# Trading Pokémon from the Nintendo 64 to the Switch <div class=iframe-container> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/biq5J9troE4?si=TjRS2OVxO7NIXm4b" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> Trading Pokémon from Nintendo 64 to Switch! — Can it be Done?! It all started with a realization. When [[How to Backup and Play Your Games and Saves on Delta for iPhone (or any Emulator)|backing up]] my N64 cartridges, I discovered that my *Pokémon Stadium* cart had some of my original Pokémon from my *Pokémon Blue* save that is long gone. I registered a team of three level 100 Pokémon—Lapras, Gengar, and Mew. This discovery led to a question... Could I get those three Pokémon from an N64 cart and into Pokémon Home? In short, yes. The video above is my journey to figure out how. Here's a little of the backstory and behind the scenes, as well as the big question I walked away with. My original theory was this > N64 > GB > 3DS > Bank > Home On paper, that's straight forward. I figured I could use the [Transfer Pak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_Pak) to move the registered team back to the Game Boy cartridge and go from there. Convert the save and replace it on the 3Ds and be all set. It turns out there is a distinct – and logical – difference between a registered team and a BOX. Registration is a quick save. The system was designed to quickly give access to your favorite teams. A BOX is a permanent storage solution. Because I had registered the team, I couldn't move them. They weren't the "real" thing. So I had to turn a PC into the Transfer Pak via [PKHeX](https://projectpokemon.org/home/files/file/1-pkhex/). I won't spoil the rest of the journey, but it was a real treat to figure out over the course of the week. But as I struggled with this Transfer Pak vs PKHex moment, I came to a question: **What *is* a Pokémon?** On a technical level, a Pokémon is just ones and zeroes; bits and bytes. And on a technical level, that's what I shuffled around through all these systems. I just cut, copied, and pasted data from 1998 to 2024. But what makes it *my* Lapras or *my* Gengar? Why am I and so many millions of others so attached to these particular instances of blips and bloops? I think part of it is a projection of ownership. We spent the time playing, catching, training, and battling with each Pokémon we cherish. We grind it out and battle to the top of the Elite Four or explore the region and fill out the Pokédex. The time spent is what differentiates ours from a wild creature.[^1] The real legacy of Pokémon isn't the games or the toys or cards. It's the ability and support for carrying forward the data and respecting the player's time over decades at this point. It's a shame the games themselves don't seem to get the same support. With the shuttering of the 3DS eShop, there are no official means to buy the 3DS games outside of the physical market. The Virtual Console versions of the Game Boy games are "gone." The only commercially available way to play Gen 1 are the *Let's Go* games. This was a fun journey, a good, technical challenge, that ended as I had hoped. I hope this a good resource for those that may be discovering the same on their old N64 carts. Sometimes, things aren't lost, just forgotten. [^1]: Of course, there are also stats, moves, items, IVs, EVs, breed, shiny or not. The list goes on as far as factors that make each Pokémon unique. I think our time is the biggest of those factors though.