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GBA

Bug in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

by Steven Rodriguez - December 6, 2003, 1:44 pm EST
Total comments: 6 Source: Nintendo Japan

It's only in the Japanese version so far, but a bug's a bug. UPDATE: North American copies will be affected too.

Japanese gamers who have had the GBA Pokémon games since their launch last year are just now starting to find a bug that is screwing with how the game works.

Apparently, the internal clocks in the cartridges are on the fritz, and they are affecting time-lapse and other time-sensitive events in the game. This bug only seems to pop up in copies of the games that have been out for a year, but it's nothing so serious that corrupts or erases saved games.

NCL is willing to fix the problem for free, of course. It's not known yet if this problem exists in the English versions of the game (since the game hasn't been out a year yet), so there shouldn't be too much to worry about until next March, a year after the game has been out over here.

Update: Game Informer Online has reported on this story with an official comment from Nintendo of America. The company confirms that this bug will also affect the North American version of the game at the one year anniversary of its release, which will be in March. NOA has not announced any sort of recall as in Japan, but there may be action taken in the spring.

Talkback

PPNSteveDecember 07, 2003

Man I hope this bug doesn't effect the game play too much... I have some users reporting that this bug is affecting the US versions and that Nintendo will replace the game for $10.00 USD
Nothing was said if your saves will be transfered or not.. I will update this reply as i get more comments from my users.

GaimeGuyDecember 07, 2003

The bug just makes it so that you can no longer get berries from trees or buy lotto tickets.

joshnickersonDecember 07, 2003

Hmmm, no more berries, eh? I better start planting and harvesting some like mad then...

And ten bucks to replace it? Hell! I would expect Nintendo to transfer our data onto new carts for FREE buddy.

I'm not too worried though. I never bought lotto tickets and Berries are basically just free versions of potions and medicine you can buy in Poke-Marts. If worse comes to worse, I guess some folks could just "'Shark" some berries into their games.

Actually, I've yet to finish my copy of Sapphire after Stephen whooped my behind the last time I played... I guess I need to get on that... after I finish Mario and Luigi of course ^_^

KlapauciusDecember 08, 2003

Will the bug affect European/UK versions of the game??

I'm worried, because I live in the UK.
If it is affected, It won't happen until August, as that's when the game was released here.

-Klapaucius

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusDecember 08, 2003

I never managed to play the game often enough to keep berry trees alive in the first place.

nitsu niflheimDecember 08, 2003

growing berries was too much work for what you got. I didn't use berries all that much, not after I starting getting money and could buy potions and other stuff without using all my money.

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