Pokémon Red and Green beta

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This article lists the development leftovers and unused content of the Japanese and English Generation I games Pokémon Red and Green, Pokémon Blue, and Pokémon Red and Blue that have been documented by fans.

Global information

Pre-release

 
Pre-release flyer with the earlier release date
 
Artwork of the female protagonist, where she apparently has a Squirtle

Female player character

There were originally plans for a female protagonist as suggested by the artwork on the cover of the official guidebook for Pokémon Red and Green and Pokémon Blue. Green from Pokémon Adventures seems to be based on her. The character was redesigned and included in the remakes of the games, to continue the standard of including a female protagonist.

No Mew present

According to the interview by Satoru Iwata with Tsunekazu Ishihara and Shigeki Morimoto about the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, localized as Iwata Asks, they admitted that after the debugging tools were removed, they added Mew in the remaining space on the ROM. Nintendo thought that this would have been risky because altering the internal data after completing the testing period meant that any new bugs and/or glitches created by adding data without recurring to debugging tools would have been much harder to fix. Standard programming practices usually discourage altering the source code and not testing it just before releasing the software to the customer.[1]

Poké Balls

Main article: Poké Ball

Some concept art depicts Poké Balls on the ground, in two pieces. This is most likely just a carryover from when Pokémon was still the concept of Capsule Monsters. Strangely, the original Poké Ball sprites from Pokémon Red and Green lack the button in the center of the Poké Ball.

Rebattling Trainers

In an interview with Shōko Nakagawa in her book Shōko Nakagawa: Pokémon Taught Me The Meaning of Life, Tsunekazu Ishihara revealed that originally, the game was programmed to trigger a battle with each Trainer any time the player walked by them, regardless if the player had already defeated them in battle previously. The wild Pokémon encounter rate was also significantly higher originally. The Trainer rebattling was omitted from the final release and the wild Pokémon encounter rate was significantly reduced.[2]

Release date

The games were originally scheduled for a December 21, 1995 release, according to an old Nintendo of Japan flyer.[3] This could explain the copyright year of 1995 that appears in the games' introductory sequence, and all subsequent games and official merchandise.

Prerelease border

On page 153 of the December 1995 book New Game Design by Game Freak is a summary of Red and Green's final plot. Two screenshots (one, two) of the game are shown which use an unseen border resembling a Super Game Boy border. In it, "POCKET MONSTERS!" is written in a different size. The border has more Pokémon on it than the Super Game Boy borders from the final game. Clefairy and Pidgey are included, suggesting the screenshot may be from Japanese Red. Kangaskhan does not appear in the border.

Post-release

Concept art

 
Early concept art by Ken Sugimori

During a gaming exhibition called Game On, early concept art of Pokémon Red and Green by Ken Sugimori was featured, along with pre-release material from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. The concept art depicts rough versions of various concepts that made it into the final releases of the Generation I games. They seem to include various battles, the Safari Zone, Red riding on a Lapras, a Blastoise, Celadon City, Silph Co., and a town with a fountain which could have been reworked into Celadon City. Some other Pokémon are identifiable in a raw or semi-normal form, such as Gastly, and others are prototypical of an entire class of Pokémon, such as a basic Dragon-type.

GameCenter CX

  This section is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.
Reason: Expand based on the information provided by Satoshi Tajiri, if applicable

A Japan-exclusive special Pokémon episode of GameCenter CX, known as Retro Game Master outside of Japan, included an interview with Satoshi Tajiri, where he revealed early Pokémon character profiles of Nidoking, Slowbro and Kadabra. Notably, they are given a National Pokédex number which matches their internal index number, rather than their final Kanto Pokédex number. Nidoking, for instance is noted as being #007, rather than #034, either suggesting that there was another method of ordering the Pokémon proposed, or that they reflect their ordering in the internal data. The latter is supported by interviews with Ken Sugimori, which verify that Rhydon, which has an index number of 001, was the first Pokémon ever created, and early sketches from Capsule Monsters featuring Rhydon. Nidoking is also referred to as マイコー♂ Maikō♂, indicating that there were either placeholder or alternate names for Pokémon before the development of Pokémon Red and Green had finished.

In addition to this, it was confirmed in an interview with Shigeki Morimoto that there were originally going to be 190 Pokémon in Generation I, indicating that the 39 MissingNo. found in the internal index are formatted Pokémon.[4]

Professor Oak battle

Main article: Professor Oak

At the beginning of the player's adventure, Professor Oak introduces Red to the world of Pokémon using a sprite that is similar to the battle sprites of other characters. In addition to this, he also has three full teams of Pokémon programmed in, each consisting of a level 66 Tauros, level 67 Exeggutor, level 68 Arcanine, level 70 Gyarados, and the final evolutionary stage of one of the starter Pokémon at level 69. His Pokémon are of an even higher level than those of Blue as Champion, suggesting that he was at one point intended to be faced late in the game.

  If the starter used is Venusaur:



  If the starter used is Charizard:



  If the starter used is Blastoise:



This battle is present in all Generation I games and can be triggered in different ways.

  • By performing the Ditto glitch using a Pokémon with a Special stat of 226 if the wild Ditto's Attack is lowered by 4, 5, or 6 stages (each number of stages will yield a different one of the three teams).
  • By performing the Old man glitch with a player's name containing the MN character in the third, fifth or seventh slots, Professor Oak can be battled as a glitch Trainer; however, he will not have a defined roster.
  • By performing a specific select button glitch in the Japanese Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue.
By 0xwas
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There are no preset dialogues for Professor Oak to be used either before the battle or after defeating him.

In the Japanese versions, Professor Oak is referred to as オーキドせんせい Ōkido-sensei during the battle instead of the usual オーキドはかせ Ōkido-hakase.

Bird type

Main article: List of glitch types

The Bird type may have been a prototype for the Flying type. This can be seen in the final releases: MissingNo. is recognized as a dual-type Bird/Normal Pokémon. The Bird type is present in the internal data of the Generation II games, possibly due to their engine being an upgraded version of that of the Generation I games.

Directions

Unused text strings within the game show option dialogs for North/West (Japanese: きた/にし North/West), North/East (Japanese: きた/ひがし North/East), and South/East (Japanese: みなみ/ひがし South/East). These do not appear in the final release, with the only in-game option dialogs being Yes/No (Japanese: はい/いいえ Yes/No) and Heal/Cancel (Japanese: あずける/やめる Heal/Cancel).[5][6] (For unknown reasons, there is no unused South/West (Japanese: みなみ/にし South/West) option dialog.)

Unused Trainer class

Main article: Glitch Trainer

A Trainer class known as Chief (Japanese: シルフのチーフ Silph's Chief) was omitted from the final releases, though like Professor Oak, a battle with an NPC with this data can be accessed through modification of the internal data or saved game data as well by cheating. It is apparently mentioned in-game by one of the Team Rocket Grunts in Celadon City, and shares its battle sprite with the Scientist Trainer class since its index number of 0xE3 precedes it (Scientist's is 0xE4). He has no defined roster, instead using the one for the first Scientist on the internal list. Also like Professor Oak, he has no preset dialogues programmed in either for before the battle or after defeating him.[6]

Its Japanese name suggests that the President of Silph Co. was originally planned as a Trainer that could be challenged to battle.

Extra field move

An extra field move might have been planned as there is an unused entry between Fly and Surf within the internal data. It could also have been an HM as it is placed between the aforementioned HM02 and HM03 and all HMs are ordered by number in the internal data. Given its index number of 0xB4 and that the highest index number used for actual moves is 0xA5, other moves beyond the 165 introduced in Generation I were once planned as well.[6]

The unused text string "Ground rose up somewhere!" (Japanese: どこかでじめんがもりあがった!) might be related to this scrapped field move.[7]

Music

An unused track has been discovered in the internal data. The music is originally high-pitched and incomplete as only the individual audio channels are left. There have also been attempts at recreating what the full theme would sound like.

Original music
By Koolboyman
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By ChickasaurusGL
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Recreation attempt
By ChickasaurusGL
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Locations

Main article: List of locations by index number (Generation I)

There are three map locations which are each identical to another map used in the final releases, except for the fact that the default theme used in the alternative location is different.[8]

In addition, 25 deleted map locations with leftover header data are present in the internal list of location index numbers.

  • Three use the Victory Road map header (index numbers 0x69-0x6B)
  • 17 use the Pokémon League map header (index numbers 0x6D-0x70, 0x71-0x75 and 0xED-0xF4)
  • One uses the Pokémon Tower map header (index number 0x94).
  • Three use the Rocket Hideout map header (index numbers 0xCC-0xCE).
  • Another uses the Rock Tunnel map header (index number 0xE7).

Formatted data exists for an additional map location.[9] It is located straight after the final town in memory (Saffron City) but just before Route 1. Its associated data is completely blank, even its header data and coordinates on the Town Map (as it is set as being part of Pallet Town, with coordinates (0,0)), except for the fact that an unused flag when checked allows the player to Fly to it. Attempting to travel to this location simply freezes the games.

There is an unused warp tile in Celadon City.[10] It is internally programmed in to lead to 5F of Celadon Dept. Store, which in turn has its internal data located away from the data for the other floors, possibly suggesting that it was originally a completely different map in earlier stages of development, which is supported by the aforementioned discovery.

By ChickasaurusGL
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A part of the internal data relates to a Poké Mart placed between the data for the Fuchsia and Cinnabar Poké Marts and may be associated with the formatted map location as mentioned above. The item list contains Great Balls, Super Potions, Hyper Potions, Full Heals and Revives.

Items

Main article: List of unobtainable items

Regularly unobtainable Key Items with the names of all the Badges exist in the internal data (index numbers 0x15-0x1C). This could mean that the Badges were originally going to be items that were carried in the player's Bag; however, as Key Items, they appear to be actually used in the list of Badges presented by the Gym Badge man in Cerulean City.[11] The BoulderBadge (index number 0x15) and CascadeBadge (index number 0x16) are the only ones that do something when used in battle—they allow the player to throw Bait and Rocks, respectively, as in the Safari Zone battles. When used in the overworld (except dungeons and caves), it changes the background music to a single channel of 道案内 Guidance; if used in a dungeon or cave, it changes the background music to a single channel of ~オープニング~ ~Opening~. This is due to the function that plays the "throw Bait or Rock" sound effect attempting to load it but referring to the wrong soundbank.

Key Item ????? (index number 0x07) enables the player to Surf without using a Pokémon. Badges are not required either. Due to this ability, it is often referred to as Surfboard. In the final releases, the move Surf can be used by a Pokémon as a field move serving the same function. It may indicate that Surf was not originally implemented as a field move or that this is a debugging item used by the programmers. Unlike the move Surf, it also allows surfing on Route 17's Cycling Road and does not trigger the "Cycling is fun! Forget Surfing!" (Japanese: せっかくのサイクリング!⋯⋯なみのりはやめとこう) message.

The Pokédex is also present as a Key Item with index number 0x09 and can be accessed during battle, much like Ash does in the anime. It also causes the VRAM to load the overworld tileset and turns the HP bar to letters when used in battle.

Coin is programmed in as regular inventory item, having index number 0x3B. It cannot be used for slot machines or price exchanges, rendering it completely unusable. It will stack if multiple Coins are obtained; however, it is not stored by the Coin Case. It can be sold for $5 each at any Poké Mart and bought for $10 each from a Poké Mart with a modified item list. Actual Coin Case-stored Coins are available for double the price, at $20 per Coin, and cannot be sold. In the Trainer's Guide (manual) of Pokémon Red and Blue, it is listed as a "miscellaneous item"; thus, it is the only item to be included in this category.[12]

TMs 51-55 (index numbers 0xFB-0xFF) were planned and contain each HM's respective field move by order. They stack as any other TM and can be sold at Poké Marts.[6]

  • TM51 teaches Cut like HM01; can be sold for $1500 and bought for $3000
  • TM52 teaches Fly like HM02; can be sold for $7000 and bought for $14000
  • TM53 teaches Surf like HM03; can be sold and/or bought for $0
  • TM54 teaches Strength like HM04; can be sold for $4000 and bought for $8000
  • TM55 teaches Flash like HM05; can be sold for $2000 and bought for $4000. Also appears as Cancel (Japanese: やめる Cancel) and hides items below it; this secondary effect might be due to its index number (0xFF), which puts it at the bottom of the item list in the internal data.

Another Key Item named ????? (index number 0x2C) and a fake PP Up (index number 0x32) exist and are completely useless. The fake PP Up can be sold for $4900 and bought for $9800, unlike the real PP Up, which is sold and/or bought for $0.

Sprites

 
The earlier Pokémon sprites planned for the Japanese Blue

Different front sprites of Pokémon were planned for Pokémon Blue, notably the ones for Raticate, Rhydon, Ditto, Dragonair and Mewtwo. These were featured in the November 1996 issue of CoroCoro Comic, which published general information about the game.[13]

Cries

Certain MissingNo. use specific leftover cries.[14][6]

  • Cries with index numbers 0x43 (Base 0, Pitch 128, Length 16), 0x45 (Base 29, Pitch 244, Length 64), and 0x4F (Base 34, Pitch 255, Length 64) do not appear to resemble the cry of any actual Pokémon.
  • Cry with index number 0x51 (Base 14, Pitch 224, Length 96) resembles Pidgey's cry, cries 0x5E (Base 15, Pitch 64, Length 192) and 0x89 (Base 15, Pitch 64, Length 128) resemble Dragonair's; cry 0x5F (Base 15, Pitch 32, Length 192) resembles Venusaur's and cry 0x7F (Base 17, Pitch 32, Length 16) resembles either Vaporeon's, Jolteon's or Flareon's cries.
  • Cry with index number 0xB5 (Base 29, Pitch 0, Length 128) is modified from Zubat's but resembles Crobat's, suggesting that the Pokémon might have been originally planned for Generation I instead of Generation II.
By ChickasaurusGL
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Text

Main article: List of items by index number (Generation I)

Unused text strings referring to Badges and titles exist in the Japanese versions, but were not translated for the localizations. The katakana used for the gairaigo (loanword) of "badge" is also slightly different, being バッヂ Baddji instead of バッジ Bajji.[6] These names appear in the internal item list of the Japanese versions on offsets 0x4A92-0x4B08, which would suggest that they are items; however, they do not have valid effects if they are forcedly used as items. The most likely scenario is that these names originally belonged to different multiple lists.

  • かみなりバッヂ Lightning Badge
    • Not to be confused with the Thunder Badge, which is named オレンジバッジ Orange Badge in Japanese.
  • かいがらバッヂ Shell Badge
  • おじぞうバッヂ Jizo Badge
    • A possible reference to the Japanese variation of Ksitigarbha, known as Jizo.
  • はやぶさバッヂ Falcon Badge
  • ひんやりバッヂ Cool Badge
  • なかよしバッヂ Friendship Badge
  • バラバッヂ Rose Badge
  • ひのたまバッヂ Fireball Badge
  • ゴールドバッヂ Gold Badge
    • ゴールドバッジ Gold Badge is actually the Japanese name of the Marsh Badge.
  • たまご Egg
  • ひよこ Chick
  • ブロンズ Bronze
  • シルバー Silver
  • ゴールド Gold
  • プチキャプテン Little Captain
  • キャプテン Captain
  • プチマスタ Little Master
  • マスター Master

Default player and rival names

The unused default name for Red in the English versions is Ninten while Blue's is Sony. While it is impossible to view these names during regular gameplay, changing a few memory addresses in RAM can allow for these names to appear as shown here. This references the fact that in the years surrounding the releases of the Generation I games, Sony was Nintendo's main competition. Ninten is also the default name of the main protagonist of Mother, a game developed by Creatures, Inc., which has worked on the Pokémon games since the start.

In the Japanese versions, the unused default names for Red and Blue differ between Pokémon Red and Green and Pokémon Blue[15]:

  • In Pokémon Red and Green, Red's unused default name is やまぐち Yamaguchi while Blue's is いしはら Ishihara. Yamaguchi refers to Wataru Yamaguchi, an art director that worked on the original games, while Ishihara refers to Tsunekazu Ishihara, the current president and CEO of The Pokémon Company and who was the games' producer at the time.
  • In Pokémon Blue, the unused default names for Red and Blue are, respectively, ゲーフリ Gēfuri, an abbreviation of Game Freak's name in Japanese (ゲームフリーク Gēmu Furīku), and クリチャ Kuricha, a reference to Creatures, Inc.

Unused in-game trade

Main article: In-game trade

A Butterfree-for-Beedrill in-game trade was originally planned.[16] The Beedrill's nickname in Pokémon Red and Green is ピピん Pipin and チクチク Chikuchiku in Pokémon Blue. This explains why the international releases contain unused text strings referring to a Beedrill nicknamed Chikuchiku.

Localization-specific information

Pre-release

Pokémon names

 
Unidentified poster showing early names for Generation I Pokémon

During the promotional period that preceded the English release of both the anime and Pokémon Red and Blue, a large amount of Pokémon were shown with different names from those they had in the final releases. Some of these names were similar to their final names, but some were quite close to their Japanese names, and others were completely different from any current Pokémon name.

In addition to promotional materials distributed before the games' English releases, the book Pokémon Trainer's Survival Guide, one of the earliest player's guides available in North America, erroneously refers to Haunter as Spectre, its pre-release name.

#   Final name Early name Japanese name
014   Kakuna Kokoon Cocoon
016   Pidgey Pidge Poppo
018   Pidgeot Pidgeott Pigeot
019   Rattata Rattatak Koratta
023   Ekans Arbo/"Nagahis" Arbo
024   Arbok Nagaasp Arbok
028   Sandslash Sandstorm Sandpan
035   Clefairy Aria Pippi
036   Clefable Ariala Pixy
037   Vulpix Foxfire Rokon
038   Ninetales Ninetai Kyukon
039   Jigglypuff Pudding Purin
040   Wigglytuff Custard Pukurin
043   Oddish Ladish Nazonokusa
046   Paras Parasyte Paras
050   Diglett Digda Digda
058   Growlithe Flamie Gardie
059   Arcanine Blaze Windie
060   Poliwag Aqua Nyoromo
061   Poliwhirl "Aquanau" Nyorozo
062   Poliwrath "Aquamar" Nyorobon
063   Abra Hocus Casey
064   Kadabra Pocus Yungerer
066   Machop Kara-tee Wanriky
067   Machoke Kung-foo Goriky
068   Machamp Ju-doh Kairiky
072   Tentacool Jilly Menokurage
073   Tentacruel Man O War Dokukurage
078   Rapidash Gallop Gallop
079   Slowpoke Slowmo Yadon
081   Magnemite Coil Coil
082   Magneton Recoil Rarecoil
083   Farfetch'd Fowler Kamonegi
084   Doduo Dodo Dodo
087   Dewgong Manaty Jugon
092   Gastly Spirit Ghos
093   Haunter Spectre Ghost
094   Gengar Phantom Gangar
096   Drowzee Sleeper Sleep
099   Kingler Kingle Kingler
102   Exeggcute "Eggstre" Tamatama
103   Exeggutor "Eggscut" Nassy
104   Cubone Orphon Karakara
105   Marowak Guardia Garagara
106   Hitmonlee Lee Sawamular
107   Hitmonchan Chan Ebiwalar
108   Lickitung Tonguetyd Beroringa
109   Koffing Ny Dogars
110   Weezing La Matadogas
113   Chansey Lucky Lucky
114   Tangela Meduza/Medusa Monjara
118   Goldeen Goldy Tosakinto
119   Seaking Neptune Azumao
123   Scyther Stryke Strike
130   Gyarados Skulkraken Gyarados
131   Lapras Ness Laplace
132   Ditto Morpho Metamon
133   Eevee Eon Eievui
137   Porygon Poregon Porygon
138   Omanyte Ess Omnite
139   Omastar Kargo Omstar
140   Kabuto Att Kabuto
141   Kabutops Lantis Kabutops
142   Aerodactyl Ptera Ptera
147   Dratini Dragoon Miniryu
148   Dragonair Dragyn Hakuryu


Text

 
"The Brock wants to fight!"

Before the English releases of Pokémon Red and Blue, screenshots were released of a battle with the rival where the text string "The Blue wants to fight!" was used. While this text would work with a typical Trainer, such as "The Lass wants to fight!" or "The Hiker wants to fight!", as they were not given personal names until Generation II, it would cause problems with Gym Leader, Elite Four, rival, and link battles, leaving them to end up as "The Misty wants to fight!" or "The Lance wants to fight!", as these Trainers did not at the time have titles, only their names. Because of this, the definite article The was dropped in the final releases, leading to the somewhat odd sentence style in Generations I and II of:

  • "{Trainer's class or name} wants to fight!"RBY
  • "{Trainer's class and name} wants to battle!"GSC

A screenshot in the instruction manual of English Red and Blue still contains the text "The Brock wants to fight!", possibly suggesting a late removal. The instruction manual also mentions Pokémon Leaders instead of Gym Leaders.

A slightly different grammar was also going to be used for other text strings.

  • "{Player} sent {Pokémon} out!" instead of "{Player} sent out {Pokémon}!"
  • "A wild {Pokémon} appeared!" became just "Wild {Pokémon} appeared!" (this change would be reverted in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, where it has been kept since then)
    • Similarly, "The enemy {Pokémon} fainted!" became simply "Enemy {Pokémon} fainted!" (also reverted in XD as the definite article The was reinstated)

Post-release

Text

 
"Oddish Cut down a bush!"

On page 31 of Pokémon: Official Nintendo Player's Guide, a different text string for using Cut on a tree on the overworld was used. It reads "Oddish Cut down a bush!", being used in a screenshot when cutting down the tree next to the Vermilion City Gym. The fact that Cut can also be used to destroy areas of tall grass may have been the reason for the change to "{Pokémon} hacked away with Cut!" in the final releases.

Pokémon Red has VRAM tileset data for Green. Pokémon Blue lacks any equivalent data for Red, however.[6]

References


Beta versions of Pokémon games
Generation I
Red and GreenYellow
Generation II
Gold and Silver (Spaceworld '97 demo) • Crystal
Generation III
Ruby and SapphireFireRed and LeafGreenEmeraldColosseumXD
Generation IV
Diamond and PearlPlatinumHeartGold and SoulSilver
Generation V
Black and WhiteBlack 2 and White 2
Generation VI
X and YOmega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
Generation VII
Sun and MoonUltra Sun and Ultra Moon
Generation VIII
Sword and Shield
Unreleased
Pokémon Picross


  This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.