Recently some content on 4Chan was dropped on /vp/ in a rather weird manner, similar to how many leaks on Pokemon beta content go. Looking at it, well, it's very likely to be real, as it draws a lot of parallels to the "Wacko+Ganix Leaks" as I like to call them. It appears there may be more stuff coming out than just this too, given what's in this "USB stick from someone's uncle at Nintendo", but I digress. The files include the following, all of which is a good bit to unpack;
Cry Order in the Crystal JP Symbol TableI first want to look to the Cry Order. This tells us a lot; including beta names for various Pokemon. These cries are in the same order as the final, so I used some ROM Hacking tools to see who uses what cry, based on the order.
After this it's simply just the Kanto cries repeated. While this is far less interesting than the Kanto or later gen cry orders, it's still definitely something of note. Donphan is certainly the highlight given you can technically reconstruct his old cry. Nintendo's Official Game Boy EmulatorAmong the screenshots lies an official Game Boy emulator. However, we do not have the actual program, it seems to be being hoarded. This emulator is Japanese and features a Debugger among other things. It's clearly quite old, shown by the old Windows Troubleshooting Icon and Folder Open Icon. It also has Copyright dating from 1996 to 2000, and was coded by Nintendo R&D1. Here's a picture of that building, one of the only ones I know of. For those who don't know, Nintendo R&D1 is Nintendo's oldest R&D department. This department developed the Game Boy under Satoru Okada's plan, which was to make a powerful console with interchangeable cartridges and 3rd party support, after the success of the NES under R&D2. Internal reception of the "Dot Matrix Game", the internal codename for the Game Boy, was very poor, with it being called the DameGame (Dame - だめ - meaning "Hopeless" or "Lame" in this context) by employees. However, it would quickly defy expectations and become one of the most popular game consoles of all time. R&D1 was merged into Nintendo Software Planning and Development along with R&D2 in 2004. Its final game was Metroid Zero Mission in 2004. We can also see an old email. Doing a quick namesearch, Teruki Murakawa is a member of staff in The Pokemon Company, and has been working on the series since Pokemon Red and Blue as a US Programmer. Going by his name in the credits of games up to Pokemon X & Y, it seems he has primarily worked on localization, and has often received Special Thanks placements in the credits. Going by a further leak of the source code (that I won't cover because that's definitely reaching very illegal territory), it appears that Teruki Murakawa was the main correspondent between Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Japan. Teruki Murakawa's nickname, Teru, is alluded to with the Teru-Sama items in Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal. In this case, -Sama is a Japanese honorific, implying formal, high respect for someone. It should be noted that Teruki Murakawa isn't credited in the Japanese Generation 2 games, and the items are named differently (Instead referencing Kōji Nishino), and as such this relation is likely something exclusive to the localisation team. Given these factors, it appears this emulator may have been designed for the US Debuggers of the Pokemon Blue and Yellow ROMs we have here. There's a bit too much English text for a Japanese emulator, is there not? Perhaps Mr. Murakawa was the localization team's correspondent. I unfortunately couldn't find a picture of him, nor any interviews...oh well! Unfortunately, there isn't much else to talk about in regards to this emulator, as there simply isn't much else to go off of. As we can see it has very expansive functionality in regards to debugging, Mobile Adapter compatibility and more. It's clearly one of the more advanced Game Boy emulators, typical for something the developers themselves used. Should this be released, I may well give it a look... Oh, and there's also this in-house Game Boy manual going over its technologies, written in Japanese. It's going over the RAM system. I'm not too smart in this area, but maybe one or two of you readers will be interested? Pokemon Blue Debug ROMAnyway, yeah, there's also debug ROMs for Pokemon Blue. Here is the timestamp that was found on the ROM, allowing to help date the localisation;
In terms of progress, the game is quite close to the final. I know this, as from my testing, the translation was already different from the release material as shown here. Pokedex data is also mostly the same, and Pokemon have their Final Names from localisation. By this point in development I'm pretty sure both ROMs were being prepped for shipment and having advertisements made. Overall, the premise of the Debug Menu is simple. Press Select on the Title Screen to access a Debug Menu. You get two options: FIGHT or DEBUG. FIGHT in Blue Version is unique compared to other Debugging tools. In this menu, you get a Rhydon to nickname, before immediately fighting another. Picking ITEM will bring up a menu full of 0 SOFTBOILEDs. Not the item, the move name. No clue why, it just does. Even if your HP has been hit, you still can't select them. I have never seen this in any instance of Generation 1, and usually if you don't have any items the game just has a Cancel button. I'm very curious as to why the game pulls these up... No matter what move you pick, your Rhydon will always use Pound, while the opponent will pick normal moves. Moves are based on the level of the Pokemon as if you caught a wild one (so you also get randomized DVs), and in this case it's a Level 20 Rhydon. So, you get the most recent 4 moves Rhydon learns via Level Up: Horn Attack, Stomp, Tail Whip, and Fury Attack...not that you can use them. If you KO, run away from, or are by defeated the Rhydon you will be given the nickname prompt and enter another battle. This won't let you get additional Rhydons. You'll usually be defeated, as you're stuck with Pound while the opponent has Tail Whip to drop Defense and higher base power moves. Here's the one time I beat the Rhydon, only to be thrust head-first into yet another brawl...legit one of the hardest fights in Pokemon history. It also has Exp. All switched on, which I'm curious as to how given my item menu didn't have it in there...not that I could scroll, though. If you enter Debug, you will be named Ninten. You also get a full Pokedex, your starter is set to Charmander (despite being Blue...), you get $3000 and all badges except the Earth Badge from Giovanni. You can also Fly to any location, and your rival is named Sony. Before starting out, you will get these exact Pokemon during the intro with Professor Oak:
However, the real meat of this is the fact this is Tsunekazu Ishihara's team. Ishihara has gone on record saying he used an Exeggutor during the dev cycle of Pokemon Red and Green, and "explored many places", which can be taken as why it has such an..illegal moveset. This article I linked also talks about how Ishihara wanted to give Exeggutor more of a spotlight, foreshadowing the creation of Alolan Exeggutor as well. It should be recalled that Exeggutor also won the dev poll for the best Pokemon design during Red and Green's dev cycle as well: this Pokemon was very popular. Your Item Bag will also have these items in it:
Pokemon Yellow Debug ROMNow for Pokemon Yellow. Here's the timestamp so you can get an idea of dev progress at the time;
Here are all 3 instances of the Fight Debug Menu we've seen so far. The far left is from the Yellow Debug ROM in question, the middle is the Spaceworld Demo (both my screenshots) and finally the one from Crystal JP (Credit: TCRF). The premise of this debug menu is simple. You go through the Pokemon by Index Number by using A and B, and use the D-Pad to go to different Pokemon or Level setting on the right. Press Start to progress. This takes you to your fight choice. You can switch between Wild or Trainer Battles with the first bit, and then go through the Index for either Pokemon or Trainer to modify the battle to your specifications. Pokemon you obtain through the Battle Debug will have the OT Tom, with an ID No. of 00000, and moves will be based on Level Up learnset as if they were wild. Be careful (or have a party) when doing Trainer Battles, as setting the wrong team modifier on the right can have you wind up fighting some pretty crazy glitch teams. In addition, like the Rhydon battle in Pokemon Blue, all battles force you to only fight using Pound. As a result, some of these battles can become extremely difficult. You can however use the power of Battle Debug to debug your attacks out. When starting a Debug game, you get $9999999, all badges except the Earth Badge from Giovanni, a full Pokedex, Rival set to Sony, your name set to Ninten, and the following Pokemon;
You also get the following items;
This appears to be where Nintendo R&D1 got better at debugging their games and improving their quality control. It's a good insight, and quite clearly they were a very social work environment based on their inside jokes and the like. Interviews with the R&D1 Team have shown a similar aspect. It shows that they were determined to go out and fix their glitches! The Missing Debug ROMsThere are two Debug ROMs missing from these files that were distributed. That being a Pokemon Gold Debug ROM with the ability to generate Pokemon entirely, and a Pokemon "Platinum" prototype that seems to actually be Pearl, but hey. The curious part of this is that these ROMs were not being played on In-House Emulators, but bgb and Desume. These ROMs are out there, but have not been distributed. The Pokemon Gold ROM shows that there are extensive debug functions available, more than any Pokemon Debug ROM that has ever been distributed. The Pearl ROM, while not as fleshed out, clearly has some interesting content that wants looking at. I was looking through the 4Chan thread this dropped in and found more screenshots than what was leaked as well. Be warned though, there's a lot of anger and transphobia being spewed out...and it seems a lot of weird stuff went on behind the scenes. I don't really care too much honestly about what happened or where it came from, but hey, it's there. Perhaps we'll see all of what's here sometime. Maybe not today, but sometime. What do you think? ConclusionI will say, the handling of the leaks of all this content has been handled really...oddly. I'm not sure what it is, nor do I really care on the writing front as it's made it much easier to cover everything. While sure, I wish I could view more, it's made me more excited regardless. It seems as though the Prototype Community has a hoarder problem, and a lot of moral issues coming up from where the data came from. I'm pretty neutral on the whole situation, I just take what I can get and dig into it unnecessarily.
So, what do you think? Pretty crazy findings, eh? Just more stuff from that craptastic server hack by Wack0. I've zipped up the files in a format that isn't on a shady website, plus the screenshot from Ganix. You can nab it here.
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About meSo I really, really like researching Prototype Pokemon information. That's about it. I also do things on Smogon, I guess. Archives
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