However, users often mislabel or rename files. It is plausible that a Pokémon Fire Red hack was repacked with an incorrect header, causing emulators to misidentify it as ROM 1636.

Today, the file sits largely dormant on hard drives, a mere 16 megabytes of data. It’s small enough to fit into an email attachment a dozen times over, yet it contains a universe that felt infinite when viewed through the glare of a CRT monitor.