Base: Pokémon Red · Game Boy · 2004 · Total Conversion
Creator: Koolboyman
The first Pokémon hack to completely reinvent the game — replacing Kanto with the entirely new region of Rijon, with original maps, a new plot, and even new elemental types, setting the template for every ambitious Pokémon hack that followed.
Created by the hacker Koolboyman and released on 17 January 2004, Pokémon Brown is a ROM hack of Pokémon Red that did something no previous Pokémon hack had attempted: rather than tweaking encounter rates or swapping sprites, it rebuilt the game wholesale. The action moves from the familiar Kanto to Rijon, an entirely new region positioned south of Johto, with original maps, an original story, and a fresh sense of place constructed from the ground up within the constraints of the eight-bit Game Boy engine. The scale of the reinvention was unprecedented for its time. Rijon contains ten cities and more than twenty routes, offering a broader geographical and narrative experience than the base Pokémon Red it was built upon. Koolboyman also restructured the Pokédex with a new layout and — remarkably — introduced five new elemental types not found in the official games, altering the type-matchup mathematics that sit at the heart of Pokémon's combat. The first 151 entries in the Rijon Pokédex correspond to the familiar Kanto creatures, giving players a foothold in an otherwise unfamiliar world. Pokémon Brown is widely regarded as one of the most significant Pokémon hacks ever produced, and specifically as the first to completely re-invent the game with a brand-new region and an original plot. Before Brown, Pokémon hacking was largely a matter of modest modification; after it, the standard for an ambitious project became total conversion, and the flood of custom-region hacks that followed over the subsequent two decades all trace their lineage to what Koolboyman demonstrated was possible. The hack has been maintained and expanded for far longer than most fan projects survive. A 2009 remake expanded the Pokédex to 224 creatures, a 2014 revision added Sylveon, and a 2024 update pushed the roster to 231, with the 20th Anniversary Edition regarded as the most polished and complete version, incorporating expanded mechanics and quality-of-life improvements. Two decades of continuous refinement have made Pokémon Brown not just a historical landmark but a genuinely playable and evolving work — a rare fan project that has outlasted the hardware generation that spawned it.