Welcome to Ecruteak Forest, a project I've been wanting to do for years. Originally, I was going to focus only on Pokémon bootleg cartridges, but as I've worked on it, I've expanded into fun Pokémon things I want to document and talk about.

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Even when I was younger, there was a certain bizare allure to bootleg cartridges. Of course, back then I didn't realize that some of the more common ones, like Pokémon Naranja or Frigo Returns, where actually just fan-made ROM hacks which were added onto a cartridge and sold to unsuspecting parents and grandparents as legitimate games. The first time I personally came into contact with a bootleg Pokémon cartridge, was a copy of Pokémon Green in English, owned by my cousin. Even back then I knew the history of Pokémon Green, how the game we got here in the west was more akin to the Japanese Pokémon Blue so it immediately struck me as a curiosity.

I later found more information from communities and fansites such as TRsRockin and GameFAQs, and the bootleg that sparked my original major interest was perhaps one of the most well-known Pokémon bootlegs; "Pokémon Diamond" and "Pokémon Jade", the unofficial English translation of Keitai Denjuu Telefang (携帯電獣テレファング) for the Gameboy Color.

Click for Image Alt Text

Six images displaying six cartridges of "editions" of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Jade. The top two images are multi-carts. The left image reads "For GAME Color Advance" "S02E14-1" "Pokémon Gotta catch em all!" "GB 2 IN 1 GB" "Diamond Version + Jade Version" - the game is in a bright yellow plastic Gameboy cartridge. The right image reads "Pokémon Gotta catch em all!" "GB" "Jade Version" "Diamond Jade 2 IN 1 UC-2W02" "Pokémon Gotta catch em all! GB Diamond Version" "Only for Gameboy Color" and "CGB-BK2E USA" - the game is in a grey plastic Gameboy cartridge.

The left middle image displays a grey cartridge of Pokémon Jade reading "Pokémon Gotta catch em all!" "GB" "Jade Version" and "DMG-AAUE USA". The right middle image displays a black cartridge of Pokémon Jade reading "Pokémon Gotta catch em all!" "GB" "Jade Version" and "DMG-AAUE USA".

The left bottom image displays a grey cartridge of Pokémon Diamond reading "Pokémon Gotta catch em all" "2002" "Diamante VERSION" and "CGB-BDVE-USA". The right bottom image displays a grey cartridge of Pokémon Diamond reading "Pokémon POCKET MONSTERS" "Diamond" and "CGB-ABDF-USA".

On the Bootlegs section of this website, I hope to catalog interesting and significant bootlegs from the history of the Pokémon games.

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01.02.2024

Bootlog Section Updated, Stamps Added

25.01.2024

Bootlog Section Added

24.12.2023

Art Page Added

04.11.2023

Shiny Oddities - Gamecube page added

02.11.2023

Viet Crystal page added

01.11.2023

Index completed

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