You looked at the squirrel in your party. Its faceless head tilted. A single word appeared in the text box:

Often cited as one of the most advanced hacks, it explicitly requires the Squirrels 1.0 ROM for its engine to function. Pokémon Radical Red

While "Trashman" is another common name in the scene (often associated with Pokémon Emerald ), "Squirrels" is specifically the identifier for the preferred FireRed base.

Downloading ROMs of games you do not physically own is considered piracy. To stay legal, you should dump the ROM yourself from your own Pokémon FireRed cartridge.

The year before, the world had been normal. Then the Cartridge landed in the flax fields outside Pallet Town. Now, the horizon flickered. Trees rendered in jagged polygons. People’s faces occasionally displayed corrupted text: “? m’lady’s hp is low.”

Because the Squirrels ROM is so stable and well-documented, it is the mandatory "base ROM" for some of the most famous fan projects in the community: Pokémon Radical Red