Gyopin is a curious little blighter who always seems to find its ways into leaks about Generations 1 and 2. However, I have never covered this little thing! Gyopin is a pre-evolution to Goldeen - a Baby Pokemon - whose first recorded appearance is in the Pokemon Red and Green Asset Leak. It was positioned at Index No.156, meaning that if you tried encountering it now you would find a MissingNo. in its place. Yes, this is an unmasked MissingNo.! However, it had no known name from that point in time, but these days we call it Gyopin due to its later appearances. The asset leak was released in February 2019, but held for an undetermined amount of time. We only have a back sprite of this little guy, and only in black and white too. However, I have taken it upon myself to make a speculative back sprite using the final Red and Green Goldeen's palette. This was with Bulbapedia's sprite. As a result, we wind up with this; The then-unnamed fish also had a learnset, but I have yet to translate these. I will however provide what I have;
This unnamed fish would later appear as Gyopin in the Spaceworld 1997 Demo leak that happened in 2018, released by the same person. This time, with far more completion; including a front sprite, a palette to actually look at, and a full learnset. (Credit: The Cutting Room Floor) Gyopin was Pure Water Type, with no stats (as in they were all dummied to 50), and a 50% chance to hold a Berry and a 5% chance to hold the old Mystic Water, the Wet Horn. It evolved more quickly than its Gen 1 counterpart, evolving at Level 16. As for learnset, here we are. Sourcing it from Team Spaceworld's research spreadsheet that I saved a copy of, before it was taken down. I use it for personal research records now. It's essentially Final Goldeen's, with no different moves from there. Levels are a bit different. Demo Goldeen learns moves more slowly by virtue of being a Stage 1 evolution. Gyopin is however a source of confusion for some, due to its design being a bit different to Goldeen. This, is a misconception. Goldeen originally had a spiral horn, which began being changed when Pokemon Yellow was released in September 1998. As a result, considering this fact, Gyopin's design actually makes perfect sense. Pokemon were often proposed in groups, meaning Gyopin was likely intended as a member of the Goldeen line from the very beginning. It just...got removed in the end. (Sprite Credit: The Cutting Room Floor - Gyopin, Bulbapedia - Goldeen) It gets a bit weird though. In all of Goldeen's official artwork from the era - even the Cardass art - I cannot for the life of me find anything showing Goldeen with a spiral horn. In fact, I couldn't find it for Seaking either, despite having the exact same spiral horn trait in Red and Green, and Blue JP. The closest I got to any reference was on some Cardass artwork for Seaking, but it's a bit of a reach. So, what does this mean? The spiral horn sprites for Goldeen and Seaking represent an intermittent design stage, like Gold and Silver's designs for Meganium, Spinarak and the Legendary Beasts being changed for Crystal. I believe that the artwork for Goldeen and Seaking must have been made after their in-game sprites were already finished, thus why their spiral horns were removed in Yellow and later just erased from existence. And, well, I think I can date this as well. I believe it must have happened during - and after - Spaceworld. Pokemon Yellow was released in September 1998, almost a year after Spaceworld. We have sprites showing the spiral horn in the demo, which was changed in the final. I also have a bit of a smoking gun, and that's Seaking's Spaceworld sprites. (Sprite Credit: The Cutting Room Floor) Notice the front sprite's horn: there's no spiral. They were in the middle of the redesign right as Spaceworld was going on. This leads me to believe that perhaps Gyopin and Goldeen have versions of their Spaceworld sprites without the spiral horn being featured as well somewhere, but...that's a reach, I feel. Well, why would they remove such an awesome looking design? I believe the anime must have been using the Red and Green artwork as a basis, as Goldeen had already been shown without a spiral horn. The first appearance was in Pokemon Emergency. In fact, this was its most iconic appearance that even led to Goldeen being featured in Super Smash Bros. doing the exact same thing: flopping on the floor. Thus, they must have changed it for consistency reasons. When did this air? April 8th 1997 in Japan, around the same time as when MicroGroup Game Review Vol.14 was released, doing commentary on the first episode of the anime: there was a lot of promotion going on. I believe Gyopin was removed for several reasons. It would have been extremely weak, and left Goldeen as one of the weakest middle evolutions of all time. Most Baby Pokemon reduce all the older form's stats by around 20, meaning its defenses would have been absolutely pitiful.
So there you have it: Gyopin, the Goldeen line's long lost baby, and part of one of many Generation 1 redesigns. What do you think? Personally, I wish that horn stayed, it adds a lot more personality to this line of Pokemon. Many often call Goldeen and Seaking basic, mundane and/or unimaginative. Personally I absolutely love Seaking, given my love for the more regal kinds of goldfish. Shoutout to Game Freak for giving it Swords Dance again in Sword and Shield after being deprived of it for 2 decades by the way. That was a Gen 2 event move, one of the most unfortunate casualties of the move to Gen 3. Left me super miffed. But anyway, that marks another mystery solved about not just Gyopin, but the entire Goldeen line!
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Out of all the Pokemon in the Spaceworld 1997 demo, most have their stats either unfinished, dummied out or otherwise. There is one, however, who stands out from the crowd: Rinrin. (Credit: The Cutting Room Floor, fan-made art by RacieBeep) Rinrin, in my opinion, may have been intended to be an alternative evolution to Konya, a scrapped pre-evolution to Meowth. This is because it is right next to Konya, a pre evolution to Meowth. It is the only Pokemon in the demo to have a true defined statline. Rinrin was a female-only Pokemon while Meowth was male, implying that there was an intention for gendered evolution. Konya would evolve at Level 14. Fun fact, Konya was also cut from Gen 1! Unlike most Pokemon in the Spaceworld dex however, Rinrin was finished. All stats but Special Defense were done (as SpD was dummied out universally, the split was still in progress). By using Meowth's Demo BST, we are able to devise what the SpD was. It was...low, but not unlike many Pokemon back then. (Source for these images are my private research sheets) Rinrin had access to Bell Chime, which was the prototype Heal Bell. Same effect, just a different name. This was actually its signature move. It would have been quite a desirable Pokemon given this, although it didn't seem like it would be too bulky, so it's definitely subjective. Access to Lovely and Sweet Kiss is certainly an eye-opener as well. Like every other Spaceworld Pokemon though, Rinrin had no TM learnset due to them still being used for debugging. Rinrin also had an evolution known as Berurun, evolving at Lv.28. This Pokemon would have been essentially a Persian counterpart. No stats are available, and it has largely the same learnset. You could technically replicate the stats through going +20 to each, as this is a common thing done for evolution, but know that it isn't definitive. (Credit: The Cutting Room Floor, fan-made art by RacieBeep) It is thought that the Rinrin line inspired Purrloin and Liepard of Gen 5. I do believe I see the resemblance, especially in regards to the idea of trickery being their forte. They have a lot of disruption-centric moves in their learnsets, so perhaps the concept of a deceptive cat got carried over! Game Freak has never acknowledged the Rinrin line in interviews to my knowledge, but Meowth has received Gigantamax, Alolan and Galarian forms, as well as an alternate evolution in Perrserker if it's Galarian. There's quite a lot of love for this cat, but still no Konya or Rinrin...
Yay, Plague von Karma is back!
Alright alright, you're probably wondering where I was. I've been labbing Smash Ultimate recently with a bunch of friends, it's tied my hands a lot. However, I have come back with some stuff from the Asset Leak after chatting with friends about it. So I've updated my MissingNo. Identification Sheet with the new beta Pokemon and also moved Gyaoon to its Asset Leak Index. You can find it here. So, what was different between my original and latest research?
And some new facts:
I may cover some of this in more detail at some point. With the emergence of the Pokemon Index List, the Capsule Monsters concepts, and so much more, many theories have been arising about Gen 1's development. From what Beta Pokemon became what to whether Magby and Elekid were in the game at some point. But none would be more backed up than the belief Blastoise was originally a standalone Pokemon. Sounds weird, doesn't it? But worry not, Papa Plague has you covered with all the information, continuing from an article I made a while ago. I originally thought that MissingNo. Index 181 could be two things: an unused evolution line from Spaceworld or an alternate Blastoise. Let's just say the prior theory was blown completely out the water. You see, I was originally kind of confused about Mew's placement in the index, as the last 3 MissingNo. in the Index were used for sprites in Lavender Tower and the Pewter Museum of Science. I initially believed they could have been reused, but what if they were intended for this all along? We could simply come to that conclusion and it all makes a lot of sense. As for Spaceworld, well, I did say it was circumstantial in that original article. So now, we arrive at the #AltBlastoise theory, with my old image to guide us through. We actually came across some very useful information to help validate this entire thing now too! For starters, let's bring up the main points from before;
But now, we have a new point. You see, thanks to the NHK broadcast showing that sprite sheet, we have confirmation that Blastoise used Cry No.30, which corresponds to Index Number 181: MissingNo. Hex B5. Weird coincidence, is it not? Suddenly we have some extremely strong evidence that Blastoise would have been separate from the Squirtle line at some point, backed up by design differences and general oddities spanning years. Next article will be going into Omega in more detail, the Pokemon which Mew replaced in the final game! Helix Chamber released some more info on Capsule Monsters Sprites after a shock report, featuring more early designs of the Pokemon. It confirms a multitude of theories, so I'm going to cover this with some speculation thrown in. Before we continue, these numbers on the paper are cry numbers, so you may want a list to gather an idea of how they sounded. From left to right, these are the Pokemon shown;
This is a very interesting sheet, as it not only shows a beta Pokemon, but it's a Beta Pokemon that has been bugging us historians for a while. You see, there's been a thing called "The Mystery O" among the thing, where we have a shred of a name of a Pokemon but nothing else. It just happened to be on this sheet! So here I just made a very poorly made reconstruction (using Helix Chamber's of the part as a basis) that I totally didn't make in 2 mins in MS Paint. Anyway, meet Omega, the ultimate E-Series Robot- wait, that's not it...I mean, the original user of Blastoise's cry! Yeah, this Pokemon looks pretty weird and early, much like the rest of the Pokemon there. It's not really much, just another Pokemon to add to the dinosaur list (likely why it was cut in my opinion). It's overall another Pokemon to go with the likes of Deer and Crocky, as it lived and died in exactly the same span of time. It's funny how this design didn't even get reused in the Spaceworld 1997 Demo. Seems they definitely did not like this Pokemon and killed it before it laid eggs. The name was so cool though! Next up we have Scyther, who I will say has the best sprite in the history of Pokemon in the Blue JP / Red and Blue Int games. I will die on this hill, you cannot prove me wrong. Anyway, we can agree that Scyther had very humble beginnings in Pokemon. Crappy sprite in Capumon, looked ugly in Green, had no Bug Moves and the only Flying STAB was 35 Base Power Wing Attack...yeah. Game Freak did not like this poor boy. To be honest, that initial sprite makes me think it was originally a Bug/Dragon Type, with the face and all. All speculation though. Gyarados was very different originally, seemed the original idea was to bring in something from Tremors or whatever. It may shock you, but yes, that name is Gyarados'. It looks a bit like Omanyte or Omastar, but a closer look will tell you that spiral is actually it dipping down or something. Hard to describe. But yeah, this explains why Magikarp is so far ahead at Index Number 133. The designs were originally very separate! Perhaps this inspired Eelektross at some point? It's all very interesting!
Now, the Cloyster thing is pretty weird, so bear with me. Index Number 23 has quite a bit of history to it now.
Blastoise being shown here so early also shows it is even more likely that it wasn't meant to be an evolution for Wartortle, strengthened by its placement in the popularity poll and the MissingNo. entry coming after Wartortle (as shown in another one of my articles). I believe this is a very plausible theory now. So yeah, that's some crazy info that we have here now! I've also updated my research document with this new information, so feel free to check it out! The Satoshi Taijiri Manga is pretty famous among us beta researchers, and really, it's a goldmine for information. So let's talk about some Beta Pokemon from it, and in this case, unmasking a MissingNo. Index. Now anyone who has read my research page for the Internal Pokedex Order in Gen 1 matches the Popularity Poll. In fact, it's almost a one to one match. And here, it's no different. The Beta Deer - literally called "Deer" - still has its spot in the data. It's just...blank. Technically it's not in the game, as MissingNo. takes its place. If you try to encounter it through the Mew Glitch with a Special Stat of 56, like with every other MissingNo., the game crashes since it's trying to load blank data. So, what could Deer have been, and has it ever been reused anywhere? Deer, to me, could have inspired Stantler and Sawsbuck. In fact, Sawsbuck feels like a re-imagining of the concept of a grass deer. Here's my typical poorly made MS Paint representation for you all to see the comparison. I'd say it's more of indirect inspiration. The idea of a deer Pokemon makes a lot of sense really, so it may have not inspired it at all. However, I can't help but think that Deer - the Pokemon - was most likely used as inspiration for Sawsbuck. Both clear Grass Type Pokemon, possibly Grass/Normal on Deer even.
For those interested in seeing how Deer could have looked and played in Pokemon, there's a ROM Hack of Red that significantly improves the game! It also has a version with the Taijiri Manga Pokemon in it! You can find it here, it's really good! If you want to simply see the Pokemon, there's a Dex Test here. I'll be covering Crocky and other Taijiri Manga Pokemon in separate pieces to give more elaborate opinions. This is very likely to be the last time I cover this magazine until someone translates the Hideo Kojima area of the magazine (someone is doing it for me, next week seems promising). Also, apologies for my inconsistent uploading of articles, I like to keep it spaced out but it gets a bit much sometimes. I have covered parts of "Hitmontop" before, but never actually went in depth or put it all in one place. So, it feels correct to put it here. Given the turtle has no real thoughts on it, I don't think it warrants an article (Unless I need filler...heh). This article is mainly to compile my thoughts, and to clear up any misinformation regarding this thing. So, let's begin this with what is the speculative history of Hitmontop. All the images here will be recycled from my previous articles, since there's no point in redoing them: they're fine! One thing I questioned in my initial research of the Spaceworld 1997 Demo back in June-July times, the biggest thing I questioned was the drastic difference in design. The only similarity was the concept of a spinning top, but even then it is quite the reach. Now, let's bring up the interview retranslation that Obskyr did. It has been agreed upon that the designs were never intended to be canon from the beginning: notice that Tyranitar wasn't in the Spaceworld Demo. It wasn't intended to exist up until after Spaceworld when the designs were looked over again. I believe that as a result, we can say the same for "Hitmontop", who I don't think is Hitmontop at all. Thinking about it, the only way that we can really explain the drastic design difference and the existence of Hitmontop in the Spaceworld Demo is that this Pokemon is not actually a beta Hitmontop. It never was. Hitmontop is based on a practitioner of Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art. Got to commend Game Freak for researching such an obscure thing tbh, pretty cool. Hell, the Japanese name is a homage to it. Anyway, getting off track. This weird Pokemon doesn't feature any implications of any kind of fighting style, and is simply a spinning top. If anything, I really think it looks like Clefairy. Here's an image I put together using my HQ scanned images of it; Ken Sugimori stated in the interview with the writers of the magazine, that he had the idea of a parallel universe when designing these Pokemon. They were not meant to be canon, but obviously Tyranitar really complicated this when Ken looked back at his old designs and thought "hey let's contradict this for a laugh".
So really, this Pokemon was never meant to be used from the beginning. As I said in my previous articles, this Pokemon was a throwaway design, just like the turtle and Tyranitar (god it still feels weird saying that). All in all, the most this Pokemon could have done is indirectly contribute to Hitmontop's inception: the concept of a spinning top, that evolved from there thanks to the drug-fueled beings that are Pokemon's designers. So, not Hitmontop. It's about as irrelevant as the turtle Pokemon that may or may not have become Tirtouga. After I got myself a copy of the magazine and scanned it all, I decided to take all this a bit further. With access to the best possible quality images of it, I couldn't just leave it at that. Given we only had a very poor translation of the page, I got Obskyr from Team Spaceworld to retranslate the page for us. So now, we have an improved translation erasing any grey areas that we initially had. Due to my PNG Copy being 16.3 MB I couldn't get it on here, but you can view it here. To compensate and for a more streamlined experience for you all, there's a JPEG version below. So overall, this translation has some key differences thanks to the kanji being legible: firstly, it confirms that Tyranitar was a throwaway design. I went over this in two articles, which you can see here and here. However, the latter is thrown into question. You see, Sugimori states here that these were original designs, made for a parallel universe of sorts. A separate world, in his words. Thus, these designs were never intended to be canon at all. This is more of a practice go or something, although the motivation is not mentioned. Thus, that's speculation. In regards to my Tyranitar Dev History Article being thrown into question, it's mainly because I claimed that Ken Sugimori likely polished Gyaoon to make Tyranitar. While Question 3 does support this, Question 1 does not. In fact, Question 1 could outright deconfirm this: Ken Sugimori claims they are original. However, polishing an old design and using it could also be just as good as an original. It could be a final hurrah for a Pokemon Design he had a kinship with. Or, he revived the concept of a Godzilla-like Pokemon as I said. It could mean anything, and sadly this is the one question we'll leave with: was Tyranitar a revived concept, or an original throwaway design before its inception in the final game? I believe this also confirms that Hitmontop was never, ever a part of this. From this I infer that this is simply a non-canon design (as stated in the original interview) that was taken from the Clefairy formula. They feel sort of similar. Possibly a Clefairy in a parallel universe as he claimed? Now for the turtle design. I agree with the masses that this could well have indirectly inspired Tirtouga. There are some very strong similarities between the two, although there are some differences between them that are natural with age. Now, I believe that the Clefairy-Hitmontop mishmash was laid to bed quickly after this magazine was published. I think Ken Sugimori did what he did in Question 3 to bring Tyranitar into being: looked back at the magazine, liked the idea, and pitched it. The turtle, I believe, was redesigned across multiple generations to eventually become Tirtouga.
So there we go! The Sugimori Interview has been retranslated and we have answers! Well, I bought a copy of MicroGroup Game Review Vol.14. It wasn't as difficult to find as one would expect, there's 3 copies on Amazon right now. However, since I bought it, the price sort of...doubled. Came almost a week early, and ironically on what would have been Michael Jackson's 60th Birthday...with Michael Jackson's Moonwalker featured. That shook me a bit, haha. Anyway, using my printer to scan the entire book, I uploaded everything to Imgur. So, it's all online now, no more questions or anything to ask. It's all there now. So, what's in this fabled magazine? Not much relating to Pokemon, actually. In fact, it was only a page and a small segment even related to it. There was the Ken Sugimori Interview (which we can now see in high quality), and a small segment on what I assume to be PokeFever. It has Satoshi Taijri's Birth Year written, so it may be on the development. Without a translation available I'm not really sure what to think. Honestly, there really isn't much to see in the thing apart from what we already know. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't anything uninteresting in the magazine. There is some content relating to what I think is Hideo Kojima's aim to merge films and gaming together. There's also content on Takeshi's Challenge, something that also really shocked me due to the controversy behind Beat Takeshi at the time. There is also an 8 page feature on Intelligent Qube, which you can find on the "uploaded everything" link for the album. All in all though, we've at least got high quality images of the thing online. I benefited too of course, this thing looks great on my wall. Plus, once translated, there may be some interesting info on Hideo Kojima, and maybe even Takeshi's Challenge. If this does happen, it will get some special attention on this blog due to being related to the magazine.
My previous articles on this will give some additional details on this magazine. Specifically, the look over on the Ken Sugimori Interview, and the Tyranitar Dev History. For any future updates, there is a category for this specific magazine as well. I intend to do something on Hitmontop, and possibly some design comparisons on Tirtouga in the future. If any of you have read my previous articles, you would know that there are some details of Pokemon Red and Green's development history dating back to Late 1989 Early 1990. Though very difficult to find, it does exist. Luckily, Helix Chamber documents even the most obscure details, so we have access to this information at any time. The Taijiri Manga Article has some details on a certain sprite sheet near the end, for example. I decided to order the Sprite Sheet by Index Number, to match with my Index Number Research Paper. This makes life a bit easier. Original piece is here as well, just in case some want it. So as you can see, there are 17 sprites here if we include Rhydon, who is Number 0. There are 16 designs who got in: notice Gyaoon being here in Rhydon's eventually spot. I'm assuming Gyaoon got cut during the Popularity Poll, since it's the only area where it makes sense: there is no MissingNo. at the start of the index numbers. Unless Gyaoon wound up inhabiting Index 21, which would become Mew. That would confirm the data filler that Game Freak talked about, which has so far been impossible to verify. For those who have read my Tyranitar Article, you'll know that Gyaoon later either inspired or became Tyranitar.
Anyway, you've probably seen a Pokemon I have labelled Spearow. Yes, it doesn't look very much like Spearow at all, although you can see the resemblance in areas. It kind of looks like Farfetch'd in areas, but it's definitely Spearow due to matching index numbers. Index Number 0 was pretty much completely erased in the final game, although MissingNo. does claim to have it in the game (he's lying). This design sort of explains "Kenya" the Spearow you can get via trading in GSC. Now for Clefairy, who also has some weird dev history. It didn't exactly look like the cute Fairy Type who evolves into The Queen of Gen 6, does it? Anyway, the sprite was changed later obviously, and then scaled down when Clefable was added at Index Number 142. At least it wasn't cut, and instead refined into one of the most iconic and cute Pokemon in the series! As you can see, Nidoking has what seems to be a Back Sprite here. I believe this may link into the early battle system sketches which you can find in the Tyranitar Article. When the concept for a Godzilla-like Pokemon was in vogue, they left a strong hint as to what the battle system would have looked like aesthetically. Possibly like Telefang's, with how they only had front sprites. This may have refined the concept to have back sprites, but overall remain the same. Anyway, if only we got those sprites... Ivysaur actually used Venusaur's design early in development. Venusaur and Bulbasaur were added around the 150 mark, which is where Ivysaur's design changed. Very unusual history that I definitely want to go over in a later article. Gengar looked quite different, not quite having that smile or those quills that we've come to know and love. He was a bit sheepish, no? Not much else to say here: he changed a lot, much like many of the others. Exeggcute and Exeggutor didn't change much at all, and were pretty much done. Only a few tweaks on the eyes and the shading were done. All in all, they were the most complete. Rhydon didn't have the drill horn that has since defined the line, but apart from that only changed the eyes. Slowbro has its arm poses tweaked for the final game but apart from that didn't change either. So yeah, that's the first 16. Not much else to say about the rest, but this is some interesting history that I do want to preserve. |
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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