In an act of mercy, the Pokémon you pick doesn't matter, and the fight can be completed either way. In both cases, Ditto "blocks" the first attack to transform.
The real battle begins once the Ditto has transformed. The same attacks are presented, with "Gnaw" being the most likely choice seeing as you're now fighting an electric type Pokémon again.
Both attacks actually work, as Ditto is not a particularly strong Pokémon.
The nameless gym leader (and there's no gym leader with a Ditto to assume who they're intended to be) is defeated,
You better believe I went back to try the fight with Diglett as well.
In the games, Dig is a move that takes two turns. The first turn, the Pokémon burrows underground, making it immune from any retaliation, and then on the second it pops back up and strikes. Against poor AI, it's a very good move.
Once again, it seems like the correct choice, a free dodge and then an attack, but nope.
Instead it just does nothing at all, and Diglett gets blinded by a Mud Slap instead.
Mud Slapping the Diglett yourself is the correct move, and instantly wins the fight.
Ash finds himself in a crowd of randomly moving trainers. This is apparently Victory Road, the path to the Pokémon League and final battles.
Internally, it's also called a maze, but in reality it's just two split paths through empty boards that are both linear and converge on the same spot. Thank goodness.
Just a few unnecessary boards later, Ash arrives.
There's an empty spot to sign in with no people, just a few purple decorations.
Decorations that you can steal for some weird reason? They give 5 points if taken and have no impact on anything.
And then you climb.
And then you ride up whatever this thing is supposed to be.
And then you arrive on this awful board where everything is constantly flashing. DosBox was very much not a fan and the game lagged immensely.
You will be battling me.
A member of the orange group.
I went from all the way from the orange
islands just to challenge you.
If you are ready,
we can begin!
Finally! Although this seems to be going from the anime more than the main games, with Ash fighting against some random trainers to proceed up the ladder.
Just what this game needed, more electric types. The player is forced to use Pikachu here, despite the easy and obvious puzzle setup of having Diglett use dig while Electrode self-destructs.
Oddly, "Gnaw" is spelled incorrectly here when it wasn't earlier.
It's very derivative of the Raichu fight, though this time you're supposed to use two quick attacks rather than mixing things up.
This random trainer is also the first time there's a battle with more than one Pokémon. For the second half, Diglett has to face off against this amazing looking Jigglypuff.
It is so readily apparent that Burak enjoyed the anime.
I don't know what they have against the move Dig though. Also what happened to Pikachu!
THIS IS LITERALLY THE EXACT SETUP YOU WOULD USE FOR MAKING DIG THE CORRECT MOVE.
I just cannot believe Ash Ketchum.
Here is your championship trophe.
You may go home now.
You are a true Pokémon master!
If you are ready,
we can claim your prize!
That's all there is to it. Congratulations on winning the Indigo league.
The game ends with Ash excitedly running home to tell his mother the good news.
What an extremely fast paced game. Cramming all of Kanto into one ZZT game would definitely have been a bit much, but there's really so little here.
Of course, this is a Twin Pack, so there's a whole second game to play!
Er...
Wait.
Really?
The second game is a "Christmas Special" which gives everybody Santa hats and changes the grass to snow. It's amazing. This also makes me think that the unreleased Pokémon Vs. The Simpsons would have just been this game but Lt. Surge is Homer or something. We were robbed.
Also a big fan of the trainer you battle with in the final fight wearing a Santa hat in both versions.
Final Thoughts
Another rough ZZT game! I shouldn't need to tell you that this is one to skip. If you're looking for an RPG in ZZT, this is some bottom of the barrel stuff. However, where the game does succeed, is in being a wonderful example of a game that only exists because ZZT was available.
Pokémon absolutely left an impression on the kids that played it. The sheer saturation of that era with games, books, waffles, trading cards, toys, anime, and pretty much anything else you could paste official artwork of Pikachu on made it no surprise that kids would want to produce their own Pokémon content.
ZZT is far from the ideal tool to make your own Pokémon game, but in the early 2000s, when you're just barely in middle school, it's one of the only ones. This is a creative endeavor that otherwise wouldn't have been seen.
