Video Game / Pokémon Quartz

An extensive hack of Pokemon Ruby, created by Baro.

Quartz takes place in the region of Corna (a heavily-edited version of Hoenn), and requires the player to navigate a very different series of paths during gameplay than in Ruby. All names and graphics of traditional Pokémon are replaced with new characters and creatures, although some of these changes are only cosmetic and don't change learnsets or types.

The game contains profanity and adult themes, which are absent from all official Pokémon games. It also has a great number of spelling and grammatical errors, which mostly result from the hack being translated from Spanish, although the grammar improves throughout the game.

While the best-known bootleg cartridge as played on the actual GBA contains serious glitches and errors, the current patch file release works well with VisualBoyAdvance when applied to a clean image of an authentic Ruby cartridge.

A sequel was in development called Pokémon Marble, but it hasn't been updated since 2008. In 2010, Baro released the most recent build of the hack before he quit in the thread for a Let's Play of Quartz.

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This game provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: While Gyarados and Milotic are badass enough, Quartz changes them respectively into Thundran ^note (Electric/Dragon type, with Levitate {negating its Ground weakness}, the ability to learn many moves, and an absurdly high Attack stat) and Freech ^note (Ice/Dragon typing, has Speed Boost), two of the most powerful Pokémon in Quartz.
• Adults Are Useless: They pretty much handed all the responsibility of calming the chaos gods to the teenage protagonist, one of them even mocking the player character for being a fool despite not having been given a choice in the first place.
• Aerith and Bob:
  • All of the Exorcist-class trainers have names of Chinese or Korean origin, like Sung or Lao. Then you enter the desert and come across "Exorcist Don Jose".
  • It's the other way around among Baro's friends: They all have Spanish names, except for "Kyoufu Kawa", the Lord of Corna Castle.
• Always Someone Better: No matter how hellishly difficult the Gym Leaders are, no matter how weak his blind psychic mouse is, Ramon will always defeat them before the player, until the player reaches Victory Road at least.
• Artificial Stupidity: One of the Ambar Admins sometimes uses Max Revive when none of his Pokémon have fainted yet.
• Artistic License – Engineering: The workman's approach for dealing with an unstable cave floor is gluing it back together.
• Artistic License – Physics:
  • Band Ambar's plan to power up Electric Pokémon by inflating the sun, one of the methods includes using a broken ghost scope. This is even more ridiculous than Team Magma trying to increase landmass by stuffing a volcano with rocket fuel at the center of a region.
  • Plug-Oinks cannot generate energy by jacking their plug tails into their nostrils. They need external energy for that.
  • The X-treme snowboarders can perpetually ski on flat ground and can turn at perfect 90-degree angles.
• Author Avatar: Baro. And it's bizarre even by the standards of this Trope.
• Basement-Dweller: The protagonists live in the basement instead of a floor above the living room as in the main series games.
• Bears Are Bad News: Babos and Osoe, who will try to seduce their opponent despite being ugly as hell.
• Berserk Button: Baro absolutely hates those ¡PUTAS DE SEVER!
• Bland-Name Product: One of the Employees at Mich Dick shipyard says that he's not playing "Mine Seeker".
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The Spanglish.

• Bilingual Bonus: For anything Baro says about the Sever, really. Most of the dialogue can only be truly understood if you mentally untranslate it back to the Spanish it was originally conceived as.
• Bounty...sorry, Reward Hunter: Annie, also the Corna League Champion.
• Carrying the Antidote: Some of the Gym Leaders give away TMs that can counter their type specialties.
  • Betti the Bug gym leader —> Rock Tomb.
  • Nieves the Ice gym leader —> Overheat.
  • Benito the Poison gym leader —> Facade ^note (deals more damage if the user is poisoned/burned/paralyzed).
  • Lorenzo the Grass gym leader —> Aerial Ace.
  • Danny the Dragon gym leader —> Calm Mind ^note (Dragon-type moves are considered Special in Gen III, and Calm Mind boosts the user's Special Attack and Special Defense. You can pretty much wall her if only Calm Mind had been accessible before her fight).
• Cats Are Mean: The Deoxys stand-in Garotao, the God of Chaos.
• Chain of Deals: There are NPCs hidden around Corna that will trade an item you have for another (Lava Cookie>Hell Mushes>Dragon Wing>Dragon Egg>Star Jewel), or in case of the Star Jewel, put the Dragon Egg in the Star Temple. A scientist needs the Star Jewel to hatch an egg containing a Legendary Pokémon Karendi.
• Character Filibuster: Several characters in Pinkranite go out of their way to rant about how bad the school system is and about the dangers of drugs. For no reason whatsoever.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The Imakuni Trainer Class (yes, there are a lot of them), who stand out a lot in contrast to the rest of the population.
• Cluster F-Bomb: All over the place, but especially with your rival.
• Continuity Nod: HM01 is obtained in this game from the same character that gave it to you back in Gen I.
• Cool Shades:
  • Joseph Akira. Too bad he doesn't have the personality to match.
  • Some Pokémon as well, such as the Energiz and Nole lines.
• Crapsack World: Even discounting all the fan-made memes, life in Corna is genuinely pretty crummy. The education system is abysmal and many students leave school when they're 16, arsonists are a common threat, Gym Leader Faustus is free to abuse his position and be evil, and stealing, smuggling, and drug peddling are very common. Characters tend to be pretty rude or actively hostile for no reason.
• Disproportionate Retribution: A Band Ambar Admin says that "I will beat you, I'll punish you, and them I will kill you, asshole kid!" all just because the player insists on thwarting Ambar's moronic schemes.
• Egocentric Team Naming: Band Ambar, where Ambar is Spanish for Amber, the leader of said band.
• Emo: All trainers in the Quartztower Gym, including the Gym Leader herself.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Amber realizes that she cannot mess with the power of Chaos during her Villainous Breakdown.
  Amber: No, it's all my fault, I shouldn't paly with gran forces...
• Failed a Spot Check: One of the cops failed to notice a pet shop is actually a narcotics store of all things.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Several, courtesy of Baro.
• Gender-Blender Name: Danny, the seventh Gym Leader of Corna, is a girl. (Although Danny could be short for Danielle or Daniela.)
• Gonk: The new Pokémon designs could be described as this...except maybe Plug-Oink, which is friggin' adorable.
• Grotesque Gallery: Babos and Osoe are seen and known as the "world's ugliest Pokémon".
• Have a Gay Old Time: Some of Quartz's NPCs use phrases that are... technically correct, but not in common usage, like one defeated Ambar Grunt's reference to their plans being sent to the WC ("water closet", in other words the toilet).
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: A male NPC, while giving the Author Avatar a little too much Character Shilling, adds "(I am still loving women)" after calling him "beautiful."
• Heroic Mime: Averted. Sometimes, "(Player Name):" appears in the text box to show that the Player Character is the one doing the talking.
• Informed Deformity: According to the Pokédex entries, Mongostre (Corna's Armaldo) is supposed to be the ugliest Pokémon to ever exist. Sure it looks monstrous, but there are others who look uglier than it, especially the Babos line.
• Karma Houdini:
  • The Player Character helps a bunch of drug dealers become this, by telling the police officer who happens to be there that it's a pet shop.
  • Amber, despite being responsible for releasing Kaosune to the surface and even felt remorse for doing so. And yet no one is forcing her to be responsible for (read: face said chaos Pokémon) and expects the protagonist to do so instead. (And no, you don't have a choice.)
• Kavorka Man: Babos and Osoe are based on the concept of an ugly guy that women find irresistible.
• Kubrick Stare: Jonic.◊
• Last-Second Word Swap: An NPC in Pinkranite says this...
  Oh! Ms Britney is so beauty! Every time I think of her I have my hands busy... writing letters for her...!
• Leet Lingo: Some of the NPCs, especially the Ambars.
  Ambar Grunt: Shut up lol!
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Move Tutor's name is Dany Warhole, and instead of Heart Scales you give him Campbell cans.

• Obligatory Swearing:
  • "¡PUTAS DE SEVER!"
  • "You won't have a chance against our BOSS, you cocksucker kid!"
  • "Fucking kid! You send my plans down to the WC!"
• Older Than They Look: While Baro changed most if not all the lines in the Pokénav (or rather Pokébae in this game) to suit his characters, he overlooked one, making the transition of the old couple trainer class to a younger couple really obvious. Married for 50 years, indeed.◊
• Optional Boss: Arturo, Leader of the (unofficial) ninth Gym.
• Punny Name: Team Ambar. It's a combination of "Amber", the leader's name, and "Baro".
  • Or maybe he just forgot to translate the name of the team, since amber is ambar in Spanish.
• Really 700 Years Old: Kyoufu Kawa's dialogue in Quartztower Town implies this.
  Kawa: In my early teens (that's fair 300 years ago)...
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: All of the small rounded birds (there are many of them).
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Everywhere. For example, the word heart is constantly referred to as "hearth" for some reason.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the trainers you battle is named Travis, and says "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket◊" and "All the Small Things◊".
  • There's also a Rocker named Anthony, who only quotes Red Hot Chili Peppers lyrics.
  • There's also a Shout-Out to Majora's Mask in the graveyard area: one of the ninjas there says "Master, you called! ... ... What are you?!" when he challenges you; his name is Garo; and after you defeat him and talk again he says "To die without leaving a corpse... That is the way of us Garo." (He doesn't actually disappear, though.)
  • In the area that clearly isn't a hacked version of the route near Meteor Falls, there is a hiker, completely dressed in green, who claims to be an ogre. His name is Shrek.
  • There's also a rather clever one referring to the Mew truck rumor, which in Ultra Quartz: Let's Go Blobbos, initiates a battle with the Mew expy Wiami.
  • A swimmer refers to a "nice turtle rock dungeon".
  • There is a Moleman named "Montgomery". Yes, a Monty Mole.
  • Judoka Ranma can be fought in Mt. Niveous, though her design alludes to Akane Tendo.
• Stalker with a Crush: The opposite-gender rival follows the player around and shamelessly proclaims their love to them.
• Subterranean Jews: The molemen appear to display all the negative stereotypes of Jews.
• Stepford Smiler: The arsonists put up a perpetual smile despite having their index fingers set on fire.
• Suddenly Shouting: A trainer in Danny's Gym.
  "If you get to Danny, you should be prepared, she's hundred times better than me, AND YOU HAVE TO MULTIPLY THAT BY TWO!!!"
• Take That!:
  • An NPC in Seablue wonders how evil is the person who created Pokémon Contests. "Attack to... the air? Show... cuteness? What about PKMN battles?"
  • Baro subtly shows his dislike for Pikachu in one of the Dex entries, calling it the ugliest Pokémon that ever existed.
• Too Dumb to Live: Band Ambar's plot has a few holes in it.
  Ambar: YOU MEAN INFLATING THE SUN MAKES IT HOT OUTSIDE!? AND PEOPLE CAN'T LIVE SO WELL WHEN ITS REALLY HOT OUT AND THERE'S A DROUGHT?!?!
• Too Long; Didn't Dub: At one point, a fisherman gives you a "Volanta (Net)!"
• Totally Radical: Kacho and Vin, being owners of the "sk8" shop and all.
• Updated Re-release: In 2016, this game received an updated version called "Pokemon Ultra Quartz: Let's Go, Blobbos!" which gives you the National Pokedex early, and also includes Blobbos from Pokemon Clover as well as the Deadly Seven from Pokemon Snakewood. In addition, you may also find other Legendary Quartz-mon that weren't in the initial 2006 release. And after beating the game once, you unlock a place called "Sharova Cave", which contains very powerful trainers as well as the Mewtwo parody Zengredse and "Dark Lord Oboma".
• Violation of Common Sense: Yes, you should glue back an unstable floor.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Or upside-down rats in this case. Baro doesn't take Severs' presence well - he's chased by one, and at another point they ransacked his Arale manga collection.

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