Essentials Games vs ROM Hacks 2022-03-16

First, a simple textbook definition-

Pokemon Essentials games are fangames created through the Windows program RPG Maker XP and the Pokemon Essentials kit by Maruno.

ROM hacks are fangames created by editing the base ROM of an official Pokemon game.

Let me tell you about my least favorite question to hear:

“What emulator do I need to play this fangame?”

There’s nothing on the thread that refers to an emulator. Nowhere in the game’s description can you find the word “hack”. But some confused user wanders in convinced that they need one to play the game. And you can’t blame them for it, because it’s a common mix-up that keeps getting made. (More on that later)

I’ve already written a guide on playing fangames here, but the most important takeaway is this- Pokemon Essentials games are made using the Windows program RPG Maker XP. Windows computers don’t need an emulator to play these games. Android devices and Mac computers do need an emulator of sorts- but they need it to emulate Windows, not to emulate the GBA or DS.

But there’s a few more differences worth mentioning-

• Legal issues! While most fan content exists in that legal area of “Only a problem if the company says it’s a problem”, ROM hacks are often forbidden from being hosted directly on forums, because uploading the entire ROM of a company’s game, even an edited one, gets a little more pushback. To get around this, ROM hack developers typically just upload a patch that changes a ROM file, and ask players to find a base ROM elsewhere. Essentials games haven’t been hit with quite this much scrutiny, so fangame forums have no problem linking to direct downloads.
  • It’s important to remember that this varies from site to site! Some communities like Bulbagarden just flat-out ban most discussion of either category, especially linking to downloads.
• Cheating. Most emulators have a built-in GameShark or Action Replay or what have you, and some cheat codes for the base ROM will still apply. (Usually the ones that aren’t story-sensitive, like infinite Rare Candies.) On the RPG Maker side, there’s not usually anything built-in, but JoiPlay, the app used to play RPG Maker on Android, actually has a built-in cheat engine.
  • Of course, with either type of game, there’s always the possibility of just knowing how to manipulate it yourself from a developer’s perspective.
• On the developer’s side, there’s a lot under the hood that’s different. Scripts for Essentials won’t work for hacks - RPG Maker doesn’t even use the same coding language as most ROM hacking tools.

So, calling ROM hacks fangames, sure, that makes sense. They’re games made by fans. But why do people keep calling other games ROM hacks when they're not hacking a ROM?

• Youtubers - Somehow, even though they’re streaming themselves playing the games, and presumably aware of how to start them up, Youtubers will still call Essentials games ROM hacks. They’re often people’s first exposure to the fangame scene, so a new playthrough often leads to a bunch of new players with this mistaken impression.
  • As a test, I searched just “Pokemon ROM Hack” on Youtube. The first result was from a top ten from RuffledRowlit (already, not the best fact-checker), who has included Soulstones and Uranium in the list.
  • That video is from late 2021. Uranium had its first major release in 2016.
  • Okay.
• Game theft sites, not content to just plagiarize and profit off of others’ work, also have to muddy the waters even further! Since there’s not that many dedicated fangame sites, it’s easy to have a theft site show up on the first page of Google, loudly proclaiming that this is actually a ROM hack and you should totally download it from their website. Neither claim is true.
  • Aki has a nice article going into more detail about these sites here!
• While this is a bit before my time, I’m pretty sure that ROM hacking predates the Essentials kit, which was first released in 2010. The interest in making fangames has pretty much always existed, and ROM hacking is a tool that’s useful to other fangame communities as well, like people making Mario games, so it seems to me that there must have been a period of time when ROM hacks were pretty much the only kind of fangame out there. And if “fangame” basically meant “ROM hack”, it’d be easy for people to assume the reverse- that “ROM hack” basically meant “fangame”.

These games are Essentials games, not ROM hacks:

• Sage
• Uranium
• Insurgence
• Infinity
• Xenoverse
• Daybreak
• Soulstones
• This Gym of Mine

These games are ROM hacks, not Essentials games:

• Unbound
• Sweet
• Light Platinum
• Brown
• Prism
• Gaia