This is a native Linux ARM64 Steam Frame port kit for Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow. It adapts the pinned Polymatic Gen1Recomp engine and DRAMALESS_SHAPE renderer to OpenXR. It runs on the headset; no PC streaming is needed. This is the Red/Blue/Yellow source fork, not the current Gen 2/3 engine.

EXPERIMENTAL. This is a personal-use kit and remains a work in progress. You need your own supported Pokémon Red, Blue or Yellow ROM, which you import through the game. The kit contains no ROM, extracted game data or saves.

Want to play on Steam Frame? Download the prebuilt ARM64 runtime and setup helper from the v0.2.1 release; no compiler is needed. The helper sets up the matching public engine and renderer. You still need your own supported Pokémon Red, Blue or Yellow ROM.

What the Frame port adds

Head-tracked stereo views for the overworld and staged battles.
A shared physical screen for the launcher and other flat game screens, with a laser pointer for launcher navigation.
Original menu, dialogue and battle artwork projected as a head-level HUD.
ABOVE, first-person and third-person camera choices, with recentering and optional camera setback.
Frame, Touch and Index launcher bindings alongside the game's usual controls.
A native ARM64 LÖVE runtime, OpenXR bridge and packaging tools for local installation.

HUD readability and performance still need work in the current renderer.

Import your game and build

Import a legally obtained 1 MiB .gb or .gbc US Red, Blue or Yellow ROM in the launcher. Yellow images are commonly .gbc. For native Frame launches, put the ROM directly in the install's roms/ folder beside game/ and tools/; the headset has no desktop file picker. Flat Linux desktop runs keep their native picker. The importer also checks the install root, legacy game/ folder and app save folder for existing drop workflows. The tools and installation guide has the host prerequisites, ARM64 Buildx steps, assembly, packaging, first install and Steam launch instructions. The kit builds the public runtime and bridge; your assembled game stays outside the source kit.

For a quick outline, build the ARM64 runtime and bridge with Docker Buildx, fetch the pinned engine and renderer sources into a separate directory, assemble the local game, and package the result. Launch the assembled game from its Steam library entry so SteamVR supplies the controller runtime.

The architecture notes explain the stereo camera, launcher screen, HUD and battle rendering. The pre-PR0 README is preserved in README_PRE_PR0.md.

Download and install

The v0.2.1 release includes the built ARM64 runtime and VR bridge. You don't need Docker, a compiler or a Mac to use it.

Extract the archive into a new folder and run setup there:

cd /path/to/new-install
bash tools/SETUP-GAME.sh
mkdir -p roms

Setup needs Git, Python 3, patch and an internet connection; it downloads the matching public engine and renderer and applies the included Frame changes. It doesn't download a ROM. Put your own supported ROM directly in the new roms/ folder. Add tools/LAUNCH-STEAM-FRAME.sh to Steam on the Frame or upload the complete folder with SteamOS Devkit Client using Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 ARM64 (Sniper). In the launcher, choose Import ROM, wait for extraction to complete, then choose Play.

To update an existing install, set up v0.2.1 in a fresh folder, then point the existing Steam shortcut or SteamOS Devkit upload at that folder. Do not unpack over an existing game/ directory: SETUP-GAME.sh deliberately refuses to replace one. The launcher keeps game data under its XDG data root, which defaults to $HOME/.local/share/Gen1RecompFrame; keep that folder, and keep the same GEN1_FRAME_DATA_DIR value if you customized it, to retain saves and caches.

The importer recognizes these clean US ROM SHA-1 hashes and requires each image to be exactly 1 MiB:

Game	SHA-1
Pokémon Red	`ea9bcae617fdf159b045185467ae58b2e4a48b9a`
Pokémon Blue	`d7037c83e1ae5b39bde3c30787637ba1d4c48ce2`
Pokémon Yellow	`cc7d03262ebfaf2f06772c1a480c7d9d5f4a38e1`

For troubleshooting, the image must be exactly 1 MiB. An unsupported-ROM error includes the observed SHA-1; compare it with the table and use a clean, untrimmed US dump. For a read error, check that the file is readable. The folder scan is limited to files directly inside roms/ and the compatibility roots above; it doesn't search subfolders or move, copy or delete ROMs. If you copy a ROM while the game is open, press Import ROM again to retry.

Credits and licenses

The engine is based on MIT-licensed Polymatic Gen1Recomp; the renderer comes from DRAMALESS_SHAPE. My original Frame kit and VR additions use the MIT license. The upstream notices are retained; their pinned versions and runtime licenses are listed in LICENSES.md. The kit does not include Pokémon game data; supply it from your own copy.