Professor Oak’s lab is the gateway between Pokémon Stadium and your Game Boy cartridges. Everything involving your Red, Blue and Yellow games happens there: storing your Pokémon and items, browsing the 3D Pokédex, trading between two cartridges and receiving the Pokémon won in the game. Without a cartridge plugged into a Transfer Pak, the building cannot be used.
Entering the lab
At the entrance, the game displays the cartridges plugged into the four controllers, recognizable by the color of their label, with the name and Trainer ID of each save file. Choose the one you want to work with; a machine in the lab lets you switch cartridge at any time.
Two conditions to know about:
- You must have obtained the Pokédex in the Game Boy game. Without it, only the cartridge selection machine works.
- The PC, trading and receiving gifts require a save made in a Pokémon Center. If you saved out on the road, the game warns you: go back to a Pokémon Center on the Game Boy, save, then come back. The Pokédex, on the other hand, works wherever you saved.
The PC
The lab’s PC is far more convenient than the one in the Game Boy games. It offers four functions:
| Function | What it lets you do |
|---|---|
| List | A big table of all your Pokémon (party, cartridge Boxes, Nintendo 64 Boxes) with species, nickname, original Trainer, number, types, stats and moves. Sorting and filters are available. It is also the only place where you can reorder moves and use items on Pokémon. |
| Pokémon | Move Pokémon between your party, the cartridge Boxes and the Nintendo 64 Boxes. |
| Items | Organize the bag, the cartridge’s item PC and the Nintendo 64 item storage. |
| Boxes | Reorder Boxes or move an entire one, in one go, between the cartridge and the Nintendo 64. |
The Nintendo 64 Boxes
Stadium adds its own storage space: 12 Boxes of 20 Pokémon, or 240 slots, saved in the Nintendo 64 cartridge. It is an excellent way to free up your Game Boy Boxes or to keep a team safe. Items stored in the Nintendo 64 remain tied to the name and Trainer ID of whoever deposited them: another save file cannot retrieve them.
The 3D Pokédex
The Pokédex mirrors the one in your game: the Pokémon seen and caught, with their entries. It brings three new features:
- 3D models of every Pokémon, which you can rotate;
- an alphabetical ordering, in addition to the numerical order of the Game Boy games;
- a map of Kanto showing where wild Pokémon live and at what level, with the option to overlay the game’s map.
The counter distinguishes Pokémon seen, owned and those currently in the party or Boxes.
The trading machine
With two Transfer Paks and two cartridges, the lab replaces the Link Cable: you trade Pokémon between two Red, Blue or Yellow games without a second Game Boy. Both games must have the Pokédex and have been saved in a Pokémon Center. The controller plugged into port 1 handles the whole trade, including choosing the Pokémon from the other cartridge. Pokémon can come from the party or the Boxes. After each trade, you have three choices: save and quit, save and continue, or quit without saving.
It is the most comfortable way to complete the Pokédex between Red and Blue, or to get into Yellow the Pokémon missing from that version.
Receiving gifts
When you win a Pokémon (after beating the Rival in the Gym Leader Castle or after filling the Victory Palace), an icon appears at the top right of the lab screen. Select it: Professor Oak hands you the Pokémon, which you place in your party or in a Box, on the cartridge or on the Nintendo 64. The list of gifts can be found in the rewards.
And on Nintendo Switch Online?
The Nintendo Switch Online version of Pokémon Stadium does not support the Transfer Pak: the lab is therefore of no use there. See Pokémon Stadium on Nintendo Switch Online.
