing the Zubat sucks because of all the work I put into it but thankfully it didn't die AFTER it evolved which would have locked me out of a Golbat and thus Crobat as well so I can still likely get a Golbat later for my team (a good and a bad thing imo) now I'm just going around and grinding for the 4th gym, don't have a ton of good options but If I can get my party all around level 25 I might stand a chance.
 

Noobcraft

Member
Mini Update:

Right after I made the above post I challenged the Kimono girls and the Espeon 1 shot my Zubat and Beedrill (the latter I was using as a sacrifice as it was also about to kill my starter as well) jesus that thing was strong. All the other ones were pretty easy I wasn't expecting it to wreck 2 of my Pokemon so easily, my Zubat was the highest leveled of any of my Pokemon at that time to (it was JUST about to level and evolve damn it!). I really underestimated it. Losing the Zubat sucks because of all the work I put into it but thankfully it didn't die AFTER it evolved which would have locked me out of a Golbat and thus Crobat as well so I can still likely get a Golbat later for my team (a good and a bad thing imo) now I'm just going around and grinding for the 4th gym, don't have a ton of good options but If I can get my party all around level 25 I might stand a chance.
The Umbreon dancer killed my exeggcute with a pursuit on switch :/. I got lucky and caught a heracross just to the right of town to replace it though. Also grinding for the gym.

My current team is:
Lv 25 Slowpoke
Lv 21 Skiploom
Lv 23 Quilava
Lv 10 Heracross
 
I feel like there's some kind of subtle trolling going on when I go through Sprout Tower with a Cyndaquil and Hoothoot yet the only attacks I have even at lvl 10 are tackle still.

A friend of mine has requested I pick up Quagsire as it's his favourite pokemon, ah I remember being so hyped for this guy back when I first played the game "water/ground awww yeah", I think the reality wasn't quite as grand.
Wooper is still adorbs though.

Contemplating Girafarig, Miltank and Heracross when the time comes.
 

HiroTSK5

Member
Man I forgot how small the move lists were back in the day; Typhlosion learns Flamethrower at level 60 with the previous move being Swift at level 45, yeesh.
 

Robin64

Member
I read that Pokémon Crystal is rumored to be coming to the 3DS Virtual Console soon, is that accurate?

It's accurate that it's rumoured.

There's a bunch of evidence, but mostly:

There are missing entries in the eShop database between the different language versions of Gold and Silver.
And there are patch files for Crystal in the emulator that Gold and Silver uses, which do things like disable the mobile phone interface.
 

Paltheos

Member
Used the duplication glitch to get all three starters, yay. The timing on it is much, much more lenient than I feared. It's actually hard to screw up. I'm gonna dupe everything now. TMs, master balls, gold nuggets. Should be fun.
 
Used the duplication glitch to get all three starters, yay. The timing on it is much, much more lenient than I feared. It's actually hard to screw up. I'm gonna dupe everything now. TMs, master balls, gold nuggets. Should be fun.
Yeah, it's super easy haha. I used to do it back in elementary school for my friends.
 

dyreschlock

Member
Wait we don't? I thought it was in some sort of receipt!

The only thing on the eShop receipt for me was that exclusive Cast Theme code.

Purchases directly through the eShop have a code for Celebi and the Gold/Silver Theme on that receipt instead.

So... maybe the Celebi and Gold/Silver Theme codes are still coming in some other form for Amazon purchasers. But after looking around the Internet, I have not found a report of an Amazon purchaser actually getting a Celebi code.
 
Just got to Ecruteak.

Team:
Quilava
Zubat
Eevee
Nidorina
Heracross

Slot six will either go to Lantern or Lapras after I get Surf.

What is the most efficient way to max happiness in this game? Zubat is close to evolving and I want a Crobat ASAP. And then I gotta start from scratch with Eevee. I already used my haircut for the day on Zubat.
 

Velcro Fly

Member
I'm using Geodude and I really like him.

I'm thinking about buying the game on another 3DS I own so I can trade.

Then I'd probably also try to use Gengar and remember that Ghost is physical in this game :(

Also managed to quickly find my old Nintendo Power Player's Guide. Thing is pretty worthless but still full of nostalgia
 
I still teach my Venusaur in Yellow the move Cut, but strangely it just feels right with him knowing that move.

In Pokemon Stadium, Cut and Vine Whip had very similar particles and were basically recolors of each other. I think Cut was on one of the 'saurs default movesets as well iirc.

I miss Pokemon Stadium. It's not like it'd be impossible to hook up a way to a Switch VC release. Maybe using PokeBank or 3DS to Switch communication (can it do this?)
 

EloNoolah

Member
Would anybody be willing to trade for the Gold and Silver themes and Celebi codes? I have an extra Cast theme as well as codes for Retro City Rampage, Super Street Fighter IV, and Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse for 3DS.
 
Nuzlocke Update! 4th Gym is down I grinded levels for nothing XD

Version: Silver
Badges: 4
Pokemon Dead: 2
Pokemon Owned: 27 (This includes evolutions)

Current Party:
Bayleef (Stassi) Level 23
Graveler (Dudebro) level 25 *NEWLY EVOLVED!!*
Pidgeotto (Coco) level 20
Flaaffy (Tsuyana) level 25
Raticate (Triss) Level 26 *NEWLY EVOLVED!!*
Sudowoodo (Rocktree) Level 20

Pokemon in the bank:
Sentret (Tren)
Gastley (Wizwick)
Togepi (Eggberta)
Slowpoke (Estra)
Oddish (Zonni)
Paras (Vivina)
Eevee (Debbie)
Exeggcute (Jellina)
Machop (Chopper)
Koffing (Teddie)

Pokemon at the Daycare:
Spearow (Luggins)
Ditto (Copycat)

Fallen Pokemon:
Beedrill (Stabi) Died to Espeon
Zubat (Sreek) Died to Espeon

Current Thoughts: The 4th gym was super easy. Raticate went in at level 23 left at 26 1 shot nearly everything with dig, never took damage. That was what I was expecting the hardest gym to be (because it can be in the remakes) but without Pokemon abilities even Gengar went down in 2 hits from dig. I guess I was worried over nothing. I leveled several Pokemon to 25 because I was so afraid of this battle so I guess I don't have to really level much for the next few gyms XD

Losing Zubat and Beedrill as I mentioned in my mini update sucked because I really didn't see it coming. I can always get another Golbat later but I put a lot of exp into that Zubat so losing it sucks when good experience gets really limited later on in G/S. My current team is pretty meh atm. Graveler will be good for awhile but as I said before can't evolve it so hes got limited potential. Raticate is basically cannon fodder at this point (I also overwrote Hyper Fang its best move by mistake fml >.<) thinking I might start working on Machop along with Rocktree for the Ice Gym coming up (as well as the Steel Gym) but right now the priority will be Pidgeotto since next is fighting. I don't think I'll have much trouble with that gym but I might pull out Spearow from the Daycare and get it evolved so I have a backup in case it gets crazy.

Certainly don't feel like I need to grind much for these next few gyms and nice part is I now have Surf so a lot of stuff is open to me so I may backtrack a bit and explore (so may not do a major update until some time tomorrow or later, whenever I make progress again!)
 

iplenoid

Neo Member
According to the Virtual Console manual (Page 25), Mystery Gift still functions like it did in the original release :D

Woooah! Wait a minute if Mystery Gift / 3DS Infrared works with these games...

Does that mean Pocket Pikachu works as well?

latest
 
While grinding for one Metal Coat on a Magnemite to steal I have encountered Entei and Suicune, so at least this annoyance has led to much smaller annoyances in the future.

Woooah! Wait a minute if Mystery Gift / 3DS Infrared works with these games...

Does that mean Pocket Pikachu works as well?
Doubt it, the IR port doesn't connect to the Gameboy so I doubt it would connect to a relatively obscure peripheral either.
 

Forkball

Member
This game is almost too good.

Less than an hour into the game, it's very clear how well-designed GS is and how much of a slog Pokemon SM's first hour is. Keep in mind that I love SM and it was my GotY last year... but GS's first moments really show a stark contrast between classic and modern Pokemon games.

Sun and Moon starts off with so many cutscenes and when you finally get your Pokemon after about twenty minutes, you have the advantage and then you're unleashed on a fairly standard Route 1. GS goes through the general tutorial stuff, but in a much quicker and more interesting way. There are so many teases of secrets and optional paths you can take. The first route, Route 29, has some trees that need Cut, hinting that the player should revisit routes to find more secrets. Cherrygrove also has a trainer that is inaccessible unless you have Surf, another hint that players should backtrack. Two completely optional areas, the southern tip of Route 46 and Dark Cave, have unique Pokemon you wouldn't find if you just followed the story route. Not to mention, depending on the time of day, your Pokemon team could be very different. Depending on your game version, you could encounter Pidgey, Hoothoot, Rattata, Sentret, Weedle, Caterpie, Zubat, Jigglypuff, Geodude, Spinarak, Spearow, Ledyba, and Dunsparce all around the first tutorial town. There's even more in Crystal. Early on you are encouraged to satiate your own curiosity.
 
Woooah! Wait a minute if Mystery Gift / 3DS Infrared works with these games...

Does that mean Pocket Pikachu works as well?

latest

Nope someone on Reddit tested the infrared, it only works between 3DSs, the GBC and Pocket Pikachu don't work.

The GBC actually sees the signal, but it doesn't recognize it and throws an error.
 

iplenoid

Neo Member
Nope someone on Reddit tested the infrared, it only works between 3DSs, the GBC and Pocket Pikachu don't work.

The GBC actually sees the signal, but it doesn't recognize it and throws an error.

While grinding for one Metal Coat on a Magnemite to steal I have encountered Entei and Suicune, so at least this annoyance has led to much smaller annoyances in the future.


Doubt it, the IR port doesn't connect to the Gameboy so I doubt it would connect to a relatively obscure peripheral either.
hCux2c9.jpg

Ah well, at least there's wireless trading and Pokemon Bank.

Time to jump in!
 
I was really really down on Sun/Moon to the point where I didn't want to give GameFreak any more money... but I caved and bought Silver since it's my favourite gen and I can bring them into whatever Gen 8 happens to be on Switch hopefully.

The big thing I'm taking away is how much I miss the different sprites that each game used to have. Some of the sprites in these games have so much more personality. I mean, look at this guy:

079.png


I've never been a huge Slowpoke fan but that sprite made me fall in love and use him in this playthrough.

I would hope that GF would stop focusing on terrible and poorly implemented "Innovations" like pokepelago, pokefinder or ride pokemon and just put more effort into making the pokemon have different stances or animations. I know it's a lot of work but now that they don't have to re-draw the sprites since they have such detailed models it would go a long way to breathing life back into these games.
 

Velcro Fly

Member
So is there no way to get a Water Stone before I get to Kanto? I kinda want to use Poliwrath but not being able to get it until much later on in the game is really a tough sell.
 
I heard there's some sort of exploit/mechanic to have a 1/64 chance of breeding a shiny Pokemon in GSC??? Would someone please elaborate or post a video?
 
I was really really down on Sun/Moon to the point where I didn't want to give GameFreak any more money... but I caved and bought Silver since it's my favourite gen and I can bring them into whatever Gen 8 happens to be on Switch hopefully.

The big thing I'm taking away is how much I miss the different sprites that each game used to have. Some of the sprites in these games have so much more personality. I mean, look at this guy:

079.png


I've never been a huge Slowpoke fan but that sprite made me fall in love and use him in this playthrough.

I would hope that GF would stop focusing on terrible and poorly implemented "Innovations" like pokepelago, pokefinder or ride pokemon and just put more effort into making the pokemon have different stances or animations. I know it's a lot of work but now that they don't have to re-draw the sprites since they have such detailed models it would go a long way to breathing life back into these games.

Crystal also has the most detailed Pokemon sprite animations in the series until Black and White.

It took a decade for the series to get back to Crystal's detailed animations.

Crystal:
538b6669916e60d305a2b6da117ac5ea462ce4c4_hq.gif

Emerald:
212.gif

Come on, the Emerald animation is just sad lol
 

CazTGG

Member
So is there no way to get a Water Stone before I get to Kanto? I kinda want to use Poliwrath but not being able to get it until much later on in the game is really a tough sell.

That depends: Got a copy of Red/Blue/Yellow?

Politoed is better in G/S due to its niche in Perish Song.
 
I heard there's some sort of exploit/mechanic to have a 1/64 chance of breeding a shiny Pokemon in GSC??? Would someone please elaborate or post a video?

-=The Shiny Ditto Trick=-
To get a shiny Ditto do the following:
1. Trade your shiny Gyarados (from the Lake of Rage) to a Red/Blue/Yellow version
2. Teach the Mimic TM to your Gyarados
3. Trade it back to G/S/C
4. Delete every move on your Gyarados (except Mimic, this ensures your chances of the Ditto not using another attack)
5. Trade your Gyarados back to R/B/Y
6. Battle a wild Ditto and use Mimic on Ditto's Transform
7. Ditto will use Transform - now he's a Gyarados
8. Use Transform on him, while he Transforms into you again
9. Capture the Ditto
10. Trade Ditto back to Gold, Silver, or Crystal - the Ditto will now be shiny!
*NOTE - Any Shiny that can learn Mimic in RBY can be used - Gyarados is just the one that everybody encounters.

Due to shininess in gen 2 being based on IV's, breeding with a shiny Ditto significantly increases the chances of your offspring being shiny.
 
As I'm playing through, I've noticed some differences between the original Gameboy games and the VC release.

-The most obvious difference, but flashing effects in battle and in the overworld have been toned down. I feel like they've been dimmed even more than in Red, or at least it's more noticeable in GS.

-The PRINT option in-game is completely disabled. No way to even get the error code to show up saying you need a printer. You're unable to select PRINT at all.

-In battle, the entire health and EXP bars move with Pokemon doing their moves. Animations seem to stretch across the Pokemon's area. I'm guessing this was implemented for the same reasons as dimming flashing lights, but I can't really see where it'd help.

Trying to keep a running log of changes so somewhere like Serebii can note the changes like so https://www.serebii.net/gs/virtualconsole.shtml .
 
-In battle, the entire health and EXP bars move with Pokemon doing their moves. Animations seem to stretch across the Pokemon's area. I'm guessing this was implemented for the same reasons as dimming flashing lights, but I can't really see where it'd help.
I thought I was just misremembering this happening in the original! Good to know I'm not insane. It's such a weird change I don't really understand why.
 

Suspicious_Jug

Neo Member
Yep, it's fantastic, and the HGSS version isn't very good.

The original goes for an entirely different atmosphere than the HGSS version. HGSS seems to have remixed it for Ice Cave and forgot it was actually also Dark Cave's theme.

I heard the HGSS version, and I agree. Feels a bit too whimsical, while the GS is more melancholy and fits the whole cave setting a lot better.
 
I thought I was just misremembering this happening in the original! Good to know I'm not insane. It's such a weird change I don't really understand why.

Same. I looked up what occurred originally. It used to be that the attacking Pokemon's health and exp bars disappeared when attacking. So maybe there was an attack (doubleslap?) that made the bars rapidly flash which caused the change.
 

ohlawd

Member
Using a Gastly for the first time in GSC

this fuck doesn't learn anything until I evolve it to Gengar to learn elemental punches

HALP
 

Crayolan

Member
Using a Gastly for the first time in GSC

this fuck doesn't learn anything until I evolve it to Gengar to learn elemental punches

HALP

It can be useful vs. Whitney thanks to Hypnosis and Curse.

You can get Shadow Ball from Morty. Have fun licking things until then?
 
5 Badges
72 Pokedex
20:11 Hours

Quilava Lv. 29
Gloom Lv. 29 (Sun Stone acquired, waiting for Petal Dance)
Scizor Lv. 28
Miltank Lv. 28
Murkrow Lv. 28

Had to stop after clearing Union Cave's basement, moving on to the secret beach tomorrow and the rest of the hidden surf locations. I've encountered two of the beasts so far and managed to get a level 20 Smeargle without ruining Sketch.

Also they finally sent me my codes after calling in today. Loving the Silver theme.
 

Bladenic

Member
5 Badges
72 Pokedex
20:11 Hours

Quilava Lv. 29
Gloom Lv. 29 (Sun Stone acquired, waiting for Petal Dance)
Scizor Lv. 28
Miltank Lv. 28
Murkrow Lv. 28

Had to stop after clearing Union Cave's basement, moving on to the secret beach tomorrow and the rest of the hidden surf locations. I've encountered two of the beasts so far and managed to get a level 20 Smeargle without ruining Sketch.

Also they finally sent me my codes after calling in today. Loving the Silver theme.

How did you get a Murkrow?
 
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