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Pokemon GBA Bugs Out, Internal Clock To Blame

Posted by simoniker on from the time-travel-testing dept.

Thanks to 1UP for their article revealing the popular GameBoy Advance titles Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire have a time-unlocked glitch that's just been activated in Japan, since the game has features based on how long it's been played, and Nintendo have discovered there's "...an issue with its internal clock that can disable certain gameplay systems after a year's worth of playtime." Specifically, you can plant trees in-game which "eventually bear fruit, which you then feed to your pet monsters to cause them to evolve in useful and interesting ways." Unfortunately, after a year from the game's start date, "those trees are unable to grow." Nintendo has "...invited Japanese players to bring or send their game cartridges to one of many service centers around the country. The service centers will apply a patch that corrects the issue and return the fixed copy of the game free of charge." Finally, Nintendo of America have commented "The earliest the issue could appear [in the U.S.] is March 2004, which is the one year anniversary of the first sale in North America."

9 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Here we go by Syncdata · · Score: 2, Interesting

    First X box live allows it, and now gameboy games are getting patched. I think it's great that Nintendo is going the extra mile for it's customers, but as soon as console game makers get the idea they can rely on patching, shipping games broken will be as prevelent as on the PC.
    Hooray. At that point, consoles get added to the list of vices i'll be able to cut out of my budget.

    --
    "Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
    1. Re:Here we go by Mighty+Eris · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I doubt that the practice of patching broken games will be that widespread. I imagine that this is going to cost Nintendo a significant amount of money, and that they're mainly just doing it for goodwill. Sure, X-Box live is already starting to cause some issues with that system, but I don't think it's going to become a console-wide problem until every system has a hard drive and internet access standard.

    2. Re:Here we go by Snowmit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      First X box live allows it, and now gameboy games are getting patched. I think it's great that Nintendo is going the extra mile for it's customers, but as soon as console game makers get the idea they can rely on patching, shipping games broken will be as prevelent as on the PC.
      Hooray. At that point, consoles get added to the list of vices i'll be able to cut out of my budget.

      Every time someone talks about this bug or that bug on a console game it seems like people start complaining in the way that you are now complaining. "Oh no, patching will mean that formerly bug free console games will now have bugs. Why oh why are PC game makers so lazy? Blah blah blah."

      Bugs have been with us in consoles for a very long time. Remember Enter the Matrix? It's not alone. SSX Tricky has bluescreened my GameCube, people have already mentioned KOTOR and Crimson Skies, the list goes on.

      And it's not limited to modern games. Bugs have been around for ages, just we called them 'glitchs' and wrote them up in FAQs as cool things that people could explore. Here are a few, to refresh your memory:

      NES Metroid
      On most levels with the doors you shoot to cause them to open you can use a door to climb up many many walls/levels above. Simply shoot the door and stand with the front 1/2 of Samus wedged where the door will reform. After you are partially ''sealed'' by the door just quickly tap up and down on the control pad. You will slowly climb up the wall. It is possible to get stuck while using this trick.

      Super Mario World
      Go to World 1-2. At the pipe that leads to the flag, break two blocks so there's one at the end touching the pipe. Now duck and jump backward toward the brick (don't break it!). You should go through the wall and pipe into a warp zone. Jump down the first pipe you see and you will be in the Negative World (-1)!

      And so on and so on.

      Which brings me to my second point. The reason that there are more bugs on PC games is because there are a lot more ways that things can go wrong. On a console you have one set of hardware and maybe a few different controllers. You have a very small OS and no other programs running.

      PCs have untold billions of possible configurations, countless types of inputs, a very large and complicated (and buggy!) OS competing for RAM and mediating between your program and the hardware and who knows what other programs running in the background. There is no way that you can adequately test for this wide a variety of conditions and it is inevitable that you will run into unexpected problems when you ship the game.

      What have we learned today?
      1) Console games have lots anf lots of bugs. Anyone who says they don't is lying to you or stupid.
      2) PCs have more bugs than consoles because they do not have a unified configuration and there is lots that can go wrong.

      Thanks for coming out.

      --
      I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
  2. I hope... by quandrum · · Score: 4, Interesting

    this problem doesn't appear in March. To play a single game for a substantial portion of a day everday for a year is... yikes.

    How many people can his possibly affect? How much can you do in a video game in a 8,544 hours? It boggles the mind.

    1. Re:I hope... by Guppy06 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "To play a single game for a substantial portion of a day everday for a year is... yikes."

      Um... the internal clock is there so you don't have to play the game every day of the year for the game to know it's been a year since you first set the clock.

  3. Interesting insight to the cartrridge... by stienman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like the cartridge might be flashable, then? If so, it's a cheap way to get a flash cartridge, if we can figure out how to program it.

    Is the real time clock in the cartridge itself? It must be if you can use the game on one gameboy, then resume gameplay on another gameboy. Could make for some interesting hacks.

    -Adam

  4. Postage Paid? by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When my xbox controller died (the right analogue stick thought it was going left all the time) MS covered the postage and it was all handled easily and quickly. I too was expecting it to be somewhat painful, especially as I was within the last month of my warranty, but it ended up showing that customer service can be done right.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  5. Nintendo has always had excellent tech support by dancingmad · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Of course I'm talking about NOA, but every experience I've had with them has led me to believe that the NOA tech people really put the customer first. They'll chat with you about games, etc. and tell you whats up with bugs and things on the line. They even replaced a couple of N64 controllers for me (one with out me even having to send it back!)

    My personal favorite console tech support thing is when Capcom's Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo for the SNES would freeze older SNES machines; they sent me a new model SNES and asked for the old to be shipped back to them, all free of charge for me. I did so and they sent a little token; coins featuring the SF2 characters. It's a cheap little thing, but I was a kid back than and really enjoyed it.

    It's not the same thing, but PC publishers could learn a thing or two from the guys over on the console side.

    --
    "There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
  6. Pokemon Fanatic.... by herrvinny · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Before I start, I have to say that I am a pokemon fanatic (and proud of it too). I own a copy of Ruby, a copy of Sapphire, two Golds, one Crystal, one Silver, one Yellow, Blue, and Red. The wallpaper on all my computers is Pokemon themed, and I'm currently listening to the song "The Game" from the Totally Pokemon music CD.

    Okay, rant mode on.

    As soon as RS (Ruby/Sapphire) were released, I just *knew* there were going to be problems with the internal clock. I mean, how long could that battery last? And now we find out that there is a year limit to the berries? What idiot thought this up, or didn't plan for the eventuality that the game could surpass a year in usage? I have several thousand hours of play on my games (split among all my games, of course). For those of you who don't know, berries are a VERY important part of the game. Berries allow a pokemon to regain health by itself; otherwise, you have to skip a turn in battle to pull a potion out of your pack and apply it. And berries have to be mixed to create PokeBlocks, which up a Pokemon's stats. The PokeBlocks are also necessary in the Safari Zone, where you can't battle pokemon - pokemon to capture a pokemon, you have to throw stones and pokeblocks to entice the pokemon into getting into a pokeball.

    *deep breath*

    Okay, rant mode off