Turns out we already did have some content from the Pokemon Gold and Silver Spaceworld Demo! These being from the Game Boy Camera, and the Mew Distribution Cartridge from the same event! So. let's start with the Game Boy Camera. As some of you know, Pokemon Green Sprites were also featured on the device. However, two sprites of previously unknown origin were also on the device. As it turns out, Chansey and Pikachu's sprites were actually from the Spaceworld Build of Pokemon Gold and Silver! They didn't have any color on the Game Boy Camera, but the resemblance is clear. There are no differences here, so it is unknown as to what actually happened here. However, why did they not simply replace all the Pokemon Green or Pokemon Blue JP (AKA Red and Blue Int) Sprites with the ones from Beta GSC? By this point, the redrawing of all the sprites should have been finished. Or was it scrapped and did the rebuild begin? Nobody knows. It appears that they may have wanted familiar sprites for users, but why did Chansey and Pikachu use these sprites? It is quite unusual, no? Now, what about the Mew Distribution Cartridge? Well, we happen to have clear-cut footage of it. We have to thank Porygon for this, as the Electric Soldier Porygon Episode resulted in a huge amount of smear campaigns. One of these campaigns resulted in a 40 Min News Coverage segment which showed the Mew Distribution Cartridge in full! This may be as a result of the footage, but the sprite does appear to have some minor differences. I am not sure whether what was used to bring Mew over was a Spaceworld Prototype or anything, really. Trade Experiments have proven that you CAN use the Prototype to trade with Gen 1 Games, as the trade mechanics are the same. Given the frame here, it can be theorized that a Spaceworld Prototype was used for the Mew Event.
Some trivia for those who didn't read that whole link: you can actually send a Spaceworld Prototype Pokemon from the Gen 1 Games all the way to Gen 7 if you transfer the saves from the Gen 1 cartridges. Another way would be to use a Gen 1 VC and replace the ROM with one of these prototypes and use the trade room feature. Regardless, you can send Spaceworld Pokemon over, as they are virtually the same as any other in Gen 1 terms. So there we go! We did get to see some Spaceworld Content before the ROM even leaked! Incredible!
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Tyranitar is a much loved Pokemon almost universally in the Pokemon Fandom, competitively and casually alike. Depicted as an engine of destruction in the anime and games alike, there really isn't much not to like about it. Well, maybe that Rock/Dark Typing that has started to bite it in the past few years is something to hate, but oh well. Let's get to the point. So, Tyranitar's Dev History. Turns out, this is probably one of the first Pokemon to have ever been thought of: only in a different name. You see, concept of a Godzilla-like Pokemon goes back as far as the original thoughts on Capsule Monsters, as Godzilliante. The other concept Pokemon here is Gorillaimo, which never got much further than this. Personally, I think that Tyranitar did not directly get derived from this. This is because this was the early days of development, and I doubt any of the characters were really thought about that much. This concept was to demonstrate the battle system more than anything else. However, I am not denying that this could have indirectly inspired Tyranitar. Anyway, onto the time where a Godzilla-like Pokemon actually got added into a game in some form: Gyaoon, also known to some as Gyarth. The name is onomatopoeia for Godzilla's roar. So here's our first sighting of the first solid idea for it. What we're looking at is the first Sprite Sheet printed of Pokemon in Capsule Monsters, circa 1990. Gyaoon is Index Number 1, which is next to Rhydon's beta design. We can see that it is very different to Tyranitar's final design, but it is clear that the concept of a Godzilla-like Pokemon was very much in vogue during development. We later see Gyaoon in the Satoshi Taijiri Manga, which goes over Pokemon Red and Green's Development. Only this time, with a new sprite. This happened in 1992-1993. The top of the image is purely a blur due to the way it was set up, but we can see that the sprite changed to show it leaning over roaring, rather than rearing its head. It looks similar to Croconaw and Feraligatr here, so maybe it indirectly inspired them in the future? It was Index Number "C", so most likely not fully decided on yet. I'm not sure what the letter means - nor does anyone else that I know of - but as we know, it was cut. Nobody has quite put together what the idea was for Gyaoon, but there are elements of the final product in there. From what I can see, it looks like it could have been a Dragon Type. However, this is purely speculation. However, Gyaoon was never seen again after this. Cut, and likely never implemented. Perhaps the Dev Team wasn't fully in favor? I mean, Exeggutor won that poll, so it's clear their opinions were pretty terrible. However, justice was soon to come for this Pokemon. Fast forward to April of 1997, and we see this cursed magazine: MicroGroup Game Review Vol.14. As I went over in a previous article, Ken Sugimori drew the Pokemon for this cover as simple throwaway designs. Tyranitar was on its knees at this point, ready to get cut. It wasn't in the Spaceworld Demo in November 1997, and it was not being shown anywhere but here.
However, thanks to Ken Sugimori's philosophy of polishing old designs as said in the Interview in that same magazine, Tyranitar got another shot. The Godzilla-like Pokemon idea that had been thrown around for 7 whole years finally came to fruition: Gyaoon may have failed, but Tyranitar came out of it...and boy was it a doozy. Rewarded for its wait, Tyranitar was introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver in 1999-2000, as a Pseudo Legendary Pokemon that would dominate Smogon for many years to come. Maybe good things really do come to those who wait? The thought that Tyranitar may have never come to GSC is a real shocker to me personally. It's been a meta defining Pokemon in almost every main series game, and was pretty much "The King of Gen 3" by the end of it. Hell, it's one of my favorite Pokemon to use: I even have a plushie of that angry dinosaur. But god am I glad it got included at the end of that 7 year battle. In the end, it finally got justice. I'd like to thank Helix Chamber for their article on the Taijri Manga, since it allowed me to collect a lot of images I used to source the Capsule Monsters content. Having it all in one place is really helpful. Ahh, MissingNo.. An age old topic that has had tons of controversy, conspiracies and numerous urban legends whizzing around it. Obviously these days we see it as nothing more than an item duplicator to steamroll Giovanni and the Elite Four in the International Versions of Pokemon Red and Blue, but there's more to it than just that. So, recently, Helix Chamber unmasked MissingNo. Index Numbers 159 and 160 as the Kotora Line from the Spaceworld Demo, thanks to an interview segment with Satoshi Taijiri. There is also implications that Steelix may be a part of this as well, but attempts to uncover it beyond a shadow of a doubt have been fruitless. Inspired by this, I compiled an Index List that you can find in the About Section on this Blog, along with my other research papers that I'm using to create these Blog Posts (since discussion at length gives me something to do). Now, what is this curious "Index Number 181"? Well, it's a curious one that came up during mine and Helix Chamber's individual research ventures. You see, Charmander and Squirtle were added VERY late into development, as were Wartortle and Charmeleon. Then there was Charizard. However, the index number after is simply a MissingNo.. Just what is this? You see, Blastoise was added super early, and no evolutions were even considered until what was clearly years later. Hell, Blastoise was originally cannonless back in the Capsule Monster Days (yes, it goes back that far, all the way to 1989). Venusaur was originally Ivysaur, not having an evolution line decided until a lot later. Thus the Pokemon Red and Green Sprites being so similar. But that's unrelated, and chances are it'll have its own article eventually. There was a pattern with Charmander and Squirtle. It was Charmander, Squirtle, Charmeleon, Wartortle, Charizard, then MissingNo.. Anyway, you're probably screaming for me to get to the point. So this table just puts into perspective what I'm saying. After this, we have the three MissingNo. "forms" the game uses to show the fossils in Pewter Museum of Science, and the Ghosts in Lavender Tower, then the Oddish and Bellsprout Lines. So what is this MissingNo. for? Well, the theories need to be spoken about now.
The first derives from the Kotora Line in the Spaceworld Demo. This theory blends the MissingNo. in question and the Kabutops Form into a 2 Tier Evolution Line, and then the Aerodactyl and Ghost Forms into another. This is because after Kotora in the Spaceworld Demo and in RBYG as MissingNo.s Hex 159 and 160, there are exactly the same number of 2 Tier Evolution Lines. These being the Norowara Line, Houndour Line and Urufuman Line. However, RBYG has four of what would be 2 Tier Evolution Lines, so this theory falls through in that regard. That and it's extremely circumstantial. The releases of Red and Green, and the date of Spaceworld 1997 are also quite close, so such a quick change of plan for Spaceworld would be the only way this is valid. The second is much easier to believe: an Alternate Blastoise. So before they settled on Blastoise, this would have been Squirtle's Final Evolution. What it looked like or what it even was, nobody knows. Mainly because this is just guesswork. Given that the Reused MissingNo. afterwards were used together while this one wasn't, it could be said that 181 was the Final Evolution while 182-184 were a 3 Tier Evolution Line. This theory is much more common sense and doesn't rely on circumstantial evidence, so overall I would say this is quite true. Now, what could this #AltBlastoise be? Once again, nobody knows. Maybe it looked more like Wartortle? The fluffy tail disappearing for Blastoise was always quite weird to me, same with the lack of fluffy ears. The evolution even feels wrong when you think about it that way: from bubbles and fluffy stuff to water Bowser with Digimon Cannons on its back? The design change even makes sense when you think about it like that. This was definitely last minute. So why would this change have be done? Saving storage space, less Non-Evolving Pokemon, convenience, and having two turtles would be weird. Then again, we have tons of bipedal dinosaur Pokemon in the game, so two turtles would sort of make sense? Perhaps they could have made it quadrupedal instead? Maybe it was, and then reused for the development of Torterra? Really, it could be anyone's guess on what it would have been, Given the winged ears on Wartortle I hope it was like those flying buzzy beetles from Super Mario Bros. 3. Those fuckers were cute as hell and I love them. If anything were to happen to one, I would destroy the world in response. Anyway, there's nothing more to really say here. Until we see the full copy of Satoshi Taijiri's Pocket Monsters Kaiju Zukan, or possibly the full Popularity Poll from the start of development (which chances are, won't go that high in number due to being from 1992-1993), we will never see what Pokemon this once was. So, this is my first Blog Post for this new thing. I was suggested to do this by a moderator on Helix Chamber, and hopefully this will last more than a week. My first topic will be Venomoth, a Pokemon that has an interesting development history. It was added at Index Number 119 in Pokemon RBYG, so around the middle of development as an evolution to Venonat. So, neither late nor early. So, what's the history? Well, Venomoth has a history of having its design switched around in Pokemon Games. When I say switched around, I mean flipped like a light switch. You see, in earlier iterations of Venomoth, it had some yellow spots on the back of its wings. Early artwork by Ken Sugimori proves this. Hell, it was even released as "Sabrina's Venomoth" when the Gym Heroes Expansion in the TCG dropped, Number 34/134. Now, what does this mean and why is it even important? Well, as we all know, Venomoth did not have this sprite in RBYG. In fact, the sprites were pretty awful. However, we never see this specific art in the game. Unlike with Kakuna, who we see with the arms in Red and Blue International but not in Red JP and Green for some reason. Nobody knows why he has arms, nor why there was so much promotional work showing it, but hey, you do you. Now, this would be where Venomoth's almost meaningless design change ends. However, the Spaceworld Demo has reignited this weird tale, since it actually uses the old design. As you can see, the sprites for RBG do not use the design. Nor does Yellow. Nor does GSC. But, the Spaceworld Demo tells us that not only did they intend to keep the derpy eyes, but it also wanted to keep the back wings from the beta design. It doesn't end there though, since the Back Sprite didn't have the back wing design while the Front Sprite did. The sprite was completely different and clearly quite complete and ready for shipment. Obviously this didn't happen, and the game was rebuilt the following year.
So now the question: what the hell was going on with Venomoth's design? Well, it seems they were torn between making it a moth and making it not a moth. Sadly, the latter won and now Venomoth is barely a moth at all. Nobody really knows why the design changed, nor why they were bringing it back for Generation 2 multiple years later. However, this sprite does pin down some development history dates for the Spaceworld Demo: it quite clearly started development in 1996. Early Planning began in 1995, as we can see that the MissingNo. removed had a relation to the Unused Kotora Line thanks to Helix Chamber's discovery. It can also be pinned down because the game was first revealed on 5th August 1996 in the Corocoro Magazine with a number of reasonably complete Pokemon: it took years for the RBYG Roster to be completed. Venomoth's early design was made in 1996 for Pokemon Red and Green's promotion, so all in all it is quite easy to see when this sprite was made. Thanks, Venomoth! But there is more on Venomoth, specifically with the Pre Evolution Venonat. Some believe that it is meant to be Butterfree's long lost Pre Evolution. Just going to say this is false. You see, Venonat was added very, very early as Index Number 65. It was originally not even going to evolve into or from anything, and it had a very big sprite to prove it. However, Venomoth was added at the aforementioned Index Number 119. That is why it was downsized for RBG. The Butterfree Line was added AFTER both of these Pokemon together. Caterpie is Index Number 123, Metapod is 124, and Butterfree is 125. As a result of this, it is impossible to say Venonat was ever meant to evolve into Butterfree: it was clearly intended to be in the Caterpie line from the very beginning. Thus, the relation between these two lines is purely coincidental. It's a real shame we never got the older design of Venomoth though. It looked really cool, and a lot more like the genus it is based on: Morpho. The spots gave it a bit more character and generally made it more interesting, y'know? Now, if only it got a Bug/Psychic Mega Evolution... |
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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