⚠️ This project has mostly been tested on dolphin, use on real hardware at your own risk. ⚠️

This project is in development. While it should be functional this version is only intended for use by developers. Feel free to contribute.

Emerald Net Demo

This project aims to add a network connection into Pokemon Emerald, using only official hardware. With some demos and a web server to test things.

Current Demos

Several features are included to showcase the network conectivity. These crrently include:

Returning a welcome message to display in game when connecting to the server
Downloadable EReader Style Battles. Through the Web UI, choose 3 pokemon, nicknames, held items, moves and levels.
Random Trades. Randomly trade with another person connected to the server.
Downloadable Mart. Through the Web UI, pick up to 6 items for the mart to sell.
Downloadable Gift Egg. Through Web UI choose the pokemon and allow it to have a special move. Users can only download each egg once.

Network Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant 🎮 GBA
    participant 📺 WII
    participant 🌐 TCP SERVER
    🎮 GBA->>📺 WII: DOL-011 Cable
    Note over 🎮 GBA,📺 WII: (JOYBUS)
    📺 WII->>🌐 TCP SERVER: WIFI
    Note over 📺 WII,🌐 TCP SERVER: (TCP)
    🌐 TCP SERVER->>📺 WII: WIFI
    Note over 🌐 TCP SERVER,📺 WII: (TCP)
    📺 WII->>🎮 GBA: DOL-011 Cable
    Note over 📺 WII,🎮 GBA: (JOYBUS)

Requirements

There are two ways to get this project running:

Dolphin (For PC) (Version 5 or higher is recommended as this has the built in GBA link support)
A PC/Server that can run nodejs

- OR -

GBA or GBA SP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance)
Flash cart for custom games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_cartridge)
DOL-011 cable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_%E2%80%93_Game_Boy_Advance_link_cable)
WII (Not wii mini) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii)
WIFI Router or Wii ethernet adapter
A PC/Server that can run nodejs

Software Components

There are 3 main components to this project:

A modified version of pokeemerald with a collection of network functions for reliable communication with the Wii
A homebrew Wii channel allowing up-to 4 GBA's to connect to the server (per wii)
A NodeJS Server, with TCP Server for game connections and a Webserver for providing a UI for configuring the server

You can download a zip of the latest releas build here https://github.com/KittyPBoxx/pokeemerald-net-demo/releases

Quick Start

1 - Get all the resources

See the 'requirements' section for all the software/hardware you can use. You also need the release zip which contains three programs.

Celios Server, (for windows/mac/linux) that you can run as an executable
The pokemon emerald xdelta patch that can be applied to your copy of pokemon emerald
Pokecom Channel, both the WAD and .dol are included. So you can install the WAD as a channel or just run the .dol (whichever you prefer)

On top of these you will need

Your Pokemon Emerald (U) backup rom\g
A GBA bios.bin file

2 - Patching Emerald

Get your copy of Emerald (U). (md5sum 605b89b67018abcea91e693a4dd25be3)
Get the netdemo.xdelta from the release zip
Use this site to patch your rom. https://www.marcrobledo.com/RomPatcher.js/

3 - Configure Dolphin

Get Dolphin >= 5, (the android release will not work as it dosn't support gba connections)

Configure the following settings

Open Controllers and select integrated GBA controller
Settings->Wii | aspect ratio should be 4:3
Settings->Gamecube | Load the gameboy bios.bin
Settings->Gamecube | the pokeemerald rom is loaded in same port as the integrated GBA controller you are using
If using an exsiting save the name is updated. i.e if your rom is pokeemerald.gba and you are in port 1 the save would be called 'pokeemerald-1.sav'

The easiest way to run the wii channel is just to drag and drop the 'pokecom-channel.dol' file into dolphin.

If you are running on a real wii, copy the whole PokecomChannel folder (including, the dol, icon.png and meta.xml) to the apps folder on your sd card and launch through homebrew

4 - Run the server

To locally host a server in windows double click on celioserver-win.exe or run it from the command line.

Once it is running you can go to the web ui by going to localhost:8081 in your web browser

The game server runs at localhost:9000 so dolphin should automatically be able to connect if they are running on the same PC

If you can't run a server yourself you can configure the wii channel to connect the the public test server 130.162.161.228:9000. Be aware this is a test environment an may go offline or be unstable.

5 - Play the game

When the wii channel launches the integrated mgba should launch at the same time
If the wii channel does not detect the game automatically, right click the mgba window on the game screen, reset the game, and it should be picked up
The player in the wii channel will show as "Waiting" untill you talk to the terminal at the Lilycove Network Center
If you are starting a new save, Norman will be waiting in Oldale to take you to Lilycove. Once there head to the North-Eastern building and speak to the terminal.