Cable Club escape glitch

The Cable Club escape glitch is a glitch in Red and Blue (as well as Pokémon Yellow if the Safari Zone method is used) that allows the player to exit the Cable Club without resetting or powering off.

This glitch tricks the game into thinking that the player is still linked with another player when outside of the Cable Club and allows the player to encounter a copy of the other player's roster controlled by the AI of a chosen Trainer class. The copy replaces any ordinary Trainer; for example, the glitch can be used on a Gym Leader to replace their roster with weaker Pokémon.

Requirements

In order to perform this glitch, the player must have met the following requirements;

• A poisoned Pokémon to faint in the Cable Club (poison method)
• Access to the Safari Zone (Safari Zone method)
• A Pokémon with Dig (Safari Zone method)
• Access to the Cable Club, via another player with a copy of Red, Blue or Yellow and a Game Link Cable

Performing the glitch

Poison method

The following method is also known as the Cable Club black out glitch and works only on Pokémon Red and Blue. First, the player needs to poison their Pokémon and be linked with another person. Preferably, the player then enters the trade center and initiates a trade with the other person or battle with the other player to copy the roster into the game's memory for later use in the glitch. The player then presses cancel, or ends the battle and walks around until the poison causes the Pokémon to faint. After the Pokémon faints, the player will black out as normal, though the game still assumes the player to be linked.

Safari Zone method

The following method is exploitable in both Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Yellow.

The player must enter a Safari Game, then immediately after entering, attempt to leave. The attendant will ask if the player wants to leave early to which the player must answer "no". The player must then reenter the Safari Zone. The game should then be saved and reset. The player must now attempt to exit the Safari Zone. The attendant will ask if the player would like to join a Safari Game, to which the player must answer "no". The player should then Fly anywhere.

The player must then enter the Cable Club, and walk around until their Safari Zone steps run out and they are returned to the gate, activating the glitch.

To prevent a Trade Center or Colosseum Glitch City, the player can reenter the Safari Zone and Dig away. In Pokémon Red and Blue, poison can also be used to escape a Trade Center or Colosseum Glitch City, although this is redundant over the poison method.

Effects

After exploiting the glitch, the player is unable to save under normal circumstances because the save button is replaced by the reset button. The player is also unable to open the item pack, because normally items cannot be used when in link with another player. Provided that these settings are kept, if the player proceeds to encounter any Trainer outside of the Cable Club their roster will be replaced with the one last stored by the game when trading or battling with the player, and their picture will be replaced with Red's. The name of the other player usually becomes a blank space. The behavior of the other player is automatically controlled by the game and depends on the Trainer class; for example, encountering Bruno will make a Trainer appear with the other player's Pokémon, but a tendency to use X Defend. If the player did not trade or battle with the player, then a glitch Trainer with a glitchy name will appear instead with a team of glitch Pokémon; however, it is still technically the same Trainer class of the original Trainer, despite it having Red's picture. This is because a RAM address in the data structure is left checked to make all Trainers have Red's picture and use the other player's Pokémon.

Unlike the 'death Trainer' found after the ZZAZZ glitch, a Trainer with Red's picture cannot be found by encountering a wild Pokémon and will only be found when trying to encounter an existing Trainer. Remaining HP, moves and status effects are also taken into account, meaning the other player could for instance replace Bruno's team with a poisoned level 5 Magikarp with 1 HP. If all of the player's Pokémon were fainted, a 'M (FF) or Q ◣ will be sent out instead.

Exclusively to Pokémon Yellow, the glitch also restricts poison in the overworld, because the poison method exclusive to Pokémon Red and Blue was fixed by restricting Pokémon outside of battle from losing HP due to poison when linked.

To restore the settings back to normal and be able to save, the player can simply reset the game, though any changes since entering the Cable Club are not saved. To be able to save the game, the player can simply change boxes. Alternatively, the player can enter the Cable Club again to be taken out due to inactivity, which restores the save button and allows the player to open the item pack again. Another method of restoring the options is to view the summary screen of any Pokémon in battle; this will allow the player to use their items again.

This glitch is useful for mass duplication of items, as although changes to the item pack in the Cable Club are prohibited, items will be changed outside of the Cable Club even with the reset button. For example, a player could use a party of six MissingNo., view the summary of a Pokémon in battle to restore the item pack to have one of their items duplicated, and then continuously swap the sixth item to duplicate many items in one battle. This glitch is also useful for encountering item mutating glitch Pokémon which are otherwise difficult or otherwise impossible to see on the opponent's side outside of the Cable Club.

This glitch works in the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console version as well. In addition to the normal effects, in this version, the Virtual Console software itself behaves as if a link is still in progress after the glitch is performed, much as the game does. Because of this, the HOME button remains disabled, the bottom screen is solid black, and the Virtual Console menu is inaccessible, as would be the case during a normal link operation.

Video

By ChickasaurusGL

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Glitches in the Pokémon games Multiple generations Transform glitches • Glitch Trainers • Cloning glitches • Error messages • Arbitrary code execution Generation I Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches -- • 0 ERROR • Broken hidden items • Cable Club escape glitch • Dual-type damage misinformation Experience underflow glitch • Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick • Glitch City • Item duplication glitch • Item underflow Mew glitch • Old man glitch • Pewter Gym skip glitch • Pokémon merge glitch • Rhydon glitch • Rival twins glitch Select glitches (dokokashira door glitch, second type glitch) • Super Glitch Time Capsule exploit • Walking through walls • ZZAZZ glitch Generation II Glitches • Battle glitches Bug-Catching Contest glitch • Celebi Egg glitch • Coin Case glitches • Experience underflow glitch Glitch dimension • Glitch Egg • Teru-sama • Time Capsule exploit • Trainer House glitches • GS Ball mail glitch Generation III Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Berry glitch • Dive glitch • Pomeg glitch • Glitzer Popping Generation IV Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Acid rain • GTS glitches • Pomeg glitch • Rage glitch Surf glitch • Tweaking • Pal Park Retire glitch Generation V Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Frozen Zoroark glitch • Sky Drop glitch Generation VI Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Lumiose City save glitch • Symbiosis Eject Button glitch • Toxic sure-hit glitch Generation VII Glitches • Battle glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Toxic sure-hit glitch • Rollout storage glitch Generation VIII Glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Toxic sure-hit glitch • Rollout storage glitch • Party item offset glitch Generation IX Glitches Glitch effects Game freeze • Glitch battle • Glitch song Gen I only: Glitch screen • TMTRAINER effect • Inverted sprite Gen II only: Glitch dimension Lists Glitches (GO • Mystery Dungeon • TCG GB • Spin-off) Glitch Pokémon (Gen I • Gen II • Gen III • Gen IV • Gen V • Gen VI • Gen VII • Gen VIII) Glitch moves (Gen I) • Glitch types (Gen I • Gen II)

This article is part of Project GlitchDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games.