After three long months, I have a NEW documentary premiering today - my first video since the Blastoise rescue! Here's a link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/lah0ds-rrduRmKM.html

The fact that harry is being helped by someone named gary whilst being spectated by his friend named bill is hilarious to me.

This guy just bought a plane ticket and flew all the way to north carolina, just to save his lil' pokemon. this is love. this is true love.

It’s me, Nintendo. I must say, everyone involved in the making of this video have demonstrated great resiliency and dedication for the preservation to our franchise. It is CLEAR our games have touched your hearts in a very deep and meaningful way. We will be sending you a cease and desist letter. Cut that shit out.

The true icing on the cake here was that, in the end, Hydro Cannon on the Blastoise had 7 pp, not the base 5. So the game recognized this as the EXACT pokemon he had used the items on so many years ago. absolutely incredible

can we also talk about how lucky it is that gary, potentially the only person on the entire planet who could pull this kind of feat off within the available timeframe, was extremely personable and friendly, and willing to drop everything to invest his full effort into carrying the entire process? not to mention the program he just happened to have sitting around on his desktop from six years ago that ended up being instrumental. what an absolute legend

From a software engineer to another, Gary went absolutely NUTS. His level of knowledge on such an obscure topic and his reverse engineering process was brilliant AND he had every technical skill needed for the job. You can only reach that level when you’re truly passionate about something and he was above and beyond dedicated. Shouts out to my man

Midway through, I was thinking it was going to be a little sketchy. However, the fact that there is only one EV/IV combination possible means that this is the exact clone of his Pokémon. They gathered the data from original hardware, which essentially makes it his original Pokémon. I'm so happy with the solution that I almost cried.

I ve studied engineering and met people in the level of gary, at the very first instant he told you that "maybe" it was possible, I knew what was coming, people like him are really inspiring!

It's just so poetically fitting that a water pokemon would be saved by initially dabbing water on the cartridge itself.

It doesn't even feel like the Blastoise was cloned. It feels like the Blastoise had lost its physical form and only the soul of it remained. Through this process, they gave Blastoise its body back. Now the Blastoise can continue the adventure she shared with Harrison 15 years ago.

It is nearly 1am. This was genuinely more gripping than anything on Netflix. Hearty well done to everyone involved.

i love the tiny clip put in for "yeah, you can turn pokemon into eggs." there was no point in putting such a goofy visual, which makes me love it.

Gary is the kind of person who'd work for a software company, be the only guy who knows how the company's 60-year-old mission-critical hardware works, and be impossible for them to lay off because the company would collapse.

This video was great, but the cloning discussion sequence was an absolute masterpiece

Gary is so knowledgeable and so cool, I genuinely want to reach out and be his friend and just watch and learn about all this stuff he knows about. I feel lile I could listen and watch forever.

"A successful dump on your hands" Interesting choice of words.

As a student programmer, the concepts are one thing I understand, but to actually apply it to someone's life, even having others know that recovering data like this is incredible. Props to you, Gary, and the Gen III programmers who documented and learned GBA programming to let dreams continue. Cheers!

I love how Gary just happened to have written the right tools for the job years ago

GARY YOU ARE A LIVING LEGEND! I have not be this amazed and utterly blown away by the ability by someone in so long, mad respect to Gary

Just got to the water part- and let me tell you. That little dab won’t do JACK to that cartridge. My neice accidentally sent her Pokémon Emerald through a whole ass wash and dryer session and it came out shockingly ok. The sticker was dead. But the files and gameplay were entirely unaffected. Edit: I won’t even lie that I legit burst into tears when they touched on the IV data… the last bits that “didn’t matter”. Those bits turned out to be pivotal to bringing her back. That’s her. That’s not just a clone. Not just a copy- this was on her home cartridge. All her data was collected from imprints of her world- and then you fused her into the bad egg. You gave her a new body. THIS IS HER. THEY BROUGHT HER HOME.

Honestly Gary's skills in his craft were nothing short of astounding. What an incredible individual and he seems like such a brilliant person! Fantastic video as always, I love to watch these journeys from start to finish!

I fucking broke down crying when Gary said “I FOUND IT”. He’s a genuine sense of accomplishment from helping Harrison. He bashed his head against the wall all day to do something most would consider futile, frivolous. We need more peeps like Gary

My friend recommended me this video, that was an hour well spent. A guy who take a day off to another states to save his childhood Pokemon. A guy who would like to support and spectate how his friend rescue his childhood Pokemon. A guy who put in so much time to prepare and make this video possible and good. A guy who is so passionate in Pokemon and software, he can troubleshoot all the unsolvable problems in Gen3.

I actually had a very similar experience to this. I was born in 2001, so I didn't grow up when the GBA was new, but as a kid, I LOVED retro games, especially handhelds. For Christmas one year, my mom got me Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire for the GBA. She didn't know at the time, but they were cheap reproductions that you see everywhere. I didn’t care, I was just happy to have Pokemon on my GBA. I got REALLY attached to my Emerald save. I named all my Pokemon and got really attached to them too. My favorite was my female Torchic named Sriracha. I had played Pokemon games before, and I’ve played Pokemon games since, but I’ve NEVER gotten more attached to a Pokemon than I did with Sriracha. This was also during one summer vacation where I pretty much lived with my grandparents (the air conditioner at my parents house broke), who were very important parts of my life. My grandfather was a mechanic and very good with his hands, and he actually helped me swap the shell on my GBA and solder in a rechargeable battery. He even helped me modify the battery compartment so the rechargeable battery would fit. This is all to say, I had a lot of memories attached to that save. One day, when I turned off my GBA, the screen weirdly flickered. I had a bad feeling, and when I turned it back on, I got nothing. The Gameboy Advance logo would appear, and the Nintendo logo would appear, meaning the cartridge was able to be read, but then it would fade to a white screen, and that was it. I tried EVERYTHING. Different consoles, different batteries, wall power, etc. Nothing ever changed. I even dumped the ROM and SAV file, but the ROM acted just like the cartridge, and the SAV just wasn’t working with other ROM's from the internet. For years, that was it. I had given up. But then on June 8th 2023, while doing something completely unrelated online, I stumbled across a tool that could extract a save file from a bootleg Pokemon GBA ROM. Apparently, the way those bootlegs work is that they save directly to the ROM itself. I didn’t believe it until I dumped one of my other bootlegs, and I booted it up in an emulator to see my save data, even without having dumped the SAV file. Since my Emerald game couldn’t get past that white screen, I doubted the dump was even good. I was very worried this save extractor wouldn’t work. This final hail Mary, this seemingly silver bullet perfectly tailored to my issue, and there was a very real possibility it wouldn't work. To my surprise, it worked perfectly, and after all these years, I had my Sriracha back, as well as the rest of my team. It was a really emotional experience for me, and now all of those Pokemon are safe on my laptop.

The fact that Gary was not only leagues beyond overqualified, but the one, lone, necessary thread to figuring this out is mind-melting. It could ONLY be Gary, and you found him.

As a guy who wants to be a Computer Scientist,Gary is now my newest role model

I cried, like literal tears, this is so incredibly wholesome I can't!!! Thank you for helping us heal our save file Pokémon wounds!

I love how his friend’s name is Bill and Bill’s experiments mostly failed like him turning into a pokemon. However his failings were also salvageable.

Gary could shut down a whole nation with his skill, but hes just there and saves a pokemon shout out

Gary is definitely a one in 7 billion kind of guy who was the best and probably only expert in his niche field and went well out of his way to help some guy he never met recover a long lost friend, he is the real pokemon champion.

I love that they also included the time frame at the end. Took 3 months to make this. KZfaq looks easy but it's a lot of hard work.

This almost made me sob. It really does feel like reuniting with a lost or passed pet… great work from everyone

Shout out to the other corrupted Pokémon who weren't fortunate enough to be saved. Blastoise shall carry on their legacy.

Idk why but garry's enthusiasm for what he does brings me so much joy

The only reason I would want to become a teacher is to tell my class we’re watching a documentary on the most important event in history and then pull up this banger

Not a gameshark, but a younger brother. I had pokemon yellow on my gba sp. First pokemon game i ever owned. Played it for months and months, and got all the badges, and was gearing up for the elite four. The entire time my little brother kept bugging me over and over to let him play. And i was adament "no, youll save over my game, theres only one save" and he just kept it up, till he finally wore me down after MONTHS of begging i relented. I told him do NOT save, and let him play. He was absolutely delighted, and promised he wont save over my game and played it for hours and hours that day, i even gave him the charger so he could play for longer, after all, all his hard work wouldnt be saved. The next day i popped it in and opened it up....and it was NOT my save. My little brother nearly died that day. And to THIS day, decades later i still bring it up at least once a year to him Aint no grudge like a pokemon grudge

The fact that it was Gary (Blue) who is clutch in saving the Blastoise is also so perfect. Gary went on to become a Pokemon researcher so to have Oaks Grandson come back to save a long lost Squirtle (Blastoise) is just so poetic.

"Your childhood cartridge?" "Yes." "Anything children touch becomes filthy. Clean it. Now." _Cleans the cart and it works again_ -The story of countless cartridge repairs

wow. this is so emotional and having a bond with a pokemon is no joke. Amazing

Man, this video had no right to be as good as it was. It had all the right feels, all the right tension, perfectly aligning coincidences in the face of the lowest of odds and an epic victory a literal decade in the making. It felt like a whole movie and I am genuinely happy for Harrison that he could bring his beloved Blastoise back. Now we just need a sequel where Harrison shows Blastoise living her best life on the Nintendo Switch.

In December 1998 I was 14 and had a Blastoise and Dugtrio (my favorite pokemon too) who I loved so much. I remember they could beat the Elite 4 just the 2 of them. Level 100. We had an Accelerated Reader program at school that was for fun, where you read a book and take a 20 question test. You got extra credit if you scored well on it. One day during lunch, I took a test for a book I didn't read, Gulliver's Travels, and got a 5% (1/20) on it. I left the print out saying I failed in my backpack. My mom happened to go through my backpack one terrible, fateful morning, and thought I had actually failed a reading test. She got ultra mad, pulled me out of bed by my hair, and screamed at me for playing too much Pokemon as the reason why I failed a school assignment and didn't tell her. She took my Gameboy with the Pokemon Blue cartridge still in it, and smashed it with a hammer in front of me. I will never forget that morning.

I was not prepared to be so totally invested in the story of this Blastoise. Great editing btw!

this was finding a way to reunite with his friend. pet, ally. inspiring

The chance to find the exact iv values were 1 in 887, 503,681

Gary is a god damn genius. Seriously, its not even just his knowledge, or his programming skills, it's his ingenuity and problem solving that is just next level.

Gary is the MVP. His dedication to find a strangers Blastoise is so wholesome… Maybe Gary thought of his Blastoise and had to do something !

"She's home." Goddamn this was so much better than it should have been, from the likelihood of all of these people coming together, to the skills of Gary (Gary, you're a real one for helping him) and everyone else who helped, it fucking amazing. And of course, the editor, whoever edited this did an amazing job, really elevated this to almost movie level quality, bravo to everyone involved in the making of this video.

Gary sounds like a stereotypical mad scientist 😂 (something horrible happenes) "Hmm, that's interesting!"

gary is literally so nice and patient and charismatic, it's so cool to see someone so enthusiastic about something like this

What. A. Journey. 👏

Gary didn't have too help this random dude but after every obstacle he didn't give up and looks like he solved it in a decent amount of time. dude is a genius!

This is a perfect encapsulation of that classic scenario where one hyper specialized nerd has the very specific information you need to solve your problem. I can't tell you how many times guys like this have saved my ass on projects and such. Killer editing, and the cloning section was incredible with perfect footage spliced in.

this man seriously spent 3 whole months to recover a random kids pokemon what an absolute legend

Funniest part of all this, is that resurrecting Pokémon from nothing but a genetic sample is canonical, so this "cheating" isn't really. It's just advanced Poke-science!

19:15 "you my friend, have a successful dump on your hands" is a wild sentence. lmao

What an emotional journey. Thank you for the journey and helping that man, you touched every pokemon fan's heart.

This is so Wholesome. We need a Netflix-style series of Pokemon being "saved" from corrupt files. Next episodes: this Blastoise jumping from LG all the way to modern consoles until Pokemon Shield.

"Gary" was the absolute MVP. His passion for these kind of things seeps throughout the video, and I love it!

This story resonates with me on so many levels. The entire reason I got into game collecting and starting my channel about it was to emphasize how these games are not “just a game”. They are memories of a special time and place, with friends, or with family. This story was not just about bringing back an a lost virtual pet, But also about resolving a little boy’s memory of making an error which caused a sense of loss and grief for many years. This is why these games are so important. They weave together the fabric of our fondest memories, and keep them alive in our hearts and minds, even if their code has gotten corrupt or is no longer playable. It’s NOT just a game. ❤

I'm 30 years old... watching this made me cry a little. The memories I had from that era aren't replicated today. When you didn't have friends to go hang out with, or anything to do; the pokemon games were there for you.

The almost 'paradoxical' thing about this though is that if he never corrupted this Blastoise to begin with he probably wouldn't have the same attachment to it. He's attached to it because of the memory of regret around it. Maybe he wouldn't even have cared about it or the game anymore... He might not even have kept the game or console if it weren't for his hope of fixing this mistake one day. Regret is a powerful emotion.

As a developer and an engineer myself, I am really amazed by Gary. I’m mostly a jack of all trades, master of none, so seeing someone being an absolute master of an extremely narrow field is very inspiring.

I was super invested in this video. Once I hit the 10 min mark i was thinking how long is this video? Once I saw it was almost an hour long I was contemplating watching the whole thing, but man am I glad I did. It was an emotional rollercoaster. I lost my data on my Pokemon Emerald game so i know the feeling. So the fact that they were anlento get it back was amazing. Shout out to everyone that worked on this video. Thank you all for this amazing heartwarming experience. Wish I saw this when it came out, but better late than never ❤❤❤

This is amazing! As a kid we just stumble through our old games trying to figure it out. Tons of mistakes are made, but being able to see such a beloved friend come back. Incredible work and what a grace to humanity.

“No way I’m watching this entire hour video” *watches entire video* I want to give Gary a hug, buy him a beer, give him money…everything. That guy was such a cool dude. If you ever see this, we may not know each other but I love you bro. That work you put in made my soul smile. Stay cool

Gary is hell of a genius and good guy. There are experts, then there are experts who solves problem like no one else.

Gary is a GENIUS.

Man.. I'm not even into Pokemon but this whole story is very well documented, and you guys did a absolute great job putting it all together for a person like me to understand where one can only imagine being put in that position. Thanks to this beautiful story that I'm just about to start my very first Pokemon journey.

what a crazy journey. the lengths you went to salvage a complete stranger's FIFTEEN year old digital companion is just totally mindblowing, and makes for such a beautiful narrated video to watch. makes me wish i actually backed up & archived my old pokémon emerald saves from 2008 too aha...

She's back in slot 1. "Right where she needs to be" I actually started crying wow

Why is this the best put together video I’ve ever watched in my life. The camera work and effects are incredible. Nice work. I will be watching in the future

This is the kind of stuff that KZfaq was made for, randomly recommended, an hour of fun, what a journey that was

This was surprisingly thrilling, “Gary” is a fucking genius.

Gary is truly is a fitting name for this dude. He is confident and prideful of what he has done and he has every right to be.

This was genuinely one of the coolest videos I’ve seen on the platform recently man. Hats off to everyone involved

*I was supposed to be doing chores but I absolutely could not leave without seeing Harriso get his Blastoise back!!👏🏼😭*

All I gotta say is that I'd kill to be Gary's apprentice, just to learn these things. He stayed hopeful through this entire interaction and got the job done. I wanna be like that.... I want to learn to be like that.

This was so much more emotional than anticipated. Welcome home, Blastoise! I lost a LVL 100 Pikachu to a crushed PokeWalker when I was 10. I couldn't even touch Soul Silver after that, until a full year later when I was looking through the instruction booklet and found the code to retrieve a Pokemon from a PokeWalker. Felt like a pitt in my heart had been restored

This was amazing. Great story! The video was so beautifully put together. It's crazy this was possible. 👏

Harrisons happiness is contagious

This is like diving into the river Styx, swimming all the way to the afterlife, finding a specific soul, and dragging it back to the world of the living.

gary must’ve been waiting his entire life for this exact moment. i can’t imagine how great it felt getting to use his skills for something like this.

Gary is the OG props on him for doing this without giving up

this is the most wholesome thing ive ever seen - im so glad i stumbled on this channel

Man, I remember taking years to level up my Pokemon Gold Typhlosion to level 100, only to accidentally click "New Game" one day and lose my save progress. I haven't fully enjoyed a Pokemon game to the same extent since then.

So glad Gary took up his grandfathers profession, and became the most advanced pokemon professor

You are amazing man congratulations to all of you for the team work.

This is so cool. I know some people might find it stupid, but like post stamps, bottle caps etc, these little creatures have memories attached to them, they are special and they are important to some of us. I am so stoked he got his Pokemon back!

The fact that Harrison puts his hat on backwards, like Ash before a battle, when Blastoise was recovered made me so happy :)

i am a grown man, sitting here watching someone get his starter back while having tears in my eyes and i dont know why. this is such a great story - have fun with your old friend!

im crying. i feel like this kind of thing is such a relatable experience with every person. we all did something dumb in our childhood that we regret. if we could go back in undo it… we all would.

This was such a very well pieced together video. So well pieced together that I might just rewatch it again tomorrow because Gary's knowledge on the file structure of Pokemon is INSANE.

Harrison was on the verge of tears the whole video. you can tell that even though this was a really unimportant task in the grand scheme of things, it really means a lot to him.

I think this is my new favorite video on the internet. Pokemon was such an important part of my life growing up and seeing someone have a moment like that was absolutely heartwarming. Absolute 10/10, from start to finish.

I love the video clips you incorporated. How can content be this good? And with hex editing! A rare and precious breed!

Really resonated with you guys, I’ve got my own story of losing my special Pokémon… The first two Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games are my favorite games of all time, the MOST influential in my life to this day… Blue Rescue Team was the first game I ever finished and my partner Pokémon I legit viewed as my best friend, the connection was so strong. My parents still tease me to this day about me running downstairs crying when I beat the game because “I had to leave my friend” :’) totally beautiful masterpiece haha Anyways, my brother REALLY wanted a turn playing and my mom FORCED me to let him have a turn on my game. I begrudgingly handed it over and he somehow ended up on the “delete save” screen that looked identical to the “continue save” screen. He was like “what do I do” so I just pressed what I thought was ‘continue’ and watched the save file get deleted before my very eyes. One of my most traumatic childhood memories ^^; anyways, loved the video + the happy ending!!

Ugh I got actual chills when those IVs were found. Crazy how generations were affected by these games, grew into the software geniuses, video gamers, and creative nerds we are out of pure love. Such a wild and beautiful journey, kudos to all involved.

This is the most touching video I've ever watched on youtube Great works guys!

I want to see this dude play the new Pokémon games with his transferred blastoiest feel so happy for u man