Pokemon fans are losing it over Gen 1 mod that lets you explore Kanto in first person and VR

Pokemon fans have been stunned by a rapidly evolving Gen 1 project that transforms Red, Blue, and Yellow into 3D games playable in first person and VR.

Footage of the project has spread rapidly across social media, with one first-person clip shared by KillerCam attracting hundreds of thousands of views and more than 3,400 likes.

Another viral post from Decada de Noventa showed the game running in VR, noting that the project becomes more interesting with every update.

However, the footage is not from a single Pokemon ROM hack. It combines two separate fan projects that work together to rebuild the original games and change how they are presented.

Gen 1 Pokemon returns as a 3D voxel world

The foundation is Gen1Recomp, a native recreation of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow created by developer bryanthaboi.

Rather than emulating Game Boy hardware, the project uses a hand-written Lua engine running through Love2D. Players provide their own legally obtained US ROM, from which the program extracts the necessary game data and graphics.

The ROM itself is not included with Gen1Recomp or stored by the program after the import process. Once the required data has been generated, Red, Blue, and Yellow can run through the new engine with modern features such as higher frame rates, additional display options, and mod support.

The 3D visuals come from a separate project called the Dramatic Shape Voxel Mod. Created by DramaticShape, it converts Kanto’s flat, tile-based overworld into a voxel diorama while leaving the original maps, events, battles, and progression underneath.

Players can change the camera angle, add shadows and water reflections, enable a day and night cycle, curve the visible world, and stage Pokemon battles directly on the map.

An experimental first-person option arrived in version 1.5.1 on August 2. Mouse, controller, and touch controls allow players to look around and move through locations such as Pallet Town from their trainer’s perspective.

Just hours later, version 1.5.2 introduced PC VR support through OpenXR. Players can move with the left stick, look around using their headset, and access menus, dialogue, and the original 2D battle screen through a Pokedex displayed on their left hand.

Updates have continued arriving at a rapid pace. Version 1.5.5 added a third-person camera and adjustable battle angles on August 3, just one day after first-person and VR support debuted.

Both Gen1Recomp and the Dramatic Shape Voxel Mod remain unofficial fan projects and are still being actively developed.