Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal (Bootleg Translation) [GBC]

8 Comments
Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal (Game Boy Color bootleg translation)Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal (Game Boy Color bootleg translation)Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal (Game Boy Color bootleg translation)
What is this?

This page features some of the raw, uncurated data and files I’ve assembled for Legends of Localization purposes. I’m sharing these resources with the public, as I’m sure others will find them useful in someway, sometime. For convenient viewing, most of the images I’ve gathered can be seen on the following 1 page.

Notes

This archive contains save files and screenshots from Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal, a famous bootleg translation of Pokemon Crystal for the Game Boy Color. Rumor has it that Pokemon Crystal was bootlegged and translated into Chinese, and later on that Chinese translation was translated into English. I believe a cartridge of it was found at a shop in Vietnam or something like that, but I might be wrong. In any case, this is one of the most notoriously bad bootleg translations ever made, so I decided to give it a quick look.

This archive only contains screenshots from the first few parts of the game – I found the game very tedious and the translation rather monotonous as I played. I’m sure there are more gems to be found in the translation, so if anyone feels like getting more screenshots from the game, that’s cool with me!

Technical Info

Full Data Set:Download
Game Covered:Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal (Game Boy Color bootleg translation)
Compiled By:Clyde Mandelin
Compiled With:VisualBoyAdvance-M 1.8.0 (SVN1229)
File Name:pokemon-vietnamese-crystal-data.zip
File Size:757 KB
Created On:12/14/2017 3:09:40 PM
Modified On:12/14/2017 3:09:50 PM
Main Contents:
522.png files
1save file
2save-state files

Image Pages

There are 522 images viewable across 1 page:

Video Playlists

Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal (Game Boy Color bootleg translation)
If you notice anything interesting or noteworthy in this archive, or if you have a question about something you see, post in the comments below!
8 Comments
  1. I’ve told this story a few times, but I’ve held a legit version of this cart – and the friend who got it claimed he brought it from a bootlegger in Australia. Of course, we were kids back then and he was simply amused at the swearing, but still.

  2. the reasoning behind the pokemon names is very interesting

    basically a large number of them is corruption from misreading (han)dakuten marks and inconsistently using japanese and chinese names, as well as format restrictions
    so for example we have HULA for Umbreon, why? Blacky -> Burakki -> Bura -> Hula

    other times curiously though it seems there was a localization attempt somewhere in the middle of the translation chain, with certain evolution lines that seem to come out of nowhere, but are intentionally named in a matching way

    1. Also Elf for Pokémon, because Pokémon was localized as “宠物小精灵” Pet Little Spirit in China, and the word for Spirit (精灵) is also one of the words used to translate Elf. Thus, Pet Little Elf.

      (“Magic Baby” comes from the old Taiwanese localization, “神奇寶貝”. Pokémon is now localized as 精灵宝可梦/精靈寶可夢, keeping the word 精灵. Pokémon Sun & Moon each have two separate Chinese translations, but Pokémon names are identical across both, a rarity in Chinese localizations!)

      Similarly, refrigerator: 冰箱 -> ice box, New Bark Town: Wakaba (Japanese 若葉) Town -> ZH Ruoye (Japanese 若葉) Town… All this mistranslation via Chinese in just the first 15 minutes!

  3. To clarify, I don’t know if this person bought this in Vietnam or what, but it is very obviously based on a Chinese translation of the game. They are called “Little Elfs” in China and some names (Dr. “Wusiji”) and untranslated words (ruoye, caocun) are from Chinese pinyin. No idea why they call it Vietnamese Pokemon as it has none of the trappings of Vietnamese language

  4. bought a copy on ebay for $5, kept it 2 years and sold it for $100.
    it’s korean, not vietnamese and not chinese. Pocket Monsters Green (bootleg green) is a chinese translation.

  5. Hello!I don’t know how to run this.Could anyone give me instructions?

  6. This remind me that bootleg Emerald English version, same as this, Japanese to Chinese then English, so you will see someshow “Tianyuan City” (Mistranslate of Littletoot Town), and made me laugh

  7. This remind me that bootleg Emerald English version, same as this, Japanese to Chinese then English, so you will see somehow “Tianyuan City” (Mistranslate of Littleroot Town to “天元市”), and made me laugh a little.
    I will see this bootleg Crystal has what bad translations.