How did players get Deoxys, Lugia and Ho-Oh in Generation III?

Generation III hid its rarest Pokémon behind tickets, physical distributions that wrote an event pass into the save file at stores and tours. There was no in-game path to these islands; a player either attended a distribution or never sailed.

The AuroraTicket opens Birth Island, a speck on the Sevii map where a triangular stone sits in an empty field. Approaching it correctly, solving the small dance of steps as it shifts position, summons Deoxys, which takes a form determined by the game it is caught in: Attack Forme in FireRed, Defense Forme in LeafGreen, Speed Forme in Emerald. The AuroraTicket reached Japanese players through distributions in 2004 and English players at the Nintendo World Store in 2005, among other events.

The MysticTicket opens Navel Rock, where Ho-Oh waits at the summit and Lugia in the depths below, one island holding both of Gold and Silver's mascots. It was distributed in Japan from late 2004 and toured the United States with Pokémon Rocks America in the autumn of 2005.

The tickets made rarity a matter of geography and calendar, and their islands remain unreachable on any cartridge that missed the events, which is why event-era cartridges with the tickets received are collectible objects in themselves.