Lost Content: Pokemon Event Cartridges

[@Pikasprey]

So as many of you have pointed out, I was totally wrong about Celebi. There was indeed distributions and special cartridges made for it of it, mainly in Europe: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_European_language_event_Pok%C3%A9mon_distributions_in_Generation_II Seriously, I have no idea how I missed this. I spent a lot of time looking for info while researching this video, and clearly I missed something so obvious. Sorry about that. I feel stupid now.

[@SomeOne-gs7sy]

Help

[@insynonymdog9213]

I had a original red version with mew but my family sold it for $5 in a yard sale :(

[@crazyJman80]

M3M3R M4CH1N3R now that's just shitty of them.

[@insynonymdog9213]

They didn't do it in purpose, they didn't know the value of it.

[@ChocoboKirby]

Nintendo Power did a giveaway that if you won you had to mail your cartridge to them to get Celebi. But definitely seemed to be less live events. :(

[@Pikasprey]

Filling the Pokedex ain't cheap, kids.

[@chocokittybo]

They had those infinite gen carts for gen 3 as well. I went to an event and he just linked my game up and sent me the shiny milotic through mystery gifts

[@firesonic23]

especially in the days of gen 3 and gen 4

[@Kali_Krause]

Fire Sonic Don't forget Sun and Moon as well. lol

[@soggycatgirl]

me me big boy

[@yaboirandall7638]

otto251 ME ME BIG BOY

[@sigmaminus3296]

I went to the Mew distribution event way back during the Gen 3 days. I went to Toys R Us, where this guy had a Game Boy Advance SP with the wireless adapter plugged in, and a spare for me to use for trading. I remember feeling immensely guilty that I traded a Wurmple for the Mew, because in my mind, I had no Pokemon of enough value to actually equal the Mew in trade. Eventually, I gave in, and traded the Wurmple. I still have that Mew, and today it's on my Moon cartridge. I vaguely remember asking the guy how the event copy worked, and he showed me boxes upon boxes full of Mews in the game's PC system. I remember that kinda broke the immersion for me, seeing so many of this "unique" Pokemon in a scenario officially sanctioned by Nintendo. I felt kinda weird and distant about that Mew for a while because I knew it wasn't the "only" Mew.

[@JessieEchidna]

I went to a live Toys R Us event once, during Gen 3. They didn't have any particularly special event Pokémon at that time, technically, but I did trade a level 2 Weedle for a Haunter that immediately evolved into Gengar because it was traded. Apparently that cartridge was set up with only two or three boxes for each type of Pokémon they were distributing, otherwise it was just a normal FireRed cartridge. He told me that level 2 Weedle was probably the worst trade he made all day. :(

[@Pikasprey]

It most likely was just normal cartridge with special Pokemon in storage, but I doubt that many of the store employees who used them had any time to thoroughly search through them for any other potential differences. So who knows, what other programing quirks or modifications could have been made. (Probably none...)

[@MarxForever]

I can't speak for Gen 3 but I can testify for Gen 4, as I went to several events during this era, getting a Darkrai, the shiny beast trio and a Lv 50 Dragonite, among others, I even talked to a few of the employees as they loaded up the cartridges. There was never any in-game trading done of any kind. It was all through Mystery Gift.

[@xbuster3]

fun story: i went to the gen 3 mew event in a toys r us hoping to get a mew plush(didnt know what the event was about) but i was dissapointed when i found out that it was for mew in gen 3 games

[@SSDARKPIT]

Now if only you traded that person a level 1 zubat.

[@-DeScruff]

I had a similar story with a Toys R Us event for Pokemon FR/LG except the event pokemon was an Ekans with some special berry that I already had via Action Replay. Everyone at that even was buying the $500 Magikarp and trading it with the employee. I can't really remember much, but I want to say the cartridge was just a standard FR cart, with a strange save file. The employee wasn't into pokemon and was frustrated that she had to go into the PC box every couple of people. So eventually someone attending the event started doing it for her. - Its because of this I believe that the cartridge was just a standard retail FR with a special save file. If it was a custom ROM hack. Personally I would have made an NPC or menu option to put all the kids pokemon in the PC, and withdraw 6 event pokemon quickly to make the employees have an easier time between kids.

[@woud3404]

I got a legit Darkrai from such an event, what's intresting about these mons is that they come with a ribbon that makes them unable to trade, which is a good way to show it's legit.

[@paiemma9724]

Which Darkrai event are you talking about?

[@MidNightAce]

FireSource yea I got a Darkrai from an event at a toys r us back when diamond and pearl was somewhat new

[@paulsavage564]

You couldn't trade them? That's dumb

[@ivanaviv2855]

Unable to trade? I have a few event pokemon, and while they do have a ribbon and a special pokeball, I actually got at least two of them IN trades.

[@SteveDaBartender]

@@ivanaviv2855 he may mean you can't trade them in ways such as the GTS in newer games

[@Bigboibung]

I remember I missed the shiny giratina event but my friends dad worked at ebgames and after the event ended he did it exclusively for me I was so happy

[@justsomeguywholikeswater3566]

Gonna call bs, since that's illegal...

[@matteomigliore1477]

Sure, i bet you cannot show us though because your mum doesn't want you to

[@PikaCookiePlayz]

Welp

[@Moosh_]

That’s so nice of him

[@moosecannibal8224]

@@justsomeguywholikeswater3566 illegal yes, but it's also to do with a video game, designed for children, and he did it for his kid's friend... That sounds like something entirely possible to me, considering human empathy and the general idea that we're not robots programmed to do only what the law says. Not trying to be mean, just the fact it's illegal probably held little to no weight in the decision for the man if it did happen. Like, who'd rat on him?... his kid?, or his friend who got the Shiny Giratina?... no one who knew about it would rat on him, super easy to do, and it's a personal relationship so it's not like he's selling anything so he'd feel no guilt.

[@SniffaXxX]

I actually got a celebi from Nintendo power back in the day. Won a drawing. Sent my Silver cart in, got it back with a celebi on it.

[@Ethodius]

Gg

[@CONNOR-_-B-_-]

SniffaXxX have you still got the game?

[@rarepixel5194]

Thats cool as hell man

[@Budderman18]

@Serenade O given that the event happened 20 years ago, if he still has the game, the save battery is probably dead. Those things usually only last a decade or so.

[@band36alt55]

I got Arceus (with all his plates) and genesect from GameStop onto my omega ruby save file

[@lynbot2377]

Back in like 2010 or so, they were giving out the HGSS event Arceus at a toystore chain here in germany. When i went there, the guy who was distributing it had no idea how to actually do it so i basically had to figure it out myself. It was neat getting to see one of those carts in person.

[@VelcroPoodle]

I had one of those Mew certificates!! I think I got it at Tyson's Corner mall with my Mew download when I was very young, maybe 5 or 6. I have pictures somewhere of me in front of the Pikachu buggy car they had at the event.

[@marvoobb6192]

Velcro Poodle hehe S/O you for being in maryland :) big sameee

[@InfernoPower]

Oh shit you're not far from me that's pretty cool

[@nickvang7]

If you still have it it's probably worth a lot of money now

[@patitoduck123]

Same !! Im from Maryland and I definitely remember going to some event with my cousins and getting mew. Still remember my friends saying I cheated getting mew lol. I think I was like 8

[@Baltimore_Hood_Vines_2014]

I remember getting two mews, one of which I sent to gold.

[@mrknarf4438]

I don't mind event pokemons, as long as they feel special and legendary. Think about the first Darkrai distribution with the Member Card plot or Arceus' never released Azure Flute. I want to live the adventure of catching a legendary pokemon, I want it to be impactful. Give me an item that unlocks its story. Not just "Hey, the mailman came, here's your world-almighty ultra special pokemon".

[@livingbeing3198]

By event pokemon, do you mean like giritina in platinum, or like munchlax with snorlium z in Pokémon sun and moon?

[@omikronweapon]

another plus about that is, it feels less like cheating if you hack the item that starts the quest. You still did it legitimately, you just bypassed the shitty "you cant play this part of the game until we say so" code. You had the same experience, and had to make an effort to catch it.

[@AstroTom]

@@omikronweapon Exactly how one of my ex friends got me Darkrai, Shaymin and Arceus in my Platinum. He used his 3DS homebrew to put the event item in the delivery man's hands and then I used them to activate the events.

[@DRFPokemon]

OK, a few comments. 1. As for gen 1 and 2 games - it IS possible to preserve the save data before replacing the battery. I've done it. The most common way is using a GameShark (any of the GameBoy ones can do it - the earlier black models lacked this ability at first, but can be firmware-updated just by putting them in another GameShark). The "snapshot" feature takes a complete RAM+save backup, so you can power off the game, erase the save, restore the snapshot and voila. All you'd have to do is just save from the main menu and you've got the save back. It was designed for cheating (like, taking a snapshot mid-battle with Mewtwo, so if you accidentally KO it you can restore), but can definitely be used for backup and archival purposes too. (If you have an old PC with a parallel port, you can even copy the .gbs snapshot files to your PC, and restore them later, as the GameShark itself only holds one at a time) More "proper" ways include the "Mega Memory Card" and other such products, you can get them on eBay for $20 or less. Those basically backed up save files from up to 20 GB games. There's also the "GB Transferer" and its successor, made by HK EMS (Chinese company) that can dump both the ROMs and saves to a computer. 2. For the gen 3 Mews - yes, that was a retail game. It didn't just "look identical" - it WAS identical. I've talked to a few people whos parents took one home from TRU for them instead of mailing it back, and they later dumped the ROMs - they're byte for byte identical to the regular relases. It was just a special savefile, which was (until recently) never dumped. The logic is that the few people who owned one wanted to keep the ability to re-sell it for enormous amounts of money, and considering they were just standard retail games and NOT special cartridges like gen 4, the moment one of those saves became public, there's no market in it. I could buy up FireRed copies, stick the save on there and resell it for profit. Thanks to the guys at Project Pokémon, we finally got a copy (albeit incomplete, as every known copy had traded at least one box full of Mews by the time the event ended.) There's a whole thread where they carefully analyze and reconstruct the original save using the PIDs of all known recipients, so while you might not trust it 100%, it's as close as anyone will ever get, and it's basically flawless. Just like the people who reverse-engineer the game's programming so they can abuse the RNG. 3. It's widely believed that Nintendo switched from the premade cartridges they used in generations 4-5 to the serial codes for gen 6 as a result of the cartridges popping up on eBay. I've got a handful of them myself, obtained over the past few years, and it wasn't until recently that "alex_sari" came forward with a whole boatload of crushed ones, some being usable still while most weren't. Before that they were even harder to find, especially in pristine condition - but they WERE traded. So at any rate, Nintendo obviously knew this was happening, and stopped producing those cartridges. The serial codes kept them unique as they couldn't be reused, and that way their own server controlled the distribution. For what it's worth, slightly late in the game, a hacker created a tool called "Mystery Machine" that basically mirrors the raw event files from Nintendo's servers, so even after the event is over and the files removed, you can still obtain the gifts. Sadly it only works for events starting after the tool was made, however. 4. Also on the 3DS, there are a few "hidden" distribution apps. We don't know what the actual purpose of these is, because nobody has the decryption keys necessary to make use of the eShop data. However, we know they're on the server. Likely these were used for the few in-store events (mostly in Japan) that didn't use Wi-Fi or serial codes. The most recent example being the Mew distribution for virtual console gen 1 games in Japan, which used the modified local wireless in-game trades just like the original gen 1 events. Rather than sending out actual 3DSes which would be super costly, they just created a digital "app" to do it, and gave the event hosts a code to download them. But without the code, there's no way of obtaining this so I can only hope someone comes forward with it (or that the master keys for all eShop files are found, but that'll never happen) And lastly - you imply that it's illegal to buy/trade/sell the DS distribution carts. It may be illegal to not send them back in the first place (as Nintendo could consider it "stolen" property), but "not for resale" is not a legally binding term at all, and just means it's not supposed to be sold at a retail store. Private sales are totally fine. While Nintendo doesn't exactly condone this behavior, it's not actually against the law, just to clear that up.

[@Pikasprey]

Thanks for the comments and info^

[@danarkaden6702]

don't forget that there's the fact that if you keep the power running on the contacts or replacing the battery whilst the game still has power the save file won't be deleted and the way the first method works is by connecting a battery or something via a wired hook up and its not the small battery like the one the cart has like a big battery or one that matches the voltage of the cart to keep the power and even then there's always been the second method because its believed and has been proven before that there is a small amount of time were when you are replacing the save battery it will still have power on the cartridge so that means the save is still on there so if you get a new save battery on the board in that amount of time which is kinda easy if you're very fast when it comes to soldering you can keep the save and add a new save battery

[@J4yy_]

DRFPokemon This was a fun read!

[@Pabmyster]

This man speaks the truth

[@Lazuli413]

i really enjoyed reading this comment. thanks for the info ^^

[@AtmonTheExectioner]

I'm from the UK. I went to a Gen 1 Mew giveaway. The event people told you to load up your game change to an empty storage box in your game and save your game. We then handed them our cartridges and they put them in a machine. It played the pokemon center heal jingle then they handed it back and- boom. Mew in a save box.

[@AtmonTheExectioner]

If the battery still works and I could find the cartridge.

[@AtmonTheExectioner]

Patrick Müller It will still be untouched level 5 too. My younger self was so blown away with the possibilities of what Mew could do I never touched it.

[@YamiKisara_]

I had a Gen 1 Mew from a UK event too. Mine was obtained in MK, if you look on bulbapedia it has the date the distribution happened and what event it was, but I don't know the ID or OT because I accidentally lost my Mew by saving over the data with a new save (I was like 10-11).

[@genolagana]

Silica Beastmaster Any update on this?

[@basillah7650]

@@genolagana It's completely useless you cannot transfer gen 1 and 2 to gen 3 or higher anyways

[@GalacticNovie]

I've actually seen the Master of Illusions Celebi distribution card for myself - the Gamestop employee couldn't be assed to load it up himself, so why not give the 11 year old kid - who was the first one in the store - the cart and DS to do it herself? I remember being completely confused at how basic the cart was when I loaded it up; it looked identical to the screen at 10:14 (except replace Deoxys with Celebi, of course). It was the first and only time I've seen a distribution cart, though.

[@Toxik431]

VGHeart wow that's really lazy of him and he was properly fired for it

[@Raizoken0]

What?

[@Pabmyster]

The exact same thing happened to me for the same event lol, I had to send the celebi to the game myself. He literally handed me the dsi and I did it, he couldn't be bothered to learn what to do. But it was neat for me at least!

[@BlueMayhem24]

The same thing happened to me when the event for Keldeo for Black and White was going on. The woman working at the GameStop didn't know how it worked, so she handed me the cartridge and the dsi to try and figure it out. It was pretty amazing to see the cartridge in person and to see what exactly it did when turned on in the dsi. The only weird thing about the situation was that she trusted a young teenager to help her with her job.

[@DavrK]

VGHeart I got my Celebi from that GameStop event. I never saw the DS and/or the card that sent me the gift tho

[@Lorentari]

Why Nintendo is still secretive about how they did things 20 years ago is beyond me...

[@finchhawthorne1302]

They may just not have great records either

[@psyco829]

It's less that they're secretive and hiding it, and more "there's no real reason to ever release the info."

[@techwiz81]

Because they’re Nintendo

[@Dee-nonamnamrson8718]

@@psyco829 You mean outside of making their fans happy and boosting their public image?

[@Purple_Sloth]

Probably to discourage people from trying to find these carts that were never meant to be distributed or used after the dates the events took place. Like infinite meloetta is a bit busted.

[@officialroxxmusic]

My cousin worked as a distributor and traded himself a stupid amount of mews that he gave to all his friends, authenticity certificates included

[@plant7371]

That's neat! It must have been before Gen 4 though, as these games prevent players from getting duplicates.

[@69ELSancho]

As somebody who spends way too much time watching videos on youtube I'm very surprised by how underrated you are that being said I've already watched all of your videos keep em coming

[@Pikasprey]

Thanks :D People keep telling me this, so I must be doing something right.

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

69ELSancho It's the voice sadly

[@Zeithri]

Everyone on KZbin is underrated in the opinion of someone else.

[@trollazord5869]

Woah guys, listen to this guy. He's someone who watches youtube too much, he knows all about this stuff.

[@laceystarsimpson]

Echi .g

[@Aarmastah]

Man, I was obsessed with trying to create my own event distribution Pokémon back when I got into the series with Diamond and Pearl... I remember trying for ages to get one working using nothing but Action Replay, and the only successful method of doing so was with the "Receive Via Friend" option. It required the distributor to confirm every distribution, but hey, it worked, albeit not in the straightforward way I wanted it to. I came across this video and was instantly hit by a wave of nostalgia, remembering fiddling about with Action Replay and Distribution ROMs. Thank you for making this!

[@Pikasprey]

No problem^

[@bunnie8354]

Aar oh its you

[@curlminion]

Oh cool the depressed sounding tf2 player

[@siege1686]

I remember back when pokemon was on Kids WB, I entered a sweepstakes. After a long while I forgot about it, until something came in the mail, it was a special cartridge of Pokemon Crystal, where you start out with a pre-named character, shane, a pre-picked starter, Cyndaquil, and special pokemon, the three legendary birds(which I later found out was shiny) and Celebi. This would amount to five pokemon so that you could have a full team once you catch your first pokemon. I still have the paper congratulating me on winning the prize and telling me about the contents. Nowadays, the cartridge is too old to hold the save file and all the pokemon are lost. Ruby and Sapphire wouldn't let you transfer pokemon from past games.

[@briannatowery8474]

I remember my mother drove me to Gamestop when I was younger just so I could get the Celebi from the event in 2011. Then my older brother deleted my save file with Celebi on it like a jackass. Thanks, bro, love that for me.

[@briannatowery8474]

Edward Gary It’s all good, I’m fully aware that my brother is a jackass and that it happened :P At least I can get Celebi on Pokémon Go, I guess haha 😂🤷‍♀️

[@Pgpxd]

At least ur mom got u a celebi

[@shigglezz684]

Oof wut a dick

[@ArtForArceus]

You can still get event celebi btw if you have any gen 4 or 5 games. Just read my public comment I left on the video for instructions

[@gameplaystudios236]

Man, That's the worst!

[@Ar7ific1al]

I was falling asleep while watching this and playing Silver on VC on my 3DS. (Don't worry, the video is not boring. I'm really tired.) Then I heard that mythical sound... A SHINY PIDGEY APPEARED!! Just wanted to share that I found a shiny while watching this. :)

[@aguchamp7766]

Don't worry, many games are sold with "Not For Resale" on them. It's a legal gray area that even companies like Nintendo don't bother with.

[@Sawdoffzombie]

its fine to buy or sell the cartridges that say'not for resale'. that label only applies to retailers. for example many games bundled with consoles also have that on them to keep retailers from selling the items seperately.

[@psychonaut168]

Sawdoffzombie ur pfp made me nut a billion times

[@hackerprodomal]

Daddy Depresso true dat

[@LiEnby]

Doesn't even apply to retailers *legally* they can sell if they want.

[@javaguru7141]

It doesn't change that the cartridges might be stolen property of Nintendo, depending on whether Nintendo had thrown them in the dumpster or if the box was taken from their disposal facility. Of course, it would be very hard to prove one way or another.

[@tzatzeekee]

Hey man, I have been following you for a bit. I wanted you to know that you really have been improving and coming into yourself. Love you man, keep on digging into games and gaming history.

[@Pikasprey]

Thanks^

[@Volumixen]

The funny thing is, the Celebi event was actually on Crystal, though not accessible without cheating. The place where you would encounter it is, of course, the Ilex Forest Shrine. You need to have the GS Ball. You give it to Kurt, wait a day, then go back to him and he will be outside of his house, staring out into the forest. He will give you the ball back and ask you to take it to the shrine. When you take it there, you can put it in, and Celebi will float down and engage you in battle.

[@uniursh0329]

This makes me kind of sad. The whole idea of a limited amount of a possibly infinite thing. An event pokémon, you have to be in the right place at the right time, and if you aren't, too bad. The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Anniversary Edition on for the DSi, didn't download it during that window of time? Too bad. Wanted the event item that needed you to have a completed game? You were just shy, too bad.

[@RHCPOfficial]

Uniursh 032 bruh when I was a kid I downloaded the Zelda: four swords game But as a kid I thought it was boring and I deleted it I wish I would of kept it :'(

[@pc31754]

i have the four swords anniv. edition lul

[@thomashorne2607]

Wait that was only a limited time thing? I think I might still have it

[@RHCPOfficial]

Thomas Horne yeah about a year later I went to the Nintendo DSi shop to download it again and it wasn't there

[@hero2bdetermined558]

Uniursh 032 I still have it on my ds lol

[@LegendBegins]

I'm glad this channel ended up in my recommended feed. Subscribed.

[@spadesofpaintstudios1719]

LegendBegins ikr

[@Carbonated__Milk]

If I could have any two it'd be the Keldeo and Meloetta cartridges. Two of the most commonly asked for GTS Pokemon and easily two of the hardest to obtain.

[@zachisback3012]

Tucker Mills I actually have a keldeo I feel special now

[@shade467]

I remember receiving my meloetta from the cartridge, and remember seeing the lady using it and thinking how strange it looked.

[@greeze3186]

Mythicals are not GTS tradeable anymore

[@Nozozozo]

I have a shiny keldeo from a give away for Bw2 From a youtuber. I dont have meloetta though...

[@eksmad]

LOL really? I am not kidding: I have "only" two cartridges and both are Meloetta from 2013 and Keldeo from 2011.

[@CyBERWoLF13370]

I got a pretty great story: I thought it would be funny to have one of those DS cartridges in my gaming collection, so I went on eBay and slammed that virtual cash down for a Keldeo cart, used it a couple times, and I went on to regret absolutely nothing.

[@Grimlock316]

I did work the Mystery Mew Event at the Toys R Us in Grand Rapids MI back in 2006. This event did take place on a special cart . Our store received 2 of them. That character was positioned at the first pokecenter in the game infront of the PC. From there by accessing the PC it showed that ALL the boxes were full of the lvl 10 Mew. This event lasted hours and the line for the pokemon was outside the Rzone for most the day. Me and my friend ( the other guy working the event ) took 50 of these Mews for ourselves along with another pokemon that were traded to us :)

[@arielgarita781]

Man, you don't even know how long did I take in order to find this video. All these previous years I was wondering how these events used to be, besides this content is very worth it about how the pokémon trading has involved over the years. The ones who keep the cartridges are so lucky! Thanks for this video!!

[@warren1651]

love all of your content!

[@Pikasprey]

Thanks :D

[@pewtronpug]

erin I hate his content

[@Naxo4402]

so dont see it XD

[@hyperfujis]

kiibo i miss your ahoge why'd it have to go

[@warren1651]

Shuuichi Saihara up ur ass

[@dillbert1649]

I remember when the celebi event was out for heart gold, I begged my mom to take me and that celebi is still on that game card to this day.

[@Endarire]

Based on what I heard from a trusted friend regarding Gen 1 (Mew): They connected his Game Boy to some machine and generated a Mew on his cart. He still had to find and catch Mew (which he did with the oversight of the event staff). This was done to ensure he got the Mew as intended.

[@PandaXs1]

hmm, I just remember them saying to make room in your party and then just transfering my mew in. this was also at one of those tournament events so there were hundreds of kids in line; I doubt they'd have time to help every kid catch a mew lol

[@ariasfantasy8899]

I remember GameStop wouldn’t let me get the HGSS event celebi cause I had a DSLite not a DSi 😤 got me SPICED

[@jacobw1780]

You don't need mythical pokémon to complete the pokédex

[@firebird64dd22]

Thank god for that.

[@swordcrafted]

5:38 correction: if the cartridge is still in all this time, the save will be stored on the gameboy’s memory, and it only goes on the battery when the cartridge is removed from the gameboy.

[@theomuzard1631]

As some others here, I have received a legit Celebi during a distribution event on my Pokémon Gold (or was it Crystal?) cartridge (of course it is long dead so I can't show you anything). It was during the French stop of an event shortly mentioned in this page (bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_European_language_event_Pok%C3%A9mon_distributions_in_Generation_II) It was a direct distribution (no item or whatever), I remember (15 years ago and I was young) handing my cartridge to a guy who put it in a big machine and gave it back to me right after this, so I don't think he had time to go through the whole trading process. Of course I can be mistaken and underestimate the time it took then. Anyway I like your channel and I'm looking forward to your next videos!

[@Pikasprey]

Glad you like them, and thanks for sharing the info^

[@tammyrobinson4896]

Théo Muzard My gold cartilage still amazingly works but it's dying. You can save but the data isn't retained anymore. Still nice to have and play again for memories though.

[@Killgore52]

I love this guy's sense of humor. A+ content!

[@davidvela2966]

In Europe there was something called Celebi Tour: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_European_language_event_Pok%C3%A9mon_distributions_in_Generation_II#Celebi_Tour_Celebi and if you won the tournament they gave you a cartridge with 20 Celebis in it

[@Pikasprey]

Cool, I guess there were some for Gen 2 after all! But I'd still wager that their original battery has long since died.

[@KevinArcade87]

Pikasprey Yellow I was handed a Pokémon Silver with loads of Celebi on it and the objective was to trade them with people and return the cartridge. After sending this back to Nintendo they send me Pokémon Crystal for free. Cartridge of this Silver was just normal game. I reset it to see if it would generate more Celebi but nope just new game.

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

You can recharge the Gen 1 and 2 game's batteries if you have a working GBA SP and a charger. Just plug the fully charged SP in, turn on your game, get to a spot where you can save, save it, then close it and leave it running (while being connected to the charger) for 2 or 3 days. The game itself will probably be frozen (I know both my Yellow version and my Gold version were), so reboot the system and you should be able to save and load again. *NOTE: I'm not sure for how long before it dies again, but I do know that Gold lasted long enough for me to AT LEAST make it halfway through Kanto (I lost interest after that).*

[@danarkaden6702]

Jaer Nihiltheus what i don't think that charges the battery

[@ChrisAtheist]

Jaer Nihiltheus my Super Nintendo and Gameboy games I every opened if the battery was empty, and put a new battery in.

[@trubb225]

9:10 i removed my headphones, i thought it was gonna be a jumpscare

[@SkiesofOctober]

So cool. As a kid, event Pokémon were basically akin to urban legends to me. It’s awesome to see behind the scenes as an adult.

[@LeoGitarzysta]

The distribution machines for Gen 1 (2:26)are actually standard Gameboy cartridges running inside Super Gameboy which is running inside a SNES. Notice the SNES pad and the SGB border around a normal Gameboy display rendered on CRT.

[@ManOfJupiterMusic]

buying things with "not for resale" is just a scare to stop people doing it. There is no law on it.

[@curlminion]

Those From Heaven Came To Earth MUHAHHAHA

[@legaleaglefeathers1347]

it's like when you go to a school play or something and they're selling chip bags even though they say "not for individual resale"

[@bengojames5701]

Legal Eagle Feathers it says not labeled for individual sale because the company has to put that on there because the chips are missing components needed in labeling by itself but with a bunch of other bags inside a box or bigger bag they properly label them

[@artu165]

The cards are property of Nintendo, they never sold them, they let the distributors borrow them, they should've been returned to Nintendo as it's their property. So it's impossible for anyone who isn't Nintendo to legally own one of these since they are stolen property from Nintendo. As to what laws exactly does it break: In Canada: Possession of property obtained by crime (s. 354) In the UK: section 22(1) of the Theft Act 1968 In Ireland: section 17(1) of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001. In the US: 18 U.S.C. § 2315 (Federal law) (States have additional laws)

[@suecra13]

I was just on eBay seeing the arceus event cart, and wondered what it was about. How ironic, that later this day this video would be suggested to me.

[@joshthompson9964]

Slightly damaged does not mean un useable. As long as the Circlet bord is not damaged it can be repaired, or sometimes if you're lucky, just popped into a working DS or 3ds system and work.

[@ThePeaceBuddies]

Stephen Johnson and

[@ken6517]

Stephen Johnson That's not irony.

[@krysal1489]

Irony is a contrary term, lol...

[@Pierdoink]

not really ironic, more of a coincidence

[@cooperross9495]

During the DS era, I would obsessively check the wikis for the latest news on Pokemon events, and I would always make my mom drive me down to the Gamestop (about an hour's drive), and then get the mystery gift from the parking lot. I still have about a dozen level fifty or level one hundred legendary Pokemon sitting in the PC in my old save files, all of them acquired "legitimately."

[@Slamerak0s]

I remember getting mew on my pokemon : yellow back in the day from an "event" that was set up on a toy store similar to Toysrus. I even remember that there was a radio commercial on all the big stations back in the day for this event! Funny thing is that you had to buy something in order to get Mew... i thought of this "event" as an amazing thing back in the day to be honest but looking now back into it... just sucks because mew and the rest of the mythical pokemon should have been available to all of us by completing some kind of an absurd task or something but then again how much can you complain about something that its over now right?

[@night-x6793]

I always hate those events happening in certain stores or places because the store was about 100 miles away that always killed the mood. And Nintendo still putting this shit with GameStop and Nintendo Zone when there home internet so I don't have to walk 100 miles get one event item.

[@DailyDungeonists]

i mean if it were worth it but now its not even worthy items anymore :/

[@indenturedLemon]

that's okay, for me, it always happen in the US, Japan and EU, so I never get the chances to go there at all.

[@pengudiegu]

Night-X Puerto Rico doesn’t have GameStop anymore

[@J4rj4r81nx]

It's about an 800 Km (roughly 500 Miles) drive to the nearest possible EB Games where I live. Also that location didn't always get access to them either, so sometimes the closest location would be days away. Always pissed me off seeing advertising for events that I had no way to participate in as a kid. Now I just don't want to spend money on the gas to get there in time. lolz

[@Coffeehound323]

Same

[@BiancoAsterisco]

i have one of the jirachi distribution discs. my mom worked at toys r us during the event and they were supposed to throw it away but my mom gave it to me along with coliseum because she though it was some kind of special demo or something

[@Kikan319]

Bianco Asterisco that distribution disc if it's the one im thinking of was a pre-order bonus for that game. I happen to have that very disk still. at some point for the jirachi distribution, some places probably used that disk.

[@skewah]

Bianco Asterisco pics or it didn't happen

[@tammyrobinson4896]

Squishi boi stfu

[@op-nl7dj]

Tammy Robinson you still say boi? And I agree with him. I want pics

[@skewah]

thzx

[@josephcintron1980]

i enjoy giving out free event pokemon in my community. :) It has a nice art form to it when i distribute them to their ds wirelessly or through a gameboy transfer cable.

[@josephcintron1980]

your very welcome. yes it's awesome watching kids and there parents who are in their 20s or 30s meet up with me and bring out the old school event pokemon they can't get and i give it to them for free :) or a cup of coffee if they feel they must pay for my service. the kids LOVE mew because of the pokemon first movie.

[@Hirudura]

Joska Cintron Hey man so I just got into pokemon. Do you think you could trade me some event pokemon over sun and moon?

[@josephcintron1980]

Which event pokemon were you looking for? there's a lot of them out there. you want the ones they gave out this year? or do you specifically want ones from the 2006-2012 events. This year they rerelease all the old event hard to find pokémon. send me your FC and i'll see what i can do and we can make a meet up date online so i can give you some that i have extras of

[@Hirudura]

Joska Cintron The only event pokemon I have are magearna, a shiny yveltal and shiny darkrai (which I'm pretty sure is hacked) but I'd like to have some of the older event pokemon like arceus or keldeo if you had any extras. Meloetta would be cool too but I could understand not wanting to part with that one because its so rare. My friend code is 2294-8816-8286. I'm free tonight or tomorrow night if you're down

[@josephcintron1980]

Cool we can try tonight at 8pm or tomorrow 8pm pacific time. Just catch some like 8 or 10 Pokémon and I'll send you some of my spare event pokemons from 2016 which include keldeo and arceus and meloetta

[@milesisterrible]

it sucks that they used this to "hide" several legendaries, but going to an event and receiving these pokemon as a kid was really surreal. i have vivid memories going to the darkrai event and immediately using that darkrai on pokemon battle revolution for hours. good times!!!

[@benjaminbrady2385]

I'll just use 8F to make a new game always start with the boxes filled with mews Starting bid: €1000000

[@heart_locket2]

1000 IQ play

[@0chiba]

We had a Celebi event in Australia for Gold and Silver.

[@Pikasprey]

Everyone but North America seemed to get Celebi. T_T

[@dreamcoresequoia7830]

And Russia. Everyone but Russia got legal localisation for pokegames. Fuck Russia, right?

[@Hetsu..]

RACIST

[@moistnutella9560]

Assationater My brain cells are killing each other.

[@gunit2678]

Celebi was released in the West for Gen 2 however, in the form of a Six Flags event held in several of their theme parks across the US. They used some sort of special machine for distribution, I don't remember them using a cartridge, it was a long time ago. bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Fun_Fest

[@MewxPro]

There is a fire red .sav that has most of the event Pokémon on there. Just load the save to a flash cart and then trade the Pokémon to an official game and boom.

[@MewxPro]

I'm not kidding. It has the Space Center Deoxys, MYSTRY Mew, etc. digiex.net/threads/pokemon-gen3-legit-event-pokemon-save-ruby-sapphire-emerald-firered-leafgreen.14690/

[@TheGekijouban]

+TheMewx these deoxys are spending by me :) full box of Doel and SpaceC

[@MewxPro]

Event-Fan I even found the dumped rom of the Aurora Ticket event. It's only works for Leaf Green and Fire Red though if you have the US copy.

[@TheGekijouban]

+TheMewx i know ;)

[@luisrx9121]

can I have it I need one plz

[@DarkMastaC]

The only thing I remember personally is a gen 1 distribution at Toys'R Us. I technically got mine late by a few weeks even. They still had the device to do the transfer of the Mew to the games. It was treated like a normal trade between the games. However the GameBoy used for the transfer was in a device of some type, while I'm not sure of its purpose, it may have been simply there for an extra layer of security of to modify the data of the cart. The only thing I can state for curtain is at one point the distributor was in a pokemon center with the normal music playing. It could easily be assumed that these were simply standard carts loaded with event mews with set values assigned to them.

[@freemontfreemantle8553]

I got all three shiny event legendary dogs back on heart gold, and I was in trouble with my parents so I had lost my DS at the time, but my dad went and got entei for me without even asking. Then my file literally deleted itself. Save data corrupted like two weeks after and I lost them all :(

[@Getmynameoff]

Rip

[@gengarzilla1685]

This is kinda why I don't like them, just the very mention of their trio name starts this bickering...

[@Kleasy]

Your dad is the real MVP here.

[@counterfeit1148]

Reminds me of resetting my AS twice. One had a Mew and the other had a Genesect.

[@mimejrice-cream7291]

I'm like a year late but : They actually are more "legendary cats" than dogs (big felines in fact) . Entei, raikou and suicune / a lion, a tiger and a panther.

[@RJRacoon]

Great Video on the Topic! I am owner of a Gen 1 Distribution Cart (Yoshira Mew), a sealed Gen 3 System (10 ANNIV) and a lot of Gen 4 and 5 Cartridges. Anyone owning one of those items can be proud to say they own a piece of Nintendo/Pokemon History!

[@clippysoft]

have you archived them to any internet archival projects?

[@imsofunnyxd1010]

"Its a secret to everybody." - Old Man

[@rosheafan]

-Moblin

[@swordcrafted]

ImSoFunnyXD -Reggie*

[@JamesPedigo3]

Back when I was a kid I remember my Dad and Uncle took my cousins,siblings and I to one of these events for mew(Gen 1, Yeah I am old), it was at the local mall and they had two of those computers but the rest was done by staff with trading. That is all I can remember. (Also had the Ancient Mew card you got on opening night of the first movie release,up until a few years ago)

[@debrickashaw9387]

James Pedigo you make me feel old as well when you described that mew card

[@diggy_the_first]

i got a gen 1 mew from a toys r us staff member. but I was already kind of bored of the game by then

[@SoapyFae]

Burt wait i thought you got the ancient mew form the second movie viewing since there's the whole plot point of the ancient mew card being what got the villain into collecting rare pokemon stuff in the first place.

[@leandrofod]

Yeah you made me remember of the time i attended to the time travelers movie and i won a celebi and a suicune card. Man... Wish i had those cards till this day

[@velocity1146]

Soapy Foten holy crap. I remember When I was 5 or something I got a really shiny card from a pokemon movie. It’s probably not worth anything since everyone got one right?

[@PIEGAMER2oo3]

Do ROMs exist of the DS distribution cartridges?

[@sparksthedaytrader9606]

Memes Probably

[@Pikasprey]

Yes, the DS ones are the most recent, and had the most produced. I'm pretty sure that almost all of them have been put online by now.

[@hooviridis8388]

Yes they do, and they can be modified to distribute other event Pokémon over to their respective generation of games if you're using a flash cart.

[@SeaSlug]

yea and I've given away some more of the dogs and deoxis events. put the rom on a DS flash card and change the date of your DS and bam your good to go. a hacker by the name kyzo war also managed to hack the rom of the distribution cartridges and put in the wonder card for other distribution events that didn't have a rom at the time.

[@SummonerArthur]

SeaSlug did you know that if you use the "johto legendary dogs" event cart with the 28/02/2011 date, you get a celebi that wasnt/shouldnt be distribucted.

[@virepri9871]

I actually vividly remember going out to obtain BOTH of the Darkrai events-- The first one came in the form of the event pokemon, and the other gave a key to be used in a city off to the coast.

[@kitsunescythe6823]

Nintendo really pisses me off with this. I don't understand why the Legendary and Mythical Pokemon have to be made into such a big deal anyway. You can't use them in things like the Battle Tree (or Battle whatever), if people use them in competitive battling online then they've likely cheated to make them strong enough to OHKO anything anyway, and the distributed ones are always a high level, making them impossible to take through another playthrough just for fun. I would love to be able to take a Mythical Pokemon, such as Mew, through a new game and just have them be a really cool buddy for my trainer, but when it's level 100, that's not really a good thing to do. Unless you want to spend a good portion of time yelling at your Mew (or whatever) to get off its ass and stop ignoring you. This crap just needs to stop. It's just...asinine.

[@drdispekful747]

Kitsune Scythe Collection purposes. The slogan for pokémon is literally "gotta catch em all." Completing the collection is a massive part of the appeal and point of pokémon. Are you an idiot?

[@kitsunescythe6823]

@@drdispekful747 Are you? Collecting them all I understand. Making pointless and stupid ways of getting them, however, I see no logic in. They are games, which are meant to be fun, not work. If you want to work and jump through needless hurdles to collect a bunch of bits of code that you can't really do anything with, then more power to you, dude. Sounds like you're the true intellectual here. Good for you.

[@JoyStar]

The one they gave at Toys R Us back in the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald days was level 10. I actually have a whole bunch of them still because after I got mine I used the Cloning Glitch in Emerald to make a whole bunch of them. I even raised one to level 60, cloned that, and took on the Elite 4with what I called my Elite Mew team. XD

[@baraguda3272]

Revali entered the chat.

[@basillah7650]

@@drdispekful747 you are not catching them all if they are given to you

[@Eazy_Bruh]

Very great video, it made me want to go back and play Pokémon all over again. I'm 22 years old now which is quite sad but I'll forever be a kid at heart and will very much love Pokémon forever! Keep up the good work buddy!

[@blekiscooler]

I wasn’t even alive during most of these, but I get a nostalgic feeling hearing about these event Pokemon.

[@deepikasharma-cc4vc]

How old are you then?

[@blekiscooler]

@@deepikasharma-cc4vc 15 now

[@VioletLeFey]

Wait a second , the event cartriges from ds are roms right ? , so i can download any of them for my R4 and distribute them ? (obviously changing the time and hour of the DS)

[@joserachi96]

You definitely can! you’ll need two systems of course did this myself not so long ago with deoxys and now pretty much give my friends irl one every time they want with my real cartridge ;)

[@yanbo9001]

Also if you are a bit more advanced, you can even change the Pokémon the card distributes. I remember a live event in Germany where they distributed Darkrai I think, and some group of people distributed Arceus unofficially xD

[@kwartel3000]

They are roms. There is also the "Mystery Gift Tool", which gives you a really easy way to mod the rom to obtain any pokemon with this method. Using this method, you can also distrobute events which where originaly distrobuted trough wifi.

[@HenryBozzz]

Ich kann mich mal an einem Pokémon Day aus 2011 oder 2012 erinnern, wo es mal ein unoffizielles Regigigas gab - wahrscheinlich gab es bei fast jedem Pokémon-Event solche Fake-Events bis Gen 6 🤭

[@livingbeing3198]

Why does German sound so fake?

[@tehwarlock]

I was lucky enough to be put in charge of distributing Darkrai with one of those special game cartridges back in the day, I got so excited about sharing it with people that by the end of the event I forgot to get mine lol

[@KudaKeileon]

Something I think is interesting and can provide some insight: Back when HeartGold and SoulSilver were able to connect to the GTS server (now defunct) it was possible via changing some of your Wi-Fi settings (I think it involved changing your DNS) to create and distribute your own "Mystery Gift" by connecting to GTS while not having a full party. I don't know the finer details of it because it was a friend of mine that told me and all I really did was get Pokemon. However, it didn't work 100% properly for me and instead of getting the shiny Dunsparce my friend was giving out I got a seemingly random Pokemon each time. This included things like Pidgey, Tentacool... event Darkrai, 10th anniversary Absol and Charizard, shiny legendary beasts... My theory at the time was that the GTS was spawning Pokemon that had been traded through it, but I later learned that event Pokemon had special ribbons that prevented their trade over GTS. Not only that, but there was no reason simply changing a Wi-Fi setting should have caused that. My theory nowadays is that event distribution was somehow connected to a server, which we accidentally stumbled upon and connected to. Since players were never intended to connect to the server and use the GTS, there were... unexpected side effects.

[@revel8]

I remember using this trick back in the day with Pokemon Black. If it was the same thing as you were describing, it was a DNS connected to a Pokemon fan site. I remember connecting to it over and over getting random Pokemon. If you actually went to the website you could make a custom Pokemon and send it into your game.

[@baraguda3272]

People now are sorta making there own mystery gifts with gts giveaways

[@tburrrg2502]

The bug that allowed this to happen still exists in Pokémon sun and moon. I’m not going to give away the specific entry point, but creating your own “designer Pokémon” and injecting into your game via GTS is very much alive and well! There’s an app for it and everything!

[@SummonerArthur]

Also, there was an event cart that gave a zigzagoon with a berry on gen 3 that fixed an error with the berry system in the game.

[@Sinus_e]

Taylor Cason you like to reply don't you

[@SummonerArthur]

Taylor Cason it is for me too. Do you know any other way to get that jirachi? Or if I could get it using my wii?

[@SummonerArthur]

Taylor Cason I don't kinda care bou natures because I'm too lazy to train them anyway. XD Even If I got an .iso of the jirachi disc and emulate it using _nintendont_ it wouldnt work? And why?

[@SummonerArthur]

Taylor Cason oh, ok. If I find how to get it smh I will tell you.

[@basiltheleafeon]

Summoner Arthur You would have to emulate both the Jirachi disk and the game if you wanted to emulate it. There isn't a direct way of doing this (meaning you would have to have some custom software) and it's easier to just download a patch or save file. If you wanted to do it on an actual GBA cart, you would have to burn the jirachi disk data to an actual disk (which would take so long and isn't worth the time) and then somehow have said disk work on a GCN and then link up with an actual GBA. (FYI, you obviously can't use your computer to send signals to your GBA as the computer doesn't know how to connect to GBA.)

[@ianschimnoski870]

neat, I once missed the Darkrai distribution event by one day, so I have some pretty strong feelings about this; also: the clerk at Toys R Us, took pity on my younger self, and told me something to the effect of: "sorry, we had to ship all the stuff out this morning..." and being a 'why?' child, my first question was: "what stuff? isn't it all just a software package you can boot back up again?*" *(I've always been a bit of a smart-aleck, it's impulsive) to which he responded: "...there was a special cart, some guys came to make sure we gave it back..." So... I believe it, this seems to jive with what I've experienced

[@AxelDerRaven]

A really interesting video. I've been a fan since about '98 or '99 and I'd never heard of these rumoured distribution consoles/cartridges before. And I'm an old school fan who regularly trawls Bulbapedia XD.

[@basillah7650]

You are a noob then.

[@LiakkDoesStuff]

ba sillah you are not funny

[@TherealSfargang]

6:56 I actually had a Celebi on my pokemon gold cartridge! Not from a distribution but a contest. A friend of mine entered a Celebi contest by nintendo. He got a pokemon silver cartridge with 50 Celebi's in the PC and he needed to collect 50 pokemon for the contest. The prize for the kids who collected all of the listed 50 pokemon was a copy of pokemon crystal. I traded my Tyranitar for one of those Celebi's :D (Edit: I lived in the netherlands, europe at that time)

[@Leto85]

Thankfully these gen 4 and 5 events are still available through the network.

[@samhayzen]

Dude, seriously, where are your subs?

[@Pikasprey]

In my fridge, waiting for lunch time.

[@samhayzen]

Spicy ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@murp7998]

It's a spicy white

[@kingpotato7183]

Dead

[@Makingthebullet]

i.imgur.com/RMnhNyC.png Found them.

[@arcaninecanmeltstealbeams8635]

I know I'm pretty late to be commenting on this but my God this vid took my back. I remember begging my dad to take me to GameStop to get all three of the shiny Johto legends.

[@itsheza]

So, that was my AMA on reddit about the fire red Mew cart. You highlighted that I said the game was not playable. Technically it is, I explained in the comment that you were in an early town and needed cut to leave but didn't have it and couldn't find a way to advance the game at all. I probably played it for maybe 15 minutes total though. Unfortunately there is nothing on the cart itself to distinguish it like there is on the DS carts. Every store got 2 but 1 was plenty, so either the cart will have a few boxes of trades and the rest Mews, or be a cart that was never used and every box is Mews.

[@marhawkman303]

Interesting. So you're stuck a location you need an HM move to leave, but you don't have the gym badge to use it? That's ingenious actually. It's basically a production copy of the game but massively save edited to the point the in-game event script is incompletable.

[@wizardwor511]

4:25 actually chances are the save data is still good. I sell vintage games on a regular basis, and surprisingly enough the original battery does work about half the time. I'm sure they so have some eventual expiration date, but I think it's much more dependant on the heavily it was used. I would think a cartridge that was used exclusively for events should be still be relatively lightly used.

[@radioactivebeverage]

Man, I wish I didn’t live in the middle of nowhere when I was younger in the 2000s. The first and only legit event pokémon I ever got was Diancie in X. But I do adore that mon a lot ever since.

[@schwarzrin]

I gained 11 of the TRU Mew event when it happened near our area. I still have a couple left. They gave the players Lv. 5 Mew with TRU as the OT.

[@slug237711]

Still trying to get the event Entei from GameStop into Alpha Sapphire. The shiny one with Extreme Speed...

[@micdrop344]

slug237711, the one from when Black and White came out?

[@micdrop344]

slug237711, and Heartgold and Soulsilver?

[@guhaniyer5601]

Use Poke Transporter if BW, and Poke Transfer into BW, then Transporter to AS

[@geometryemperor]

@@guhaniyer5601 It is better to use the Relocator to transfer that Entei. Because you can also get the event Zoroark in BW.

[@andrewroy9263]

I have the cart. Are you still interested in entei?

[@chrissmyth4031]

I work in a videogame store and we still have a diamond/pearl event cartridge on the back. I'm gonna see if I can take it home, I mean it's been +10 years

[@rust_ay]

Christopher Smyth did you get it

[@chrissmyth4031]

@@rust_ay Yup, still works

[@funninoriginal6054]

@@chrissmyth4031 What was the pokemon being distributed, if you dont mind me asking?

[@chrissmyth4031]

@@funninoriginal6054 it was shiny dialka, palkia and giratina. Got all 3!

[@chrissmyth4031]

Also I said it was diamond/pearl. It's actually black/white 2 but gen 4 Legendaries, so only 5-6 years not 10!

[@stevenhayes4292]

Iv watched every big name pokemon youtuber out there and I have to say your one of my faviorts keep up the awesome work!

[@jherislots5015]

for some reason pikarpeys dull voice puts me in a trance.....and i end up watching the whole video. good job bro haha

[@toastdtech3597]

My brother went to toys r us back in the gen 3 days he said that for the deoxys event it was a GBA with a link cable and the "game" just a menu where when press A you would be promoted to get the item if your system was linked if not it would to you to hook up the game and reset the gameboy with your game on it. Not sure about the non items ones I can ask him since he got every event legendary back in gen 3 with these events

[@Pikasprey]

They used those too. It might have been an early incarnation of what the DS one's would become.

[@themostintenseofwater5068]

I was distributing gen 5 cartridges and I stole one ;) It was the easiest work ever I just popped my own copy of black in when I was on break and played pokemon for the 5 days that was my shift.

[@tetsmon]

In japan I went to a mew event for the lucario movie promotion, it worked pretty much the same way as you described the lady just mashed A until the process was complete, and in the game i had a green worker give me the item like in the later gens

[@willtaylor9091]

I remember once I went to Gamestop with my copy of Black and I received a Darkrai. I never knew it was another DS sending out the signal!

[@tribopower]

I remember when I got my first legendary pokemon event (and the only one so far) It was an Arceus lvl 100 this was like 2010-2013(I don't remember the specific date) I was like 12-15, It was the weirdest thing ever, I go to the shop where the event is happening I ask the shopkeeper what I need to do, she tells me to go for the big yellow circle with instructions there (I presume now that the Wi-Fi/Wireless conection would probably reach the entire shop since it was a small place) I follow the instructions there, and in my head I tought I would receive the Azure Flute (That I had seen in some youtube videos back then, the poor me didn't knew they were hacked) and have an epic battle against the god of the pokemons at the top of Spear Pillar at the Hall of Origin.... Nope... just a plain.... here take your lvl 100 God... To make matters worse it was my first pokemon game in years and the first one I completed and put alot of hours into the late game, altough when I received lvl 100 Arceus I had 3/4/5 badges, so ofc I couldn't control it, I remember back then thinking that because he was a God it made sense I couldn't control it, it didn't matter tough since he was a legendary lvl 100 with 4 broken attacks that could one shot everything and anything (I dunno why my kid brain decided to keep such a Deus Ex Machina in the party). By the team I completed the elite 4 and the champion with it, I felt empty to my core, just like a part of my childhood was stolen, "How Dare You" Arceus... Later on, one of my "friends" stole my Arceus and all the legendarys I had, so I just reseted the game and played from the beggining a few months later (probably the best experience i ever had with pokemon with that decision) and this time it actually felt meaningfull to be the sinnoh Pokemon champion (even tough cynthia instakill my entire team with Garchomp a couple times). TL;DR: These events are trash and honestly they kind ruin the theme of "catching them all"

[@LiakkDoesStuff]

tribopower yeah I got into the events in 2016-2019 you would go to GameStop get an overpowered Pokémon and leave I had the Pokémon the entire time and just didn’t use it in the main game I only used it on online I have many of these Pokémon enough to make at least 2 full party’s of Pokémon tbh you just did it wrong

[@BugOnAChip]

You could have just put it in the pc lol da

[@albinosquirrelmpls]

Just wanted to share my own story about one of these - I once won a copy of Pokémon Crystal via a contest held by Kids’ WB! You would watch the show daily and enter in a Pokémon of the Day onto their website (note: this was not the same as the “who’s that Pokémon” the show already did, but basically the same concept). Months later I got a copy of the game in the mail with a letter explaining what was on the game. They had already started a save file with a male trainer named CHRIS, and I believe had just beaten the rival the first time, as the PC box had a Level 6 Cyndaquil in it. Your party on the other hand had - from what I recall: Lv 5 Pikachu that knew Surf (I don’t remember if it had a Light Ball or anything like that) Lv 5 Celebi Lv 50 (?) Articuno Lv 50 (?) Zapdos Lv 50 (again, ?) Moltres Lv 40 (once again, ? You couldn’t use these four right away due to badge requirements so I just boxed them) Suicune I didn’t get very far into the game and I believe I even erased the save file to start fresh. Later I had a general “Pokémon is for KIIIIIDS” phase that I thankfully grew out of, but not before selling my copy of Crystal. My dad still gives me crap for doing so as he thought it was a limited edition type of deal, though I’m pretty sure the battery would have run dry on it by now anyway, and the save file was the only thing that made it special. Still wish I’d kept it though.

[@mellowkidd]

In 2022 you can still get these events. I just posted a short on how to get all these events for free if you guys are curious. No event cartridge needed

[@YoshiKMW]

I went to the MYSTRY mew event at toys r us years ago. I had to wait in line as a TRU worker with a fire red (? I think it was FR at least) cart traded me from a normal looking gba. I traded over a wurmple, with him joking that I should trade my strong blaziken instead, lol. I paid attention to see if the wurmple replaced the mew in the party before I ended the trade, and surprisingly the mew was still there. I wonder if the cart was edited or something to simply replace that party slot with mews? It was pretty weird. I was a young kid but I remember the weirdness with mew in the party pretty strongly. I also remember the party being basically Red's pokemon team, just with mew replacing one of them (can't recall which one, i do remember a charizard and pikachu being there for sure though).

[@jayesper4390]

That Wurmple was a Mew all along :P

[@benny1118]

YoshiKMW I went to that event too!! I was really young so I only really remember waiting in line and getting the Mew itself, but I also remember my sister saying she heard a conversation between two of the employees in which one said "Hey man, can you send me another Mew? I'm running out" or something along those lines. I don't know if she really heard that or if she just thought she did but it may be telling in some way? Idk. I wish I had payed more attention :')

[@chriscalvert4609]

I received my Mew by a kid in gym class. He traded it, then used the turn off/duplication trick. I still have it in my original copy of blue, and the save battery still works. I have no idea where the kid got the mew. This was before the Internet was like it is now - 1998 era.

[@jonnylawless6797]

Chris Calvert either an event or he figured out the glitch. I still have the original save file (stopped playing in 2000 after I finished the pokedex) on my red version with all 151 Pokémon that my brother got me mew on using the fly glitch

[@borizzle1]

You could buy cheat devices to turn all encounters into Mew

[@chvIry]

Lol a gameshark

[@djenni12]

​@@jonnylawless6797 You sure it was 2000 and not 2003? Because as far as I know, the Mew glitch wasn't discovered until 2003. As for Chris Calvert's Mew... probably an event/contest or else GameShark or Game Genie. I personally got a Mew at the Pokémon 2000 Stadium Tour (came with a certificate) and I might still have the save file somewhere (pretty sure I made a backup before the cartridge battery went dead).

[@youneverknow111]

save battery isnt problem i changed my only thing is that you lose save file,i did it on my blue version and sell it ten years ago and battery still works last time i cecked with new owner

[@buggyboy1356]

i wish they would do this again ;__;

[@TheRoboFilmsComedy]

I wish they dont because i actually want the legendaries :/

[@buggyboy1356]

The Thief Dude not with legendaries, but with shinys or pokémon with special moves

[@TheRoboFilmsComedy]

oh in that case i would be fine with that

[@Alex-zf9il]

y tho

[@HavenMarches]

mystery gift is better and easier. and free.

[@simontrodd3714]

If I ever decide to rob something Pokemon from Nintendo, I'll dress up as team rocket

[@whiplash308]

I ended up only getting the Celebi event for Soul Silver, which was still a great thing to me. The time warp mini-event was a big deal to the story for such a small thing. Really cool.

[@SummonerArthur]

There was a celebi that shouldnt be distribucted on the "johto legendary dogs" event cartridge, but you can get it by changing the ds clock to 28/02/2011.

[@SummonerArthur]

***** I did. I've downloaded a dump rom and tried using my ds lite and my friend's dsi.

[@basiltheleafeon]

Summoner Arthur I get an error when loading the page, if you could upload to imgur then it would work

[@SummonerArthur]

Reshiramax Ill post a video on my google+ page. Take a look at it.

[@EebstertheGreat]

It is definitely not true that all original gen 1 cartridges have dead batteries. I doubt that most of them do. Pokemon Red and Blue use a CR2025 battery with a 150 mAh capacity. Since the first gen games have no real time clock to run, the battery is only powering the SRAM, which should draw less than a microamp. I would think you should expect at least 25 years out of most of those batteries, maybe even a lot more from some. Second generation games are the ones that have mostly died, as the same battery also had to power the MCB3 chip to keep time.

[@stampytheories3774]

Perhaps the difference was that you could only find the event Pokemon in the wild and that every Pokeball would succeed?

[@zodiatube]

My brother won a Celebi at a US event, during the times of Pokemon Crystal. I was mind blown when I first saw it.

[@nomibomi5760]

come to think of it, I once bought a used version of sapphire from gamestop as a kid, and I remember opening the save file and finding the PC was full of a whole bunch of the same pokemon (it may have been Pikachu or Mew?) The likelihood is that the previous owner happened to have a gameshark, but I remember that cartridge being a little off. The first time I started a new save file, it didn't let me pick a name or gender for my character(I think it made my name AA or something weird like that) and some of the mechanics straight up didn't function. I remember not being able to do anything regarding pokeblocs, including contests, or putting them in those boxes at the safari zone. I only had the game for a short while before the "internal battery ran dry" and I couldn't save anymore. I probably just had a faulty cartridge, but I'm interested in the idea that instead of returning their event cartridge to nintendo, that particular gamestop sold it to a kid for $10.

[@Akechi_The_Phantom_Detective]

Honestly, it sounds like you may have had a legitimate event cartridge rather than a faulty one. See the original Event Cartridges for Red, Green and Blue had been modified to prevent the player from changing the Trainer Details, this was because for a number of Event Pokemon their OT trainer ID was fixed.

[@anikii5814]

It's not fair for people in other country :(

[@pastelshadows6437]

I always hated event Pokemon. As someone who oknly had access to them starting in Gen VI(As my family wasn't tech-savvy growing up) there are so many Pokemon I could never get legitimately for reasons out of my control(Hell, I was a baby when Gen II came out). Just another reason I have no problems with cheating so long as it doesn't affect others.

[@technird652]

not for resale, sells it on ebay lol

[@jayesper4390]

That doesn't stop the latter and Game X Change from selling Sonic games though lol

[@miles6492]

I've seen my local used game store with an NFR Sonic Genesis game before, so the only one they're gonna care about are big retailers like Gamestop selling them by the dozens.

[@disastranagant]

That's because of the First Sale doctrine. This shit was sold by Sega so they have no control over what you do with it afterwards. The distro carts here were never sold to the public so there's a good chance they could be considered stolen property.

[@rapaladude]

Man... it would have been cool to know anything like that happened back in the day. I didn’t even know Event Pokemon were a thing.

[@xpdobrada]

I got a Meloetta on one of those events. I was with my dad, we went to the mall and the employee helped me setting up the wi-fi connection on my DSi. It was quick, but a very fun little day, and that happened when I was 13 years old, 10 years ago. My father passed away 2 years ago, and I will forever cherish this memory all thanks to Pokémon.

[@volcanhacks]

I still have my 2011 event zoruark in sword and Shield and it will be with me for the rest of the pokemon series that has it in the games I have a memory as a 8 year old getting pokemon white in the store during the event and getting to the first pokemon centre as I had just bought the game and receiving it. It was my first level 100 and i still remember getting the rare candy in N's room when it was level 99 and using it on it. I miss the old pokemon games