User:Incineroar/Prerelease: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

There's tons here. Most of my images will come from here for now. I'd like to see if I can find those missing ones and peek at those. I'm also going to have to see if I can find any prerelease video footage too. I also may look on Bulbpedia and expand on their Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Beta page.

To do: Get and upload images. Some of these can still be taken with an emulator to showcase them (Example: Interior 3D Camera). I've been shown some assets from the game as well that seem to correlate with early graphics, including a non-standard Dawn sprite that doesn't match the sprite style the game uses. Look into these assets and see if any of them exist in screenshots. Also, should I create a separate page off of this page for pre-release assets that are still in-game (but unused), add them to this page, or add them to the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl page?

Interior 3D Camera

All buildings' interiors in the game are completely modelled for use in 3D. This is seen in some prerelease screenshots. This goes unused, however, because the camera is forced into a 2D perspective while inside a building, hiding the walls and just showing the floor along with any objects and NPCs placed on it. However, the Battle Tower lobby and the Pokémon Center's Union Room still uses the 3D camera while indoors. This behaviour can be re-activated with cheats, or by editing location header values in the ROM. Some rooms that are left over in the final game that go unused still have the 3D camera activated in them as well, further confirming that this was a planned feature.

Prerelease	Final	Final (With Cheats)
"Pokémon Watch! Pokétch for short! It's really cool!"

As well, in this prerelease image, there is a gentleman that tells you about the Pokétch. He isn't in there in the final version.

Prerelease Jubilife City

Jubilife City was arranged differently during production. Not pictured, however, is a gym. Within the game's header files, one internal name (C01GYM0101, where C01 is City 1, or Jubilife City in this case) suggests that Jubilife City was to contain a Pokémon Gym at one point during development. Anything suggesting what the Gym was to have is gone though, all that's left is a generic room with the Pokémon Gym theme playing. Evidence suggests that the gym was to be situated where the Pokétch Company's building was placed. This header and room was left in the game as of Pokémon Platinum.

Prerelease	Final

The northeast end of Jubilife City was the location of the Pokémon Center, and there was some tall buildings where the Pokémon Mart should be. There is also a large cross in the road, something that is also not seen in the final game.

Prerelease	Final

The Mart was in the southern area of the city, whereas there's a townhouse there in the final. That townhouse is, instead, located where the Pokémon Center should be.

Prerelease Pokétch

To do: Look through all released documents, videos, and images, and see if there's anything on the axed Start Menu Pokétch app. It's still able to be activated in-game but all the functions are dummied out.

The Pokétch went through a redesign during production. Beforehand, there was a larger area of the screen accessible to the player, and there was a smaller app switch button. Additionally, the Digital Clock app had not had the Pikachu added to it yet.

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease Overworld Sprites

Sandgem Town

The NPC to the left of the players' graphics never made it to the final game. As well, Nurse Joy's sprite is different. They removed the cross from her hat, and made her hat slightly smaller, revealing more of her hair.

Route 203

The two trainers on this route were also changed prior to release. They previously had a Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen-influenced style, although the female trainer on the left would become a male trainer and would face downward from the trees. This isn't the only occurrence of graphics from that game - There is an unused graphic for an HP bar still left in the game's code, possibly stating that during the game's development process, many assets from the Game Boy Advance line were used for testing or as placeholders until more finalized graphics were drawn.

Barry

Barry's sprite changed slightly before release. Before, he was styling a mixture between a mullet and some kind of 80s hair-do, as opposed to his current spiky and somewhat-tamed hair.

Route 203

To do: Check the kiosk demo for any rips of potentially prerelease content, get screenshots.

The route had several redesigns in terms of NPC layouts. It would see a completely modified layout for the kiosk demo.

Prerelease Battle Sprites

Some Pokémon sprites were modified before release.

Prerelease Textures

To do: Are there more in the kiosk demo?

Basically elaborate on this. Some of these unused textures are still in the game.

Prerelease Evolution Scene

In this image of Munchlax evolving, the background used appears to be related to the player's current location. As well, the border for the textbox isn't in the final game.

Battle GUI

Some of the first screenshots showed an early GUI for the Pokémon on each side of the battle. They were rounded out, as opposed to the rectangular design in the final. However, this rounded GUI would be recycled for the Park Ball counter in Pal Park.

Nintendo WFC

To do: Crop and get the images from the August 2006 CoroCoro scan, as well as grab the image from the ROM (It's in there!).

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection screen was colored green rather than blue. This green theme also extended to the Wi-Fi Club's menus, all being green instead of blue.

Wii Connectivity

As Pokémon Battle Revolution was announced, Nintendo announced that content for Diamond and Pearl could be downloaded using the Nintendo Wii's WiiConnect24 feature. However, no such feature actually appeared in the games, although content for the games could be downloaded to the games directly (Via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, such as the Global Trade Station or the Battle Tower, or the gifts given using Pokémon Battle Revolution, which just gave preset gifts directly from within the game itself).

(Source: http://www.serebii.net/archive/June-2006.shtml)

Font

To do: Find a reasonable screenshot to show the differences. I've only heard about this from time to time, but I'd like some concrete proof on this.

The Japanese font in early screenshots is different from the font used in the final game. However, this font did not disappear forever - the font was used once again in Pokémon Black and White, which was left completely unaltered and was kept through all regional revisions, as well as in sequels of the games.

Early Pokémon Details

Chatot

In the March 2006 edition of Corocoro magazine, Chatot was originally described as a pure Flying-type Pokémon when it was revealed. However, in the August 2006 edition of Corocoro, this was revised and Chatot's new typing was made to be a Normal/Flying type instead.

Geodude

Geodude's battle sprite was touched up for the final game, in addition to being elevated to have a shadow underneath it. As well, it is impossible to find a Geodude at level 3 anywhere in the wild - the lowest obtainable level being level 4 in Oreburgh Cave and Oreburgh Mine unless you breed.

Prerelease	Final