SRAM glitch
The SRAM glitch, also known as Save corruption glitch and Save abuse glitch, is a glitch that allows the player to perform the send party Pokémon to a new game or 255 Pokémon glitch as soon as they are in their room.
Keep in mind when attempting this glitch, the timing is very precise (a handful of frames, ie less than a quarter of a second), so emulators and savestates are privileged.
The principle of the glitch is :
- Start a New game
- Play as much as you wish, without saving
- Begin to save the game
- At a very precise moment, power off / reset the console. The timing is version-dependent, making the glitch easier on Pokémon Yellow.
The cue is to power off / reset after the "Yes/No" dialog box has disappeared, but before the text changes to "Saving..."
Holding START+SELECT+A+B will not work, as the game prevents soft resets while it is saving.
In Pokémon Red and Blue, the window of opportunity is a few frames only, located right after the box disappears, making the glitch rely more on luck than on timing.
In Pokémon Yellow, there are more frames where the glitch will be successful, and the window is further away from the Yes/No box disappearing, making the glitch more viable on console.
The easiest glitch to perform is the 255 Pokémon glitch ; you need to have no save file, then perform the SRAM glitch. If a save file exists (a Continue option exists), go to the title screen (not the where the Continue/New Game/Option menu is present) by pressing B if you are in the menu, hold Select and Down, and press B. The game will prompt you to erase the currently present save file. Accept, and perform the aforementioned steps.
The send party Pokémon to a new game glitch has the only difference that you have to start a new game while a save file from which you wish to import your Pokémon present. However, failing the glitch may render the file unattainable ; if the save file is marked as "destroyed", the glitch still has a slight chance to work if attempted again.
If the glitch was successful, a Continue option will be present when the game is started again, and the player will be able to access their Pokémon screen. In the case of the 255 Pokémon glitch, the screen will look like it is blank.
There are two ways the glitch can fail : either when rebooting the game the message "the save file is destroyed !" will appear (the reset happened too early) which will remove the Continue option, or a Continue option will appear but the Pokémon screen cannot be accessed (the reset was too late). Attempting the glitch is still possible.