Bricker Jr, age 6, has suddenly discovered Pokemon. Neither my wife or I have been any kind of console gamers (or computer gamers at all, really) but in a short period of time we have been convinced to procure, in chronological order:
[ul]
[li]A used Gamecube [/li][li]Pokemon Colosseum for Gamecube[/li][li]Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness for Gamecube[/li][li]A Nintendo DS Lite[/li][li]Pokemon Diamond for DS [/li][li]Pokemon Emerald for Game Boy Advance (playable on DS)[/li][li]Pokemon Leaf Green for GBA[/li][/ul]
Now he’s heard tell that Pokemon in some of these venues can be traded to other venues. He’s already used the DS to connect to the house WiFi and trade with the world at large. But he wants to trade his own Pokemon between platforms.
Partial answer–Pokemon can be moved from the GBA versions to the DS versions (but not vice versa). This is done by having both packs in the system at the same time–the manual for Diamond will have a full explanation of how to do this.
You may be able to copy/share between the GBA versions and the GC versions, but I don’t actually have any of them to be sure. However, you’d probably have to find yourself a used GBA to do so.
Getting a GBA (the original version should be hella cheap to aquire by now, with the GBA SP and DS out) is the minimum to trade between Emerald and Leaf Green as well. I ASSUME that the DS running one of them can trade with the GBA running the other, but as I, as yet, don’t have one, I can’t be sure.
There’s some transfer between Diamond and Emerald (or was it Pearl…) and Pokemon Revolution for the Wii. In fact, you can have my copy of revolution cause I don’t care for it.
As stated earlier, the GameCube and GBA use a cable to transfer between games, while the DS (and Wii) use Wi-Fi.
Transfers that are possible:
GBA games to DS (i.e. Emerald or LeafGreen to Diamond)
Requires a single DS.
Transfers are one-way. From GBA->DS. In other words, you can transfer from Emerald/LeafGreen to Diamond, but you can’t go the other direction. Once the Pokemon is in Diamond, it is no longer available or visible in Emerald[ol]
[li]Insert both game cartidges into the DS[/li][li]Launch Diamond[/li][li]One of the start-up options will be “Migrate from Emerald”. Select this[/li][li]You will then be asked to select 6 Pokemon from Emerald. After you are done, the game will go back to the Diamond start-up screen.[/li][li]Pick “Continue” to continue in Diamond.[/li][li]In game- go to Pal Park. The guy at the desk will give you 6 Park Balls. Enter Pal Park, walk and surf around until you find all 6 Pokemon. As you find them capture them with the Park Balls. [/li][/ol]
One big caveat: You need to have completed the main part of the game and obtained the National Pokedex before Pal Park is unlocked. If Pal Park is locked, you can’t do any transfers.
GBA<->GBA. (i.e. Emerald<->Leaf Green)
Requires 2 GBA units and a Cable.
Similar to trading between Diamond and Pearl, just using a physical cable instead of a Wi-Fi connection.
GameCube->DS
As far as I know, it can’t be done.
GameCube<->GBA.
Requires a cable to connect the GBA and the GameCube. The “Pokemon XD” manual goes into detail on how to do it. I don’t have a GBA, so I’ve never tried to do it, but they claim you can go back and forth.
Not out of the box, but there is a wireless adapter - fairly cheap, even new, and compatable with the Pokemon games. I have no idea if the DS is compatable with it, however - the Compatability section of the DS article at wikipedia only talks about the link cables, but the wireless adapter is a different beast.