Prerelease:Pokémon Red and Blue/Late Development
This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Pokémon Red and Blue.
Contents
GameCenter CX Interview
A 2004 episode of GameCenter CX included an interview with Satoshi Tajiri, where he revealed a booklet from early in the development of Red and Green. It is entitled Pocket Monsters Kaiju Zukan, with "Zukan" being the term used for the Pokédex in the final games. Notably, this booklet contains profiles for seemingly all the Pokémon that existed during its conception, though only Nidoking, Slowbro, and Kadabra were clearly shown. Each Pokémon was presented with their front and back sprites, name, and internal index number. Interestingly, Nidoking is still known as Maikō ♂, suggesting his renaming happened relatively late in development.
Moreover, two silhouettes can also be seen at one point, with them perfectly matching with Kotora and Raitora, which are MissingNo. index numbers 159 and 160 respectively. Once again, this seems to suggest that these Pokémon were scrapped rather late in development.
An earlier game logo can also be seen on the cover of the booklet, with the inclusion of the Super Game Boy helping to pinpoint it as being from early/mid 1994 to early 1995.
Early Game Screens
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On Page 153 of the book New Game Design are two screenshots which show an earlier version of the Super Game Boy border. In terms of differences, "POCKET MONSTERS" is written in a bolder, way more eye-catching font, while the rest of the border is overall way more detailed. The version subtitle is also missing, from both the frame and the title screen itself. This border, alongside a previously-unseen alternate version, were later found in the source code leak.
Also worth noting is a slightly different graphic of Red on the title screen, showing him with a differently-colored jacket and raised left arm, which was later lowered completely. When it comes to Nidorino, not only can't this Pokémon be seen on the final title screen, but its sprite is actually a larger version of the one used for the intro battle cutscene. The source code leak reveals that Red and Nidorino were originally a single sprite, rather than having Red being an independent sprite behind which the Pokémon slide into place.
Famitsu Advert
| Prerelease | Reconstruction | Final |
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In December 1995, the magazine Famitsu published a promotional advert for Red and Green featuring a screenshot of the player in Cerulean City. As it turns out, this picture is from a slightly earlier version of the game, as a middle-aged NPC can be seen sitting beside the Cerulean Gym, the final games instead having a young male NPC in this spot. Moreover, the flowers lack their outline, making them blend in with the grass more. This early tile can still be found in the final game's data, unused.
Computer & Video Games Magazine #171
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Title screen captures of the games made it into February 1996's issue of Computer & Video Games Magazine, who seemed to be impressed by the games' concept even before release. The only noticeable difference here is that the SGB mode color for the version subtitles is black instead of blue.
