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Text pointer encounter trick (or text pointer manipulation) is a trick in Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, introduced by MrWint in a catch em all TAS. http://tasvideos.org/4376S.html

Since then, SheNanagans and probably more speedrunners have used it for real time runs.

The trick isn't that useful outside of speedruns, though there is something unique to it (see below, where 'this glitch has a cool use' is). With the text pointer encounter trick, you can only get a limited amount of Pokémon, legendaries not included.

This trick involves turning an item ball into a Pokémon or Trainer encounter. The ID of the item becomes the Pokémon (e.g. Escape Rope is 1D, so that gives Pinsir).

This is done by changing the map's 'text pointer' with an expanded items pack, which is stored at D36C in Red/Blue or D36B in Yellow. Item 40 and its quantity represent this word. The text pointer controls a list of texts for that map.

Each map has index numbers for its texts. An individual text ID can be viewed via memory address CF13, after pressing A on that item/person/etc. For example, the "(Player)'s house" sign in Pallet Town has the ID 06. In Viridian City, the Dream Eater guy's text has the ID 06 as well.

Pallet Town and Viridian City happen to share the same bank (coincidentally, also 06), so this means if you put Viridian City's text pointer into memory in Pallet Town, talking to the sign will bring up the Dream Eater guy's text.

This is along the lines of what I'm doing in this video. I bring a text pointer from an older map into a newer map. You have to make sure that the source map and the new map have the same bank though, or the game will get text from the wrong place. After the newer map is given the old text pointer, I talk to an item ball with an ID corresponding to a Trainer on the source map.

Though it's Trainer text, a Pokémon can also be encountered if the item ball ID is less than 200 (hex:C8).

This glitch has a cool use. If the item ball was a TM, the encounter ID is going to be greater than 200, meaning you can encounter Trainers. The Trainer rosters happen to be roster 0, and Trainer escape glitch normally only allows roster 1-13. Though you can encounter roster 0s with the old man trick, those Trainers have a shared non-regular set of teams, meaning the 'real' roster set of Trainers can't be accessed that way.

Demonstrations in this video:

Red/Blue:
1) Pinsir/Escape Rope with Victory Road 3F into Pokémon Mansion 1F.
2) Golem/Nugget with Pokémon Mansion 1F into Safari Zone entrance.

Yellow:
3) Fisherman roster 0/TM14 with Victory Road 3F into Pokémon Mansion B1F.
4) Chansey/Rare Candy with Victory Road 3F into Pokémon Mansion B1F.

Map banks: http://freetexthost.com/bsy42cst51