Introducing Timeless Emerald, a Mod to Remove the Real-Time Clock

Pokémon Emerald, accelerated for Analogue Pocket and beyond.

November 18, 2025

Pokémon Emerald is a timeless classic. It boasts a deep endgame that can keep players engaged for a very long time, but it has a problem. To be more specific, there’s a problem that has kept me from playing the game how I wanted.

Analogue Pocket is currently my favourite way to play 2D retro games. Unlike other similar devices, Analogue Pocket uses FPGA to recreate retro consoles and handhelds with perfect accuracy when playing on cartridge. When not playing on cartridge, a handful of games won’t work as Analogue Pocket doesn’t handle these games' cartridge functions.

2005’s Pokémon Emerald is one such game. The only available Analogue Pocket openFPGA core for GameBoy Advance does not support the game’s real-time clock functions, as these functions are built into the cardridge and not the console. Several in-game features which are desirable to those who want to play Emerald’s endgame are simply unavailable without playing on a prohibitively expensive original cartridge—never mind ensuring you don’t end up with a counterfeit! Though it’s also possible to use flash carts for this, in my experience this specific game does not play nice with flashcarts so even for players who shelled out additional money to make this one game work on Analogue Pocket, the experience would be compromised…

…until today.

Timeless Emerald

This mod removes all real-time clock functionality from Pokémon Emerald. While mine isn’t the first to try this, I believe it is the most comprehensive. One existing mod has in-game time pass at the same rate as real-time, but only while playing—meaning that one in-game day requires 24 hours of playtime to pass—which is completely untenable. Another mod allows the player choose the time whenever they want, but that creates a clumsy play experience. Timeless Emerald works differently.

In Timeless Emerald, time passes at a rate of 1 in-game minute for every 2 seconds of gameplay—or, one in-game day every 48 minutes. Time passes regardless of what you’re doing, just like in the base game.

The following features have been tested on Analogue Pocket and found to work:

• Berries can be grown.
• Daily gifts can be claimed every in-game day (48 minutes of play time). The Lilycove Deparment Store lottery can also be checked daily.
• PokéNav calls will now only be attempted every 8 in-game hours, instead of every 10 in-game minutes. This would be one attempted phone call every 16 minutes of play time, which is a significant reduction compared to the base game but not to the point of being nearly-absent.
• Dewford Hall’s trendy phrases will change on their own over time. The rate of change has been slowed down relative to in-game time, but is still faster in terms of play-time compared to the base game.
• Shoal Cave’s tide works as expected, changing at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock in-game (changes every 12 minutes of play time).
• Pokémon News events like special sales or service days at the Game Corner will occur at the same rate as normal, but have been changed to last for 4 in-game days after they begin (a little over 3 hours of play time). This should be enough not to miss an event after learning about it. Check TVs!

The following features have not been verified, but are presumed to work:

• Eevee should evolve into Espeon and Umbreon as normal, based on the time shown your bedroom’s clock in Littleroot Town. Not verified as it would require trading, but assumed to work as Shoal Cave’s state is also tied to the specific time of day shown on the clock.
• The Mirage Island ID should roll once every in-game day (48 minutes of play time), but as it is an exceedingly rare event it hasn’t actually been verified to work. Free Liechi Berry to whoever nabs this one (it’s on Mirage Island).
• Feebas should change location with the changing of Dewford Hall’s trendy phrases, but hasn’t been verified to be in the game. Because the phrases have been found to change, it’s presumed that Feebas continues to change position as normal, but none have been caught to actually verify this.
• Mass outbreaks (known as “swarms” in-game) should work as in the base game, as they use the same mechanism as Pokémon News to occur. This event will also last for one week of in-game time (about 5 and a half hours of play time) instead of 2 days as in the base game. The bug preventing a mass outbreak from reoccurring has not been fixed, but the three Pokémon capable of appearing in these events are already available elsewhere at acceptable odds.

Compatible With Existing Save Data

If you already have a save file for Pokémon Emerald, it should work correctly in Timeless Emerald as well without any issues. Time will resume at the last time the berries were checked.

If you want to move from Timeless Emerald back to Pokémon Emerald, that is supported as well. Timeless Emerald prepares your save file for this by enabling the real-time clock to be reset. Once your save has been brought back into Pokémon Emerald, reset the clock by pressing Left+B+Select on the title screen. Afterward, everything will be back to normal.

How the Game has Changed

In testing this mod, I’ve found that the way I engage with the game is quite different.

A normal session of Pokémon Emerald usually goes as follows:

1. Start the game
2. Check dailies and the Berry farm
3. Battle/raise Pokémon until finished
4. Close the game

In Timeless Emerald, it’ll look a little different:

1. Start the game
2. Battle/raise Pokémon for about an hour
3. Check dailies
4. Loop to step 2 until finished for the day

In other words, this mod’s single change to how time is handled profoundly modifies Pokémon Emerald’s entire gameplay loop, integrating several features which the game previously de-emphasized. During my story playthrough, I was able to grow many more berries than I would usually, as berry plants would often have finished growing before I was finished with an area and ready to move on. I also managed to get several more daily gifts than I would normally, for the same reason, and the rate at which I’d claim these gifts increased sharply once I unlocked the ability to Fly around the game’s map. In just a few hours of gameplay after rolling credits, I managed to activate two somewhat rare Pokémon News events that normally take several real-world days to start, allowing me to promptly take advantage of their offerings.

If I’m to summarize the changes I made, it’s that Timeless Emerald rewards active play, where the original game rewarded consistent dedication over the long haul. Having played over 60 hours of this mod, I think that this change alone makes it worth considering playing this over Pokémon Emerald if you’re looking for an authentic retro Pokémon experience, even if you’re not looking specifically to play it on Analogue Pocket.

What’s especially noteworthy about this change is that it is in line with recent Pokémon games. The real-time clock has been a staple of the series since 1999’s Gold and Silver, but has been completely absent from Pokémon Legends: Arceus onward, save for a vestigial presence in Scarlet and Violet where raid battles would reset every real-time day. In fact, the time scale I chose for this mod is intentionally identical to that found in the recently-released Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s 48 minutes of play time per in-game day. If you found that game’s timing to be suitable, you should find Timeless Emerald’s to be much the same.

Quality of Life

Though there are currently no quality-of-life changes, I do plan on eventually releasing an alternate patch that includes some. Because one of the goals is to be compatible with existing save files—including the ability to migrate back to Pokémon Emerald if desired—the scope of possible changes is somewhat limited.

For now, if you want infinite TMs or extras of certain hard-to-get items, use the Link Battle Tower duplication glitch to withdraw as many as needed from your PC boxes. To get event-exclusive Pokémon, use ACE to obtain the necessary key items. Guides for both of these techniques exist online and are applicable to Timeless Emerald.

Ready for Testing

Timeless Emerald is currently available as a patch for the English-language version of Pokémon Emerald. You can also build the ROM yourself by following the instructions in the README.

To check that the mod is correctly working, look at the clock in your bedroom in Littleroot Town. The minute hand on the clock should tick every 2 seconds. If this doesn’t happen, then the patch didn’t apply.

If you discover any bugs or weird behaviour, please submit an issue on GitHub.

This mod is for those of you who, like me, have waited a long time to play Pokémon Emerald on Analogue Pocket. At the very least, it should tide you over until a core supporting the real-time clock is released. Enjoy!