With help from our very own @Typwn and @iisoide, I'd like to release a playable demo version of Pocket King for the Game Boy Color.
This game is a turn based strategy game that takes parts from Ogre Battle (grouping individual troops into units), Advance Wars (captured towns give you resources to summon troops, troop matchups are important), and Fire Emblem (troops level up stats and change classes, but die permanently if defeated). It also has a item drop system from defeated enemies that raise stats and let you change classes, but no equipment.
It has interesting gameplay where you are summoning troops to counter the CPU's picks, sacrificing fodder and trying to level up a few veterans for future campaigns.
What's translated:
The game is more or less translated enough for the campaign gameplay, with a focus on the menus and messages needed to play the levels.
There is also quite a bit of story between levels, which is not currently translated (I have built tools, but am waiting on/looking for more translators right now.) I plan to translate to graphics too, but haven't yet (and there aren't many).
If you play far enough (past the first few levels), you will find untranslated level names, item names, and unit names. I'll keep working away at these. These shouldn't make any problems for playing, the stats/etc should still be translated and there are good visual representations. All victory/loss conditions should be translated as well.
If you find untranslated menus or other text, feel free to post/message me with a screenshot or suspend save - you can save at any point, and I'll fix them.
I haven't tested this on real hardware, but I think it should work fine - I didn't do anything too revolutionary hacking-wise. I've tested on mGBA and BGB so far, I imagine any reasonable emulator will do fine.
How to play:
View attachment 75497
The first screen you will be met with will be one to name the character. You can select the middle icon to use English characters, or just hit enter to go with Elric. This will only happen once, and your choice will be saved.
View attachment 75498
The second screen shows a set of modes. They are (top to bottom) 'Heroic' (the main campaign), versus, exchange (I think you could trade troops a la Pokemon),
picture book, and erase data.
Choose the top one - I'm only focused on the campaign for now.
Hit enter to skip cinematics. None are translated.
You can summon troops only when your king is on a castle. This doesn't use the king's turn, so you can summon until you run out of MP. You can group units (up to 3) by moving them onto each other on the map.
View attachment 75499
The units with a star icon (see above) can capture towns/castles. They increase your MP production and you don't have to leave a troop stationed there - it'll have a blue border denoting that you own it.
View attachment 75500
Matchups and terrain are important. You can see a Def number when you hover your cursor over terrain. Higher is better. To check out matchups, you can click on a non-unit square and choose Info->Comp, and you can set attacker/defender and see the Result column at the bottom. Higher is better for the attacker.
There are several options to turn off animations, the 'Other animations' are cute, but might get old fast.
View attachment 75501
Movement- every unit has a move score and costs for different terrains. Choose Info->Move on an empty square to get the data. You can click to see 3 pages (!) of terrain types.
I think this is more than enough to get started! Have fun and let me know if you have questions or find problems.
Where to get it:
The base ROM is pretty easy to search up, but sadly not in the Repo here.
I've attached an IPS patch only, as I noticed the forum rules prohibit 'piracy'. It's good for a week, apparently and I can host elsewhere if desired. If it's legit to provide a prepatched ROM, I'm happy to if a mod lets me know. I'm also totally happy with this getting added to the Repo here, prepatched doesn't bother me .
This is a nice easy web tool to apply the patch. I can help more with this if needed.
Enjoy!
This game is a turn based strategy game that takes parts from Ogre Battle (grouping individual troops into units), Advance Wars (captured towns give you resources to summon troops, troop matchups are important), and Fire Emblem (troops level up stats and change classes, but die permanently if defeated). It also has a item drop system from defeated enemies that raise stats and let you change classes, but no equipment.
It has interesting gameplay where you are summoning troops to counter the CPU's picks, sacrificing fodder and trying to level up a few veterans for future campaigns.
What's translated:
The game is more or less translated enough for the campaign gameplay, with a focus on the menus and messages needed to play the levels.
There is also quite a bit of story between levels, which is not currently translated (I have built tools, but am waiting on/looking for more translators right now.) I plan to translate to graphics too, but haven't yet (and there aren't many).
If you play far enough (past the first few levels), you will find untranslated level names, item names, and unit names. I'll keep working away at these. These shouldn't make any problems for playing, the stats/etc should still be translated and there are good visual representations. All victory/loss conditions should be translated as well.
If you find untranslated menus or other text, feel free to post/message me with a screenshot or suspend save - you can save at any point, and I'll fix them.
I haven't tested this on real hardware, but I think it should work fine - I didn't do anything too revolutionary hacking-wise. I've tested on mGBA and BGB so far, I imagine any reasonable emulator will do fine.
How to play:
View attachment 75497
The first screen you will be met with will be one to name the character. You can select the middle icon to use English characters, or just hit enter to go with Elric. This will only happen once, and your choice will be saved.
View attachment 75498
The second screen shows a set of modes. They are (top to bottom) 'Heroic' (the main campaign), versus, exchange (I think you could trade troops a la Pokemon),
picture book, and erase data.
Choose the top one - I'm only focused on the campaign for now.
Hit enter to skip cinematics. None are translated.
You can summon troops only when your king is on a castle. This doesn't use the king's turn, so you can summon until you run out of MP. You can group units (up to 3) by moving them onto each other on the map.
View attachment 75499
The units with a star icon (see above) can capture towns/castles. They increase your MP production and you don't have to leave a troop stationed there - it'll have a blue border denoting that you own it.
View attachment 75500
Matchups and terrain are important. You can see a Def number when you hover your cursor over terrain. Higher is better. To check out matchups, you can click on a non-unit square and choose Info->Comp, and you can set attacker/defender and see the Result column at the bottom. Higher is better for the attacker.
There are several options to turn off animations, the 'Other animations' are cute, but might get old fast.
View attachment 75501
Movement- every unit has a move score and costs for different terrains. Choose Info->Move on an empty square to get the data. You can click to see 3 pages (!) of terrain types.
I think this is more than enough to get started! Have fun and let me know if you have questions or find problems.
Where to get it:
The base ROM is pretty easy to search up, but sadly not in the Repo here.
I've attached an IPS patch only, as I noticed the forum rules prohibit 'piracy'. It's good for a week, apparently and I can host elsewhere if desired. If it's legit to provide a prepatched ROM, I'm happy to if a mod lets me know. I'm also totally happy with this getting added to the Repo here, prepatched doesn't bother me .
This is a nice easy web tool to apply the patch. I can help more with this if needed.
Enjoy!
Last edited:
