Development in progress.

Light Platinum DS

How to patch the game

Beginner edition· Assumes you already know what emulator to run· About ten minutes
About the ROM

You need a Pokémon HeartGold (US) ROM, and you have to source that yourself. Sharing ROMs is illegal — don't ask anyone here for one. Only the patch is distributed, which is why patching is a step you do rather than a download you take.

There is no pre-patched ROM anywhere. Anyone offering one is either faking it or handing you a bad build — trading, the online GTS and Mystery Gift only work on a ROM you patched yourself.

What you need first

  • An emulator. Recommended: melonDS
  • The patch, from the official site — pokehacking.com/fangames/light-platinum
  • A Pokémon HeartGold (US) ROM — yours to find, see above
  • A patcher. On Windows the downloaded zip already contains one (DeltaPatcherLite.exe). On anything else use kotcrab.github.io/xdelta-wasm — open source, and it runs locally in your browser through WebAssembly, so your ROM is never uploaded anywhere.
Check your base ROM before you start

The patch expects exactly 4780 - Pokemon HeartGold (U)(Xenophobia).nds, CRC32 FFD28F00. A different dump is the single most common reason patching fails or produces a broken game.

The steps

  1. Get the patch from the official pokehacking page listed above. Nowhere else.
    The download page at pokehacking.com
    The download page at pokehacking.com
  2. Unzip it. 7-Zip, WinRAR or your system's built-in unzip all work — opening the .zip in your file manager generally makes a folder of the same name beside it. Inside you'll find:
    Inside the unzipped folder — LPDS.xdelta is the patch
    Inside the unzipped folder — LPDS.xdelta is the patch
  3. On Windows: open HowToPatch.pdf and follow it. In Delta Patcher Lite, set Original file to your HeartGold .nds, set XDelta patch to LPDS.xdelta, then click Apply patch.
    HowToPatch.pdf, included in the zip — the Windows route
    HowToPatch.pdf, included in the zip — the Windows route
  4. On anything else: open the xdelta-wasm patcher.
    The xdelta-wasm patcher, before you choose anything
    The xdelta-wasm patcher, before you choose anything
  5. Set the two files. Source file is your HeartGold ROM; Patch file is LPDS.xdelta. Hit Apply Patch and it produces the patched ROM as a download.
    Source file and patch file both set, ready to apply
    Source file and patch file both set, ready to apply
  6. Rename it. The output is named after your input — Pokemon - HeartGold Version (USA)-patched.nds, around 268 MB. Rename it to something like Pokemon_Light_Platinum_DS.nds so you can tell them apart.
    The patched ROM — your input name plus “-patched”
    The patched ROM — your input name plus “-patched”

Load that file in melonDS and you're playing.