IT HAS ARRIVED!

[Jeff]

http://www.pokemasters.tk

After over eight months of planning we finally have something to show for it! It still needs some more contributions, so if you see something missing that you can contribute, post it in this forum!

When Chris put me in charge of this project, I wasn't sure we'd ever see this day, and to be honest, if I was at it alone, we wouldn't. So thanks again to everyone for all your help!

[Telume]

You got a pretty nice set up going on it too :P

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Sweet! There are Unown Awards and my name there which alone makes it a noteworthy site!!

This definitely surpassed my expectations. It shows we still can be the best.

[shazza]

:dance:

[Blademaster]

^All that needs to be said.

Also, dibs on the first non-contributing post! :hellyeah:

[Drago]

Shaweeeeet... Just let me know when I can start contributing useless crap, and I'll be all over it. I'm thinking my useless diatribes would be great for the editorials section...

[kainashi]

kind of reminds me of the first day i set foot on this site many moons ago. :')

[PancaKe]

So happy right now.

[Rossymore]

That's amazing! Nice work eveyone, now to advertise it on Google!

[Houndoom_Lover]

Oh-!!! It's explosively awesome :3

I have the Card of the Week all ready if ya want it ^_^

[shazza]

^All that needs to be said.

Also, dibs on the first non-contributing post! :hellyeah:

What? The fact you concurred with my non-contributing post means that you lost any rights to that entitlement.

[Jeff]

Oh-!!! It's explosively awesome :3

I have the Card of the Week all ready if ya want it ^_^

It would probably be better if you registered on the site, then I'll make you a news poster so you can post it yourself. That way you won't even have to wait for me to get future cards of the week up.

[Houndoom_Lover]

Oh, sweet! Site registering...? *goes back to the site and peers at it like* Okay! I'll let you know as soon as I register. It'll be a moment :3

DONE! ^O^ All registered!

[Jeff]

OK, you're all set, you can now post using the News CP.

[Houndoom_Lover]

Eeeeeexcellent :3 I'll try logging in again. We're so fancy!

[Rossymore]

Wait...I somehow registered and logged on.

I'm fine with posting up news. I get up quite early so I can see it first.

[Jeff]

Alrighty, I see you've signed up there so I'll go ahead and give you access.

Also, HL, you're not having problems logging on, are you?

[Rossymore]

Thanks Jeff, it works fine for me.

One nitpick, the HeartGold/SoulSilver goes off into the current news. It's annoying that it covers up part of the word.

[Jeff]

Ahh, I smell a low-res monitor. Yeah, easily solved by putting spaces around the slashes. I'm off, *whooosh!*

Edit: Done, also shrunk the margin a bit, which should also help.

[Blademaster]

What? The fact you concurred with my non-contributing post means that you lost any rights to that entitlement.

I meant the first non-contributing post there, on TPMF. Not here. :keke:

[Houndoom_Lover]

Also, HL, you're not having problems logging on, are you?

I was ^_^ It kept logging me out everytime I'd go to add news. I just kept signing in. It eventually went, as you can see ^_^

[Telume]

Wee I made my first update, look mommy no hands!

XD

[Rossymore]

I also made my first update. I'll be doing the PMD games and the anime updates so you can expect them from me.

We need a list of who's doing what so people don't post up the same bit of news.

Also, I've got a problem, when you go onto the website and click any of the links which go to Youtube, Facebook, this Forum, e.t.c; it still thinks that you're on http://www.pokemasters.tk/. That's what I'm on now.

Lolz

EDIT: Whilst in TPM Mode, if you refresh, you go back to the main page which is not useful if you're on the Who's Online? list.

I mark out problems quickly!

[Jeff]

Yeah, that's the problem with .tk domains, but hey, it's free. Opening the link in a new window or tab does the trick though.

When we get the pokemasters.net domain, that'll fix the problem.

[Rossymore]

Fine by me, so long as it's fixed eventually.

EDIT: Also, is there some way to return from the News CP to the Site again without having to reload the site?

EDIT2: Damn Serebii made me make a mistake in one of my comments. How can you edit them? Or can you not?

EDIT3: Serebii made another mistake so there is yet another comment. Urgh...

[Jeff]

EDIT: Also, is there some way to return from the News CP to the Site again without having to reload the site?

There is now :)

[Rossymore]

Very nice...thank you yet again!

[Gavin Luper]

Congrats to Jeff and all you guys who helped get this off the ground! I'm absolutely stoked we're back up and running again.

It looks great ... and it's only gonna get bigger and better, I can tell!

Well done all of you!

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Congrats. Nicely done.

[Rossymore]

I've put up some more news and it would look great on the Meelee! Pokemon Scramble page.

[Jeff]

Just a heads up, the site just got its first major update. I've revamped the design and added a style picker, which includes a style heavily based on the one used in 2001. Enjoy!

[Rossymore]

Nice update Jeff. Quite a...eh...nice(ish) nostalgia theme but I'm surprised you lot could survive at all with a skin like that *rubs eyes*

[Telume]

Do you have an LCD monitor? 'cause I remember when I first got one bright colors bothered my eyes.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

The new look is awesome! Although I used to dislike the only-legendaries-and-starters-matter attitude. But now you won't have to change it for a while and yes, there are also the trainers, and that's good because we are The Pokemon Masters!

[Master Rudy]

You mean to tell me the site has been up for a little over a month and I didn't notice? SHAMEFUL! lol

In any case I just recently got my Gamefaqs account back up and running. I use to occassionally submit game reviews back in the day. There's an old GS review I wrote when I was 15 that I can expand and polish up if you guys want to post it up on the main site. I'm also looking to do one for Platinum in my spare time this week. Once I get it written and submitted to Gamefaqs I'd be willing to send it to you guys as well if your intrested in using it ^_~

[Jeff]

We could definitely use the Platinum review, it's one of three main series games that doesn't have a page yet. I did a Ruby/Sappire page not too long ago and I'm working on Emerald and I hope to have those up soon. So with that all the main series games would be done.

[Lady Vulpix]

Just one small detail that I have noticed: in the "About us" page, the second paragraph says "turing" where it should say "turning".

I really hope the new site becomes popular and the story can continue.

[Telume]

I sure hope people use the programs I write lol, I updated them every chance I get.

[Master Rudy]

Life has been semi crazy so that hasn't left me with the extra time I needed to put out a Plat review. At the very least I'm done running around for the day and have nothing better to do so I'll look into getting the review for the original GS up.


EDIT-Ok got it done. I tried to PM this to Jeff but this exceeded the 5000 character limit for PM's so I'm putting it here instead. Feel free to make use of it on the main TPM site if we need a more detailed review of Gold and Silver. I can't make any promises on a Plat review anytime in the extremely near future but I'm willing to give it a try if I have some free time and if we still are in need of that as well ^_~

Back in 1998 Nintendo decided to bring a RPG from Japan called Pokémon to the States. It was one of the most sucessful games ever sold in Japan. However at the time many people weren't too sure if it would make on our side of the Pacific. It was easily one of the oddest games anyone had seen. However it's unique nature may have been one of the factors that helped it become one of Nintendo's biggest hits. When it started to sell just as well as it did overseas many people started to see how good this game really was. Fast forward to 2000. Pokémon Gold and Silver were the first two true sequels to the original games. This time around people wondered if lightning would strike twice. Were the original games a mere fluke or was this the start of another great flagship series for Nintendo? Well if you look around at the sheer number of Pokémon games avalible in 2009 and upcoming in 2010 I think that's an easy question to answer now. As far as what GS did for the series they took the core features introduced in the first generation games for the original Game Boy and managed to add and improve upon them.

Gameplay-10
Pokémon is one of those games that's easy to learn yet it manages to be complex in it's own ways. The basic goal is the same as it was in Red, Blue and Yellow. Travel the world and capture/train a team of six Pokémon in an attempt to become the Pokémon League Champion. Overall battles are the same as they were in the first generation games. They occur one on one in a traditional turn based format. The Pokémon you control will be classifed in one or two of 17 different types that will determine various things such as their elemental weaknesses, the moves that they can learn, ect. Think of rock, paper, sissors on a much larger scale and you should get the basic idea behind the battles and how they could flow.

Returning players will notice several changes that started in this generation that tended to become a common theme among the later games for the GBA and DS. First off the bat is that there are 100 new Pokémon. This brings the overall total that you can capture in this generation to 251. As always however there will be some Pokémon you won't be able to get. This could be in part due to your own choices over the course of the game (should I take Chikorita or Totodile as my starter? What should I evolve my Eevee into?) or simply due to the fact that a paticular Pokémon is simply unavalible in your game (using an example from the first gen you could get Meowth in Blue but not in Red or Yellow). As a result if you base the overall game completion on having the Pokédex maxed out you'll need to trade Pokémon with friends that have other versions. Gold and Silver expand on the concept of trading by making a few first generation Pokémon such as the Red and Blue starters unavalible in this generation. However despite being made for the Game Boy Color the games in the newer generation are able to trade with the older games. As far as battles goes there were two new types added starting in this generation. Dark types and Steel types expand the battle chart to 17 different types of Pokémon and as a result this adds in new strategies and balance into battles. Naturally this results in new moves as well for both the new types and the 15 from the previous games. The new moves do however toss a slight monkey wrench into trades with older games however. Pokémon that know moves that are not in the original games can't be traded to them. Likewise it should also go without saying that you can't trade a second gen Pokémon to a first gen game. This can however be used to your advantage in the older games if you know what your doing. Some Pokémon now have new options on their possible moves that they couldn't learn in the original games. Charizard learning Fly in Gold or Silver and being traded back to Red or Blue is a prime example of this.

Other new features not covered above that were introduced in this generation include breeding Pokémon, day/night that change in real time, new Pokéball types, a better organized backpack, new areas to explore and a few other goodies that I'm not listing so as not to spoil any surprises.

Story-7
On my original review I wrote years ago as a kid I gave this a 9/10 but in hindsight the weak link of any Pokémon game is the story since it's been the same thing for awhile now. Overall it's fairly basic and to be honest you could take the base plot from each game and apply it to all of them. Of course at this point I'm sure most people that play the games aren't playing for the story. The basic story is a young boy in Johto has just become a Pokémon Trainer. In order to make it into the Pokémon League for a chance to challenge the champ he must first win the 8 Gym Badges of Johto. Along the way however a revived Team Rocket and a new rival will be causing problems and getting in the way.

In other words it's like RBY without Ash. There are however some surprises that save the score from sinking a little more.

Audio/Video-9
Considering the system this is on the music and art are very good. Many long time fans of the series think this had perhaps the best soundtrack overall. Also if you played RBY you'll notice remixes of the old music much later in the game. As for the artwork it looks wonderful. The game is far less pixalated when compared with the first generation as a whole and the artwork is more on par with the Yellow version/anime. Many of the pictures look like they could be from a classic NES game. This is one of the better looking Game Boy games if your playing this on the GBC.

Replay Value-10
As always the replay value of any Pokémon game is high depending on what your looking to do. First off the bat is that once you beat the main game you actually gain the option to explore the Kanto region from the original games. After you complete that area you can then try to capture all 251 Pokémon. It's also a ton of fun to make many different teams for link battles. Depending on the what you come up with it's never the same game twice.

The Bottom Line:
Pokémon GS is a great game that shouldn't be overlooked just because you think your ''too old'' for Pokémon. The main game is fairly simple for the younger crowd but as a whole it can get somewhat complex when other factors come into play. This is the perfect example of a game that can never be finished in five days. If your one of the few that has yet to upgrade to a Nintendo DS then you can't really go wrong on this one if you can find a copy of Gold or Silver used. It plays on all Game Boy models up to the GBA SP. Even without friends the replay value can be fairly decent.

Overall Score (not an average)
9 out of 10

[gameboyfan]

ahh really nice work man. i really appreciate it. finall some true fan of pokemon did something for it.

[Jeff]

Thanks! Done! (http://209.123.162.177/~vash//tpm/games/gs/review.php)

[mr_pikachu]

I just want to take a moment to thank Jeff along with the whole project team for seeing this through. I know I wasn't around for the home stretch, but I'm glad that things turned out so well. You all really stepped up and showed everyone why TPM is such a great place.

Thank you for bringing back our website. It's been a long time coming.

[Jeff]

Thanks Brian, and great to hear from you again!

I was originally holding out until June 17th, so you could see the launch. A couple days later I said "what the heck, let's launch it", so the site was officially launched on the 19th. Don't worry about "delaying" the launch though, it wasn't completely finished anyway as evidenced by the fact that I put the finishing touches on a week later.:P Back in early June I was just looking for a time frame to launch the site in and that seemed like a good one. In fact, if you didn't say you were coming back on the 17th, I would have probably waited longer.

Even though you weren't here for the launch, I did give a nod to you. The title of this thread is no coincidence.;)

[mr_pikachu]

Well, I'm glad you didn't do a lot of excess waiting. Had I realized we were that close before I left, I would have just told you to launch it as soon as it was done. But yeah, it looks great! The completed version is so much better than I originally envisioned upon creating that first rough draft. Now that I see this success, all the fighting that we did for this project is worthwhile.

Again, thanks to you, Jeff, and to everyone! Well done!

[Master Rudy]

Just as a mere suggestion I saw the Hall of Fame page on the main website and noticed a severe lack of RPG Awards on that page. Think it would be a problem to add that in? Some of the old award topics are still around so it shouldn't be too hard to find a list of winners ^_~

[Houndoom_Lover]

Finally got the Card of the Week up, sorry that took so very long >w< I feel horrible about it. From this day forth, however, I shan't miss another one...

[Master Rudy]

Ok....I'm starting to get close to the end of Plat so a review is eventually upcoming from me provided we still need that when I'm ready. One thing I think the site is in very severe need of is a Pokédex of some sort. I myself lack the time, knowledge and research to do a full one that includes all the basic info, moves that are able to be learned in each version, ect. However I may be able to give you a start in that area. I think I can get you guys a basic Sinnoh Pokédex in the following format. I'll use Chimchar as an example:


Chimchar
Chimp Pokémon
Type-Fire
Height-1'08"
Weight-13.7 pounds
Sinnoh Pokédex #004
Description-(Platinum) It is very agile. Before going to sleep, it extinguishes the flame on it's tail to prevent fires.
Evolves into Monferno>Infernape
How to find-Pick as your starter in DPP

As you can see it's basic. However from there the blanks can be filled in by anyone willing to take the time to help with the project. For Pokémon that are in various games (such as Eevee) the info can be expanded to include things such as it's Pokédex number in each game, various Pokédex descriptions from different games, easiest way to find in each game, ect. Once I'm able to do a little work on this I think you'll be able to see what I have in mind a little better.

Guess my question now is if I do something like this then who do I send the file to? This would be far too big to post on the forums and it's likely going to be a text file I make in Notepad.

[Jeff]

Well, a pokedex is already in the works, but I don't know when I'll get the chance to finish it. Part of the problem is getting all the data for it. If people are willing enough to put that into text files and give it a consistent enough format that I can get a program to read it, we could probably use that. Just email them to me. You can get my email address off the site.

As for the question about the awards, I can do it, but it's not a priority. Just find the topics where they were given out and link to them in this thread (http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18744).

[abunaidesu]

http://web.archive.org/web/20000511032643/www.thepokemasters.com/codes/index.html

Wouldn't it be easier to just c/p a majority of information from the archives?

[mr_pikachu]

We've done some of that, to an extent. The thing is, a lot of information can't be taken from the archives. Some of the pages aren't accessible (or, at least, are taking a lot of hunting), and there's little to no information on anything beyond GSC. That makes a lot of things unusable, from the old Pokedex (which, as a result, has been relegated to a "fun download" of sorts) to series background pages and numerous game guides.

Granted, I think you have a point, and it looks to me like quite a bit of information has been taken from the old archives -- for instance, the RBYGSC summary pages all look as though they were written right after the games were released. However, we probably could do more... it wouldn't hurt, for instance, to have a page on side-series games like Snap (http://web.archive.org/web/20000815065823/www.thepokemasters.com/n64/snap/), Stadium (http://web.archive.org/web/20000815065818/www.thepokemasters.com/n64/stadium2/), Pinball (http://web.archive.org/web/20000815065812/www.thepokemasters.com/gameboy/pinball/), TCG (http://web.archive.org/web/20000815065808/www.thepokemasters.com/gameboy/card/), and so forth. At the very least, those would be quick and easy to set up (since the material is already written), and they'll add content to make the site more complete.

[mr_pikachu]

Love the look of the type chart, although I was under the impression that there were small tweaks from game to game. For instance -- and it's possible that this one is erroneous, but it's the best example I could find with the minimal time I have at the moment - GameFAQs' Yellow (http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/file/198314/38236) type chart has Ground Pokemon strong against Fire attacks, which isn't the case in later versions. Just wanted to point that out. We may need separate type charts for each generation (or, if there were changes between RB and Y, for instance, each game).

[Jeff]

Only the first generation's type chart was different, (not just because Steel and Dark were absent, but also Ghost didn't affect Psychic, Poison was strong against Bug, and probably some other differences), so I'll probably do another one for Gen 1. I just need to find my old instruction booklet for Yellow.

As far as I know, ground's always been strong against fire. I know it definitely is now, but I'll have to dig up my old instruction book to see if it was back then. I don't trust that GameFaqs one since it looks like it was just made from a Gen 2+ type chart with Steel and Dark removed.

[Blademaster]

OFFENSIVELY, Ground types beat Fire types.

DEFENSIVELY, Fire attacks do just as much damage to a Diglett as they would to a Pachirisu. There is no strength or weakness when a Ground Pokemon is hit by fire.

[Master Rudy]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't FRLG have the type matchups listed in the help menu during Gen 3? I no longer have my copy of FR but I kinda do remember something like that. If someone has a copy I'm sure someone can check the matchups and send Jeff the info.

[Jeff]

FR/LG uses the newer matchups though. Only Red, Blue, and Yellow used the original matchups.

[mr_pikachu]

Yeah, while those were on the help menu, they'd already been updated for Gen 3... I don't suppose we have an RBY type chart on the archived TPM? Again, I don't have time to check -- too busy grading, argh! -- but it seems like a safe bet.

[Lady Vulpix]

RBY Type Chart (http://www.math.miami.edu/~jam/azure/compendium/typechart.htm)

That site has a lot of information about RBY.

[firepokemon]

http://web.archive.org/web/20010611023731/pokemon.vgf.com/gameboy/red_blue/chart/index.html - It looks weird to me.

You'll notice it doesn't include Rock, Ghost or Flying. Seemingly that is because no pokemon in RBY were just Rock, Ghost or Flying or Ice. If you get a blank page with just a date on it when going to that page you need to click Back. I'd prefer a cleaner chart than what we have on the archives but at least you can use it to check the types and don't have to reference/cite another site.

Edit: BTW the attack types are: Normal, Fire, Water, Ice, Grass, Electric, Rock, Ground, Fighting, Bug, Poison?, Dragon, Pychic and Ghost.

[Jeff]

Good news, I managed to find the old type chart on my own computer. It's part of the information that I copied from various official guides back in the day and put it into web page form for my own use. Using the code base for the existing one, I should have it up in no time.

Edit: http://209.123.162.177/~vash//tpm/typechart_gen1.php

[Lady Vulpix]

Nice charts, Jeff! :yes: