flowchart LR A["Sonic 3D Blast 5 (GB, circa 1998)"] --> B["Sonic Adventure 7 (GBC, 1999)"] B --> C["Pokémon Jade: Special Pikachu Edition (circa 2001)"] D["Pokémon Gold Version 2 / Pokémon Adventure (circa 2000)"] --> C D -. "Reported source of Pikachu player graphics" .-> C style A fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#2563eb,stroke-width:2px,color:#000000 style B fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#2563eb,stroke-width:2px,color:#000000 style C fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#16a34a,stroke-width:3px,color:#000000 style D fill:#fef3c7,stroke:#d97706,stroke-width:2px,color:#000000
Pokémon Jade (Special Pikachu Edition): Background Report
Distinguishing the namesake bootleg, tracing its origins, content, variants, preservation, and emulation
TipSummary
This game is not the unofficial English translation of Keitai Denjū Telefang commonly called “Pokémon Jade.” It is an unlicensed side-scrolling action game for Game Boy Color, reportedly circulated around 2001, that recasts an earlier Makon Soft title in the Sonic Adventure 7 line with Pikachu as its protagonist.
Surviving sources generally attribute development to Makon Soft, distribution of the English and Chinese versions to Ka Sheng (卡聖), product number GA098 to the English version, and GA099 to the Chinese version. Because this was an unofficial product, however, its exact release date, company locations, and the regions and order in which its language versions appeared cannot be established.
The English version is known to crash when the player touches the goal sign in Stage 1, preventing normal progress. Other language versions probably contain a related defect, but that has not been established. The same failure was reproduced in the ROM analyzed by this repository, and the cause and a correction that reaches Stage 2 were verified separately.
1. Identifying the subject
Another game uses the same name
At least two different games are known as Pokémon Jade.
| Common name | Actual basis | Genre | Subject of this report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon Jade | Unofficial translation and modification of Keitai Denjū Telefang: Speed Version | Monster-collecting RPG | No |
| Pokémon Jade Special Pikachu Edition | Reworking of a Sonic Adventure 7-family game | Side-scrolling action | Yes |
The confusion remains common. Search results and game databases sometimes describe Special Pikachu Edition as the Telefang-derived RPG. The easiest signs are the words Special Pikachu Edition in the title, side-scrolling gameplay, and descriptions of five stages. Handheld Underground explicitly distinguishes the two, while Data Crystal’s Telefang documentation records that the other Jade derives from Telefang: Speed Version.
ROM analyzed by this repository
Direct local inspection of the target ROM produced the following observations. These identify the particular image studied here and are not merely general claims collected online.
| Item | Observed value |
|---|---|
| File size | 524,288 bytes (512 KiB) |
| SHA-256 | 0E90D7659339A1F52C733BDC2B502D033E1C4C4004F761B6C539B236FA7FDD45 |
| Internal ROM title | POKEMONPLATINUM |
| CGB flag | 80 (Game Boy Color compatible) |
| Cartridge type in header | 01 (MBC1) |
| ROM-size code | 04 (512 KiB) |
| External-RAM-size code | 00 (none) |
| New licensee code | GC |
| Identification in mGBA 0.10.3 | GB_UNL_NT_NEW |
The mismatch between the internal title and the displayed product name, and the fact that the standard MBC1 declaration cannot explain the actual bank switching, illustrate why an unlicensed cartridge header cannot always be taken at face value. None of the online sources checked for this report explains the origin of the internal name POKEMONPLATINUM; it remains unresolved.
2. Basic information
| Item | Current assessment | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Displayed English title | Pokémon Jade Version: Special Pikachu Edition | High |
| Platform | Game Boy Color | High |
| Genre | Single-player side-scrolling action/platformer | High |
| Date | Multiple sources say 2001; month and day unknown | Medium to high |
| Developer | Preservation communities attribute it to Makon Soft | Medium to high |
| Publisher/distributor | Often attributed to Ka Sheng for English and Chinese versions | Medium |
| English product number | GA098 | Medium to high |
| Chinese product number | GA099 | Medium to high |
| Number of stages | 5 | High |
| Official license | None | High |
The approximate 2001 date, Makon attribution, and unlicensed status broadly agree across the TOSEC-derived index, MAME Game Boy Color software list, and specialist community Handheld Underground. Product numbers and variants can be compared in the BootlegGames Wiki article on the Sonic 3D Blast 5 family and the physical-item database VGCollect.
Regional information does not agree. The MAME list classifies the title under China, while TOSEC-derived filenames use a US tag. These are later cataloging judgments based on cartridges, boxes, and dumps, not official release records. This report therefore avoids claims such as an “official North American release.”
3. Origins and game lineage
The available evidence is best explained by treating this game not as an entirely new work, but as one branch of an action-game framework repeatedly reused by Makon Soft.
According to the BootlegGames Wiki lineage article, the underlying Sonic 3D Blast 5 was an unlicensed Game Boy title made by Makon Soft around 1998, and Sonic Adventure 7 was its colorized, modified successor. Pokémon Jade further changes the palette, music, protagonist and enemy graphics, introduction, and title screen.
Its Pikachu retains Sonic’s tall proportions and movement. It is reported to reuse Pikachu graphics from Pokémon Adventure or Pokémon Gold Version 2. Recently extracted player graphics likewise show their role as replacements for Sonic-family animations.
The music also appears to be reused in full from Sonic Adventure 7 (reference).
NoteMusic correspondence
The soundtrack of Pokémon Jade: Special Pikachu Edition is described as rearranging music from Sonic Adventure 7. Much of that game’s music is, in turn, said to be very loosely based on music from the 1997 Windows release Sonic & Knuckles Collection.1
Direct listening suggests that some melodies and structures differ greatly from their proposed sources. They may have been extensively reconstructed by ear or through a similar process.
| Pokémon Jade Special Pikachu Edition | Sonic Adventure 7 | Proposed source |
|---|---|---|
| Title Theme | Title Theme | Carnival Night Zone, Act 2 (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, PC) |
| Stage 1 | Stage 5 | File Select (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, PC) |
| Stages 2 & 5 | Stages 1 & 3 | Launch Base Zone, Act 1 (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, PC); the correspondence was not clear to the author |
| Stage 3 | Stage 2 | Sky Sanctuary Zone, Act 1 (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, PC) |
| Stage 4 | Stage 4 | Launch Base Zone, Act 1 (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, PC) |
| Death & Game Over | Death & Game Over | Game Over (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, PC) |
| Ending | Ending | Ice Cap (Sonic the Hedgehog 3, PC) / Title Theme (Sonic 3, Mega Drive/Genesis), though the author could not confirm the relationship clearly |
A sister title, Pokémon Diamond: Special Pikachu Edition, also appeared around 2001. Diamond, however, is based on Super Mario Special 3 and is not a paired version of the same game as Jade. The two share an introductory sequence and both fail to progress normally from their first stage, suggesting they may have been paired mainly in their product names. Bulbapedia’s bootleg overview and Handheld Underground record this relationship.
4. Game content
Introductory story
The box and in-game introduction describe Pikachu and friends exploring a mysterious forest when they encounter a severe storm, then trying to escape while rescuing affected Pokémon. The English box text is transcribed by VGCollect.
Rather than being written for this game, the text was very likely taken from marketing copy for a commercial VCD of the short animation Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure. In particular, the opening of YesAsia’s surviving VCD description matches the box, and the short itself contains a forest, a storm, and the rescue of friends. Specialist communities have also pointed out this source.
The stages do not concretely enact that story. They combine existing Sonic-family levels with Pokémon-like graphics. The introduction seems intended more to make the product resemble a Pokémon work than to describe its gameplay.
Characteristics of play
- It is a horizontal platform action game centered on jumping over enemies and across platforms.
- Five stages have been identified, and extracted backgrounds, enemies, items, and HUD graphics are cataloged by The Spriters Resource.
- The initially selected stage is extremely difficult and requires precise jumps. Some ledges appear to require luring a polygonal enemy into position and bouncing on it as a stepping stone.
- Although it uses a Sonic-family base, horizontal control during ascent is reported to be more forgiving than in earlier versions.
- Level layout, collision, and platform behavior display the instability typical of Makon-family engines. An engine overview lists disappearing moving platforms, falling through floors, and malfunctioning end objects across related games. Falling through a floor often prevents further progress and usually requires losing a life to reset the situation.
The game’s Pokémon identity lies mainly in its product name, introductory imagery, protagonist, enemies, and items. It has none of the capture, training, or turn-based battles of the official series.
5. Known language versions and physical packaging
At least three language versions survive and have reportedly been dumped.
| Language | Name | Known information |
|---|---|---|
| English | Pokémon Jade Version: Special Pikachu Edition | Product number GA098; physical examples in both a black GB-style shell and a translucent green GBC-style shell; target of this repository |
| Chinese | 寵物小精靈－翡翠版 / Chong Wu Xiao Jing Ling - Feicui Ban | Product number GA099 |
| Spanish | Pokémon - La Versión Esmeralda: Special Pikachu Edition | Uses a product name equivalent to “Emerald” rather than “Jade” |
The variant lists on BootlegGames Wiki and The Spriters Resource agree. Photographs are known of English cartridges with black and translucent green shells, but their boards and ROM contents need not always be identical. The author’s copy has a black shell; see the 3D Cartridge Viewer.
Unlicensed products may be reissued, reshelled by other sellers, or included on multicarts, so a label or shell alone is not a reliable way to identify a version.
Reports about the Spanish version’s circulation and rarity come primarily from owners. No reliable production or sales figures were found. Its market description as “rare” cannot currently be quantified, although it is the least documented of the three versions.
6. Crash at the end of Stage 1
Previously documented behavior
When publishing the dump in 2018, Handheld Underground recorded that touching the sign at the end of Stage 1 crashes the game and prevents normal progress. It also described a workaround for viewing later stages: change RAM address C27D to 01 through 04 to select Stages 2 through 5 directly.
Bulbapedia and several bootleg references likewise agree that the game crashes after the first level and cannot normally be completed. The failure is therefore best understood as a program defect in at least the known English version, rather than merely a damaged dump or an ordinary-emulator problem.
New findings in this repository
This repository reproduced the crash in mGBA 0.10.3 and traced the stage-ending path both statically and dynamically. The value supplied to a second call into another bank was found to be corrupted, sending execution into a non-code region. A ROM that changes the call condition to DE=1400 transitioned normally from Stage 1 to Stage 2.
This advances the prior online record—which identified where the crash appeared and how to view later stages by changing a level number—by providing an instruction-level cause and a correction condition for the specific target ROM. See Investigating and Correcting the Stage-Transition Crash.
Transitions from Stage 1 through Stage 5 and the ending screen have now been checked dynamically. The ending screen is not included in The Spriters Resource and may not previously have been documented.
7. Emulation and preservation
Unusual mapper
The standard header makes this ROM look like MBC1, but the game actually requires NT/Makon-family bank switching. Treating it as normal MBC1 exposes incorrect ROM regions as code and can cause corrupted graphics or crashes. It therefore cannot start correctly in an emulator that lacks the appropriate mapper.
WarningThis does not work in a typical Game Boy emulator
Within the scope of this repository, use hhugboy or mGBA, both of which support NT-new. A mapper is cartridge-side logic that selects which portion of a larger ROM the CPU can see. An emulator unaware of NT-new relies on the header and treats the image as standard MBC1, so it cannot expose the regions requested by the game.
The corrected ROM’s stage transitions were verified in mGBA 0.10.3. hhugboy supports NT-new, but this corrected build has not yet received a full verification run there.
hhugboy added NT new support for later standalone Makon cartridges in version 1.2.5. A GBX image can select the mapper automatically from appended metadata; documentation for raw ROMs describes manually choosing the “NT (Makon) new” compatibility mode. GBX is a preservation format whose footer retains mapper information lost from a raw ROM alone.
mGBA’s official README also lists NT new (an unlicensed MBC5-like mapper) and a Pokémon Jade/Diamond mapper among its supported Game Boy mappers. The distinction matters:
- Special Pikachu Edition, the subject here: NT-new family
- Protected original images of the Telefang-derived Pokémon Jade/Diamond translations: dedicated Pokémon Jade/Diamond family
Sharing the name Jade does not mean the two require the same compatibility mode.
Role as preservation material
The MAME software list includes the game as pkmnjspe. MAME 0.250 records its promotion to working status alongside new support for NT/Makon cartridges in 2022. This is not recognition as an official product; it means that the physical item, its dump, and its unusual hardware behavior have been cataloged for preservation.
ROM distribution sites exist, but this report does not provide acquisition sources. Downloading an unauthorized ROM may infringe copyright and may be unlawful depending on jurisdiction, so this report strongly recommends against it. Preservation and verification records should store the hash, size, language, shell and board details, mapper type, and dumping method separately from the ROM itself.
8. Confidence and unresolved questions
Relatively well supported
- Special Pikachu Edition is a different game from the Telefang-derived Jade.
- It is a five-stage, side-scrolling Game Boy Color action game.
- It uses programs and levels from the Sonic Adventure 7 family as a base.
- English, Chinese, and Spanish versions have been reported and preserved.
- The English version crashes at the end of Stage 1 and cannot progress normally.
- Emulation requires an unusual NT-new-family mapper.
Plausible, but not supported by official records
- Attribution to developer Makon Soft and distributor Ka Sheng.
- A 2001 release date.
- Consistent use of GA098 and GA099 as product numbers for the respective versions.
- The exact earlier work and process from which each graphic, music track, and piece of code was reused.
Unresolved
- Exact release date, first country or region of sale, distribution channels, and production quantity.
- Contractual or organizational relationships among Makon Soft, NT, and Ka Sheng.
- Origin of the internal ROM title
POKEMONPLATINUM. - Whether all three known language versions have the same underlying crash.
- ROM differences among black-shell, translucent-green-shell, reissued, and multicart versions.
- Effectiveness of the stage-transition correction on physical hardware and completeness of later stages.
9. Summary
Pokémon Jade (Special Pikachu Edition) is less an unofficial Pokémon RPG than a record of engine, level, graphic, and product-name reuse in the East Asian unlicensed Game Boy market of the late 1990s and early 2000s. It layers a Pokémon appearance and a story apparently drawn from Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure over a Sonic-family action game, while also approaching the recognition of the Telefang translation that shares its name.
Its quality is poor, and the product as released cannot progress beyond its first stage. Yet its manner of failure, unusual mapper, language and shell variants, and eventual emulator support make it a particularly information-rich case for studying bootleg game production, circulation, and preservation.
Sources and their use
| Source | Primary use | Treatment in this report |
|---|---|---|
| Handheld Underground: Makon Crapstravaganza 2018 Part 2 | Dump history, lineage, crash, direct level selection, mapper | Given significant weight as a specialist preservation and hardware-test record |
| hhugboy official repository | NT new, GBX, unlicensed mapper support | Treated as a primary implementation source |
| mGBA official repository | Supported mappers, debugger, patch functions | Treated as a primary implementation source |
| MAME gbcolor.xml | Date, publisher, preservation-set identification | Consulted as a preservation database, not an official release record |
| BootlegGames Wiki: Sonic 3D Blast 5 | Makon lineage, languages, product numbers, packaging | Specialist-community compilation; not used alone for definitive claims |
| Bulbapedia: Bootleg | Distinguishing namesakes, overview, sister title | Used as a secondary cross-check |
| VGCollect: GA098 | Physical images, product number, box text | Collector database used for packaging and transcription |
| The Spriters Resource | Five stages, graphics, language-specific names | Used to confirm the existence of extracted material |
| YesAsia: Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure VCD | Comparison for source of box text | Used as a surviving sales record showing the same wording |
Footnotes
BootlegGames Wiki, “Sonic 3D Blast 5 (Game Boy)”, “Sonic Adventure 7” section.↩︎