At the dawn of Pokémon's global success, Tiger Electronics created a licensed Pokédex which allowed fans to learn more about the first Generation of Pocket Monsters.
If you grew up in the late '90s, then you'll almost certainly have seen one of these bright-red devices—but what you might not be aware of is the fact that it has never been adequately preserved.
Software engineer Crait is currently in the process of putting together a system which will allow the Pokédex to get a new lease of life and has taken to social media to call for help in this task.
"Did you know that the 1998 Tiger Electronics Pokédex has unique monochrome sprites that have never been extracted?" says crait. "I was considering making a Pokedex app for the Arduboy and trying to dump the ROM. Would anyone use this? Or even want to help me with reverse engineering?"
The end goal would be to replicate the performance of the original Tiger Electronics Pokédex on the Arduboy, which would not only preserve the data from the 1998 device but also open up the opportunity for it to be replicated on other open-source platforms, too.
Would you love to see Tiger's Pokédex live on? Or do you prefer to use the original? Let us know with a comment below.