Pokémon in 3D on Android: Gen1Recomp + VoxelMod

Gen1Recomp is a native re-implementation of the original Pokémon games — it doesn’t emulate the Game Boy, it rebuilds the game from your ROM and runs it natively. Add the VoxelMod and you get a fully explorable 3D Kanto, with a camera you control. Best of all: it runs on Android phones in about ten minutes.

What you need

• Android phone (any semi-modern one handles this fine)
• A Pokémon Red, Blue or Yellow ROM (.gb / .gbc)
• The Gen1Recomp Android app (.apk)
• The VoxelMod (a .mod.zip file)

Step 1 — Get Gen1Recomp for Android

1. Go to gen1recomp.com/download/.
2. Find the Android build and download the .apk.
3. Install it. Android will warn about sideloading apps from outside the App Store — tap Allow / Install anyway if it offers that, or install via a file manager if it blocks direct install.

Gen1Recomp needs the ROMs you provide — it doesn’t include game content. Use a ROM you legally own.

Step 2 — Import your Pokémon ROM

1. Open Gen1Recomp.
2. On the home screen, pick Red, Blue or Yellow (choose the one matching your ROM’s language/version).
3. Tap Import ROM and select your .gb file.
4. The UI confirms the ROM and shows Play in the bar at the bottom.

If it says the ROM doesn’t match — you picked the wrong version. A US Red ROM must be imported as “Red”. Language mismatches (e.g. JP ROM selected as US) will also be rejected.

Step 3 — Get the VoxelMod

The 3D comes from DramaticShapeVoxelMod (and its maintained fork Dramaless Shape). It’s distributed as a .mod.zip.

1. From the Gen1Recomp site, download the VoxelMod package. Look for the Dramatic Shape / Dramaless Shape release on GitHub, or use the preserved VoxelMod builds on gen1recomp.com if the main line is down.
2. Keep it as a zip. Don’t unzip it.
3. Save it somewhere easy to find, like Downloads.

Step 4 — Install the mod

1. In Gen1Recomp, open the menu (the row of icons at the top. The grid of squares near “Y” is the Mods section).
2. Tap Import mod.zip (or Mods → Import).
3. Select your dramaticshapevoxelmod(...).zip.
4. The mod appears in the list, labelled Dramatic Shape Voxel Mod.
5. Enable it — tap it / toggle it on.

Step 5 — Turn on the 3D view and camera

1. Start your game.
2. Open the game’s settings / mod menu.
3. Enable the 3D view (voxel rendering of the overworld). The default may be flat until you turn this on the first time.
4. Find the camera options:
   • Camera mode: overhead vs 1st/3rd person (follow-behind). Third-person gives the modern-Pokémon feel.
   • Look controls: drag to look around; Y-CONTROL INVERT if your vertical look feels reversed.
   • Zoom / curvature / palette: tune how close and warm the world looks.
5. Save and restart the game to apply a clean boot.

Making it run well on a phone

• Lower zoom/effects if it feels heavy — the voxel renderer is doing real work every frame.
• Use a Bluetooth controller for the smoothest camera control; touch drag is fine but a stick is nicer for the 3D view.
• If the mod menu feels cramped on a small screen, rotate to landscape.

Troubleshooting

• “Can’t import” the mod — the mod.zip must contain the mod’s own folder/mod.json at its root. Re-download from a known-good release.
• World still flat — the mod is imported but not enabled, or 3D view is off in settings. Check both.
• Game runs but mod crashes it — try an older VoxelMod build (v1.x) — some newer nightly builds are smoother on desktop than on phones.
• Blue/Yellow won’t import — import them as their own colours, not Red.

For the Windows/Mac version the flow is identical minus the .apk step. And iPhone users can get this same experience through Phosphor — see our iPhone 3D Pokémon guide.