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http://www.1up.com/article2/0,4364,1405215,00.asp
Bugs Detected In GBA Pokemon
By David Smith
12/5/2003
Nintendo in Japan recently issued a statement regarding a bug that's cropped up in its latest Pokemon RPG. Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire, Japanese gamers recently discovered, has an issue with its internal clock that can disable certain gameplay systems after a year's worth of playtime.
Ruby & Sapphire has a system whereby you can plant trees in the game's virtual world. Those trees eventually bear fruit, which you then feed to your pet monsters to cause them to evolve in useful and interesting ways. Unfortunately, the bug means that once the game's clock ticks over one year after activation, those trees are unable to grow. The bug also apparently hampers the lottery mini-game at the Lilycove department store.
The bug is apparently inherent in the game code itself, so altering or deleting save files cannot correct it. Nintendo has thus invited Japanese players to bring or send their game cartridges to one of many service centers around the country. The service centers will apply a patch that corrects the issue and return the fixed copy of the game free of charge.
Nintendo's statement indicates that the bug will not, however, affect the upload and download of Ruby & Sapphire data to its upcoming GameCube Pokemon battle game, Pokemon Colosseum.
The issue has yet to be discovered in the American version of the game, of course, since Ruby & Sapphire has only been available in the United States since March. Nintendo of America representatives offered the following official response today:
"Nintendo is aware of a minor issue in the Pokemon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire Game Boy Advance games. It affects only very minor areas in the game (such as growing certain berries) after one full calendar year of game play. For North American consumers, this issue would not occur until one year after the game has first been played.
"The earliest the issue could appear is March 2004, which is the one year anniversary of the first sale in North America. All main game play activities, such as collecting and battling Pokemon, are not affected. Please continue to check the Nintendo website for an update."
We'll be sure to pass on any such updates as well.