Supported games

Any GBA, Game Boy or DS game plays in PokeDaisy. "Supported" is about the companion on the bottom screen: to show your party, bag, map and battles, it has to know exactly which game you're running and where that game keeps its data. A game it doesn't know still plays fine on the top screen; the companion shows a notice instead of your party.

#What's supported

The original Game Boy Advance games:

• Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire.

• The English (USA / Europe) releases and the Spanish, German, French, Italian and Japanese ones, every revision.

• English FireRed and Emerald also count when the file comes from a collection that changed it a little: the empty space at its end cut off or filled with something of its own, or patched to run on a flash cartridge (its save code changed so it saves without the original flash chip, often with the "internal battery has run dry" message reworded). Any change to the game itself makes it a hack the companion doesn't know.

Game Boy and Game Boy Color:

• Pokémon Red and Blue: the USA / Europe releases, drawn in the game's own look: the colours they show on a Super Game Boy.

• Pokémon Yellow: the USA / Europe release and the German, French, Italian and Spanish ones, drawn in the game's own look. A German, French, Italian or Spanish copy shows its own names and Pokédex text. Item descriptions are only shown in the English one, as these games have none of their own.

• Pokémon Gold and Silver: the USA / Europe releases, drawn in the game's own look.

• Pokémon Crystal: the USA release, the USA / Europe revision 1 and the Australian one, drawn in the game's own look.

• Pokémon Crystal Clear, the open world hack of Crystal: versions 2.5.11 and 2.6.0, each in its Standard Colors and its Color Filter build, drawn in the game's own look.

• Pokémon Prism, built on Crystal with regions of its own: version 0.95 build 254 (Hotfix 5), drawn in the game's own look, with its own Pokédex.

• Polished Crystal: versions 3.2.0 to 3.2.3, each in its normal and its faithful build (and their debug builds), drawn in the game's own look, with its own Pokédex. The faithful builds keep the original types and moves, and the companion shows them that way.

Nintendo DS:

• Pokémon Platinum: the USA release, revision 1.

• Pokémon HeartGold: the USA release.

• Pokémon SoulSilver: the USA release.

The companion reads their party, bag, map, Pokédex and guide, with pictures, Pokédex pages and the map read from your cart. Platinum's battles show in the BATTLE tab; HeartGold's and SoulSilver's don't yet. Screens and devices has how a DS game uses your screens.

ROM hacks, each in the versions listed:

Not every game gets every tab yet. Some hacks have the guide's live pages only, a few have no guide, and battle panes in many hacks haven't been checked in every kind of battle. The full table, tab by tab, is on the compatibility page and in the README.

#Support is for the exact version

PokeDaisy recognises a game by its file, using the ROM's SHA-1 checksum (a fingerprint of every byte). So "Radical Red" means Radical Red 4.1, the exact file that version's patch produces. An older or newer version of a hack moves things around in memory, and reading it with the wrong map would show wrong names, wrong sprites or nonsense.

That's why the version matters:

• If you patched a hack yourself, make sure you used the right patch on the right base ROM (most hacks want a clean, unmodified US FireRed or Emerald).

• If the hack has a newer version than the one listed, it may not be recognised until it's added. Best effort may still read it.

#Check your ROM before you play

The website's ROM check tells you whether a file is supported. Pick the ROM and it runs the same checks the app does, right in your browser. The ROM never leaves your device: nothing is uploaded.

In the app, the library tags games the companion can't read as NOT SUPPORTED, and ones it reads only in part as PARTIALLY SUPPORTED. A game's INFO (long-press it in the library) tells you more.

#Best effort for games PokeDaisy doesn't know

When you play a ROM PokeDaisy doesn't recognise, but its header says it's built on FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald, Ruby or Sapphire, the companion doesn't give up. It tries reading the game as each game it knows, by itself, while you play, and checks what it would show against the ROM: species, move and item names, the map, your party.

What happens next depends on how well a game fits:

• A clear match. A different build of a supported game is then fully supported. A hack that shares a supported game's memory gets party, bag, map and battles. Anything that didn't check out (the Pokédex, the guide, item descriptions, sprites) is switched off, so you get no sprite rather than a wrong one. The library tags it PARTIALLY SUPPORTED.

• A likely match before you have a party. The companion uses its best guess and confirms it once it can read a Pokémon.

• No clear winner. The companion asks you (see below).

The match is remembered for that ROM. To undo it, long-press the game in the library, open INFO and tap FORGET MATCH.

#WHICH GAME IS THIS?

When more than one game could fit, or none fits clearly, the companion shows WHICH GAME IS THIS? in place of your party. The likely ones come first, tagged LIKELY. Pick the game your ROM is a version of, or the base game the hack was built on.

• If you're not sure, play on: once you have a Pokémon in your party, PokeDaisy checks again by itself.

• NONE OF THESE tells it the ROM isn't any of them. The companion then shows its NOT SUPPORTED page.

• After you pick, PokeDaisy checks the pick once it can read your party. If it doesn't fit, a WRONG GAME? notice lets you PICK AGAIN or KEEP it.

You can open the picker again any time:

• On the companion: SETTINGS > PLAYS AS (at the top, in the GAME group, only for a ROM read this way).

• In the library: long-press the game, open INFO and tap PICK A GAME.

• From the match notice: WRONG GAME?.

#NOT SUPPORTED and ASK FOR SUPPORT

When the companion can't read a game at all, every tab except SETTINGS shows a NOT SUPPORTED page. The game itself keeps running normally on the top screen; you lose the companion, not the game.

Want it supported? Tap ASK FOR SUPPORT, on that page or in the game's library INFO. It opens the game request form on the feedback page, filled in with the file's name, game code, size and SHA-1, so the right version can be found. You don't need a GitHub account. It never sends the ROM itself.

Every request goes up in Game requests on GitHub. Upvote the games you want: the most wanted ones help decide what comes next.

#Sharing a best effort match (optional)

When best effort finds a match for a ROM, the notice may ask SHARE THIS MATCH? Sharing helps a future release support that ROM properly. It's entirely up to you: nothing is sent unless you tap SHARE, and NO THANKS sends nothing.

The notice lists every value it would send, and that's all of it: the ROM's SHA-1, size, game code and revision, the game it was read as and how well it fit, and the app version. No file name, no account and no device details. It goes to PokeDaisy's own database, where it can't be read back by anyone through the app or the site. If you're offline, it's sent the next time the app starts.