Pokémon Red and Blue/Unseen Graphics

This is a sub-page of Pokémon Red and Blue.

Super Game Boy Border Tiles

Pokémon Red	Pokémon Blue

Oddly enough, Red and Blue still have all the tiles which make up the original Japanese "Pocket Monsters!" logo for the Super Game Boy borders. Said tiles were removed entirely in all other localized versions.

(Source: nensondubois)

Game Freak Tiles

While these tiles are used in the Japanese version during the "Game Freak" portion of the intro, they never show up in the localized versions despite still being found in the VRAM. Strangely enough, these tiles are used in the Japanese Yellow and also end up unused in its localized versions.

Title Screen Subtitle Tiles

Interestingly, the English version of Red has title screen tile data which contains the subtitle used in the Japanese-only Green version. Unsurprisingly, this is never used at any point during normal gameplay, and the English Blue as well as all other localized versions lacks the "GREEN" subtitle tiles entirely.

Unused Overworld Sprites

Daisy

Unused Frames	Animated Sprites

The rival's sister, Daisy, only moves up and down, leaving her side walking sprites to go unused.

Middle-Aged Woman

Unused Frames	Animated Sprites

The middle-aged woman NPC only moves up and down, leaving her side walking sprites to go unused.

Middle-Aged Man

Unused Frames	Animated Sprites

The middle-aged man NPC only moves left and right, leaving his front and back walking sprites to go unused.

Giovanni

Unused Frames	Animated Sprites

Giovanni has sprites for him walking up, as well as left and right, though they are never used in the final game. In his few appearances in-game, Giovanni disappears with a black screen transition once he is defeated. Interestingly enough, if he was to be seen running away then the aforementioned unused sprites would logically be used during his escape from the Silph Co. building.

Mr. Fuji

Unused Frames	Animated Sprites

Mr. Fuji has a full set of walking sprites, though he never walks at any point during the game.

Koga

Unused Frames	Animated Sprites

Interestingly enough, not only does Koga have a unique overworld sprite, but he also has a full set of walking sprites which goes completely unused seeing how he never walks at any point during the game. Internal names for the overworld sprites reveals that this spriteset was intended for the Blackbelt trainer class, which for some reason was assigned the "burly man" set in the final games. Blackbelts were later re-assigned this spriteset in Pokémon Gold and Silver, finally putting it to good use.

Elite Four

Unused Frames	Animated Sprites

All members of the Elite Four have a full set of walking sprites which goes completely unused since the characters all stand in one spot and never walk. Lance's walking sprites were later used in Pokémon Gold and Silver.

Unused Tiles

Tileset 01

The tileset shared between the Player and Copycat's house features two unused tiles which, when assembled, make up a white rectangle. An earlier iteration of the blockset for the player's house reveals that this rectangle was once used for the top of the closet/bookshelves. These tiles do not appear in any block.

Tileset	Unused Tiles

Tileset 02

The tileset used for most of the NPC houses, which is a modified version of tileset 01, unsurprisingly has a few tiles from the latter which aren't used here, namely the PC, both types of stairs, and the aforementioned white rectangle. The PC is the only one which appears in a block, this one a leftover from blockset 01.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Tileset 04

Found within the tileset for Vermilion City's Harbor are a few unused tiles, namely a Red and Green sign, a bollard, and a water tile with a black line on its right side. The later tile is odd as it appears to have been intended to be used on the ship, however it doesn’t fit anywhere on it, likely showing that it was intended for an earlier ship design. The bollards and sign are actually present in the game's metatiles, and a mock-up using them can be seen below.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Original	Mockup

Tileset 06

The tileset used for Route 23, which was built atop of tileset 00, leaving a handful of tiles going unused. Namely, there is the house tiles used for the upper floors, as well as two instances of the checkered roof tile which is normally only found in the Red and Green version of tileset 00. A slightly edited version of the rock formations set also exists there, perhaps originally intended to represent the cave leading to Victory Road, which in the final games appears oddly man-made, even featuring a door instead of the standard cave entrance. Only the rock formations exist in the blockset.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Tileset 07

The tileset used for Professor Oak's lab and the Gyms/Elite 4 rooms contains a few unused tiles, namely a wall portion, a fragment of desk, as well as a pier tile normally found in tileset 00. Early iterations of the Gyms and the Fighting Dojo made use of these tiles, revealing that these three are leftover from a much earlier version of this tileset. These tiles do not appear in any block.

Tileset	Unused Tiles

Tileset 08

The tileset shared between the Pokémon Center and the Marts features an odd unused couch tile which doesn't fit anywhere. An early iteration of this tileset reveals that this tile was once part of an ensemble which when assembled would make up left-facing couches. This tile does not appear in any block.

Tileset	Unused Tiles

Tileset 09

The tileset shared between the Pewter City Museum and the gate houses features an unused variant of the gate houses' window frame. These tiles do not appear in any block.

Tileset	Unused Tiles

Tileset 0A

The tileset shared between Viridian Forest and the Safari Zone contains an unused variant of the rubble graphic, this one sitting on water, as well ascending and descending ladder tiles that never gets used in either areas. These were actually once used in an early iteration of Cerulean Cave, back when it still used tileset 0A. Also present is the Pokémon Center sign, which, while also not used anywhere, is actually present in the game's metatiles, alongside the rocks and ladders.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Original	Mockup

Tileset 0B

The tileset mainly used for both the Silph Co. building and the Cinnabar Mansion features a handful of unused tiles, such as sideways entrance mats, fuzzy carpeted floor, as well as a floor hole and a floor switch that was ultimately replaced with the Rhydon statues. The last two tiles make up a destroyed wall, which is fitting given how the Cinnabar Mansion is an old abandoned building, making crumbling walls right at home there. Most of these tiles are used in blocks, and the ones making up a body of water are interesting as early encounter data for Cinnabar Mansion lists the base floor as having water rates.

Also worth noting is the aforementioned wall tiles is only used in one block, which incorrectly uses the lower half of the burglarized house's broken wall as part of its base. As such, the mock-up presented below will be more of an artistic interpretation of how this block may have been intended to look.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Original	Mockup

Tileset 0C

The tileset used for the Pokémon Tower, which was built atop of tileset 0B, leaving a load of tiles going unused. Worth noting is an unfinished version of the vertical closed door, the edge of a floor hole, as well as dark tiled floor. The metatiles, this time around, reveal that the darker tiled floor would have been used as a shadow, something which can be seen in an earlier iteration of the Pokémon Tower.

A rather intriguing light source block can also be found in the metatiles, this one likely related to the lighthouse which was planned early in development.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Original	Mockup

Tileset 0D

The cave tileset contains a few unused tiles, like a small decorative rock, an unrefined hole tile, a ground tile, and a large shiny rock which doesn't really fit anywhere but may have been intended as some sort of ice or crystal block. Also found among those unused tiles are ones which, when assembles, make up a boulder which bears some resemblance to the ones which can be pushed via Strength. While the latter is an object (and as such not a part of the tileset) it's possible it may have once been a dynamic tile, much like the cuttable trees. These tiles do not appear in any block.

Tileset	Unused Tiles

Tileset 0E

The tileset used for the Celadon Department Store features two unused tiles, namely a left table leg and a dark checkered tile. These tiles do not appear in any block.

Tileset	Unused Tiles

Tileset 10

The tileset shared between the Bike Shop and the Cable Club contains tiles for a PC with a stool in front of it, as well as two halves of a sign that don't seem to match up very well when put together. While the sign is nowhere to be found in the game's metatiles, the PC is actually present, though its opposite side uses the standard checkered tiles instead of the white floor one would expect. It's then possible that the floor pattern was only added in later, or that the Trade Center and Colosseum were once on the same map. A mock-up depicting the second theory can be seen below.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Original	Mockup

Tileset 11

The tileset for the Pokémon Lab features two tiles which, when assembled, make up a fence made out of poles. This fence is present in a few blocks, some arranging in front of a wall.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Tileset 12

The tileset for the Underground Path features a few unused tiles, such as a checkered tile, corner wall tiles, as well as the extremities of lighting wall fixtures. All but the checkered tile were actually used in a scrapped underground path that would have connected Route 5 and 7.

Tileset	Unused Tiles	Related Block

Original	Mockup

Unseen Areas

Route 2

Pre Viridian Forest	Post Viridian Forest

Strangely enough, Route 2 has some unseen map details past the fenced areas near the entrance and exit gates to Viridian Forest. These two areas feature an unreachable cuttable tree and two patches of tall grass respectively, both fully functional. While it's not unusual to have some areas partially mapped-out before a loading zone gate, what's peculiar here is that the entry gate has map details for the area in front of the exit gate, and the exit gate map details for the area before the entry gate, acting like Viridian Forest doesn't exist and instead the player was to enter and exit only one gate.

Moreover, the normally unseen area behind the exit gate has slightly different mapping when compared to the area before the entry gate, with the flower patch instead being a tall grass patch. It's unknown whether this is a remnant of a slightly earlier design for this specific bit of Route 2, or if it was just accidentally replaced when the area around the exit gate was being mapped in.

Underground Path (Routes 5-6)

The Underground Path connecting Route 5 to Route 6 has an unseen, seemingly out of place bit of map right at the bottom of the map. Interestingly enough, an earlier iteration of this map reveals that it once had a staircase in the middle, which instead of being blanked saw its entire block line being removed. This caused all the blocks below to be shifted up by one, causing the aforementioned graphical issue due to not enough map remaining to fill the newly available space.

Vermilion City Harbor

Rather shockingly, the Vermilion City Harbor is entirely mapped out, with there even being crates and a truck never seen anywhere else in the game. As it turns out, it is possible to use Surf on the water surrounding the docks, though as the S.S. Anne is only accessible before Surf can be obtained, the area can't be explored.

However, as it turns out it is possible to explore the harbor by using a number of tricks:

Method 1:

• Position yourself one block above and one block to the left of ship's ticket salesman.
• Walk one block to the right, and press start immediately after you come to a stop.
• Save and restart your game. When you reload, you should now be facing right.
• Use Surf and you will surf onto the ticket salesman. Press Down to bypass him.

Method 2:

• Acquire a Pokémon who knows Cut via a trade. Now you can skip getting the HM on the S.S. Anne, which normally causes the ship to leave.
• Progress through the game and return to the harbor once you can use Surf.

Method 3:

• Acquire Cut on the S.S. Anne, then lose to a Pokémon battle on the ship. This will send you back to a Pokémon Center and prevent the ship from leaving.
• Progress through the game and return to the harbor once you can use Surf.

Despite popular playground rumors, the fabled truck parked in the harbor is only used for decoration purposes, as such not having anything hidden under it, save for a Lava Cookie in the GBA remakes.

Indigo Plateau

The Indigo Plateau features quite a lot of detailing, be it on the League building or the walls in front of it, that is never seen during normal gameplay. Given how two of the statues have inaccessible text assigned to them, it's possible that this area was originally intended to be more open, only to be streamlined for the final game.

Lance's Room

Interestingly enough, the map of Lance's Room features a small unused room in the right-most upper corner. This map is actually the exact same as the one where the final rival/champion battle takes place, although this one is set on its own map and the one here lacks warp tiles entirely. It appears that the developers originally intended for this map to be present as a room in the much larger map for Lance's Room.

It's then rather puzzling as to why the "Champion Room" was set as its own map, especially given how the passenger cabins in the S.S. Anne actually use this trick, all being set on the same map as an optimization technique.

(Source: Reasearch - Rangi and FrenchOrange.)