>>56002177Expanding the species identifier to 16 bits would not have. The game already forbids taking anything that didn't exist in gen 1 into the Time Capsule. And it can simply translate anything that did exist into the old data format, just like it already does.
>>56002786>>56002807The (software) problem with going from gen 2 to 3 was going from 4 DVs that determine a whole lot of shit about a Pokemon that was moved to the random 32-bit PID, to 6 IVs that just determine stats; and going from stat experience values that range from 0 to 65535 and can all be maxxed out, to EVs that are 0-255 with a max sum of 510 across them.
>specialized hardwareThat's Goppier's solution, a hardware device that translates the data so the two games can directly trade. There's another solution from Lorenzooone that uses a small GBA homebrew that can be loaded from a GBA flashcart or through multiboot from a PC through XBOO or similar. The homebrew runs on the console with the gen 3 game in it, reads the party data, translates it to gen 1 or 2 format, and communicates with another console that's running a gen 1 or 2 game. Only the gen 3 end is running special software. The gen 1/2 end just thinks it's trading with another of the same.
>>56003892It's not just Gamefreak not wanting to do a conversion that would likely be one-way since if you reverse it you don't get the same thing back that you put in. There's also a hardware problem. Yes the GBA has a link mode that works the same as for GBC. But in GBC mode it uses 5 volt signals, and in GBA it's 3.3 volt. Yes you can still plug them together and in my experience GBA homebrew can successfully communicate with GBC games, and a 5 volt PC parallel port can successfully communicate with a 3.3 volt GBA without a voltage shifter. However this is out of spec, not guaranteed to work on all units, and therefore Nintendo probably wouldn't have allowed it in an officially licensed game.
