Pokemon Fan Shares A Way To Trade From Gen 2 To Gen 3

thegamer.com:

Unfortunately, it's impossible to carry a Pokemon over from Pokemon Red and Blue to the recent games. Considering these early titles are now over 25 years old, however, many of us had made our peace with that - as much as we do mourn our childhood friends, doomed to live on a cartridge that will probably be wiped when the internal battery dries us. But now, a fan has found a way to save them.

A YouTube video from Pokemon fan Goppier has been shared online, offering players a chance to be reunited with their old pixelated pals. The method Goppier has come up with doesn't even require users to copy data over with their computer. The video proves that the officially impossible trade between Gen 2 and 3 is indeed possible, allowing our 'mon to be passed up even further and never be forgotten again.

Related: Rediscovering The Forgotten Wii Pokemon Games

To get this to work, you have to use a link cable for the original Game Boy or Game Boy Colour. As hard as one of those might be to track down, that's actually the easy bit - because it also involves making your own bit of kit that allows the two gens to communicate with each other.

The biggest hurdle is the fact that Gen 3 introduced new features, such as Pokemon natures. If the hardware even allowed for trades, Gen 2 Pokemon still wouldn't be compatible with 3 for this very reason. However, Goppier managed to figure out how Gen 3 calculates a Pokemon's nature, and got the custom hardware to work all of that out when the trade is taking place.

The end result gives Goppier a way to trade up all Gen 2 Pokemon up to the recent games. In the trade demonstrated to us in the video, the iconic Red Gyarados is sent to Gen 3, and even retains its original stats and shiny status.