User:Stag019/Pokémon Red and Blue sandbox

Prototype Pokédex Order


Unlike in later games, the internal Pokémon species table is far from sorted - the Pokémon aren't grouped by their evolutionary families or any other reasonable order. For example, index numbers, and  are Rhydon, Kangaskhan and Nidoran♂. This order, however, is likely a prototype Pokédex order or even the order in which those Pokémon were originally added to the game.

One of Game Center CX's special episodes features an interview with Satoshi Tajiri, the original creator of Pokémon. Here, what is possibly an early design document or proposal for the games is shown, complete with close-up shots of three different Pokémon - Nidoking, Slowbro and Kadabra - with their sprites from Pokémon Red and Green, names, and numbers. Interestingly, the numbers of those do not match up the final Pokédex order, and instead match up perfectly with the aforementioned internal species table, placing Nidoking at number, Slowbro at and Kadabra at. It can also be assumed that those screens come from a very early version of the in-game Pokédex function, considering the layout of the screen, and the faintly visible Super Game Boy border.

Also of note is Nidoking's apparent prototype name which, instead of "ニドキング" as in the final games, is given as "マイコー♂" here.

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190 Pokémon
The aforementioned Pokémon species table has 190 entries, 39 of which are completely blank and result in the game loading MISSINGNO. (see below) instead. Words from Shigeki Morimoto have supported that there were once 190 Pokémon planned for inclusion in the games. 

MISSINGNO.
This is arguably the most (in)famous prototype leftover in any game, due to its accessability in the game via a glitch, especially since doing so produces some interesting and helpful side effects, such as mass duplication of items in the player's inventory (this is due to a glitch).

The name "MISSINGNO." probably stands for "missing number", since it's used to fill in empty slots in the table of Pokémon species data. These slots were most likely from the original 190 before 39 were removed.

In the aforementioned Pokémon species table, there are 39 entries which give the Pokémon a Pokédex number of #000. As the base stats are ordered by Pokédex number as opposed to index number, this results in all MISSINGNO.'s (as well as 'M explained below) sharing the same type (Bird/Normal), stats, start moves, graphics, etc (see also: this). Because its graphic pointer isn't valid, its appearance is a block of corrupted graphics. MISSINGNO. points to data that defines it as a "??? Pokémon", however, the weight and height, which is usually right after this, is missing, resulting in a height of 10'0" and a weight of 3507.2 lbs.

Each MISSINGNO. also has a separate cry. Most of these are simply set to three zeros, resulting in its cry sounding similar to Nidoran♂'s cry. However, there are a few unique ones (see here). It may also be worth noting that each individual MISSINGNO. has a pointer to different data telling it not to evolve or learn any new moves at new levels (simply two bytes). These two are the biggest hints that these were once real Pokémon, but later deleted.

MISSINGNO. is often confused or mistaken with another, similar glitch Pokémon called 'M. They both have the Pokédex #000 hence duplicate the sixth item. Non-Skeletal/Ghost MISSINGNO. and 'M both use an identical "sprite", have the same base stats, etc. Anything that the game reads that is stored in index order is different. For example, 'M will attempt to evolve into Kanghaskhan at any level, unless it is greater than or equal to level 128, when it will attempt to evolve into Clefairy and immediately evolve from Clefairy into Kangahskhan. Also, its cry is similar to Zapdos's.

Bird type
There is a missing "BIRD" type for Pokémon within Red and Blue. This type remains unused in Gold and Silver, showing that those games were based off of this game's engine. The Bird type has no weaknesses nor resistances. It may have been the precursor to the final game's Flying type.

Coincidentally, the MISSINGNO. glitch Pokémon's data gives it the Bird type, which is what led to its eventual discovery.

Extra field move
In the list of field moves, there is an unused entry between Fly and Surf. It points to an empty string in the field move name table. It has a move id of although the highest valid move id is, suggesting that there were moves that were removed before the game was released. It's position in the list of field moves, between two HM's (all HM's are in order) suggest this may have once been an HM too.

At offset is the unused text string "Ground rose up somewhere!". This is near the string used when using Strength and has been suggested it was originally for a field move.