1636 Pokemon Fire Red Squirrels «Original ◉»

The "Squirrels" ROM is not just one file; it is a lineage of corrupted files passed around over a decade. You will often see it called:

Note: If you download a ROM with "Squirrels" in the title, you are downloading a bootleg. Legitimate, high-quality ROM hacks that actually succeed in adding later generations to FireRed (like Pokémon Liquid Crystal, Pokémon Emerald Enhanced, or Pokémon Unbound) do not use the Squirrels engine.

The most popular fan theory ties the 1636 squirrels to Professor Oak’s unused email system in Fire Red. In the game’s debug strings, there’s a message: “Come see my new discovery — the squirrels of Route 22 are evolving!” Route 22, of course, is the competitive battleground near the Indigo Plateau, usually devoid of any special wildlife. 1636 Pokemon Fire Red Squirrels

Some believe the squirrels were meant to evolve via a now-deleted “Nut Harvest” mechanic — similar to Berry farming in Ruby/Sapphire — which would have let players grow acorns into evolution items. Had it shipped, Fire Red might have introduced Kanto’s first cross-generational evolution: Acornimbus evolving into Heli-squirrel (Electric/Flying) with the Thunderstone.

The number isn’t random. In the original Japanese Fire Red build, 1636 was intended as the Pokédex index range for “regional small mammal” clones (after Rattata and Sentret). But the squirrel trio was cut due to memory limitations on the 256KB save file — and because, according to an alleged internal memo from Game Freak (never confirmed), the devs felt three Normal-type rodents per generation was “one too many.” The "Squirrels" ROM is not just one file;

Still, remnants remain. If you use a GameShark code 82023F00 1636 in Fire Red, the game crashes — but not before flashing a single frame of a brown, bushy-tailed sprite. Speedrunners have since dubbed this the “Squirrel Glitch,” and some TAS (tool-assisted speedrun) creators have used it to warp directly to the Hall of Fame.

Despite its janky execution, the sheer volume of content added to a GBA game was unprecedented for its time. Note: If you download a ROM with "Squirrels"

“1636 Pokémon Fire Red Squirrels” sounds like a lost Pokédex entry from an alternate timeline. Imagine a community challenge where trainers in FireRed try to document every squirrel-like Pokémon, create squirrel-themed Nuzlocke runs, or even build a real-world art project inspired by those critters. The charm lies in juxtaposition: Pokémon’s nostalgia and structured gameplay, the randomness of the number 1636, and real-life squirrels’ mischief.

Why it’s intriguing: