I went on Amazon and bought Emerald and Platinum from a couple of sellers there, thinking that if I was going to buy two games, I'd get the two with the highest density of catchable legendaries. I know, smart, right?
Unbeknownst to the seller of Emerald, that cartridge was a counterfeit. And a fairly convincing one at that: even I, the great me, didn't realize it was a fake at first, but it became apparent before I even got the Running Shoes. I'm sure it wasn't great news, since the seller had *just* opened up shop and didn't have any reviews yet. I might have been their first customer and they wound up giving me an illegal item. |-: They've already apologized and offered a refund on return, but I'm still trying to see if they have a different copy of Emerald to exchange instead. Either way, this person's getting five stars. 
The Platinum cartridge is spot-on, and it worked with Poké Transfer on the Black 2 that I bought at the store, so if it's a counterfeit, I don't really care. It does what I need it to do! However, I wasn't able to stock Pal Park from the counterfeit Emerald, so that one's getting shot into orbit. And that brings me to today's adventure!
When I opened up the envelope with Platinum in it today, I loaded up the previous save file to see what goodies the previous owner left me. Ace apparently wasn't an avid player, as the Sinnoh Pokédex hadn't been filled out and many items were strewn around all over the place. The Elite Four had been defeated, but I'm not sure what all they played through the game trying to do. The bag had absolutely no items in it, meaning Ace was either a light traveler or everything got traded away to another game. I'm guessing the latter, since most of the Pokémon were gone too. There were only 14 mons left in both the PC and party combined.
Most of what I had access to were in their 20s, save for a level 42 Abomasnow. The Pokédex was at 189, and I was curious if the bogus Emerald cartridge was compatible, so I set out to fill in the blanks. I went around Sinnoh, using someone else's gimpy non-team, and filled out the remaining pages successfully. Upon acquisition of the National Pokédex and entry into Pal Park, there was no option in the main menu to migrate from Emerald, so there's that. Still, I had the experience of using the cast-off shucks of junk left behind by another, unkown trainer from days past. And it was a mildly surreal experience at that.
I know next to nothing about Ace. He took his toys and left, having apparently made a beeline to the Pokémon League and went no further. His legacy isn't lost to the ages, however. In the PC was a Porygon named POLLY that just so happened to be infected with the Pokérus. POLLY is living on my Black 2 cartridge now, and will be living on my X cartridge when Poké Transporter and Pokémon Bank open up next month. |