Well guys, the time is here at last. The release of Pokémon: Liquid Crystal Beta 3.1!

Pokémon: Liquid Crystal is a Pokémon: Crystal remake for the Gameboy Advance with a lot of unique features and easter eggs that will have any Pokémon fan hooked for hours at a time. This is a project developed by linkandzelda and myself (Zeikku) and contains 386 obtainable Pokémon which are spread across 3 regions. This isn’t just a physical remake, this game has remastered music (remixed by Magnius) and graphics (created by me) along with amazing features (constructed by linkandzelda).

This article will be a long one as there are quite a lot of things which need to be discussed about the latest beta, such as requirements, changes, known bugs, live beta and all sorts of other things. I know people have been itching all day but all this is important stuff. So let’s begin…

Changes
It’s been a huge while since I released Beta 2.1 on April 2009 so I’m sure everyone is very eager to download the latest version. I can’t list every single change and addition seeing as a lot of stuff has gone into this new beta.

Additions

• Brand new remastered GSC maps
• Remixes Johto, Kanto and Orange Islands music
• New battle music for Rivals
• Physical/Special Class Split for moves
• Raised Pokémon levels for increased difficulty
• Redone move-sets for Rivals and Gym Leaders
• Extra in-game trades for obtaining new Pokémon
• New OWs for Gym Leaders & more
• Day & Night Music – more in the future!
• Loads more new areas to explore
• Vast addition of new Pokémon & Trainer sprites
• Real time Day & Night!
• Enhanced weather system with seasonal weather changes
• Brand new move tutors
• Open ocean to explore
• New scripts, events and secrets to discover
• And much much more!

Fixes

• Fixed typos and script errors
• Added wild Pokémon to all the correct areas (no more “wild ? appeared”)
• Improved text box usage
• Fixed a lot of Bad Eggs
• Fixed battle crashes (Axel, Brendan, Static Etc.)
• Fixed other various crashes
• Fixed the correct Game Corner prizes
• So much more that can’t be listed!

Hopefully this collection of fixes and additions will make your Liquid Crystal experience much better than before.

Bugs, And How to Report Them!
Like all of the previous releases of Liquid Crystal, this one also carries the Beta title. It should be noted that while a lot of bugs have been fixed, created and then fixed there still will be some bugs that have gone undetected.

Known Bugs

• Full list of bugs is available here.
• Other bugs will exist which will not be logged

One thing to note is with the Bad Eggs. While I was able to track a large number of them 2 have gone untracked which appear in Box 2 and Box 4. Please report all Bad Eggs as soon as you see them.

Reporting
So how would you go about reporting these bugs? In the past I accepted bugs like everyone else such as in a PM, on this thread, on YouTube, a Profile message or some other site. Well thanks very much for reporting bugs to me, it’s a great help but those bugs go rather unorganized and have a large chance of being missed. That’s why I’m excited to release a new Bug Reporting system for Liquid Crystal and its bugs.

How does it work?
It’s very simple. Whenever you report a bug you visit http://www.thepkmnworld.co.uk/report where you can log issues in one central system. With this central system you are able to find information on all of the current bugs which are reported by other members and myself. This will help to stop duplicate reports and also for you to keep track of the reports and bugs currently going on. You are able to use the system as a guest so registration is not needed. You get added benefits from registrations such as the ability to subscribe to an issue so you know when it has been fixed.

Feature Requests
Ever wanted to request a feature for a new beta? Got a brilliant idea and want to share it? Well the same system allows you to request a new feature!

But wait, if you subscribe and be notified that I fixed an error, doesn’t that mean I have to wait years for the final Beta? That was the case up until today. I’m pleased to announce another new system which I’ve put in place today!

Live Beta
I’ve been extremely excited about this service for a very long time so it’s great to finally release it. So what is it exactly?

…Live what?

In a nut shell, Live Beta is a system where you can obtain the latest version of the unreleased Liquid Crystal whenever you like. This means you get all exclusive access to the newest additions to the hack, available today.

Cool! Latest LC!
Live Beta goes hand in hand with the new Bug Report system as you can make use of the subscription feature to get updates on the latest fixes. Once I mark an issue as fixed you can simply download the new patch and start playing!

No more major releases?
You might think that because of the Live Beta being the most current version, there will be no more official releases. Well that’s not true, as the Beta you obtain from the Live Beta will be unsupported. This means that the focuses and promoted release is the final Beta 3.1 which is released today. Why is it unsupported? Because although there are new additions to the hack, they might not be in a fully playable state. Although they will fix any other issues you get with the official release and perhaps give you insight on what the additions will be.

Enough Talk, Time To Play!
Well with all of that out of the way, It’s about time to get playing! Before you do you must read this important information before playing!

Emulator Requirements
Due to new hacks performed on the latest version of Liquid Crystal, Flash Carts are unsupported. Also, the emulators required to play the hack is Visual Boy Advance 1.8.0 Beta 3. Other emulators such as Gpsp and Gameboid are currently semi supported, and I’m working on adding full support for these emulators. I prepared a pack which includes ticked options for playing the latest version of Liquid Crystal. This can be obtained here and at the end of the post.

Downloads
It’s about time to release this. I really hope you read this post as if you didn’t, then please read now before downloading.

Beta 3.1 – Live Beta
Available for download here.

Bug Report System
Bugs can be reported over here.

Visual Boy Advance Prepared
This can be obtained over here.

Well, Merry Christmas to everyone and enjoy the latest release. Let’s hope this one works out unlike the previous releases. Any problems with the download of anything then let me know, I’ll fix it up.

Oh, and as I promised today is December 25th 2011, 23:24 .