I Solved Time Travel in Gen 4 (With Nintendo’s Help)

[@Etch]

Edit 2: Very minor but mistake in the script, DS "flipping point" is 1/20/2068 not 4/20 (no blazing it sorry). But its actually an unsigned-32 bit integer, not signed 64-bit. Basically just means that the DS original date is still 1/1/2000 at 00:00. Doesn't impact any of the findings or ways you can take advantage of it. Also big thanks to the hardware experts chiming in, if it's not obvious this is an area where I lack expertise lol. Edit: It's very hard to explain this in a comment but it turns out there's not technically a second hidden clock. It looks like the RTC offset just gets adjusted when you change system date/time. Like if your offset is 0, and you change the system date/time by 2 minutes, it would add 120 to the offset. When you system reset, it would calculate the offset from a pre-determined date/time (ie: the "hidden RTC" I refer to in the video). I unfortunately trusted the multiple online forum posts that explained it as two clocks. However, it doesn't change the findings in the video and is functionally the same as what I describe. It's much easier to conceptualize and explain it as a hidden clock. I'll be sure to clarify and test all of this when I post it to the website. Writing out the steps for the two examples in the video for clarity, I'll add this to sinjohruins.com as well soon! Example 1: Skip 110 days for Bagon 1. Format system memory to 1/1/2008 at 00:00 2. Format system memory to 1/1/2008 at 00:00 3. Save in game 4. Format system memory to 1/3/2008 at 00:00 5. Format system memory to 1/3/2008 at 00:00 6. Make sure the proper area(s) are in place in the Safari Zone and save 7. Format system memory to 5/1/2008 at 00:00 8. Format system memory to 5/1/2008 at 00:00 9. Go back in game and save to lock in the upgrades Example 2: Honey Tree 1. Format system memory to the current system date at 23:59 (in this example it was 1/4/2008) 2. Load the game, wait 2 minutes, slather the honey tree, and save 3. Format system memory to the new current system date at 23:59 (the date should have rolled over to 1/5/2008, so use that) 4. Load the game quickly and mash A to get the honey tree encounter

[@agumike]

Does this mean it works for all the models of DS? or still only DSi?

[@valshaped]

I was about to comment about this! The 3DS uses the same system, RTC + user configurable offset. I believe the Switch does something similar too.

[@simonwillover4175]

Whether it sets the difference between the times or the actual time is irrelevant here. It's the difference between x = 2 and x+y = 2+y. The 2nd equation has different values on either side, but the same solutions for x.

[@valshaped]

@@simonwillover4175 It's mathematically equivalent, but totally different behavior. If there were two RTCs, it would be possible for the offset to change on its own, since RTCs are a hardware resource. Plus, the game would have to calculate the offset rather than just loading it from system memory and comparing it to the number stored in the save file

[@Etch]

@agumike Still only DSi (assuming you mean the trick I show at the end of the video)

[@mielthesquid6536]

I remember being punished with the 24 hours freeze when I had to change my DS time because of daylight saving.

[@Infernape102]

I remember seeing lightning on that route when I was putting Honey on trees for Munchlax. I was convinced there had to be a Raikou or a Zapdos in the grass, lol.

[@mertensiam3384]

You foresaw gen 5 roamers lol

[@caznovia]

Does this glitch let me time travel back to when my parents were together?

[@SharlaBlades]

Only if you get a shiny living dex first.

[@BlessedJecka]

no its you’re fault

[@JohnHunterPlayerr]

That would have been the Z time line ... We are in the USUM timeline...

[@chill6455]

That's actually in the DLC so no not yet

[@AbsentInsight]

No, but you may be able to accomplish that with tweaking.

[@NonsensicalTrickster]

Your videos scratch some kind of weird itch in my brain. I love watching and learning about these old exploits and gen 4 mechanics so much, especially because that's the generation I grew up playing the most. (Heart Gold and Pearl my beloveds)

[@Cosmic_Espeon]

“Dialga! I’ve come to bargain!” -Time Travelers who can’t wait patiently.

[@afhunts]

damn i just spent several MONTHS just spawning a munchlax to shiny hunt it. thanks for the upload!

[@Zak_Katchem]

This video is gonna be huge for the Full Odd’s Shiny Hunting, Oak Challenge communities!

[@tiagomatias6667]

You are quickly becoming my favorite pokemon channel XD, I FINALLY GET A REAL USE OUT OF MY DSI!!!

[@cecillewolters1995]

Bro, I just finished catching the last safari pokemon last week for my living dex project 😭 Took me literal years. Either way, awesome video. Your work is so much appreciated! Huuuuuge win for the gen 4 pokemon fans! Well done :)

[@Jlaps941]

I had to use the Safari Zone specifically for Seviper for my Gen 4 National Dex because I didn’t own Sapphire at the time, and my god it made me want to tear my freaking hair out by the end. The concept for it is cool, but the execution is just convoluted and confusing, and obviously a huge time sink for a bunch of mons

[@cecillewolters1995]

@ Yeah, this would have been way better if the waiting days would be like a week max or something. I do like the concept as well, changing the environment to make new species appear

[@KirbPlatinum]

This is amazing!!!! Finally Safari Zone blocks and honey trees aren’t painful!

[@TheDuffy5678]

Quickly becoming my favorite KZbinr. Gen IV is the Gen I play the most currently, and historically. Love your research and I love these videos. Super useful!

[@Kronos327]

Huge news; I helped Riyaly test the cornn berry trick way back when. This will certainly make it a lot easier for DSi users :)

[@REM27]

Wow, this was such an incredible video! I love how deep you went with your research to solve this problem. It’s amazing to see all the hidden mechanics behind how Gen 4 games protect against time travel and even more impressive how you figured out a way to bypass it without hacking or cheating, just by working with the original hardware. This really makes me want to dust off my old DS and try it myself. 😊 Do you think this method could inspire similar discoveries for newer games or even other retro titles?

[@georgejpg]

I wasted hoooours doing the 11:59 'skip' for gible. I wasn't counting my resets so I have no idea how many I did, but it was 100% more than the 110 days needed. Haven't watched the full video yet but I hope you've actually cracked it

[@jonathanfischer7395]

Why’d you have to do it for Gible?

[@shantaehalf-geniehero4318]

@@jonathanfischer7395cause certain pokemon require a lot of days and unique tiles to get them in HG/SS

[@FissionCube]

@@jonathanfischer7395 hgss safari zone requires a 100 day wait for gible

[@georgejpg]

@@jonathanfischer7395 It's 49 Plains and 49 Peak points, making it the most annoying HGSS Safari Zone encounter. I didn't have to do it, I own the Sinnoh games too, but I like trying to catch every possible encounter available in a game without trading when possible

[@henke37]

Looking at gbatek, it doesn't appear like there are multiple clocks in the hardware. There is however a RTC offset field in the firmware settings data.

[@Etch]

That would explain the weird 99 year rollover (as in the "hidden RTC" isn't rolling over, just the offset remaining the same). So I guess the RTC offset just gets adjusted when you change system date/time? Like if your offset is 0, and you change the system date/time by 2 minutes, it would add 120 to the offset. When you system reset, it would calculate the offset from a pre-determined date/time. I'll look into it more later today and make sure to update the pinned comment/on the website if needed. That's my bad for trusting online forum posts explaining it as two clocks lol. At least its easy to conceptualize it this way.

[@Nazberrypie]

That would make sense. With an offset value, you can determine the system time at any moment without storing its value. you get the exact distance between the two times. That offset never changes since both times are basically updated by the same clock. Unless you change the system clock manually. Or so they thought. When the RTC + offset gets beyond 12/31/2099, the date roll over to 01/01/2000. I'd assume that's the limit date of the RTC as well. The problem is, that overflow changes the distance between the RTC and the system clock, You get behind the RTC technically, the offset should be updated. But it's not. That's how Gen 4 games gets tricked I guess. When you save the game in 1/1/2000 with the offset not updated, Then remove the battery and set the system clock at 12/31/2099, The offset does not change. It makes sense, since you set the same date the first and second time, and the RTC probably starts on a constant date. So when you load the game again, it sees that the date increased 99 years, and the offset is the same. So you waited this time "for real".

[@Pika025]

Yeah, there's only one RTC, and your configured one is stored as an offset from the internal one. You can think of it as two separate RTCs if you want though, it makes no practical difference to the observed behavior.

[@eberkonig]

Every new upload from your channel is so exciting. Thank you for all the time and effort that goes into researching all these gen 4 features ❤ So eager to see what comes next

[@Novaurum]

Love this for safari zone. A bit tricky for honey trees. Now break the pokewalker lol

[@PapaShekels]

Finally retribution for 15 years of owning a dsi

[@TigeriPlaysGames]

hey, an actual use for the dsi i picked up recently! i got it as a novelty because i found one for cheap, might get some legit use out of it now!

[@pikazillalikefromflipnote]

Fascinating :] It's so cool that new things are still being uncovered about the Gen IV games

[@SharlaBlades]

The date is 2/6/2136. Humanity has left earth behind and gone onto the stars. They've colonized hundreds of planets, and terraformed hundreds more. The concept of games and pokemon are meaningless. Genetic engineering has made pokemon games past Scarlet and Violet unneeded. As pokemon can be made and exist in our real world! Video games have been replaced by full body immersive VR. Alien and Human life live in harmony. It seems that there's no room left for the nintendo switch in this new galaxy. Until the galactic standard calendar tips over to 2/7/2136. Pokemon Legends Z-A is finally announced. The galaxy rejoices. As they know it's finally time for gen 10. (Great video by the way! I've been rather hesitant to replay gen 4 cause of all the time based BS. Now I have a way to actually skip past it! Thank you!)

[@doomsdayrabbit4398]

Happy 140th birthday, Mewtwo.

[@ElusiveEllie]

Incredible discovery, it was always such a frustration for me not being able to figure this out as a kid. I think I still have a DSi somewhere but I don't really play Gen 4 games anymore, so sadly I won't be using this, but it's still really satisfying to know that it's possible!

[@Winter_Fan_01]

One day my dreamed strategy of catching 4 ghastly with destiny bond and give them an item to attack first will be investigated thouroughly (by me) for speedruns My coveted strategy to self-destruct during the early proved insuficient due to a lack of choices. Fun fact, you can catch a pineco early in diamond pearl, but the strategy is banned bc you have to encounter pineco by inserting a GBA game on your DS Lite. Not that I know if it can work

[@Lorenz_4734]

omg thank youuuuuu for your amazing work

[@makione6453]

This is amazing, helped me so much. I can't thank you enough for this, your work is amazing! +1 subscriber

[@iaiaiaiaia11]

Sigh the one was one year away from 4/20/69

[@Innautico]

I'm currently working through a Heart Gold Prof Oaks challenge w ithh the goal of completing it before my thesis is due and you've saved my run lmao

[@fireguardiancoty]

DSi sales after the release of this video: 📈📈📈📈📈📈

[@CardinalTreehouse]

Pikasprey in shambles

[@Riyaly]

Great video, a lot of info getting explained.

[@Infindox]

I've never heard of that issue with DSi XLs with the screens, is it just the non XL versions? I've had my 25th Anniversary SMB DSi XL since it was released and other then some normal play scratches on the screen it's fine, and some friends own various models and those are fine. Ah well, it's worth getting one anyway because they are extremely easy to softmod with the SD card slot. :)

[@chezz444]

In the video you mentioned at 10:40 that the offset is stored as a signed 64-bit integer, but I'm wondering if it's actually stored as an unsigned 32-bit integer instead? It would explain the strange alternate reference date of 2136 and the large negative offset when you set your clock to 12/31/2099. Instead of interpreting -1,139,207,416 as a signed 32-bit int, it would instead be 2^32-1,139,207,416 = 3,155,759,880 when interpreted as an unsigned int, which turns out to be exactly the offset from 1/1/2000! This probably makes more sense than having two separate reference dates? This also explains the discontinuity in the hidden RTC (that you found in 14:20) that takes place in 2068, since the time offset from 1/1/2000 exceeds 2^31-1 ~ 2,147,483,647 on 1/19/2068, which then underflows into the negative numbers if interpreted as a signed integer and appears as if the reference date jumped to a date much further in the future -- 2/7/2136 6:28:16 is exactly 2^32 seconds after 1/1/2000, which is consistent with an underflow of a 32-bit integer, but no such issue occurs if we interpret all the offsets as unsigned.

[@Etch]

Heya, first thanks for making me realize I wrote the date wrong in my script and didn’t catch it. The flipping point is actually on 1/20/68 not 4/20, whoops. Anyways I actually had a similar thought that it was underflowing when it hit the 32-bit integer max, the integer max in seconds from 1/1/200 00:00 would take you to 1/19/2068 at 3:13:something (don’t remember exactly). So I tested 3:14 and later and it actually just kept increasing past the 32-bit integer max. So if you did 1/19/2068 at 11:59pm, the offset is still positive and above 32 bit integer max. But I’m an idiot! It was going above the signed integer 32 bit max, not unsigned. I completely forgot how that worked lol. I think you’re completely correct, thank you! Doesn’t seem like it matters regardless since there’s not actually a second clock and it’s just calculating an offset then adjusting, but I’ll be sure to note it when I do my write up.

[@chezz444]

@Etch thanks for the quick response and investigation, great work on the recent educational and entertaining content!

[@magicalgirllaurie]

Does this exploit work for the DSi XL too? Or is it just the base DSi? Bc I'd love to do this but I only have the XL

[@LunaAlphaKretin]

The DSi LL shown off for the honey tree example is just the Japanese version of the DSi XL, so it should

[@Etch]

Yep!

[@Minihephyr]

Can’t wait to get a munchlax now, thank you!!

[@Siphonay]

Is there a DS homebrew that, at least for DS Lite and OG DS can set the hidden RTC to a specific value? I wonder where it is set in the console’s configuration itself

[@kalkuttadrop6371]

Can you do me a favor and try to solve the mysery of the Secret Key? Is it true that Japanese Secret Keys can be Mixed Recorded? Does it also work for Western Secret Keys? If not what if a Japanese Wonder Card is mixed with a Western Game(that works in Gen 3 for the Regidolls)? If so 100% legit even by my stickler standard Secret Keys can still exist, just find a verifiably legit one(old youtube video) and mix

[@LunaMatrix]

Just wanted to make sure I’m reading this right bc I could actually test. So what you wanna know is: Is it possible for a gen 4 jap game (D/P/Pt) that has the secret key wonder card and mix records with an English copy of Gen 4 (D/P/Pt) and acquire its own Secert key?

[@kalkuttadrop6371]

@@LunaMatrix I have 3 things I wanna know. 1. Is it true the Japanese secret key can be spread by mixing records, like how the Eon Ticket works in Gen 3? I've read this in multiple places. 2. Ok, what about the English version? Does that one mix fine? Or are the rules different? 3. If 1 is true and 2 is false, what happens if you mix between regions? It worked for the Regidolls

[@bladerdj3503]

Would you still take the punishment if you warp right before the date you want to have and then just wait 24 hours?

[@Boanjamin]

a much more reasonable way to get munchlax would be to trade it with the community gts but i guess you gotta go the extra mile for speedrunning

[@Jediwhoever1]

I wonder if somebody is going to shiny hunt munchlax or female combee in gen 4 now that this method has been discovered.

[@chadmckean9026]

4:44 i once bought a PCI addon LAN card, a motherboard i got later had the exact same MAC address, they are not 100% unique, they do recycle them

[@vnen]

I was hoping to get a fast Munchlax with this but I don't own a DSi (only a DS Lite and a New 3DS XL).

[@-Chrome-]

Does removing the battery reset the internal clock?

[@shawesomest]

Did you happen to try more than one 3DS model, and if so, were the results the same for all of them? Real shame if there's no way to time travel on them. Though at least that one DSi works...

[@dittorita8934]

On modded 3ds you can change your system time/date then nullify the offset in the Rosalina menu, or just change the RTC directly with godmode9 or another tool. Worth noting that messing with your RTC like this can cause an extremely long (several minutes) black screen the first time you boot after collecting a new play coin, but this should only happen once.

[@groudonvert7286]

So a Bagon% run is now possible on HGSS now :kappa:

[@clashwithdaragh]

Why do you have to wait 180 days to get bagon in hgss?

[@the_gingerrican]

Is it possible to do this with the 3DS?

[@danielwielewski4848]

Nice, it was so annoying. I wonder what will be next

[@Absbor]

my brain died

[@Justin-oq3ng]

wait a minute... WHO IS YANCY???? ive played so much gen 5 when it came out, love at first sight but ive never seen this npc

[@adrijanmajeric5560]

Her questline is a bit convoluted but she’s the person who calls you on the dropped item you find in Nimbasa city in BW2 if your character is male. You can meet her in game and trade Pokemon with her after enough calls.

[@Justin-oq3ng]

@adrijanmajeric5560 woooow i never managed to find out how to return the lost device and whenever i got a call, it was just a blackscreen.. i was never interested in searching it up on the internet xD

[@Infernape102]

Look up "That time you could date in pokemon", its been in my recommended for the past week.

[@TheChefBoo]

If you played as a female character in BW2 you had curtis.

[@yesthisislyra]

Yessss been waiting for this one ❤ Also no views gang

[@haar.]

etchy how do you respond to the allegations of you being stinky

[@IrfanFakhrianto]

yo the persona 3 reload mat

[@Etch]

I was wondering if anyone would identify it lol

[@pastelpunk4137]

:V

[@haar.]

:3

[@SylLikesBoys]

OwO

[@elysahatestostudy9364]

Somehow I figured it would be a DSi-exclusive thing, nobody cares for the DSi.

[@drinkingthemoon]

Alternatively you can just change the time and let it roll over naturally and detect a time change like people have been doing just fine for decades

[@SylLikesBoys]

Run back Munchlax+ king? 👀 Munchlax+ tonite king? Hey king, down for a munchlax+? 👀

[@AbsentInsight]

Interesting. My second ever DS was a DSi, which I still have. I don't know where my original Mario Kart DS went, though. 🥲