Did you know that there are many ways to play Pokemon games on PC? Whether you want the classic Fire Red or something completely different like the Pokemon collectible card game, they can be played online.
To learn how to play Pokemon games on PC, you’ll first need to brush up on your DS and Gameboy emulators.
How to install a Pokemon emulator
If you want to play the official Pokemon games, there are two ways you can choose. You can use the Nintendo DS emulator for games from 2006 to 2017, or use the Gameboy emulator for games before 2006.
The choice is yours, so we’ll compile a guide for both options.
How to play Gameboy Pokemon Games on PC
There are two components to playing Pokemon Gameboy on your PC. The first part is an emulator program that can simulate the operating system and the Gameboy software.
The second part is a Pokemon game that can be played on an emulator. To get started, you can start by downloading a good emulator. We would recommend VBA-M – this is the most frequently updated open source code.
After downloading VBA-M, extract the downloaded .zip file to a location you can remember. Then double click to run visualboyadvance-m.exe.
Your emulator will now be ready to play Pokemon. But now you will need to find the correct ROMs online. A ROM is essentially a virtual version of a game that needs to be loaded into the emulator.
If you are interested in the legality of emulator downloads and Nintendo’s stance, you can read about it on their website. You can find loads of ROMs for Pokemon and other Nintendo games in emulator games.
Select the game you want to play and then click Save Game. The ROM will be downloaded to your computer as a .zip file. Do not extract the .zip file.
Then go back to Visualboyadvance-m and click File> Open. Browse to the downloaded .zip file and double-click it to open it. The game will now be launched on the emulator and you can play it freely.
Saving games on the emulator works a little differently. You will not be able to save the game using the built-in save system. Instead, you need to click File> Save State and then select an empty slot.
When you play in the future, you can use File> Loading Status to load the game from where you last saved it.
How to play Nintendo DS Pokemon Games on PC
You can play Nintendo DS Pokemon games on your PC by following the same steps as above. However, you’ll need a Nintendo DS emulator instead. We offer deSmuME, which is the most frequently updated and supported Nintendo DS emulator.
After you have downloaded the emulator, open the DeSmuME.exe file on your computer. The exact filename will depend on your downloaded version. Then go back to Emulator Games and find the DS Pokemon game to download.
After you clicked on the Pokemon game, click the “Save Game” button and wait for it to load.
Then go back to DeSmuME and click File> Open ROM. Browse to the downloaded .zip file and double-click it to open it in DeSmuME.
To save progress as you play, you must click File> Save State and click on an available slot. In the future, use File> Load Status to open previously saved games.
How to play Pokemon games without an emulator
If you prefer to play a Pokemon game on PC that doesn’t require an emulator, you’ll be happy to know that there are many options available. Some are official Nintendo releases, others are third-party games.
Pokemon Trading Card Game – Official
If you like the Pokémon collectible card game, you will also love the online version. In fact, every time you purchase a physical set of Pokemon collectible cards, you get a code card that can also be used to open the set online.
The Pokemon collectible card game features online battles against strangers, friends and AI, and new set collections are released frequently to keep the gameplay and meta interesting.
PokeMMO – unofficial
PokeMMO is a fan-made, unofficial Pokemon multiplayer game that is free to play. You can meet other friends in the world and complete missions together, catch Pokemon and defeat the leaders of the gym. You can also trade Pokémon and fight others.
PokeMMO brings together four different regions and brings together all Pokemon from those regions and uses graphics similar in style to Pokemon Black and White.
Pokemon-Planet – Unofficial
Pokemon-Planet is another fan-made unofficial Pokemon game that you can play online. It has a fan-made world bigger than any other Pokemon game. Hundreds of Pokémon from different regions are included and you can catch, train and develop them just like in the official games. You can create a team in Pokemon-Planet and form a clan of Pokémon trainers and fight others on the network.
Games-emulators – unofficial
The same website we suggested for downloading emulators for Pokemon can also be used to play emulators right from your browser.
Just click on the link above and find the game you want to play. On the game page, click “Play Online”.
The game will load in a small window and you can play it freely. To save your progress, you must click the Download Status button. Keep the saved file safe. In the future, you will need to reopen the emulator on the internet, click on Download Status and select a save file.
With that last suggestion in mind, you now have many options to play Pokemon games on PC.
If you need help or advice on using these emulators or Pokemon games, feel free to leave comments.
–