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Prerelease:Pokémon Red and Blue/Late Development

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

Game Center CX Interview

PokemonRB-GCCXProtoScreens.png

A 2004 episode of GameCenter 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.

(Source: HelixChamber - Research)

Early Game Screens

Early Final
PokémonRedGreenNewGameDesignEarlyBorder1.png PokémonRedGreenFinalBorder1.png
PokémonRedGreenNewGameDesignEarlyBorder2.png PokémonRedGreenFinalBorder2.png

On Page 153 of New Game Design are two game screenshots which are shown to use an earlier version of the games' 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. This border, alongside a previously-unseen alternate version of it, later ended up found in the source code leak.

As well, the text "RED VERSION" is missing, presumably because splitting the game into red and green versions was not thought of at the time.

Also worth noting is a slightly different graphic of Red on the title screen, showing him with differently-colored jacket as well as a slightly raised left arm which on the final sprite is lowered completely. When it comes to Nidorino, not only can't this Pokémon be seen in the final games' title screen, but the sprite it uses is actually a larger version of the one used for the fight intro cutscene. This particular sprite was also found in the source code leak, revealing that Red and Nidorino were a single sprite, rather than having Red being an independent sprite behind which the Pokémon sprites slide into place.

Famitsu Advert

Prerelease Reconstruction Final
PKMN RG Famitsu Cerulean City Early.png PKMN RG Famitsu Cerulean City Early Reconstructions.png PKMN RG Famitsu Cerulean City Final.png

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 sprite can still be found in the final game's data, unused.

(Source: Space World '95 Guidebook)