For Pokemon fans, catchin'em all has always been pretty lonely. It was always a trainer versus their own copy of the game. When the DS brought battles online, Internet communities sprung up so that people could fight and trade each other. However, players still had to wander a barren environment filled with NPCs and robots. Players will never meet another Pokemon player wandering the wilds of the game, they can’t troll new players with legendaries, and players can’t show off their collections to people. The only people that even see their collections in-game are local Nurse Joys and they lack an the programming to be impressed. A perpetual Pokemon environment was just an impossible dream that began and ended with the programming skill of fans…until Desu, Shu, Squirtle, and Gizmo (all experienced MMO developers) decided to create PokeMMO.
PokeMMO is part ROM hack (Pokemon Red ROM required) and part chat environment. The result is an impressive, ever-changing, and Massively Multi-Player Pokemon game created by fans, for fans. Their list of available Pokemon (based on Generation III) and items grow with each version update. Soon, the legendary Pokemon from Generation III will be released for players to catch.
PokeMMO is one of many groups that have attempted to bring MMO-style play to Pokemon. However, as they say on their front page, "We aren't the first to do this, many have tried, many have failed. We have a plan, sort of. But we intend to stay around for a long time and bring you the best MMO ever, we have nothing better to do."
Development of the PokeMMO began some time in early 2012. The game-makers opened the door to alpha testing via invite in April of 2012. While many of the development details of this game's origins seem sketchy to outsiders, the constant stream of changelogs and improvements certainly make up for it.
On September 16th, public registration for access was closed. However, you can check the development progress and registration possibilities on their forums at www.pokemmo.eu
Development-wise, most of the game’s content is finished. The only things that are truly missing are passive abilities (the term used in the thread is “Ability Support”), warp and door animations, movement animations, and a variety of sounds. Of particular interest to current users is the availability of Elite 4 Pokemon and rare candies and berries. These are not yet implemented but should be coming, “soon.”
Instructions on how to connect to the game are located here.
