Prerelease:Pokémon Red and Blue

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Pokémon Red and Blue.

To do: Everything notable from the source code leak. EVERYTHING. And with filepaths.

Pokémon Red and Green is how it all began, with what started out as one man's passion project later becoming the incredibly loved and renowned franchise that Pokémon is today. As such, the development phase of these games has a certain mythical quality to it, with some of the fabled conceptual material still shrouded in mystery.

Internal Material

In April 2020, a leaked copy of the source code of Pokémon Blue was released on the internet. The source code was found to contain a sea of pre-release material detailing the development of Generation I.

Sub-Pages

Sprites Early title screen graphics, scrapped trainers, and a dozen or so unused Pokémon!

Unused Maps We know what the world of Capsule Monsters looked like!

Pokémon Data Changes to the data pertaining to the Pokémon.

Miscellaneous Data Various changes to various bits data.

Sounds Scrapped music and sound effects, some of these later showing up in Gold and Silver.

Unused Code Rainbow City!

Development Timeline

1990

• Development of the games official begins.

1995

• December 21 - Pokémon Red and Green is set to be released in Japan, as seen in a promotional flyer and a Famitsu advert. This release date would ultimately be pushed back for unknown reasons.

1996

• February 27 - Pokémon Red and Green is released in Japan.
• October 15 - Pokémon Blue is released in Japan exclusively to subscribers of CoroCoro Comic.

1998

• May 28 - 30 - E3 1998 takes place, and Pokémon Red and Blue is showcased at the event.
• September 28 - Pokémon Red and Blue is released in North America.
• October 23 - Pokémon Red and Blue is released in Australia.

1999

• October 5 - Pokémon Red and Blue is released in Europe.
• October 10 - Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue are re-released in Japan with some minor bug fixes. This is the first public release of Blue in Japan.

Concepts

Pikachu

On May 2 2018, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri held an interview with senior Pokémon illustrators Ken Sugimori, Atsuko Nishida, and Koji Nishino. In said interview, Atsuko Nishida, the illustrator who designed Pikachu, revealed that the iconic Pokémon started out as a completely different creature more akin to a "Yuki Usagi" (a daifuku baked in the shape of a rabbit). Indeed, Nishida had been simply been tasked with creating "an electric-type [Pokémon]", and as such she basically came up with a design, then the name "Pikachu", and once that was done she worked on refining the design until it became the one we all know and own merchandise of today. While most of Pikachu's trademark traits like its cheeks and yellow fur were only added in the redesign phase, according to Nishida, Pikachu's black-tipped ears were already part of the original Daifuku design.

Pikachu would also get a minor design change regarding its original redesign, with early artwork from 1995 and 1996 depicting Pikachu with a white belly, something which was only ever seen in-game with Pikachu's Red and Green and Blue front sprites, and was then promptly ditched in favor of a smooth yellow belly.

Also worth noting is Pichu's early design from the Space World 1997 demo of Pokémon Gold and Silver, which could possibly have been an attempt at reworking Pikachu's original design. A scrapped Yuki Usagi-like Pokémon found in a leaked Pokémon sprite archive dating from 1998 may have also been yet another possible attempt at a revival.

Gorochu

Also revealed in the aforementioned Yomimuri interview was the existence of an evolution for Raichu called ゴロチュウ (Gorochū) after the Japanese onomatopoeia for rumbling thunder ("goro-goro") and the prefix "-chu" used for all the members of Pikachu's evolutionary line. This cut evolution was to feature "fangs and even had a pair of horns", and according to Ken Sugimori was apparently cut not because of an unsatisfying design but rather due to game balancing issues.

While not much was revealed about Gorochu's design, its backsprite was actually found among the leaked Pokémon Blue source code files, alongside other cut Pokémon. Here we can confirm that it indeed had at least one horn, as well as other traits not mentioned in the interview, such a diamond pattern on its torso, as well as what are either spiky ears or spiky cheeks.

Mew

Mew was solely designed by Shigeki Morimoto, who at the time was a programmer and monster designer for Pokémon Red and Green. As it turns out, it was confirmed much later in an interview with senior Game Freak members that Mew was actually created in secret, and originally only found its way into the games for Morimoto and his developer friends to enjoy. Indeed, Morimoto created everything there is about Mew, writing its Pokédex entry, choosing its cry, and even drawing its sprite (Ken Sugimori was originally asked to make it, but alas was too busy to do so). What Morimoto did was when the game was just about to officially finish development, once the debug features were removed, he used what little space had been freed up to insert Mew.

To do so, he namely overwrote the first empty index slot he found, resulting in Mew being found rather early in the internal index. It was only later that Mew was discovered, and Morimoto was quite surprised to find out that this was the case, with Mew instantly becoming the source for a great many playground rumors.

All of this reveals that, in a rather ironic way, Mewtwo was originally conceived without Mew, with the latter actually being designed after the former. It then becomes clear that Mew was originally just a being who was never to be seen, its name only mentioned in the Pokémon Mansion Journals. When it comes to the canon, the two were later reworked into a "perfect original being and imperfect clone" duo.

Conception

The idea of Pokémon all started with the childhood of one man: Satoshi Tajiri. Born in 1965 in Machida, Tokyo, he spent his childhood roaming the then rural area, namely catching and collecting bugs, his favorite hobby. However, as the years went by, so did urbanization, forcing Tajiri to leave the dwindling insect population and find his next passion. Tajiri soon found himself sucked in the world of arcades and video games, this newfound obsession inciting him, due to the lack of media surrounding the topic, to create a fanzine which would share tips and tricks about certain games. This magazine, which he named "Game Freak", slowly took off over time, which led to Tajiri meeting a young artist by the name of Ken Sugimori, who, unbeknownst to all, would also end up an essential aspect of what would later become Pokémon.

However, as Game Freak grew, so did Tajiri's frustration with the video games of the time, finding them generally unpolished. He then thought of creating his own game, which, as 1989 rolled around, finally started to take form as Nintendo released the Game Boy. Upon witnessing its technicalities, namely the connectivity brought about by the link cable, with Tajiri immediately thinking about living creatures traveling from one console to the other thanks to said cable. Soon after, Tajiri and Sugimori turned their self-published fanzine business into the eponymous video game company.

Originally geared toward puzzle games, the success of Square's The Final Fantasy Legend cemented Tajiri and his passion project of an RPG. Tajiri took his childhood love for critter collecting, as well kaiju and superhero TV shows, and pitched the project he dreamed of for so long: Capsule Monster.

1989 - 1990

Capsule Monster Pitch

Capsule Monster was indeed the original name of the project, with the "Capumon" stored in "capsules" similar to ones found in machines and clearly inspired by Ultraman's "Capsule Kaiju". However, the great similarity in both name and concept to the latter caused Game Freak to ultimately run into troubles when it came to copyrighting the project, prompting a renaming to "Pocket Monster", or "Pokémon" for short.

Pitched along the project was an illustrated booklet, also known as Capsule Monster, which provided numerous sketches, concept art, and even a concept pitch! This fabled folder, seen partially in the TV show "Game Center CX" and later in a 2019 edition of Famitsu, though dated to 1990 on both the cover and the Kanto layout map, this document is most likely comprised of elements from visibly different stages of development. The contents of the booklet will be described below:

Cover Art

Caption: Game Freak Inc. 1990 – Producer: Satoshi Tajiri

The cover illustration, which depicts a trainer sending out a lindwurm-like creature to battle a stubby reptilian creature. These were likely one-off designs meant to showcase the look of a battle. This scene is also either an early look at, or an inspiration for the games' intro cutscene, which in the final release shows a Nidorino fighting a Gengar.

Technical Details

Project name	 CAPSULE MONSTERS


Details		
Nintendo Game Boy ROM package

Size
2M Bit ROM battery backup
64 K SRAM



●Aim
A game that makes the most of the characteristics of the Game Boy, and a game that is interesting because it is a Game Boy game. We want to make the most out of that image.

① One of the characteristics and features of the Game Boy is its Link cable. We use the Link Cable as the key to creating new ways to play using it. We will purse new game mechanics that are unique to the system, rather than following the concept of the Famicom.

② Moreover, we propose new opportunities for children to communicate with each other beyond the LCD screen and to the world. Think of this as a proposal for communication in a broader sense in the real world, not only in terms of game design, but also in terms of oral communication, interaction with friends, and game relationships.

③ We tried to reexamine the meaning of "money" in this hypothetical game world. We hope this will be a small hint for children to broaden their thinking from the exchange value to the value of "money" and "things" in the real world.

The aim of the project in its basic technical basis.

Concept Pitch

A (Hypothetical) Story Set in the Not-So-Distant Future...

It’s been a month since the release of Capsule Monsters, a monster game that incorporates RPG elements into a dungeon-covered overworld. You know those vending machines that sit in front of candy stores and toy shops selling capsule toys called "gashapon", right? I guess I could describe the game as being similar to the excitement you get from collecting those capsules.

In Capsule Monsters, 200 types of virtual monsters live in equally virtual underground dungeons on the Game Boy. The game's hero can befriend these monsters and win them over to his side by increasing his Charisma, a game parameter not yet widely known among Japanese audiences. Charisma is featured in the Wizardry series, but it seems like Japanese games have yet to make use of it. Naturally, Capsule Monsters also allows you to capture creatures alive rather than defeating them in battle, as you've done in RPGs up till now.

The roster of over 200 types of monsters includes creatures that you won't necessarily encounter, creatures who will choose not to ally with you, and creatures who you’ll miss the chance to encounter entirely, and thus never be able to catch. My friends and I call these "mirage monsters".

It just so happens that I have three Green Dragons, which only appear very rarely in the corner of an underground dungeon, four levels down. In order to catch just one of these mirage monsters, players of a certain level have to spend an average of two hours wandering around a particular area. My friend, Takuji, doesn't have any Green Dragons, but he is allied with two Fireflies instead.

In class, discussion about Capsule Monsters really heats up after the bell rings. Who has which illusory characters? How many? We're not just bragging, exactly. Once my friends and I come to an agreement, we connect our Game Boys via Link Cable and then we can use it to trade monsters. That's why we get excited, because we’re negotiating which monsters to trade for what, and how many.

Takuji and I finally finished negotiating. He'd agreed to trade one of his Fireflies for two of my Green Dragons. But I still felt like our exchange was a little unbalanced. I asked if he wouldn't mind adding five Powerkings, monsters with the strength you might expect to see in soldiers, and we finally struck a bargain. Powerkings have a high encounter rate, and you'll quickly run into them if you wander around dungeons. They're strong, though, and the theory is that, if you have a lot of them, you can put them to work as soldiers when you run into other monsters. Takuji and I hooked up the Link Cable and traded monsters. The Game Boy plays sound effects as the monster data is being transferred, so we could hear the monsters' cries.

Word of mouth has turned Capsule Monsters into a hit. While I was riding the train to school, I discovered that students from other schools played too. I pulled my Link Cable out of my school bag as I addressed them. "Excuse me." I said. "I have a Firefly and a Green Dragon. What do you guys have? How about a trade?"

The concept pitch, which was meant to give off the cultural impact the game was aiming for. While things mostly line up, some peculiar differences can be noted. Namely, underground dungeon exploration seems to have been one of the game's main selling point, which eventually evolved into the idea of exploring the region to complete the Pokédex. The idea for the "Charisma" stat was scrapped entirely, and so was the concept of "creatures who will choose not to ally with you". Meanwhile, the idea of monsters "which only appear very rarely in a [dungeon corner]" was thankfully never implemented (with the only outlier being Generation III and IV's elusive way of catching Feebas). The number of Pokémon was also reduced down to 150, and it appears that the player was able to trade multiple Pokémon at once, something completely impossible in the final releases.

"Mirage Monsters" and "PowerKings" are also terms which are entirely missing from the final releases, with them simply corresponding to the idea of absurdly rare monsters and "powerhouses" respectively. The placeholder critters "Firefly" and "Green Dragon" are also mentioned, with colored dragons being popular in JRPGs, and fireflies being a rather culturally-relevant insects in Japan. Funnily enough, while these "Pokémon" were likely never intended to be more than simple names, Generation III would later introduce fireflies and a green dragon, with Volbeat/Illumise and Flygon respectively.

(Source: Translation provided by GlitterBerri.)

Link Cable Functions

Proposal of a new way of playing using the Link Cable

"CAPSULE MONSTERS" proposes a new way of playing using the Gameboy's Link cable.

1 – Using a Link cable, you can trade the Capsule Kaiju and items with your friends, or even sell and buy them. In general, there are many games for the Game Boy that share a world using the link cable. The proposal on how to use the cable in this game is slightly different from the traditional type; it's literally a "transfer". Imagine a standalone monster that crosses the borders of its habitat and moves to another ecosystem. "CAPSULE MONSTERS" will share and exchange time and experiences.

2 – As an option or as a second objective, there is also a "battleground" mode; a match mode using the cable. You can fight monsters your friends have in this fighting place.

3 – However, it is not the only thing that makes this game appealing. You will be engaged in collecting numbered Capsule Monsters and items. If you're missing a monster, you can exchange it with your friends, and it will surely be fun. Most children have a drive to collect things. Remember when you were a child in the old days, collecting Menko cards, bottle caps, baseball cards, chocolate stickers, Bikkuriman stickers, carddass, and so on? Actively collecting small items has always been a popular game among children.

Information regarding the different ways the Link Cable could be used. Mostly lines up, and while items can't be traded by themselves in the final games, Generation II would later allow you to trade a Pokémon holding an item. Moreover, while item collection never ended up becoming a defined aspect in the final releases, Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! would later introduce little "nothing items" such as bottle caps, springs, nice rocks, shiny things, and the likes of it, all in order to convey the idea of a child picking up cool things found on the ground while on adventures.

Conceptual Kanto Landscape

A really old sketch of what Kanto could look like, included below the paragraph describing the Link Cable functions. While appearing to be completely different, flipping the map upside down reveal that it is indeed based on the Kantō region. In terms of locations, a cemetery, lake, desert, military base, and the Tokyo Tower can be seen, all places which never appear in the final games. The cemetery was repurposed into the Pokémon Tower, and the city of Tokyo into Saffron City, albeit without any tower. The desert, meanwhile, was likely based on the Tottori dunes, was originally planned to make a come-back in the games' follow-up, though it sadly once again got scrapped. The sailboat was also likely reworked into the S.S. Anne, a luxury cruise liner that travels between different towns in Kanto.

Kantō Map

A simplified map of the real-life region of Kantō, the basis for the eponymous region in which the final games take place. Likely used as a reference to show the resemblance between the two, as seen by it being included close to the early Kanto map.

Early Kanto Map

Early Map	Final Map

Dated 1990 is this early layout for the region, atop of which sits an early game logo. While extremely close to the final map, a few interesting differences can still be noted:

• Routes were split up, going from the 13 denoted here to the 25 seen in the final games.
• Route 23 (12-2 here) is much longer, which actually matches up with its in-game equivalent. The final town map shows this route as being shorter than it actually is so that the name banner could be added.
• Route 17 (9 here) actually turns around and enters Fuchsia City from the North rather than the West. The Safari Zone is found north of the city in the final games, which may have caused the aforementioned re-routing. The progression of Cycling Road's real world counterpart, the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, may also have been a factor, as construction only began in mid 1989.
• Saffron City is referred to as "T", possibly a reference to "Tokyo", this city's basis.
• An extra area is listed south of Celadon City. Known only as "C", it does not have any roads connecting it to other places. It appears to have been intended to be a rather large city, likely a seaside one given its positioning. This area was most definitely scrapped very early on, as its early in-game equivalent feels rather quickly slapped together.

Overworld Sketches

Sketches showing the player roaming the overworld, as well as exploring an underground dungeon. The former has a very old-school RPG vibe, with a player exploring a shrunken-down overworld map. Three item balls can also be seen in the dungeon, perhaps a Voltorb or two in disguise, which would make sense as it is based on Mimic-enemies and was among the first batch of Pokémon created.

Mock-ups

Various mock-ups used to explain certain gameplay mechanics. Here, a "Beast Tamer" (likely a precursor to the Tamer class, known in Japanese as "Wild Animal Tamer") with six "capsules" sends out "No. 23 Godzillante". Interestingly, the menu when facing the Tamer has the option はなす (talk) instead of the POKEMON menu option. The fight itself is then shown, depicting two creatures with strong likenesses to Godzilla and King Kong, even being known as Godzillante and Gorillaimo. These are but mere placeholder designs created solely to showcase the early battle mechanic, which is evidenced by their kaiju basis. Interestingly enough, Gorillaimo's hat could be a reference to Ninten, the main character of Ape Inc.'s Mother. The battle screen itself is rather rudimentary, with the Pokémon being seen from the side rather than being front and back, the PPs (here known as Tps, likely standing for "Technical Points", similar to TMs) being shown, and the total damage of the used move being stated (with here Gorillaimo receiving 300 damage after Gozillante "breathes fire" on it).

Below is a simple screen displaying the start of a "trade", the text translating to "No. 23 Godzillante sold to Ichirou for 2000G". This is interesting, as it reveals that one would literally sell their Pokémon, as opposed to simply trading them. Gold, a staple in RPGs, is also listed here as a currency, the final games instead using yen. The trade animation, in itself, appears similar to final, though there the Poké Ball leaves from the top of the screen rather than the side of it.

Found last is a mock-up for the stats screen, starring "Dragon4" (ドラゴン4), a by-the-number cartoony dragon creature. Essentially everything is different here:

• PPs are again referred to as TP.
• The movepool section consists of a single attack, here a move called "Fire Breath" that requires 70 TP. This, alongside the battle mockups, may indicate that Pokémon were at first intended to only learn one move.
• The ID number, OT name, and status/type bar are missing.
• The word "Level" is written in English instead of Japanese.
• The four stats listed are "Attack – Speed – Intelligence – Defense" instead of "Attack – Defense – Speed – Special". It's unknown what "Intelligence" would have consisted of, all we know is that this dragon was definitely more brawn than brain.
• This creature is also listed with a "Value of 128000 Gold", indicating that each species had a certain price attributed to them.

First Sprite Sheet
Included after the storyboards are a series of three early spritesheets. For comparison sake, the first two will be split into individual sprites, with the full sheets available here. The first sheet contains the first Pokémon, which were created, going all the way up to Nidoqueen, which sits at index number 16.

Index No.	Pokémon	Early	Final	Notes
0	Rhydon			The front horn is smaller and lacks its drill motif, while the striped pattern on its stomach extends further up. Has lighter shading on its lower belly. Notably, it is also listed as sitting at index number 0, while in the final games this spot is occupied by a null value and isn't actual data.
1	Gyarth		/	An earlier version of "Gyaōn" (ギャオーン), a scrapped kaiju Pokémon which can be seen in the Satoshi Tajiri Manga's popularity poll. This design features a much more simplistic pose and design, and it's likely this sprite dates back to the time when this Pokémon was still known as "Gyarth" (ギャース, or "Gyaasu"). Its index number would eventually be used by Rhydon in the final game.
2	Kangaskhan			The shading on its head is darker while its stomach is much lighter.
3	Nidoran♂			Has a larger sprite overall, smooth ears instead of spiky ones, and looks up rather than down. The inside of its ears also has a line running through it, similar to what can be seen with Nidoran♀.
4	Clefairy			The original design for Clefairy before it was reworked into a cuter Pokémon. Looks more reptilian, with some plating, claws, and lacking any sort of curls. Has the same pose as in the final games. Is potentially seen in the piece of concept art depicting how Pokémon help with daily life, which, if correct, reveal that it also had spikes on its back.
5	Spearow			Likely an early design of Spearow, as seen by their matching index number. The general shape of the beak is the most similar part to the final version's sprite, but some elements such as the head feathers were later used by Pidgeotto and Pidgeot instead. It also appears to have claws at the end of its wings, something which was scrapped completely.
6	Voltorb			Bigger sprite, with less shading on its upper half and a different facial expression.
7	Nidoking			Has a completely different sprite, though the Pokémon's design in and of itself is identical.
8	Slowbro			Has a confused expression instead of a smile, very similar to Slowpoke's sprite. Its right arm is not raised, it has different tail shading, and its "Shellder" has a different lower jaw and facial expression.
9	Ivysaur			While its name isn't shown, its index number corresponds to Ivysaur in the released game. The lower half of this sprite matches with Ivysaur's, while the stem and flower match with Venusaur's.
10	Exeggutor			Has slightly different toes, different facial expressions, the overall shading is lighter.
11	Lickitung			Its arms are not raised, it doesn't appear to have thumbs or a pattern on its legs and stomach, its tail is thinner, its tongue is more forked, and its feet smaller.
12	Exeggcute			Has a bigger sprite, larger eyes, and different shading.
13	Grimer			Has a bigger sprite. Its mouth is closed and its expression is more mellow. It also lacks defined hands, and the shading is different throughout its entire body.
14	Gengar			Has much shorter ears and a much smaller grin, appears to lack defined hands, and has a more visible tail.
15	Nidoran♀			Has a bigger sprite, smooth ears instead of spiky ones, a different eye, no visible nose, and no whiskers.
16	Nidoqueen			Has a more visible claws on its right hand, and different shading on its chest and face.

Second Sprite Sheet
The second early spritesheet, this one going all the way up to Tangela, which sits at index number 30. On the topic of index numbers, all Pokémon from this sheet are listed with extra numbers beside their index ones, which correspond to their base cry ID.

Index No.	Side No.	Pokémon	Early	Final	Notes
17	26	Karakara (カラカラ)			Cubone. Has a raised left arm, a white belly, and different shading on its skull.
18	5	Sihorn (サイホーン)			Rhyhorn. Looks far smoother, and was probably not intended to be covered by a rocky armor at this point. Also has different toes and a different facial expression. Is seen in the piece of concept art depicting how Pokémon help with daily life, there carrying barrels around.
19	28	Lapras (ラプラス)			Lapras. Has a bigger sprite. Lacks its curly ears, and has a more defined right flipper and muzzle. Is seen in the piece of concept art depicting it being used to travel across the sea.
20	22	Wing (ウイング)			Arcanine. Is known as "Wing" instead of "Windie" (ウインディ). Has a less hirsute fur coat, hooves instead of paws, a different posture and facial expression, and lacks its iconic stripes. Is evidently already based on a Kirin, though here on the more horse-like depictions of them.
21	20	Omega (オメガ)		/	A scrapped Pokémon known as "Omega" which is evidently based on Mecha-Godzilla. Name is likely a pun on "Ohm", a unit of electrical resistance whose symbol is Ω (capital Omega). This index spot was overwritten by Mew in the final games. May have later inspired Aggron, a metallic Kaiju-inspired Pokémon introduced in Ruby and Sapphire.
22	24	Gyarados (ギャラドス)			The original design for Gyarados before it was reworked into a sea-serpent inspired Pokémon. It has a vastly different design, depicting it as an eyeless leech/lamprey/tardigrade/sandworm. It does however have a similar base concept, being a fierce serpentine monster with a gaping maw. Bears some striking resemblance to the Sandworm from Final Fantasy III, which released in April of 1990.
23	25	Shellder (シェルダー)			Shellder. Has a sprite whose design is clearly more akin to its evolution, Cloyster. Much like Ivysaur once being a Venusaur-like Pokémon, Shellder was once Cloyster, though lacking its main horn and large spikes.
24	27	Ambler (アンブラー)			Tentacool. Is known as "Ambler" instead of "Menokurage" (メノクラゲ), its early name potentially coming from the word "Umbrella", in reference to its shape. Much like Ivysaur and Shellder before it, it shares some traits which were reworked for its later conceived evolution, the extra tentacles and the squid beak going to Tentacruel (though the beak ironically enough ended up elongated into a crooked bird-like beak). Its head is also smoother than what can be seen in the final sprite.
25	29	Ghos (ゴース)			Gastly. Has a different facial expression, with it lacking the impish look of the final sprite.
26	23	Strike (ストライク)			Scyther. Basically went from a dragon with insect-like features to an insect with dragon-like features.
27	31	Mimī (ミミー)			Staryu. Is known as "Mimī" instead of "Hitodeman" (ヒトデマン), with this early name visible in the piece of concept art where it can be seen battling Blastoise. Sprite is identical to the final, aside from some extra pixels here and here dotting its lighter parts.
28	30	Karabajio (カラバジオ)			Blastoise. Is known as "Karabajio" instead of "Kamex" (カメックス), with this early name visible in the piece of concept art where it can be seen battling Staryu. Interestingly, this early name appears to be a reference to the Italian painter Carvaggio, which could make it a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, whose titular turtles are also named after Italian painters. This would also be a nice nod to the word "Carapace", in reference to Blastoise's turtle basis. Sprite is identical to final, aside from some slight differently-shaped toes.
29	21	Kailos (カイロス)			Pinsir. Identical to the final.
30	19	Monjara (モンジャラ)			Tangela. Appears to have denser vines, slightly more refined feet, and a more mischievous expression.

Overworld Sprite Sheet

Early	Reconstructions	Final

Caption: Character Sprite Sheet

What has to be the earliest spritesheet when it comes to overworld sprites, predating even the one which was included in the asset leak. When compared to the latter, a few differences can be noted:

• Sprites are organized as having the walking animation beside the static one. Meanwhile, the two sheets included in the leak have the walking sprites separate in the lower rows.
• The Player's sprites are even more primitive, namely having a poorly stylized cap.
• The sprites of the player riding his bike are missing.
• The chubby man NPC has a dark gray shirt with a motif on it, as opposed to a bland pure-black one.
• The Player's mother doesn't have walking sprites yet, nor do the chubby man and pigtails girl NPCs.
• The "Monster "sprite and the "mysterious character" are presented as full sprites, instead of having both halves stored atop each other.
• Most shockingly of all, present in the lowest row is a female version of the Player character, one who even bares resemblance to the female trainer seen in early concept art! Being able to choose between a male and female playable character would only become a series staple starting with Pokémon Crystal.

(Source: Sprite reconstructions provided by FrenchOrange.)

Monster Capsule

The capsule is opened and closed by a button on the back.


Twist the capsule to lock it.

Monster Capsule™ - Portable Monster Capsule
PCM-55R - $198.00''

A small Rhydon seen emerging out of a precursor to the Poké Ball, with its button being fond on its bottom rather than on its side, and its red and white parts being swapped. This later aspect is interesting, as it reveals that Voltorb was initially conceived as an upside-down Ball. This sketch also showcases the idea of Pokémon shrinking down to fit inside their Ball, a concept which would only ever find its way in the Pocket Monsters Special manga.

Pokémon Battle

A stylized depiction of a two Pokémon battles. The first is captioned "Yadon VS. Ghos", which is interesting as "Yadon" is the Japanese name of Slowpoke, Slowking being known as "Yadoran", suggesting that a renaming happened at one point of development.

The second fight, meanwhile, is captioned "Karabajio VS. Mimī", the early names of Blastoise and Starmie, the two Pokémon seen fighting. While these Pokémon's designs appear slightly different than in the final releases, with Starmie lacking its gold enameling and Blastoise missing its signature water cannons and having more defined ears, it's likely they are simply off-model. Indeed, one of the sprite sheets included in the pitch folder contains virtually identical sprites for these two Pokémon, suggesting it was just a simple design inconsistency.

Pokémon Trading

Two pieces of concept art depicting how trading is done, with a local trading device being shown, as well as an area, known as "PMC TR", which features two much larger machines. Funnily enough, the smaller one features not only a rather funny-looking placeholder monster design, but more shockingly has very visible SONY branding on it. Moreover, while the larger public trading center never found its way into the final releases, Pokémon Crystal does feature a very similar area, known as the "PokéCom Center", which during development even featured two large similarly-shaped machines to what is seen here!

Daily Life

Concept art of how life was envisioned with Pokémon, with a trainer using his Rhyhorn to carry drums around, another taking what is likely Clefairy's original design for a walk, and another letting his non-descript Rhydon-like Pokémon drink from a nearby fountain. This all fits in with what Sugimori described in an interview, with Pokémon having clear definite roles.

Hotel

Caption: Hotel Check-In

A trainer checking into an hotel, a staple of classic RPGs. The final games would scrap the hotel idea in favor of Pokémon Centers, which merely heals your team and does not offer any room for the trainer to rest in. While the final game does feature an hotel in Celadon City, it is purely decorative, and only features a barebones half-empty lobby.

This second illustration links with the hotel concept, showing a female trainer healing her Pokémon in her hotel room, with the machine interestingly only featuring four slots, the final games allowing a maximum of six Pokémon to be part of your team.

Trade Request

Caption: "Wanna trade for this guy?" "For a Nidoran? Don’t be ridiculous!"

The aforementioned female trainer, this time walking about, only to be stopped by a fellow trainer looking for a trade.

Shopkeeper

Caption: "Hey, Mister, I’ll take this one, please." "Lapras... I dunno if you’re tough enough to handle it yet, kid..."

A male trainer attempting to purchase a Lapras in what appears to be an early version of the Poké Mart. Interestingly, the shopkeeper resembles the sumo enemies from Game Freak's debut title, Quinty, localized as Mendel Palace. In comparison, Poké Marts in the final are held by shopkeepers with large glasses, and the shops only provide items. The "Pokémon" seen here in the background are once again simple placeholder designs, and not scrapped designs.

The idea of buying Pokémon was eventually made less prominent as Pokémon became less like pets and more like friends, though in Generation I you can still "buy" some in exchange of tokens at the Celadon City Game Corner's prize exchange booth. The route to Mt. Moon also contains a con man who tries to convince you to buy a Magikarp from him.

Transportation

Caption: Heading for the harbor atop Lapras...

The male trainer from before riding on a Lapras, whose design matches the early sprite seen in the pitch folder. Interestingly, while the final game opts for a non-descript fish-like silhouette for the Pokémon the player surfs on, Gold and Silver always display a Lapras.

Exploration

Caption: Cave exploration

The male trainer again, this time exploring a cave with his Rhydon, encountering a small reptilian hatchling which can be seen taking its first steps away from its nest. Once again a simple one-off design meant to showcase the idea of exploring remote areas, discovering new Pokémon in the process. The concept of Pokémon laying eggs would later find its way into Pokémon Gold and Silver, where it became a series staple.

Caption: Grave of the Mythical Beasts

This second illustration links with the exploration concept, showing the player at the foot of a tower, multi-level dungeons being a staple of RPGs. The caption refers to this place as a tomb, revealing it to be a precursor of Lavender Town's Pokémon Tower. This is likely where Gastly and Gengar were intended to reside.

(Source: Enhanced scans provided by Famitsu and Hi-Res Pokémon Art.)

Developer Interviews

Alongside the aforementioned concept document, developer interviews later revealed some more insight as to what went into perfecting the soon-to-be Pokémon formula:

Types

It first started with designs of dinosaurs and monsters in a super-deformed style. They had fangs and long tails, and spikes jutting out all over their bodies. It started with Pokémon like Rhydon and Nidoking, for example. And when we looked at them all together, the designs felt rather uniform [...] as the games' development progressed we added the idea of "types" to the game system.

Interviewer: There are many different types of Pokémon, like Water and Grass. Did you have that in mind from the beginning?

Sugimori: The idea came to us during development. Battles would get monotonous if there were only strong and weak Pokémon, so by affixing types to the Pokémon we were able to give the fighting more depth. There were also characters that were born of their types.

Interviewer: That means that the characters you came up with in early development were created without much regard to type, then.

Sugimori: That's right. At first, Pokémon were more dinosaur-like than the ones you see today. Beginning the story by choosing one of three Pokémon of different types was also something that came about in the middle of development. It’s pretty common at our company to have a game change completely during the development period.

The idea of typing turns out to have been a later addition, with Pikachu being an example of a Pokémon born out of the need for a Pokémon of a certain type, here an electric one.

Roster

Interviewer: Why did you decide to have 151 Pokémon?

Sugimori: At first, the game was more RPG-like. It was only in the middle of development that the goal of the game became completing your Pokédex. That's when memory capacity and deciding on a good number of characters became an issue. We actually wanted to have more. We designed around 1.5 times more characters we actually used.

Interviewer: Why did the game change from an RPG to one where your goal was to complete your Pokédex?

Sugimori: When we were writing the text for the Pokédex, we started talking about how fun it was to collect Pokémon. We hadn’t wanted to do a fantasy RPG from the start. We felt a story about a boy traveling to fill up his Pokédex was more appropriate for modern times than a tale of a hero battling an evil villain.

As seen in the concept pitch, around 200 Pokémon were envisioned, which can be seen in the final games' internal index list, which has a total of 190 entries. This is further confirmed in later interviews, which revealed that said scrapped Pokémon were also designed and likely to be reused eventually. This can be seen with some of the scrapped Pokémon, such as Kotora or the cut pre-evolutions, making a return in early builds of Pokémon Gold and Silver.

Battles

Interviewer: In a normal RPG, the protagonist levels up, right? But in the Pokémon games, your Pokémon mature as they travel with you. Why is that?

Sugimori: At one time, the protagonist would fight as well. But then we asked ourselves "If you can fight on your own, what’s the point of having Pokémon?"

Masuda: At first, the protagonist and his Pokémon had a human-pet relationship. When we started making the game, however, we wondered whether it wouldn’t be better if they were more like friends. That's when the story changed to one where everyone grew up together. [...] We designed it so that you'd feel your Pokémon were something that belonged to you, friends to you.

As hinted in the pitch, it appears that catching Pokémon worked similarly to recruiting party members in standard RPGs, with the player being an active fighter. This can also be seen in the fact that trainers in both concept art and the final games can be seen wielding whips, the protagonist even doing so early on In development.

Interviewer: Did you have everything planned out from the very beginning, right down to the little details? Or did you gradually add things along the way?

Masuda: Game Freak's modus operandi is that we add ideas and break things down. For example, at one point we took out the health gauge during battles and tried using phrases like "That hurt", and "That really hurt", instead. That didn’t turn out to be very interesting, though, and we went back to using the meters. Rather than using an idea as-is, we all come together and ask ourselves whether there isn’t an even better idea.

Mentions of a short-lived different sort of battle flavor text, the final games using a simple mention of the Pokémon using its move, though a similar idea to the early one is that of "This move was super effective!" Further changes to the actual battle system, meanwhile, where discussed, in the book Pokémon Taught Me The Meaning of Life. There, it is revealed that originally, the game was programmed so that even when already defeated, trainer battles would still trigger when walking by one. The wild Pokémon encounter rate was also significantly higher originally. The Trainer rebattling was omitted from the final release and the wild Pokémon encounter rate was significantly reduced.

(Source: Translations and research provided by GlitterBerri.)

1992 - 1994

New Game Design Sprites

Early Sprites	Reconstructions

On the cover of Game Freak's December 1995 book New Game Design are a multitude of some of the earliest overworld sprites for Red and Green, appearing to predate even the spritesheet shown in the Capsule Monster project pitch. The sprites included on the cover will be described below, and directly compared to the Capsule Monster spritesheet:

• The player character. The side sprite is even rougher, and the front walking sprite appear to have an extra black pixel on the sleeve. The back walking and side walking sprites are missing entirely.
• The little boy NPC. Has two extra head pixels on its front-facing sprites. The back walking and side walking sprites are missing entirely.
• The player's mother. Has slightly different front-facing sprites, with the hair having extra highlights and the dress lacking its detailing. The side sprites is also a bit rougher. The back walking and side walking sprites are missing entirely.
• Professor Oak. The front and back sprites lack some gray highlights, and the side sprite is way rougher. The lack of a front walking animation may reveal that at this point of development Professor Oak didn't have any yet.
• The scrapped cat. The front sprites are seemingly identical, the back sprite seemingly has an outline where its neck is, and the side sprite is much rougher.
• The "monster" and masked character are slimmer, with the former also being less refined.

Alongside the character graphics were a collection of rather peculiar sprites, some likely objects, others clearly tiles. While most bare little to no resemblance to what can be seen in the final games, their purpose may have been for the artists to test out an artstyle. The sprites are as follows:

• What appears to be a walrus, as well as what looks like an earwig. Lapras is the only clearly water-born Pokémon that had been conceived by then, and it's unknown if Slowbro was originally intended to be an amphibious Pokémon. As for bugs, they are surprisingly rare in the original line-up, with Pinsir being the only clearly insectoid one, with Scyther's original design not exactly being that bug-like. As such, it's unknown what these two sprites were intended for.
• A large flower as well as an equally imposing mushroom, both standard flora. Mushrooms don't appear in the final games, and while flowers do, they are much, much smaller.
• A large key, as well as a chest. Typical RPG elements, which in the final games where replaced with items hidden inside Poké Balls.
• A steaming mug, coffee perhaps. May have been intended as interior decoration.
• A telephone. Interesting, as telephones actually play a gameplay role in Mother, with Gold and Silver later including a similar mechanic with the Pokégear. Telephones do appear in the final game, in the Celadon City Department Store, thought they are purely decorative tiles.
• What appears to be a purse, as well as a large tennis ball. Again likely originally just decoration.
• A bamboo shoot, of which none exist in the final games.
• The remainder of the sprites appear to be tiles. Included first are a rock, what appears to be rubble, ground, and water, all standard overworld elements. The rest is composed of a set of stairs, what looks like light and dark tiled roofs, a brick wall, an "Inn" sign, and an antenna. Standard building elements. The "Inn" is an element that was ultimately replaced with Pokémon Centers.

(Source: Sprite reconstructions provided by Gira-tan on DeviantArt.)

Popularity Poll

Released in 2018, the manga Satoshi Tajiri: The Man Who Made Pokémon is notable due to its inclusion in a few panels of actual images from one of the popularity polls which happened during development of Red and Green. These polls were held periodically as to assure everyone was satisfied with the Pokémon designs that were being created, with the members of Game Freak being able to make suggestions and send feedback. The poll shown here appears to have been held in either very late 1992 or in early 1993.

Pokémon	Early	Final	Notes
Monjara (モンジャラ)			Tangela. Identical to the final aside from some extra highlights on its left foot and some slightly less refined vines here and there.
Omega (オメガ)		/	Omega, a scrapped robot Pokémon which could be seen clearly in the Capumon project pitch. From what little can be seen, it appears to not have received any significant design revision. It is visibly crossed out with an X, meaning it was already pretty much a goner by this point. Its index spot was later overwritten by Mew.
Nidoran♂ (ニドラン♂)			Has a larger sprite, a trait shared by a lot of other Pokémon here, with them later being scaled down once they received an evolution. Pretty much identical to the final, aside from the inside of the ears being completely black.
Biriridama (ビリリダマ)			Voltorb. Has a larger sprite. Pretty much identical to the final, aside from the slightly touched up facial expression.
Gyaōn (ギャオーン)		/	A later iteration of Gyarth, a scrapped Pokémon seen in the Capumon project pitch. It is seen here with a more refined sprite, giving it a fiercer look. It also appears to have been renamed at the last minute, as the katakana ス (su) is crossed out and a new end for the name is added. This new name, Gyaōn, is funnily enough derived from the onomatopoeia for Godzilla's roar.
Betobetaa (ベトベター)			Grimer. Has a larger sprite. Pretty much identical to the final, aside from some repositioned arms.
Omuomu (オムオム)			Spearow, which is seen here with an earlier name. Has a larger sprite. Pretty much identical to the final, aside from its eye, which here has a noticeably smaller pupil. Interestingly, it seems it was crossed out which is odd considering it appears in the final.
Gagarth (ガガース)			Rhydon. Identical to the final, aside from having a normal horn instead of a drill. Its name is also different, being Gagarth (ガガース) instead of Sidon (サイドン).
Lucky (ラッキー )			Chansey. Identical to the final, aside from having slightly different arms and different shading on its egg pouch.
Ebiwara (エビワラー)			Hitmonchan. Sprite is mostly the same, though the left boxing glove lacks its exaggerated perspective.
Deer (ディアー)		/	A scrapped deer/moose-like Pokémon which is named after the English word "Deer". It is listed as "needing improvements", meaning that the team likely already wasn't satisfied with the design at the time the poll was held. Its back sprite was later found in leaked assets. Corresponds to MissingNo. index number 56 in the final games.
Mankey (マンキー)			Mankey. Identical to the final, aside from having a larger sprite.
Pauwau (パウワウ)			A really unrefined early design for Seel, depicting as a brutish shaggy leopard seal instead of a smooth pearly white one. Its pose is very similar, albeit proportionally different due to its completely different design. Is unsurprisingly listed as "needing improvements".
Diguda (ディグダ)			Diglett. Identical to the final, aside from having a larger sprite.
Unknown		/	A scrapped bipedal elephant-like Pokémon with two pairs of tusks. Its name is sadly virtually entirely obscured, with the only visible character being either コ or ロ ("Ko" and "Ro" respectively). It is listed as "needing improvements", meaning that the team likely already wasn't satisfied with the design at the time the poll was held. Its back sprite was later found in leaked assets. Corresponds to MissingNo. index number 61 in the final games.
Crocky (クロッキー)		/	A scrapped crazed-looking crocodile Pokémon. It is listed as "needing improvements", meaning that the team likely already wasn't satisfied with the design at the time the poll was held. Its back sprite was later found in leaked assets, though this appears to be a slightly later design, as the "disheveled hair" is instead two spikes on either side of the Pokémon's head. Corresponds to MissingNo. index number 62 in the final games.
Konpan (コンパン)			Venonat. Identical to the final, aside from having a larger sprite which notably has more curled up feet.
Cactus (カクタス)		/	A scrapped mean-looking cactus Pokémon with a tail which is named after the English word "Cactus". It is listed as basically being a "good design", though sadly it ultimately never made the cut. Its back sprite was later found in leaked assets. Corresponds to MissingNo. index number 67 in the final games.
Jagg (ジャッグ)		/	A scrapped shark/harpoon-like Pokémon whose name appears to be a pun on "jagged" and the English word "Shark" (シャーク). Its back sprite was later found in leaked assets. Corresponds to MissingNo. index number 68 in the final games.
Unknown			Doduo. Has a much larger sprite, as well as what appears to be a meaner stare and a single tail feather. In contrast, in the final games, Doduo is a much gentler Pokémon, and the fierce look and tail feathers were elements later given to Dodrio, its evolution. Its name is also completely different, and while sadly almost unreadable, what looks like "トリ" (bird) can still be made out.
Rougela (ルージュラ)			Jynx. Pretty much identical to the final, aside from having a more symmetrical body.
Unknown			Its name isn't shown, but this is clearly Meowth. Has a much larger sprite, as well as what appears to be differently shaped arms and ears with with more black on them.
Onicrab (オニクラブ)			Krabby, which here is known under the albeitedly cooler name "Onicrab", as opposed to the final game's "Crab". Moreover, not only is Krabby larger, it also shares a bigger body and more rugged claws, both traits which were later clearly handed out to Kingler, its evolution.
Balloonda (バルンダ)		/	A scrapped balloon-like Pokémon whose name appears to be a pun on the English word "Balloon". Its back sprite was later found in leaked assets, revealing it even came with a string, which here cannot be seen due to the low quality of the scan. Interestingly, the poll's result sheet lists this Pokémon as "Balloonda (A)", meaning that it's possible two designs for this Pokémon were showcased. Corresponds to MissingNo. index number 50 in the final games.

In addition to early sprites, a handful of Pokémon are also seen using different names:

• Blastoise is still known as Karabajio (カラバジオ), as seen in the Capumon project pitch.
• Nidoking is known as Maikō♂ (マイコー♂) suggesting that it, and likely Nidoqueen, were to retain the gender symbols from their first forms (Nidorino and Nidorina still being far from being conceived).
• Pinsir is seemingly called Yairos (やイロス) instead of Kairos (カイロス).
• Ghastly is known as Ghost (ゴースト), Haunter's final Japanese name. This is odd as it used its final name, Ghos (ゴース), in the Capumon pitch.
• Mr. Mime is known as Baririina (バリリーナ) instead of Barrierd (バリヤード). Interestingly, this exact same name was later repurposed for the ultimately scrapped Mr. Mime pre-evolution from the Space World '97 build of Pokémon Gold and Silver.
• While not shown, a Pokémon listed as "Fungus" (ファンガス) can be seen in the poll, the comment associated with it stating that it looks like a hermit crab. This is definitely an earlier name for Parasect, which is known as Parasect (パラセクト) in the final games.
• Psyduck is known as Ducky (ダッキー) as opposed to Koduck (コダック).
• Drowzee is known as Sleeper (スリーパー) as opposed to Sleep (スリープ). This name was later repurposed for Hypno, Drowzee's evolution.
• Magneton is known as Coil (コイル) as opposed to Rarecoil (レアコイル). This name was later repurposed for Magnemite, Magneton's pre-evolution.
• Farfetchd is known as Okupan (オクパーン) instead of Kamonegi (カモネギ).

(Source: HelixChamber - Research.)

Storyboards

A handful of storyboards circa 1993, which, while very close to final, still display a handful of differences here and there.

Opening Cutscene

The copyright dates are missing, and so are the mentions of Creatures Inc. and Game Freak Inc. below Nintendo. The "Game Freak presents" screen also lacks its black bars on the top and bottom, the company logo is absent, and there are no mentions of the shooting star animation.

The remainder of the storyboards is identical to final, with the only change being in the board, which states that originally Nidorino was to let out a roar as it jumps at Gengar, something missing entirely in the final cutscene.

Catching Pokémon

In the final games, Poké Balls do not hang in the air when thrown, instead always landing on the ground. The smoke effect has a few extra frames of animation when compared to what is described here. The player's back sprite is also shown instead of the Pokémon one, though this is more than likely a simple stylistic choice.

Regarding the "Pokémon" being caught, it is known here as "Kabiin" (カビーン), and appears to simply be a Jigglypuff with the face of Kōji Nishino. Indeed, Jigglypuff is known as "Purin" (プリン ), and it was an inside joke at Game Freak that Nishino would eat even food that was covered in mold, with the word "Kabi" meaning "mold". It's possible this humorous placeholder design inspired Snorlax (known as "Kabigon" in Japanese), a Pokémon based on Nishino that was created some time after Jigglypuff.

Trading Pokémon

In the final games, the Pokémon and its name/dex number slide on-screen rather than simply appearing, the details were added in a text box which also added the ID number and OT name. The sfx for when the Pokémon appears was changed from a "Bwoop" to the cry of the Pokémon, and one for the cable moving went from "Vrrr" to "Bwoop". Regarding the transfer cable, it actually moves toward the Ball instead of vice-versa, the ball rolling replaced with it shaking, and the "stretched" animation was eventually added.

During the transfer, text boxes with the two Trainer names were added, the duration was significantly increased from the listed "One (1) second", and the horizontal lines on the cable were changed to vertical ones. When receiving the Pokémon, in the final games the pipe is already on-screen, in the middle too instead of the side, rendering the Ball roll also being scrapped. The "Bwoop" was once again swapped with the cry of the Pokémon. The menu is also completely different, as here it states "Trade Complete" with the options "Continue Trading" or "Return to Title", while in the final games you can keep trading as soon as the trade is over. A scrapped feature is also listed at the, once which states you could send the messages "Please take care of it" and "It's so hard to give this one up" by pressing the A and B buttons respectively.

Regarding the two "Pokémon" being traded, they are known as "Buhii" (ブヒー) and "Papyoo" (パピョー) respectively. Much like Kabiin before them, they are two simple placeholder designs for mammalian and insectoid Pokémon.

(Source: Enhanced scans provided by Hi-Res Pokémon Art and translations provided by GlitterBerri.)

Game Freak 1997 Interview

A few early Pokémon sprites were also revealed in an interview which took place in December 1997 interview which used to be hosted on Game Freak's official website. As seen by the selection of Pokémon shown, it appears these sprites date back to mid 1993-1994, when these Pokémon where first conceived.

Weedle Line

Game Freak Interview	Final Game

An early look at the Weedle line. Here, Weedle appears as a rather chubby smooth grub rather than a thin worm with a segmented body, its iconic head spike nowhere to be seen, in its place some sort of bowler hat-like orb. The tail stinger is also missing, and two "cheek stickers" can be seen under Weedle's eyes, something never seen in the final design. Also worth noting is Weedle's early name, with it being known as コカーナ (Kokana) rather than the final ビードル (Beedle)

The following Pokémon is Kakuna's predecessor. Known as カサナギー (Kasanagi), it appears to be some sort of pupa with a segmented torso, two gloved hands, curly moustaches, the same "bowler hat" as the one seen on Weedle's early design, as well as a "mouth" similar to Weedle's. The last Pokémon, meanwhile, is completely different from Beedrill. This one appears to be an angry-looking anthropomorphic cockroach/beetle with four large gloved hands balled into fists. This Pokémon was apparently scrapped before having been given a name as it is referred to as 名歩不明 (Unknown name) in the image caption. The interview actually sheds some light as to why this design was shelved, with designer Atsudo Nishida revealing that they weren't satisfied with the design, hence its replacement with Beedrill.

Poliwag Line

Game Freak Interview	Final Games

An early version of the Poliwag line. Here, Poliwag appears to have be larger overall, at about Poliwhirl's height, with longer and more defined feet, a thicker belly spiral, a missing mouth, and a naked droopy tail as opposed to the final design's tadpole tail. Poliwhirl, meanwhile, is virtually unchanged aside from a wider body, longer gloves, more defined shoes and eyes, as well as having a different name, with it being ニョロッピ (Nyoroppi) instead of ニョロゾ (Nyorozo).

The last Pokémon, meanwhile, features some interesting differences when compared to Poliwrath's final design. This design shows Poliwrath as a satisfied-looking fat frog with long gloves, "shoe feet" with defined soles, a small triangular mouth, and most noticeably a small crown sitting on its head. It is also shown here with an earlier name, with it being ニョースカ (Nyosuka) instead of ニョロボン (Nyorobon). The interview once again sheds some light as to why this design was retooled, with designer Atsudo Nishida remarking that Nyosuka didn't look very strong, and as such that player might have felt disappointed to have spent so much time training a Pokémon which in the end doesn't even look that fierce. Interestingly, the idea of the crown might have went on to inspire the King's Rock item introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver, which allows Poliwhirl to evolve into Politoed when traded while holding the item.

Dragonair

Game Freak Interview	Final Games

The last design revealed in the interview, this one an early iteration of Dragonair. This design namely lacks the head horn as well as the neck and tail pearls, and also has more jagged fin-like ears as opposed to ones akin to angel wings. Also seen here are whiskers and a dorsal ridge, elements missing from the final design which may have originally been intended to breach the gap between Dragonair and Dragonite, the latter's dorsal ridge later ending up disappearing after Generation I interestingly enough. Regarding this design, the interview refers to it as one which in the final game was made slicker and more appealing.

(Source: 1997 Game Freak Interview.)

1994 - 1995

Game Center CX Interview

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 were 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 159 and 160 respectively. Once again, this seems to suggest that these Pokémon were scrapped rather late in development.

A rather interesting 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

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 never before seen alternate version of it, later ended up found in the source code leak.

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 right 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 is 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 sprite slide into place.

Famitsu Advert

Prerelease	Reconstruction	Final

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 is actually found in Pokémon Yellow, albeit going unused.

1996 - 1998

Early Pokémon Blue Sprites

Previews for the then upcoming Japanese Pokémon Blue were featured in the November and December 1996 editions of CoroCoro Comic, which were published in October and November respectively. Both edition's coverage show a selection of the game's updated Pokémon sprites, with a few of them actually differing from their final counterparts.

Pokémon	Early	Final	Differences
Raticate			Similar pose but rougher sprite overall. Was refined for the final game. A more refined version of this early sprite was later found in the leaked Gold and Silver CBB scratchpads.
Fearow			Fearow's head is facing a different way, and sports a different facial expression.
Pikachu			Pikachu's sparks are stylized and arranged differently, its feet are rougher, and its smile is slightly wider.
Clefairy			Clefairy's wing is missing, has an extra black pixel on its left ear, and there is shading on its tail.
Persian			Similar pose but rougher sprite overall. Was refined for the final game.
Kadabra			Similar pose but rougher sprite overall. Was refined for the final game.
Alakazam			Similar pose but rougher sprite overall. Was refined for the final game.
Lickitung			Identical to final, aside from a less refined right arm.
Rhydon			Completely different sprite. Was remade for the final game.
Ditto			Actually has a more detailed, "melted" lower-half which was removed for the final game.
Porygon			Similar pose but rougher sprite overall. Was refined for the final game.
Aerodactyl			Has a more scrunched-up wings, which is especially visible with the right one.
Dragonair			Similar sprite but with rougher shading overall. Was refined for the final game.
Mewtwo			Completely different sprite. Was remade for the final game.

(Source: Enhanced scans provided by Plague von Karma.)

Localized Pokémon Names

When brought over to the West, the names of basically all Pokémon were localized for English-speaking andiences. However, some promotional material shown before the release of Pokémon Red and Blu reveals completely different names for most of the creatures we now all know and love. Namely, this poster from around 1998 reveals that not only was the roster named differently, but the names themselves were limited to seven characters. The Japanese games only have a maximum of five characters maximum for a Pokémon name, this was likely due to the localization team by then only having been able to increase the name character limit up to seven. This particular issue was thankfully resolved, as the final international versions of Red and Blue allows for a maximum of 10 characters per name.

Dex #	Final English Name	Early English Name	Japanese Name	Notes
001	Bulbasaur	Bulbasa	フシギダネ (Fushigidane)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
002	Ivysaur	Ivysaur	フシギソウ (Fushigisō)	Same name as the final.
003	Venusaur	Venusau	フシギバナ (Fushigibana)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
004	Charmander	Charman	ヒトカゲ (Hitokage)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
005	Charmeleon	Charmel	リザード (Rizādo)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
006	Charizard	Charizr	リザードン (Rizādon)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
007	Squirtle	Squirtl	ゼニガメ Zenigame	Same name as the final, but shorter.
008	Wartortle	Wartort	カメール (Kamēru)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
009	Blastoise	Blastoi	カメックス (Kamekkusu)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
010	Caterpie	Catterp	キャタピー (Caterpie)	Alternate romanization of the Japanese name.
011	Metapod	Kokoon	トランセル (Toranseru)	Uses a romanization of Kakuna's Japanese name as its own. Likely a mistake.
012	Butterfree	Butterf	バタフリー (Butterfree)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
013	Weedle	Weedle	ビードル (Bīdoru)	Same name as the final.
014	Kakuna	Metapod	コクーン (Kokūn)	Uses Metapod's final English name as its own. Likely a mistake.
015	Beedrill	Beedril	スピアー (Supiā)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
016	Pidgey	Pidge	ポッポ (Poppo)	Similar name to final.
017	Pidgeotto	Pidgeot	ピジョン (Pijon)	Uses Pidgeot's final English name as its own. Likely a mistake.
018	Pidgeot	Pidgeot	ピジョット (Pijotto)	Same name as the final.
019	Rattata	Rattata	コラッタ (Koratta)	Same name as the final, though according to other pre-release material of the time, it was intended to be "Rattatak".
020	Raticate	Raticat	ラッタ (Ratta)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
021	Spearow	Spearow	オニスズメ (Onisuzume)	Same name as the final.
022	Fearow	Fearow	オニドリル (Onidoriru)	Same name as the final.
023	Ekans	Nagahis	アーボ (Ābo)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Nagahiss". Appears to come from "Nāga" (serpentine Indian deity) and "hiss".
024	Arbok	Nagaasp	アーボック (Arbok)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from Nāga (serpentine Indian deity), "gasp" (in reference to how Boa constrictors kill their prey by suffocating them), and possibly the "Vipera aspis" (a species of snake).
025	Pikachu	Pikachu	ピカチュウ (Pikachu)	Same name as the final.
026	Raichu	Raichu	ライチュウ (Raichu)	Same name as the final.
027	Sandshrew	Sandshr	サンド (Sando)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
028	Sandslash	Sandsto	サンドパン (Sandopan)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Sandstorm".
029	Nidoran♀	Nidoran	ニドラン♀ (Nidoran♀)	Same name as the final, albeit lacking the gender symbol.
030	Nidorina	Nidorin	ニドリーナ (Nidorina)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
031	Nidoqueen	Nidoque	ニドクイン (Nidoqueen)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
032	Nidoran♂	Nidoran	ニドラン♂ (Nidoran♂)	Same name as the final, albeit lacking the gender symbol.
033	Nidorino	Nidorin	ニドリーノ (Nidorino)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
034	Nidoking	Nidokin	ニドキング (Nidoking)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
035	Clefairy	Aria	ピッピ (Pippi)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from "Aria", a type of musical composition. The final name is still themed around music, containing "clef" (a term used to refer to a musical key).
036	Clefable	Ariala	ピクシー (Pikushī)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from "Aria" (a type of musical composition), "la" (a music note), and possibly "lalala" (the onomatopoeia for singing). The final name is still based on music, containing "clef" (a term used to refer to a musical key).
037	Vulpix	Foxfire	ロコン (Rokon)	Name is completely different, and unsubtly comes from the animal basis and type of this Pokémon.
038	Ninetales	Ninetai	キュウコン (Kyūkon)	Similar name to the final, as it appears to have been intended to be spelled "Ninetails".
039	Jigglypuff	Pudding	プリン (Purin)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
040	Wigglytuff	Custard	プクリン (Pukurin)	Name is completely different, follows the dessert theme of the early name for Jigglypuff.
041	Zubat	Zubat	ズバット (Zubat)	Same name as the final.
042	Golbat	Golbat	ゴルバット (Golbat)	Same name as the final.
043	Oddish	Ladish	ナゾノクサ (Nazonokusa)	Name is completely different. Appears to be a portmanteau of "Lad" and "Radish".
044	Gloom	Gloom	クサイハナ (Kusaihana)	Same name as the final.
045	Vileplume	Vileplu	ラフレシア (Rafureshia)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
046	Paras	Parasyt	パラス (Paras)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from a corruption of "Parasite", in reference to the parasitic mushrooms growing on its back.
047	Parasect	Parasec	パラセクト (Parasect)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
048	Venonat	Venonat	コンパン (Konpan)	Same name as the final.
049	Venomoth	Venomot	モルフォン (Morufon)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
050	Diglett	Digda	ディグダ (Diguda)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
051	Dugtrio	Dugtrio	ダグトリオ (Dugtrio)	Same name as the final.
052	Meowth	Meowth	ニャース (Nyāsu)	Same name as the final.
053	Persian	Persian	ペルシアン (Persian)	Same name as the final.
054	Psyduck	Psyduck	コダック (Kodakku)	Same name as the final.
055	Golduck	Golduck	ゴルダック (Golduck)	Same name as the final.
056	Mankey	Mankey	マンキー (Mankey)	Same name as the final.
057	Primeape	Primeap	オコリザル (Okorizaru)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
058	Growlithe	Flamie	ガーディ (Gādi)	Name is completely different, and unsubtly comes from the type of this Pokémon.
059	Arcanine	Blaze	ウインディ (Uindi)	Name is completely different, and unsubtly comes from the type of this Pokémon.
060	Poliwag	Aqua	ニョロモ (Nyoromo)	Name is completely different, and unsubtly comes from the type of this Pokémon.
061	Poliwhirl	Aquanau	ニョロゾ (Nyorozo)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Aquanaut". Appears to come from "aquatic" and "nautical".
062	Poliwrath	Aquamar	ニョロボン (Nyorobon)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Aquamarine". Appears to come from "aquatic", "marine", and "aquamarine" (a shade of greenish blue).
063	Abra	Hocus	ケーシィ (Kēshī)	Name is completely different, but shares a similar theme and naming convention with the final English name.
064	Kadabra	Pocus	ユンゲラー (Yungerā)	Name is completely different, but shares a similar theme and naming convention with the final English name.
065	Alakazam	Alakaza	フーディン (Fūdin)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
066	Machop	Karate	ワンリキー (Wanrikī)	Name is completely different, instead mirroring the theme and naming convention of the Abra line, with it being based on martial arts instead of magic.
067	Machoke	Kungfo	ゴーリキー (Gōrikī)	Name is completely different, instead mirroring the theme and naming convention of the Abra line, with it being based on martial arts instead of magic.
068	Machamp	Judoh	カイリキー (Kairikī)	Name is completely different, instead mirroring the theme and naming convention of the Abra line, with it being based on martial arts instead of magic.
069	Bellsprout	Bellspr	マダツボミ (Madatsubomi)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
070	Weepinbell	Weepinb	ウツドン (Utsudon)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
071	Victreebel	Vicrtee	ウツボット (Utsubotto)	Same name as final, but shorter and misspelled.
072	Tentacool	Jilly	メノクラゲ (Menokurage)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from a corrupted and shortened form of Jellyfish.
073	Tentacruel	Manowar	ドククラゲ (Dokukurage)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from the "Man o' war", a jellyfish-like siphonophores.
074	Geodude	Geodude	イシツブテ (Ishitsubute)	Same name as the final.
075	Graveler	Gravele	ゴローン (Gorōn)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
076	Golem	Golem	ゴローニャ (Gorōnya)	Same name as the final.
77	Ponyta	Ponyta	ポニータ (Ponyta)	Same name as the final.
078	Rapidash	Gallop	ギャロップ (Gyaroppu)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
079	Slowpoke	Slowmo	ヤドン (Yadon)	Name is slightly different, here referencing the term "Slow-motion".
080	Slowbro	Slowbro	ヤドラン (Yadoran)	Same name as final.
081	Magnemite	Coil	コイル (Koiru)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
082	Magneton	Recoil	レアコイル (Reakoiru)	Name is completely different and based on the romanization of its Japanese name.
083	Farfetch'd	Fowler	カモネギ (Kamonegi)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from the word "Fowl".
084	Doduo	Dodo	ドードー (Dōdō)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
085	Dodrio	Dodrio	ドードリオ (Dōdorio)	Same name as the final.
086	Seel	Seel	パウワウ (Pauwau)	Same name as the final.
087	Dewgong	Manaty	ジュゴン (Jugon)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from a corruption of "Manatee", Dewgong's animal basis.
088	Grimer	Grimer	ベトベター (Betobetā)	Same name as the final.
089	Muk	Muk	ベトベトン (Betobeton)	Same name as the final.
090	Shellder	Shellde	シェルダー (Sherudā)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
091	Cloyster	Cloyste	パルシェン (Parushen)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
092	Gastly	Spirit	ゴース (Gōsu)	Name is completely different, and unsubtly comes from the basis and type of this Pokémon.
093	Haunter	Spectre	ゴースト (Gōsuto)	Name is completely different, and unsubtly comes from the basis and type of this Pokémon.
094	Gengar	Phantom	ゲンガー (Gengā)	Name is completely different, and unsubtly comes from the basis and type of this Pokémon.
095	Onix	Onix	イワーク (Iwāku)	Same name as the final.
096	Drowzee	Sleeper	スリープ (Surīpu)	Name is completely different and based on the romanization of Hypno's Japanese name.
097	Hypno	Hypno	スリーパー (Surīpā)	Same name as the final.
098	Krabby	Krabby	クラブ (Kurabu)	Same name as the final.
099	Kingler	Kingle	キングラー (Kingler)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
100	Voltorb	Voltorb	ビリリダマ (Biriridama)	Same name as the final.
101	Electrode	Electro	マルマイン (Marumain)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
102	Exeggcute	Eggstre	タマタマ (Tamatama)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Eggstreme".
103	Exeggutor	Eggscut	ナッシー (Nasshī)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Eggscute". Was later reworked as Exeggcute's final English name.
104	Cubone	Orphon	カラカラ (Karakara)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from "Orphan", a reference to how it is said to wear the skull of its dead mother.
105	Marowak	Guardia	ガラガラ (Garagara)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from "Guardian" in the sense of the protector of a place (here the Pokémon Tower) as well as "legal guardian" (in parallel to Cubone's early English name.
106	Hitmonlee	Lee	サワムラー (Sawamurā)	Name is completely different and only features the reference to Bruce Lee that would still find its way in the final English name.
107	Hitmonchan	Chan	エビワラー (Ebiwarā)	Name is completely different and only features the reference to Jackie Chan that would still find its way in the final English name.
108	Lickitung	Tonguet	ベロリンガ (Beroringa)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Tonguetyd". Appears to come from the saying "to be tongue-tied" (too shy or embarrassed to speak).
109	Koffing	Ny	ドガース (Dogāsu)	Name is completely different. Appears to be a reference to New York City and its pollution.
110	Weezing	La	マタドガス (Matadogasu)	Name is completely different. Appears to be a reference to Los Angeles and its pollution.
111	Rhyhorn	Rhyhorn	サイホーン (Saihōn)	Same name as the final.
112	Rhydon	Rhydon	サイドン (Saidon)	Same name as the final.
113	Chansey	Lucky	ラッキー (Rakkī)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
114	Tangela	Medusa	モンジャラ (Monjara)	Name is completely different. A reference to Medusa, a character from Greek mythology whose hair was a writhing mass of snakes.
115	Kangaskhan	Kangask	ガルーラ (Garūra)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
116	Horsea	Horsea	タッツー (Tattsū)	Same name as the final.
117	Seadra	Seadra	シードラ (Seadra)	Same name as the final.
118	Goldeen	Goldy	トサキント (Tosakinto)	Name is completely different and only features the reference to the word "Goldfish" that would still find its way in the final English name.
119	Seaking	Neptune	アズマオウ (Azumaō)	Name is completely different. A reference to Neptune, the god of the ocean from Roman mythology.
120	Staryu	Staryu	ヒトデマン (Hitodeman)	Same name as the final.
121	Starmie	Starmie	スターミー (Starmie)	Same name as the final.
122	Mr. Mime	MrMime	バリヤード (Bariyādo)	Same name as the final, but shorter and as a single word.
123	Scyther	Stryke	ストライク (Sutoraiku)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
124	Jynx	Jynx	ルージュラ (Rūjura)	Same name as the final.
125	Electabuzz	Electab	エレブー (Erebū)	Same name as final, but shorter.
126	Magmar	Magmar	ブーバー (Būbā)	Same name as the final.
127	Pinsir	Pinsir	カイロス (Kairosu)	Same name as the final.
128	Tauros	Tauros	ケンタロス (Kentarosu)	Same name as the final.
129	Magikarp	Magikar	コイキング (Koikingu)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
130	Gyarados	Skulkra	ギャラドス (Gyarados)	Name is completely different, and appears to have been intended to be "Skullkraken". Appears to come from Skull and "Kraken" (a ferocious mythological sea monster).
131	Lapras	Ness	ラプラス (Lapras)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from Loch Ness Monster, Lapras' basis.
132	Ditto	Morpho	メタモン (Metamon)	Name is completely different. Appears to come from the word "Morphing".
133	Eevee	Eon	イーブイ (Eevee)	Name is completely different. Comes from the "-eon" suffix used by the English name of all of Eevee's evolutions.
134	Vaporeon	Vaporeo	シャワーズ (Shawāzu)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
135	Jolteon	Jolteon	サンダース (Sandāsu)	Same name as the final.
136	Flareon	Flareon	ブースター (Būsutā)	Same name as the final.
137	Porygon	Poregon	ポリゴン (Porygon)	Same name as the final, but using a different romanization.
138	Omanyte	Ess	オムナイト (Omanyte)	Completely different name. When paired with Omastar's early name, it makes up the word "escargot", the French word for snail, a reference to the Pokémon's appearance.
139	Omastar	Kargo	オムスター (Omastar)	Completely different name. When paired with Omanyte's early name, it makes up the word "escargot", the French word for snail, a reference to the Pokémon's appearance.
140	Kabuto	Att	カブト (Kabuto)	Completely different name. When paired with Kabutops' early name, it makes up the word "Atlantis", a mythical underwater city.
141	Kabutops	Lantis	カブトプス (Kabutops)	Completely different name. When paired with Kabuto's early name, it makes up the word "Atlantis", a mythical underwater city.
142	Aerodactyl	Ptera	プテラ (Putera)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
143	Snorlax	Snorlax	カビゴン (Kabigon)	Same name as the final.
144	Articuno	Articun	フリーザー (Furīzā)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
145	Zapdos	Zapdos	サンダー (Sandā)	Same name as the final.
146	Moltres	Moltres	ファイヤー (Faiyā)	Same name as the final.
147	Dratini	Dragoon	ミニリュウ (Miniryū)	Completely different name. Appears to come from a corruption of "Dragon", and possibly "toon" (in reference to the Pokémon's cute appearance).
148	Dragonair	Dragyn	ハクリュー (Hakuryū)	Completely different name. Appears to come from a corruption of "Dragon".
149	Dragonite	Dragoni	カイリュー (Kairyū)	Same name as the final, but shorter.
150	Mewtwo	Mewtwo	ミュウツー (Mewtwo)	Same name as the final.

A set of Pokémon stickers was also sent out alongside 1998 Nintendo press kits, said stickers showing a more finalized nameset, this one namely using the final 10 character limit. Given how many names were already finalized by then, only the Pokémon with different names are listed in the table below.

Dex #	Final English Name	Early English Name	Japanese Name	Notes
014	Kakuna	Kokoon	コクーン (Kokūn)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
015	Beedrill	Beedril	スピアー (Supiā)	Still has its early name.
016	Pidgey	Pidge	ポッポ (Poppo)	Still has its early name.
019	Rattata	Rattatak	コラッタ (Koratta)	Still has its early name.
023	Ekans	Arbo	アーボ (Ābo)	Name is completely different, here a romanization of its Japanese name.
028	Sandslash	Sandstorm	サンドパン (Sandopan)	Still has its early name, though now fully spelled.
035	Clefairy	Aria	ピッピ (Pippi)	Still has its early name.
036	Clefable	Ariala	ピクシー (Pikushī)	Still has its early name.
037	Vulpix	Foxfire	ロコン (Rokon)	Still has its early name.
038	Ninetales	Nine Tales	キュウコン (Kyūkon)	Similar name to the final, though written as a compound name instead.
046	Paras	Parasyt	パラス (Paras)	Still has its early name.
050	Diglett	Digda	ディグダ (Diguda)	Still has its early name.
058	Growlithe	Flamie	ガーディ (Gādi)	Still has its early name.
059	Arcanine	Blaze	ウインディ (Uindi)	Still has its early name.
061	Poliwhirl	Polihirl	ニョロゾ (Nyorozo)	Similar name to the final, but spelled more clumsily.
063	Abra	Hocus	ケーシィ (Kēshī)	Still has its early name.
064	Kadabra	Pocus	ユンゲラー (Yungerā)	Still has its early name.
066	Machop	Kara-Tee	ワンリキー (Wanrikī)	Still has its early name, though spelled in a slightly more original way.
067	Machoke	Kung-Foo	ゴーリキー (Gōrikī)	Still has its early name, though spelled in a slightly more original way.
068	Machamp	Ju-Doh	カイリキー (Kairikī)	Still has its early name, though spelled in a slightly more original way.
072	Tentacool	Jilly	メノクラゲ (Menokurage)	Still has its early name.
073	Tentacruel	Man O War	ドククラゲ (Dokukurage)	Still has its early name, though spelled in a slightly more original way.
078	Rapidash	Gallop	ギャロップ (Gyaroppu)	Still has its early name.
079	Slowpoke	Slowmo	ヤドン (Yadon)	Still has its early name.
081	Magnemite	Coil	コイル (Koiru)	Still has its early name.
082	Magneton	Recoil	レアコイル (Reakoiru)	Still has its early name.
084	Doduo	Dodo	ドードー (Dōdō)	Still has its early name.
087	Dewgong	Manaty	ジュゴン (Jugon)	Still has its early name.
092	Gastly	Spirit	ゴース (Gōsu)	Still has its early name.
093	Haunter	Spectre	ゴースト (Gōsuto)	Still has its early name.
094	Gengar	Phantom	ゲンガー (Gengar)	Still has its early name.
104	Cubone	Orphon	カラカラ (Karakara)	Still has its early name.
105	Marowak	Guardia	ガラガラ (Garagara)	Still has its early name.
108	Lickitung	Tonguetyd	ベロリンガ (Beroringa)	Still has its early name, though now fully spelled.
109	Koffing	Ny	ドガース (Dogāsu)	Still has its early name.
110	Weezing	La	マタドガス (Matadogasu)	Still has its early name.
113	Chansey	Lucky	ラッキー (Rakkī)	Still has its early name.
114	Tangela	Meduza	モンジャラ (Monjara)	Still has its early name, though now spelled with a "Z".
118	Goldeen	Goldy	トサキント (Tosakinto)	Still has its early name.
119	Seaking	Neptune	アズマオウ (Azumaō)	Still has its early name.
123	Scyther	Stryke	ストライク (Sutoraiku)	Still has its early name.
130	Gyarados	Skulkraken	ギャラドス (Gyarados)	Still has its early name, though now fully spelled.
131	Lapras	Ness	ラプラス (Lapras)	Still has its early name.
133	Eevee	Eon	イーブイ (Eevee)	Still has its early name.
138	Omanyte	Ess	オムナイト (Omanyte)	Still has its early name.
139	Omastar	Kargo	オムスター (Omastar)	Still has its early name.
140	Kabuto	Att	カブト (Kabuto)	Still has its early name.
141	Kabutops	Lantis	カブトプス (Kabutops)	Still has its early name.
142	Aerodactyl	Ptera	プテラ (Putera)	Still has its early name.
147	Dratini	Dragoon	ミニリュウ (Miniryū)	Still has its early name.
148	Dragonair	Dragyn	ハクリュー (Hakuryū)	Still has its early name.

Localized Game Footage

Localization Mock-up

The first ever localized look western audiences would ever get of Pokémon would come from E3 1998 in the form of mock-up footage with placeholder English text superimposed atop Pokémon Green gameplay.

Early	Final
Watch out! You’ve encountered a wild Rattatak!	Wild [POKÉMON] appeared!

Was shortened for the final game. In the final game, "Rattatk" was re-localized to simply "Rattata".

Early	Final
Prof. Oak: Now calm down Satoshi.	OAK: Be patient! [RIVAL], you can have one too!

Was compacted into one string for the final release. In the final game, "Prof. Oak" was shorted to simply "OAK".

Early	Final
You’ll also get your chance to pick!	OAK: Be patient! [RIVAL], you can have one too!

Was compacted into one string for the final release. In the final game, "Prof. Oak" was shorted to simply "OAK".

In-game Footage

Actual early English localized builds of the games can be seen in action however, namely being shown in early 1999 US TV adverts.

Early '98 Build	Final Game

The trademark symbol is missing, and the copyright info lists "© 1995.1996", while the final games have "© '95.'96.'98".

Early '98 Build	Final Game

• "FIGHT" is written as "FGHT" due to a lack of space. In the final game the option window was expanded by an extra tile, letting the option being spelled out in its entirety.
• Rattata is shown here with its early name, "Rattatak"

Early '98 Build	Final Game

• The type and PP window is formatted differently, as well as being one tile less wide.
• The move window is one tile wider than in the final game.
• Oddly enough, the ":L" tile is slightly lower in this particular clip, while its placement in the rest of the commercial matches the final game. As such, it's possible this battle clip may come from an earlier/intermediate build.

Other miscellaneous changes are as follow:

• The pre wild battle text is formatted as "A wild [POKÉMON] appeared!", while the final game went with the simpler "Wild [POKÉMON] appeared!"
• When using Growl, the message displayed goes "Enemy [POKÉMON]'s ATTACK down!" instead of "Enemy [POKÉMON]'s ATTACK fell!"
• The Pokémon Center overworld sign still uses the tiles from the Japanese versions.
• Near the end, Kakuna is shown with its early name, "Kokoon".
• Near the end of the second advert, Pidgey is shown with its early name, "Pidge". Some more footage of the earlier title screen is also shown, revealing that in this build the "Red Version" subtitle used a blue palette instead of a red one.

Localized Game Manual

Shown in the games' manual, officially dubbed as the "Trainer's Guide", are some screenshots taken from a slightly earlier localization build, which can for example be seen with Gym Leaders, here instead referred to as "Pokémon Leaders".

Interestingly, there also exists on page 23 a screenshot, there is are two screenshots which not only use the old pre-battle message described below, but also refers to Pidgey in-game as just "Pidge", its early English name.

Grammar Changes

• On page 14, we can see that withdrawing an item from your PC would bring up a message saying "What do you want to take?", a line which was changed to "What do you want to withdraw?" in the final games.
• Another small change can also be seen on page 19 with the message which pops up when accessing the Pokémon storage section of the PC, the string stating "Accessed Pokémon Storage System!" instead of "Accessed Pokémon Storage System."
• On page 24 is a screenshot of the player entering Pewter City's Museum, though with the employee behind the desk referring to a "child ticket" instead of the final game's "child's ticket".
• As seen on page 26, "MT. MOON AHEAD" is written as "Mt. Moon ahead", and "Welcome to the SAFARI ZONE!" is written as "Welcome to Safari Zone!" Moreover, the Daycare man's dialogue was expanded from "Would like me to raise a POKéMON?" into "Would you like me to raise one of your POKéMON?"
• Still on page 26, the line "Oh! It's a bite!" was instead "Ho! It's a hit." at this point of development.

Starter Selection Message

Prerelease	Final

On page 15 is a screenshot of the player selecting Bulbasaur as their starter, though with the visible part of sentence structure being "[TYPE] POKé [POKÉMON NAME]?" instead of "[type] POKÉMON, [POKÉMON NAME]?"

Pre-Battle Message

Prerelease	Final

On page 7 and 25 is a screenshot of the player fighting against Brock, thought with the message displayed on-screen being grammatically incorrect. Indeed, while "The [TRAINER CLASS] wants to fight" would work on a large chunk of trainers due to them not having names ("The LASS wants to fight!"), this would however cause issues with Gym Leaders, Elite Four Members, or even the Rival. Indeed, in Generation I these characters weren't referred to in-game as "[Title] [character name]" ("Gym Leader Brock" for example), but instead simply by their name. As such, the pre-battle message was reworded to make it grammatically correct in all possible scenarios.

Overworld Cut Message

Prerelease	Final

On Page 31, "[POKÉMON] CUT down a bush!" is used instead of the usual message "[POKÉMON] hacked away with CUT!" when using Cut on a bush. This was changed because Cut can also be used to chop down tall grass, and the same text string is used for both purposes.

Game Corner Message

Prerelease	Final

On page 26 is a screenshot of the player attempting to buy coins at the Game Corner, with quite a few differences to be seen. First, the all caps name is instead shown as a "properly" capitalized name. Secondly, the Poké Dollar icon is on the opposite side of the window. Lastly, the zero is oddly off-centered, something which was fixed in the final games.