Pokemon Stadium With Transfer Pak
Twyla Plack
The Transfer Pak (Japanese: 64GBパック 64GB Pack) is a peripheral for the Nintendo 64 that allows for the transfer of data between the console and Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridges. The device came as a pack-in with the first Pokmon Stadium title, although it could also be purchased separately. It is plugged into the back of the Nintendo 64 controller. With the Transfer Pak, Pokmon and items from Game Boy games can be uploaded into the Stadium games for storage at the Laboratory, or to be used in battles and mini-games. It also allows trading Pokmon (two Transfer Paks required) and allows the playing of Game Boy Pokmon games on a TV using the Game Boy Tower feature.
Data for Pokmon Crystal is contained in Pokmon Stadium 2, but can only be unlocked when connecting a Pokmon Crystal cartridge via the Transfer Pak. Specifically, it unlocks location data, data for the game in general (making Stadium acknowledge the fact Crystal exists), and the Pokmon trainer data for Crystal.
The Japanese versions of the Pokmon Stadium games are only compatible with the Japanese versions of the core series games. The Western versions of the Pokmon Stadium games are compatible with all Western versions of the Pokmon Stadium games, but not the Japanese or Korean core series games. The Korean core series games are not compatible with any Pokmon Stadium games.
Putting aside the fact that Nintendo's GB emulator inside of the Pokemon Stadium games is pretty weak, it only plays the official Pokemon games, so ROM hacks won't work (Gen II graphic mod for example).
Also, many other games use the transfer pak besides Pokemon games. Mario Tennis and Mario Golf are great sport RPGs on the GBC and the save data are used to unlock stuff in their respective N64 games.
I mostly wanted to get the basic internal core features working and that goal is reached.
At this point it "just" needs to be improved for better user experience and some other memory controllers (MBC) added.
Note2: I can confirm this method is ok with Pokemon Stadium 2 with Pokemon Yellow. My Pokemon Cristal save is not 32KB/Ko but 33 and I dont know why... So it didn't worked for me for this version ; but I don't know if it's just my personal Cristal save which is wrong or if this method is not adapted for this game in perticular... Let me know
If your Pokemon Stadium file size is already at 256KB/Ko, it means it already includes a GameBoy save: you can go to step 4.
If your Pokemon Stadium file size is 128KB/Ko, we will fill it with blank data so the nexts steps of this tutorial will be the same for all users.
Can confirm that all English language Gen 1 and 2 saves taken from GB cartridges will work in Stadium 1/2.
Using a submodule gb01 all saves from GB cartridges came out as 32KB. Byte swapped and inserted into N64 sav files they all work.
As of the latest core todays date, the only thing that does not work is GB Tower for Gen 2 games in Stadium 2. Otherwise you can import teams from Red/Blue/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal, move boxes around, items, GB Pokmon in minigames, etc. Even mystery gift works! (No RTC yet so I guess for one "day" only).
Fantastic work, mysterypaint. Any chance you can extend the tool to also work with Controller Pak saves? I have a mess of ghosts for Mario Kart, Wave Race, and Excitebike that I'd love to use on the core, but haven't been able to figure out importing/exporting them on my own.
Unrelated: is it true that Gen 2 doesn't work on GB Tower in Pokemon Stadium 2 currently? My experience when testing was that only Crystal failed to load (hangs on the loading screen). I was able to load Gold and Silver from the Transfer Pak normally and boot them up. That said, I didn't actually get into gameplay in either so maybe it gets messed up at some point, but they at least boot and the attract modes play normally, unlike Crystal. This testing was all done with USA roms.
Edit: Had no issue playing Pokemon Silver via Pokemon Stadium 2 through the introductory section. I wonder if people are testing Crystal (which doesn't load currently) and concluding that Gen 2 doesn't work...
I have updated the tool to support CPaks/TPaks! Please read the instructions very carefully, because usage is significantly different (but hopefully equally as simple to use) since the last update.
Well looking at the N64-database.txt file, each game has a unique ID made up by 3 characters or higher followed by a couple of underscores (removing them still gives me the error BTW). Wish mysterypaint would take a look ay this post or on the Github page in order to clarify this.
which is getting a romname by splitting the inout line on the # character and then trying to find the 2nd entry of the split. So that suggets the file its parsing is incorrectly formatted. Its parsing the N64Database.txt at this point
This changes the comment character looked for and in my extremely limited testing it can now populate a N64 database. Note I didnt go through the whole thing as I have no save files to convert, but the above will at least allow the database to be populated
A few years ago, I got a Nintendo 64 with a bunch of games and the transfer pak. The accessory was part of the Pokemon Stadium bundle and I recently discovered that you could use the transfer pak to transfer your monsters to the N64 game, but also to play Pokemon Yellow, Red and Blue. I was wondering if that's a good way to experience those games on the big screen, since tracking down copies of Pokemon Stadium and any of the Game Boy games is going to be an expensive proposition for me. I know the N64 resolution is quite low and I don't know how its controller handles a traditional Pokemon, so does any of you have any experience with this? Is it worth adding those games to my collection so that I can play Pokemon on a big CRT? Or do you think that's just a waste of money? Any resources that you can throw my way will be greatly appreciated since the only thing I've found was a video on "My Life as Gaming". Thanks in advance!
1. Game Cube + Game Boy Player (as Austin suggested) - Gamecube is easy enough. The Game Boy Player is cheap but the legitimate disc isn't. You can use homebrew software for cheaper, but that requires investing in an SD memory card piece (around $20). This will play anything from Game Boy up through Game Boy Advance
EDIT - I always wondered if there was some kind of hack that could be done to play other Game Boy games using the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak... I don't think there is, but it was always an interesting thought.
The N64 option is functional, it's not bad, and it works and looks just fine within the imposed limitations of the N64 output, stock, or UltraHDMI updated. It's a good way, but if you already have other options like the 2 listed above you're probably better off. #2 on the list is cheapest, then the N64+pak and carts, and lastly likely due to the price tag of the GB Player+Disc that would be the last choice but the most beneficial as it basically runs everything.
The thing about the N64 option is that I already have a functional one with the transfer pak, I'd only need a copy of Pokemon Stadium and the Game Boy games. That said, having a GameCube with a Game Boy Player sounds amazing, but also extremely expensive since I don't have anything. I did some research and suing the latter sounds like a fantastic option when it comes to playing Game Boy Color and GBA games on a big screen.
The best way really is for GBC and GBA to use a GBPlayer+Disc ($60-70) and a Gamecube. But, if you have the hardware, the best way with the sharpest quality would be a SuperNT + Super Gameboy for GB and SuperGB games as that's unmatched.
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