How to play on Link Cable

Link Cable runs Pokémon GBA games in your browser and links them together, so you and your friends can explore the same world, trade and battle in real time. You bring the ROM; there's nothing to install.

Quick start

1. Get the right ROM for your game (see Which ROM you need). We can't give you one.
2. On the home page, click Host a room, pick the game and create it. Or join a public room from the list, or paste an invite link or room code in the box beside it and click Join.
3. Have a save from another emulator? Click Load save first. Then click Load ROM and pick your ROM file.
4. Copy the link in the Invite panel and send it to your friends. A room holds up to 8 players.
5. Meet up in game: you'll see each other walking around the same maps.

Which ROM you need

Each game is checked against one exact ROM. Other versions and revisions are refused, because what we read and write in the game's memory would be in the wrong place and could damage your save.

• Radical Red and Unbound are patches for a clean FireRed USA 1.0 ROM (the "Squirrels" one). Patch it as the hack's authors explain, then load the patched file.
• Polished Crystal comes in two builds: use the regular one, not "faithful".
• If your ROM is refused, the Status panel says why and shows the start of its SHA-1 fingerprint. It's usually a different revision (FireRed 1.1, say) or a ROM that has already been patched.
• Any other Gen 3 ROM can go in an Unsupported ROMs room. Everyone there must load the exact same file. Other players may look glitchy, and trades and battles are off.

Rooms

• Each room plays one kind of game. FireRed, LeafGreen and Emerald share rooms and can trade and battle each other, as in the real games. Each ROM hack has rooms of its own.
• Public rooms are listed on the home page for anyone to join. Private rooms can only be reached with their invite link or code.
• A room holds up to 8 players. Your name is shown to everyone in the room: type one in the top bar, or leave it empty to use your trainer name.
• Radical Red: the options you chose when you started your save (difficulty, randomizers, Min Grinding) can't change later. Trading needs saves started with the same options. Battling needs the same options apart from difficulty. The invite link carries the host's options, so friends know which save to bring.

Saves

Worth reading twice: your saves live in your browser, not on our servers, unless you keep them in cloud slots.

• Save in game as usual. Each in-game save is kept in this browser, on this device. Next time you open a room for that game, Continue picks up from it. The Save box in the top bar shows when you last saved.
• Clearing your browser's data for the site, or playing in a private window, deletes those saves. Browsers may also clear storage for sites you haven't visited in a while.
• Back up with Download save (the arrow in the Save box). It downloads your last in-game save, not what's on screen right now, so save in game first.
• To move to another computer or browser, download your save here, then use Load save there before loading the ROM. A .sav from another emulator, such as mGBA or VisualBoyAdvance, works the same way.
• Loading a save mid-game restarts the game on it.
• Auto-resume quietly keeps a snapshot every 30 seconds while you're walking around. If the tab closes or crashes, Continue picks up from there. It's only a safety net: it isn't part of a downloaded save, so keep saving in game.
• Or keep them online with Cloud saves (the cloud in the Save box): sign in with Google and use up to 15 slots per game, then load one on any computer. Like downloads, a slot holds your last in-game save, and loading one restarts the game on it. Each slot shows the trainer's name and play time.
• Turn on Automatic backup there to upload every in-game save: always to the same slot, or to a new slot each time. New slots fill the empty ones first, then replace the oldest automatic backup, never a save you put there yourself. If a backup fails (say you were signed out), the cloud turns red.

Playing together

• Other players walk around your game as they move in theirs, on the same map as you or one next to it. The Players panel lists everyone in the room, which game they're playing and where they are.
• Emotes: press 1 to 0 to show a bubble over your head: ✓, X, !, !!, ?, a smile, a heart and more. On touch screens they're the row of buttons under the game.
• Track points an arrow at a player, at the edge of your screen or over their head, with where they are and how far away.
• Watch shows their screen live. View party shows their Pokémon, levels and HP.
• You decide what others can do: untick Let others see my party, Let others watch my screen or Let others track me under the Players panel.
• In FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald and Emerald Kaizo, the first Pokémon in your party follows you around, and other players see it too. Radical Red, Unbound and Quetzal have following Pokémon of their own.
• Everyone plays at their own speed: speeding your game up doesn't change anyone else's.

Trading and battling

• Click Trade or Battle next to a player in the Players panel, or walk up to them in game, face them and press A.
• You both need to be standing in the overworld, not in a menu, a conversation or a battle. They answer the request in game.
• Trades use the game's own trade screen. Save afterwards!
• Before a battle, the challenger can set a wager (the winner takes it, up to what you both have) and turn on EXP: Pokémon then gain EXP, levels and moves as in the game, and may evolve afterwards. Without EXP, your party comes back exactly as it was. Not every game has wagers and EXP yet; the battle dialog says when they're unavailable.
• If a button is greyed out, hover over it to see why: usually one of you is busy, hasn't loaded a save yet or, in Radical Red, started with different options.
• Polished Crystal links at the Cable Club, like a real Game Boy: both players go upstairs in any Pokémon Center and talk to the same receptionist.
• Unsupported ROMs rooms have no trades or battles.

Controls

• To change a key, click it in the Controls panel, then press the new key. Your keys are kept in this browser.
• The top bar sets the game speed (0.5× to 5×), volume and fullscreen (Esc leaves it).

Phones and tablets

• On-screen buttons appear under the game. You can slide your thumb from one button to the next.
• Reposition buttons lets you drag them anywhere. The top bar also sets their size and opacity, vibration, and whether the emote row shows.
• The arrow at the top folds the top bar away to give the game more room.
• Fullscreen takes the whole screen, buttons included; on Android, Rotate turns it. iPhones don't allow fullscreen web pages.
• A computer with a keyboard is still the most comfortable way to play.

Troubleshooting

• "That ROM isn't supported": see Which ROM you need.
• Stuck on "Loading emulator…": Link Cable needs an up-to-date Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. Browsers built into chat apps often can't run it: open the link in your usual browser.
• I can't see my friend: check you opened the same invite link, and that you've both loaded a save and are walking around. Players show up on the same map or one next to it; use Track to find them.
• Lag: everything goes through our server, so players far apart see each other a moment late. Trades and battles wait for both games, so they stay in step, just slower.
• A line tears across the picture: tick VSync in the Status panel and reload. If the game then stutters, untick it.
• "This room is open in another tab": one tab per room. Close the other one.
• My save won't load (new game starts): check the .sav isn't 0 bytes. Copying from an Android phone over USB often gives an empty file: save in game, then restart the phone or send the file to yourself by email or Google Drive. Save states (such as My Boy's .st0-.st9) can't be loaded, only .sav files.
• Lost save: if the browser's data was cleared and you have no downloaded copy, it can't be recovered. Download a backup now and then.
• Still stuck? Email linkcableapp@gmail.com.

Privacy and ROMs

• Your ROM never leaves your browser. We don't host or share ROMs.
• Your saves stay in your browser unless you put them in Cloud saves. Then we keep those saves and your Google account's id (not your email or name) until you overwrite or delete them.
• Others in your room see your name, your game and where you are and, unless you untick them, your party and your screen.
• In Unsupported ROMs rooms, the first ROM's file name, title and SHA-1 are shown to everyone who opens the room, so they can find the same file.
• Link Cable isn't affiliated with Nintendo, Game Freak or The Pokémon Company.