Well, I haven't posted here in what, a year now? This thing hasn't been dead, I just haven't had things I'm interested in talking about. There were like 4 draft articles I had in the works (still have them, actually) but not one felt right to finish and publish for varying reasons. I may eventually release the WIPs and call it a day if there's interest. Oh, and I've been slowly accruing more responsibilities on Smogon, so that's a thing. However, I've been working on some stuff with The Cutting Room Floor, and with the scans finally finished, I'm able to cover them properly. Fans of the first generation's history may recognize this sprite sheet. It's from the November 1996 issue of Corocoro Magazine. This was the first look players had at the title, which would be up for mail order in October of that year. I go over bits of it here. However, some of the sprites are not what you would see in the final release, implying there were some revisions before or after the press release provided to Corocoro. I'm leaning towards after. For a very long time, we didn't have very good scans of these, mostly relying on photographs from zoidsland. This wasn't a bad thing - it was better than nothing - but the quality was...not great. So we have a collection of sprite scans that aren't of the best quality, to the point you can't even recreate them. How do you solve it when upscaling isn't really an option? Go out and buy the magazine yourself and scan it, of course! Well, erm, that's what I ended up doing on a whim. Why? Because seeing things like this ridiculously low-res Persian made me want to slash my eyes out, hahaha! Not all of them were like this, mind you, it was just...inconsistent. For the sake of clarity and because I don't want any random price increases, these magazines cost me almost nothing. The November 1996 issue cost me around £10 before postage, as did the December 1996 issue. Despite it taking a while for me to find someone with them, I do not believe these are actually rare in Japan considering the prices I saw them go for. The new scansWell, no more beating around the bush: you're here for the scans, yeah? For those wanting to see 1200 DPI scans of the sprites, you can use the following links to download them. The file size packs a punch of its own, so don't say I didn't warn you! I used an EPSON Stylus SX400 Printer-Scanner to do the deed, for those interested. It's nothing too extravagant, the printing part doesn't even work on it. But it scans japanese magazines from the 90s, which is all I need it for, eh? Anyway, here's a poorly-put-together compilation of the unique sprites for those who don't want to stare at those pages until their eyes melt out of their sockets. It's in JPG format so the quality isn't that great either. It'll do for the purpose, anyway. Some of these sprites are simply unrefined versions of the final;
RhydonRhydon's Blue JP sprite is very unique, and serves as a bridge between Rhydon's Green and Blue designs. Many tout Rhydon as a Pokemon near-unchanged since its inception, but this couldn't be further from the truth: it's actually very inconsistent. I've attached a timeline above that sums up these inconsistencies over time. There's more I haven't noted - including sprites - but at that point I'm really nitpicking. I'm not sure if Yellow truly removed the secondary horn as a part at the top of the head looks like it, but in that case, it was moved to god-knows-where...the perspective is really weird. Curiously, the Rhydon sprite from our little magazine has a breastplate akin to Yellow's, rather than RG's, though the eyes and secondary horn are clearly derived from the latter. On the flip side, the teeth are much like RB's. This is a very interesting intermittent design stage; you can look at this for ages and probably notice something else. RaticateThe Raticate sprite is quite clearly a less refined version of the RB sprite, but it's interesting for multiple reasons. It seems the Raticate sprite looked a bit smaller than the final, and the ears are drawn differently. Furthermore, the final Raticate sprite shrinks the middle whiskers, linking them with the upper row. But, there's an elephant in the room... There's a weird cowlick-like hair on its head, seemingly implying an unshaven appearance. This is shown on the GSC Scratchpad as well, only in a more pronounced fashion, implying that these designs are linked in some way. With this in mind, I believe that the Scratchpad Sprite is actually from the same time period as the early Blue JP one, considering that this design is never seen in any other material after the final game. It's not too difficult to make the assumption - the hands are near-identical among other uncanny design similarities - but that little hair really does it for me, at least. AlakazamAlakazam's sprite has a bit of history tied to it, and it's a bit difficult to present efficiently. I apologize if it isn't coherent enough... In Red and Green, Alakazam had a star on its forehead, which some say looks like (or outright is) the Star of David, making it a point of contention. Anyway, that could be worth its own article when thinking about the Abra line's history of weird controversies. Alakazam had this star removed by the time Corocoro Magazine dropped its December 1996 issue. Some may draw parallels to Uri Geller's accusations of antisemitism and unauthorized use of his image, with him citing its depiction in the Pokemon TCG. However, that controversy only started in 1999, and as such, Uri Geller's intervention had no bearing on this design change, which makes it more plausible to assume this was an attempt to simplify Alakazam's already complex design. It's not uncommon to see Game Freak alter Pokemon designs and remove features that made them difficult for children to take in. This especially applied in the early days when there was just a small Game Boy screen and a limited amount of pixels. Another thing I find interesting here is how Alakazam's RG and early Blue JP sprites have very similar artstyles, while the final design is very different in that regard. Not only is it more refined, the eyes are drawn in a much more pronounced fashion and everything is much easier to take in. Furthermore, the feet lack claws, something that is featured in every other Alakazam interpretation to date. It is also the first Alakazam interpretation to feature two toes, which is something that's now commonplace for it. Overall, this a very good example of how Game Freak refines their designs during development, often with the intent to simplify it. ConclusionWhile I could go on about these sprites, the rest would be more nitpicky and just draw out the length of this article. Besides, I'm sure everyone else would love to scrutinize these sprites further and provide their perspectives. I'm very happy to own both magazines and seeing these sprites finally have scans that give them justice is a fantastic bonus.
Unlike MicroGroup Game Review Vol.14, I've not scanned the rest of the magazine due to its sheer size and lower-quality scans generally doing them justice anyway. I got the magazines to scan the sprites, and I think it's all that's necessary of me. Better-cropped sprites and more comprehensive reviews will be on The Cutting Room Floor, so keep your eyes peeled for that! I'm sure they'll do it better than my caveman-quality MS Paint diagrams, anyway. I also have a friend looking to recreate the sprites as well, since you can make out the individual pixels perfectly, which should be very interesting. If that project is finished, I'll either update this article or write up a new one.
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Holy crap I have not used this in a while, have I? Well, I wanted to be honest and not simply fill this blog with filler content, nor cover things that have been already covered by Helix Chamber and Dr. Lava. And well, here's some original stuff, eh? I posted on my Twitter fairly recently about finding an old promo disk from 2001, featuring a CD-ROM. This CD-ROM contained promotional content relating to the 2nd generation of Pokemon, and 50.Grind's Gotta Catch Em All Single. If you're a CD maniac, you can find the details of this disk on Discogs here. Before I go into the details of what was on the disk, let me as a brit explain who 50.Grind are. Who were 50.Grind?50.Grind were an English Electronic Rock band ran by Nick Atkinson, under the record label Recognition Records. Weirdly though, outside of Gotta Catch Em All, 50.Grind has virtually no online information. I can't find any albums after Gotta Catch Em All's big splash or...anything. I did my best to track down all the information though, so here's the scoop. 50.Grind were a very "skater kid" kind of band. I mean, look at everything about them. So, it was a very 90s kind of thing, riding on the Pokemon culture that was all over the UK at the time. The anime had reached peak popularity and the 2nd Generation was coming, so it worked like a charm and definitely contributed to the success of the single. 50.Grind gained notoriety after the release of Gotta Catch Em All feat. Pokemon All-Stars, a Nintendo-sanctioned Single. It received positive reception from fans, to the point it reached #57 on the UK Singles Charts and #15 on the Top 2000 on NPO Radio 2 in the Netherlands. It also played on Nickelodeon UK, with a YouTube archive of this being shown here. Although looking into it, I can see some of the Pokemon haters of those days giving some pretty angry reviews. The CD-ROM shows an interview with the band members, with them talking about their favorite Pokemon among other things. One likes Farfetch'd, which is kind of ironic given its evolution didn't make it into the final game. I hope he's happy about Sirfetch'd, though! 50.Grind broke up in 2003. Nick Atkinson would later form Rooster, who would release two albums: Rooster and Circles and Satellites before dissolving in 2007. He would go on to form The Temperance Movement in 2011, a blues rock band, which is active to this day. Their latest album, A Deeper Cut, was released in 2018. The Daily ExpressThe Daily Express is a UK tabloid newspaper owned by Reach PLC and published by Northern and Shell Media. It was founded on the 24th of April 1990 by Sir Arthur Pearson. I find it interesting how Nintendo decided to associate with the Daily Express, as it had recently been sold over to Richard Desmond who owned a porn company and produced OK! Magazine at the time. Regardless, it's an interesting turn of events and definitely goes down in Pokemon's unique history in the UK. These days, the Daily Express is known for its far-right political alignment, support for the Conservatives and controversies. Its most recent controversy was particularly around the European Union and migrants, where they were accused of xenophobic comments. Editor Gary Jones seeks to change the paper's reputation however, with a statement in April 2018 confirming this. I'm here for the Pokemon!Alright, alright! I have found 3 different covers in my online research. There's a CD-ROM, then two CDs. I have the CD-ROM, but not the two CDs, so I won't be able to snag the two variants of the recordings to upload here. The two CDs contained the two different Singles, one edited for promo as Discogs evidences. The CD-ROM contains various advertisements for Pokemon and 50.Grind's content. This includes screensavers, and TV advertisements. There are 4 screensavers. One is 50.Grind's logo, one is Ash and his team from the Johto League series of the anime, then there's two Pokemon Jets. What are Pokemon Jets doing here? What are they? Allow Mama Plague to explain! Pokemon has maintained a partnership with All Nippon Airways since 1996, although since 2016 they've been retired along with all other Boeing 747s. The liveries these used were all retired at the same time in 2006. I did some digging, and the plane matches up with the 1999 Boeing 767-300s that were unveiled in 1999. They were in fact a winning design from a March 1999 competition, which children between the ages of 6 and 12 participated in. The first winner was rolled out in Osaka, and I am assuming this wallpaper is exactly that: the winner, before the design was put on two further planes. The first's registration number is JA8964! I find it kind of funny to see these on a UK disk though...why advertise a Japanese website? It's a mystery! There are also advertisements for Pokemon Stadium 2, Pokemon Crystal and Pokemon 3: The Movie (also known as The Spell of the Unown). These all aired on TV. You can view the Pokemon Stadium 2 ad as I extracted and converted from the disk here. If you convert the game's price with inflation, it would have costed a staggering £81.65. Christ. Given this game was being imported from Japan, there are no differences from the final game, and this remains consistent with the rest. I believe I have seen the Pokemon Crystal ad before somewhere, but the time and place eludes me. It may have been a...Digimon VHS? I'm not sure. It shows Suicune and the Unown from the intro, before a comedic scene about the Unown text, hinting at their lore. £30 actually converts perfectly to £49.99 via inflation, by the way! Lastly, the Pokemon 3: The Movie ad, is the same as the ones on the VHSes of the Indigo League anime. It talks about the Unown being unstoppable and powerful, which frankly made me laugh like a maniac given how they turned out. It's a pretty awesome ad outside of that animation-wise. I remember it being on a "The Little Vampire" VHS at one point. I wanna look at this disk for myself!And you most certainly can! I have uploaded the disk's contents as well as converted media over to Mediafire here.
The videos and wallpapers were converted to mp4 and PNGs respectively for easier file use over the internet, as their file types are...archaic to say the least. The disk contents can be burned to just about any CD-R for use yourself. I would strongly recommend viewing the 50.Grind interview, as it is quite interesting! I did upload the mp4-converted video footage out to YouTube with intent to have it running on this article, but...you can guess what happened. My fault though, I should have known they had the copyright on deck for those ads. Oh, my! I haven't posted since last year! What is wrong with my consistency, man? Anyway, Papa Plague is back with something newer than usual, with a promotional disc from Gen 3! GAME is essentially the UK's equivalent to GameStop, acting as our retailer over here. I picked up this old CD from uhhh...either a Charity Shop, or by an employee when I was getting a Midnight Forme Lycanroc Event from said store. It was one of the two, not sure which. I've had so much stuff come in and out of this collection it's silly. Sorry, I don't know which! I know it came from Staffordshire, though. I own quite a few promotional pieces from GAME, including demos of Star Wars Rogue Squadron II and Splinter Cell on the GameCube. This just happens to be one of the things I've picked up in the past, and I never actually thought to upload it online. For starters, here's the cover. I had to compress it to JPEG quality as my scanner, once again, saves gigantic images with pristine quality. You can find a high res raw scan right here, clumsily put together by myself. Now, this disc is dated on the files to be from 11/6/2003, or 11th June 2003 (note this is BritSpeak we're talking). So, a month and a week or two before release. GAME has been doing this for years, so it's nothing too out there. This IS licensed and copyrighted by Nintendo, and is probably one of the most haphazardly made advertising ever. I can't believe I didn't even open it until now. The amount of work put into this is kind of nutty though, as you usually never see discs like this put together for customers. In fact, I don't think these were even meant to leave the store, as if you try to run the files extracted (as in, not on a disc you've burned the files to), it'll mention a projector being turned off. Maybe I'm looking a bit too much into it though. So, what's actually ON the disc? There are 6 trailers for what I assume is given to consumers to watch when they get back from their trip to the store. I believe this as the 2nd video mentions the 6th one being included on the CD. Weird system though, especially considering that they could have put these into one big video. So as you can see, you can select those 6 trailers to have shown on a projector. In my case, it showed up on my monitor, with an option to click Space for full-screen watching. The videos are all in MPEG, dated 11/6/2003, all edited in a very small time frame. The EXE File to open this application was made the next day at 5 AM (poor advertisers). Each trailer features a poor British soul trying to talk about Pokemon, although he sadly doesn't seem to quite understand it. What, you want to watch these trailers now? You can! I dumped the disc and uploaded all the videos to a nice tidy playlist. Go here! Or if you want to see it in its original format, I extracted all the files on the disc and uploaded them to Dropbox! Now, I'm going to sum up the videos for you! Because of course I'm going to needlessly look into content made a month before the release date! Who do you think I am?!
That's all I really observed while screaming at all the inaccuracies, and I really don't want to watch it again. I'm kind of shocked this was copyrighted by Nintendo at all, as there wasn't much quality control done at all.
So that's all I have for now. What do you think of this? Interesting, no? |
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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