But what do you mean, Papa Plague? We got Pokemon Blue! Hold your horses there, pardner. Because that Pokemon Green you keep talking about? You already played that, it's Pokemon Blue International bar the sprites. Yeah, as you can tell, this will be a very complicated article. So, let's talk about Gen 1 some more. I like Gen 1, you probably know it for the hilarious glitches. But did you know that we never got the definitive experience? Pokemon Blue JP, as I call it, is the Japanese Pokemon Blue. You see, we never actually got Blue: we got Green. I have a lot to talk about here, since there are also some sprites that never got released too. I was going to do this in 2 articles, but the sprites are pretty minor overall, and I didn't enjoy writing that small Game Boy Camera article. So as you can see, Corocoro has a small oddity going about. You see, Blue JP was initially released through there on October 15th 1996, a while after Red and Green were released that same year. However, in the two later magazines - November and December - show entirely different sprites. I have not seen a copy of Blue JP with these sprites, so I am assuming that there is an error here. However, this could also imply the existence of copies of Blue JP with these sprites. I cannot clarify this however. What we do know, however, is that Mewtwo was packing some SASS in that beta sprite.
Anyway, what's this about Blue JP being a different game? Well, it's quite the interesting debacle. You see, Blue JP (as said in that research image), was used for the scripts in Red and Blue International. Thus, we got those trades implied. You know, the Raichu and Poliwhirl evolving and such? This is because Blue JP was essentially a 3rd version, with different in-game trades to boot. Those version differences you see between Red and Blue, well, there were more in Blue JP. Ditto in Rock Tunnel, Rapidash in Cerulean Cave, Golem can be obtained via In-Game Trade, etc. There are many, but Bulbapedia sums it up quite well. I'd say that Blue JP is among the most friendly games to players. You can get Tauros, Golem, Gengar and Kangaskhan via In-Game Trade, all of which are amazing Pokemon. Hell, Tauros, Golem and Gengar can form a very good Gen 1 OU Team on their own. Kangaskhan was even nicknamed Rodan: a Godzilla reference! This is also the only way you can get a Lickitung in the wild: via the Safari Zone. Jynx can also be found in the Seafoam Islands. It is among the most complete of the Gen 1 Games, with only the Arbok Line, Ninetales Line, Primeape Line, Victreebell Line, and Magmar and Electabuzz missing. Nidoran wasn't available early game though (and Mankey completely gone), so have fun killing Brock with Charmander. Not too shabby, really. Hell, Porygon was cheaper in the Game Corner. It also fixed some minor glitches, such as Sabrina Skip. There is a patch available replicating the version differences, but I'm not sure if it patches out the glitches Blue JP did. No translation patch is directly available, however. Anyway, if you're interested in the version differences across the board, Papa Plague can provide!
The release schedule of Gen 1 was so hilariously bad, that it forgot a whole game. How fantastic is that?
1 Comment
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. 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! This is quite a big theory that has been proven true quite a few times throughout the discovery period of the Spaceworld Demo. I'll be giving my take on it, with help from The Cutting Room Floor and my own knowledge. A friend, Mooliecool, also helped me figure all this out a while ago as well. So, what are these similarities? Well, it runs deep and I'll have to explain from the ground up. It appears that Pokemon Gold and Silver were originally going to be set on an entire continent. In my article on The Jynx Controversy, you'll see that from Corocoro's December 1997 Issue they state the town to be Kyoto-like. For those who have read Corocoro before in any capacity, they like to hint things strongly, which are usually confirmations. In regards to the continent, it is deeply inspired by the real world. I identified it regionally in my Spaceworld Analysis in various areas, but TCRF went much deeper into it and managed to even tie the areas together perfectly. Now, with this in mind, I can easily go to the next part. You see, the north eastern area of the Spaceworld Demo's Pokemon Continent bears a striking resemblance to Sinnoh's Town Map. Note that this image was really sloppily done by myself, so chances are you'll have to try and recreate what I was trying to do here yourself if you want to see what I mean properly. Now, one thing I'd like to get straight here: no, I am not saying that it is a fully identical thing or anything. However, this specific area I put the image over is important. There are 4, possibly 5, areas which bear a resemblance to Sinnoh areas. Here's a comparison, with Town Map locations for convenience. I'd recommend zooming in or something to see the images from TCRF. Credited them accordingly for their comparison screenshots, and their bit on their wiki should give a sufficient explanation from them. They're much more credible than me at least. As you can see, there are 3 areas which TCRF went over as well as 2 others that I noticed. Now, the Iron Island one, at least to me, makes a lot of sense. It's connected to what can be seen as Beta Canalave City, only you use a Surf Route to get to it. It seems that it was more of a mine this time around, and the minecarts in the Final Game could well have been used here if I am correct. This would also connect Oreburgh City as a possible point of reference as well. Everything leads back to Sinnoh here, no? The fact Canalave City has a remixed GSC Credits Theme for its town music is even more of a flag for me. As for Pastoria City, I wouldn't say the maps themselves are similar. It's more that it appears to be a point of reference FOR Pastoria City. The structure has a mild similarity if you mirror it, but it's closer to Fuchsia at this point in development. I believe that the whole animal abuse controversy is what lead to the zoos being erased, and the rest can be attributed to change over the course of what is almost two decades at this point. The thing that put this on the radar for me is that is was in fact in the Sinnoh area on the map. Thus, it naturally gets at least a fair trial in my book. Now, the Sinnoh similarities don't end here. There's more, namely in the Pokemon found in the demo. As you can see here, there are 5 Pokemon that were scrapped in the making of the demo, only to be reused in Sinnoh. This is Ken Sugimori's "reuse all concepts" ideology from my MicroGroup Game Review Article in play, I think. They have all changed quite radically, which is once again from the almost 2 decades of being thrown around. Hell, we can see that prototype Mr. Mime Pre-Evo go from an egg to a clown child: kind of crazy, huh?
I believe that Hoenn and Sinnoh were both a part of an effort to complete the entire Beta GSC Continent, to complete the ambition that the game had. This is why they moved to Unova, then Kalos, then Alola: because they don't have the groundwork anymore. The continent now exists, there's no need to go back. This is why there are so many Johto throwbacks in Sinnoh, such as Weavile. They were adding Pokemon that were initially scrapped, since they were using the work they did on this demo. The reason Game Freak holds back designs is usually because they are unsatisfactory. It's clear why Nameru was held back: the thing is pretty darn ugly and looks like a King's Rock Evolution even though it isn't. I wish it was, I actually kind of like it. There's has some sort of a charm to it. Why am I talking about this? It's the reason why GSC was rebuilt to begin with. There's an interview saying that higher-ups did not like this demo, and thus they changed everything. Given the demo's progress, I'd say this happened a bit after Spaceworld. So the design of the region- no, the whole game, was unsatisfactory or hit a roadblock. However, it was never simply canned. It was reused, and we can see that in Hoenn and Sinnoh alike. It's kind of crazy how concepts work, huh? The more I look at this demo, the more interesting it becomes. It's not just a glimpse into the way Game Freak makes games, but a full, detailed look. 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. One of the things that hurt my brain the most during my Spaceworld 1997 Analysis was this one magazine that was already a source of skepticism. However, with another look, I have think I have solved the mystery. MicroGroup Game Review Volume 14 was released in April 1997. It contained an interview with Ken Sugimori, a very notable artist in the Pokemon sphere for designing a majority of the cast and trading cards. However, few people actually look at the contents of this interview, and more fuss over the cover...and for good reason, because it is truly odd. Now, clearly you can see that this is a very unusual cover. Two of these Pokemon are never seen anywhere in GSC, and the trainers are definitely nonexistent as well. However, Tyranitar is featured with a slightly more modest design. Unlike many, many people who speculate on this, I do know the contents of the magazine. I am seeking to obtain a copy for myself to see if there is anything other than what is currently documented, although the price is slightly steeper than I expected. For any interested, Amazon has a good few copies going for ~£60 GBP. Anyway, enough about that. Let's get to the point. Firstly, let's look at the cover before we go on about the contents. So people speculate that the turtle is what would later become Tirtouga. Personally, I agree! I see the resemblance, and many Pokemon get redesigned during development anyway. Tyranitar is likely one of the cut Gen 1 Pokemon (specifically, Gyaoon). Then there's the Hitmontop-like thing, which I'll get to in a bit. One thing that strikes me as odd here is that, well, not one of these are even featured in the Spaceworld 1997 Demo, which was sent out to said event on November 21st 1997. Not even a single MissingNo. can be found, although there are two Glitch Pokemon: an egg and a block. They resemble the glitches other than said MissingNo., such as The Q Glitch or 3TrainerPoke $. So they would be garbage data, in my opinion. Regardless, none of these Pokemon from the cover are in the game at all. Now, some say that these are simply throwaway designs made for promotion. Now, this is partly true given Ken Sugimori designed the cover himself. While the theory is definitely something worth considering, the fact Tyranitar is even here and in the final game is a problem. But why isn't it in the demo? Was it a throwaway design? It couldn't be though, especially since it was considered in Gen 1 as Gyaoon, and in Capsule Monsters as "Godzilliante". Hell, this was the second Pokemon designed. These can't simply be throwaway designs. The two trainers are never seen again in any capacity, although there is space to theorize that the female trainer could be Misty. This is solely based on the Water Patch on her arm, although this also falls flat given the radical design change, the fact she is a member of the Elite Four in the Prototype and how Misty never had a proper sprite in the Spaceworld Prototype anyway. The male trainer? Some say it's Morty, but he had white hair and no headwear at all in the prototype. Beta Rival? He had his design from the beginning. These are either throwaway trainer designs or something simply put down shortly after the cover was made. Now for this...creature, the thing that gets people talking about this. Personally, I think that the designs on the cover were initially designed to be throwaway designs, specifically from one quote in the transcript (included Japanese since it's there); Q1.今回のイラストのコンセプトを教えて下さい。 Q1. Tell us about the concept behind your recent work. A1.普段着の人々が、格好良くて可愛いモンスター達と共存しているという「ポケモン」の世界観でオリジナルキャラクターを描いてみました。「ポケモン」のようで「ポケモン」ではない、アナザーワールドです。 A1. I’ve tried to create some original characters using the [same] Pokemon worldview, in which everyday people coexist with cool and cute monsters. It’s another world... like Pokemon but not Pokemon. The context was that the interviewer was questioning Ken Sugimori about his "recent work", which was the cover. It seems the interviewers were overjoyed at him making that cover. The website that archived the interview has gone down, but luckily some amazing person archived it all on Wayback Machine. Seriously, that website is an absolute blessing, otherwise so many pieces of the GSC Dev History would be gone. So it appears that Ken Sugimori was designing Pokemon in a "parallel universe" sort of sense. Thus "like Pokemon, but not Pokemon". It's hard to actually get your head around given the lack of detail, but oh well. Maybe one day someone will ask the man himself about the whole thing, who knows? It would be helpful. Anyway, if we look at this quote alone, it is easy to assume that these were throwaway designs. However, I feel there is more. Tyranitar, for example, got in afterwards with almost no change. It seems the spinning top idea got reused for Hitmontop. So what gives? I believe another question in this transcript tells us exactly what happened! Q3.また、そいうった創作のイメージはどういったところから得られているのですか。 Q3. Where do you get the ideas for those designs? A3.過去の自分の絵を、ハズカシさをこらえて見つめ直し「うわー! こりゃだめだ」と猛反省するところから。 A3. From an unflinching reconsideration and reexamination of my own past designs, no matter how embarrassing, no matter how much I feel like yelling, “Whoa! This is BAD!” It was in front of us all along. Ken Sugimori used the MicroGroup Game Review Vol.14 Cover as inspiration later on. There's no other way that this entire thing can be explained, especially with the Spaceworld 1997 Prototype in hand. Tirtouga, too, must have been reused in this fashion.
This would explain the radical design change on Hitmontop, and in such a short time. It was really bad, let's be real. He polished it until it sparkled as the annoying Doubles Pokemon we know today! Truly, Fake Out + Intimidate was a mistake. Look at Incineroar over there, eclipsing Landorus-T in usage. I don't think that this design was directly built off of, though: it's too different. I believe the spinning top concept was used, and the it eventually became Hitmontop over the course of the year. This would explain the primitive design of it in the Spaceworld Prototype: it wasn't finished, obviously. Naturally, this also explains how Tyranitar got in by extension. It all falls into place quite easily: they were not initially intended to be reused, but a second look was all it took to get them implemented. To think that at one point, we never were going to get Tyranitar. Now THAT would have shook the Gen 3 Metagame. A world without Sand Stream? A world without TSS- actually, that sounds alright. So, what about those trainers? Well, looks like they're in Game Freak's archives of scrapped designs, awaiting another look. I do think that the Male Trainer was reused in the anime, but I just can't remember where. I'm certain that I've seen something like that before, but I just can't find it. It's been bugging me for months. This is just how Ken Sugimori does things: he never wastes a single design. He will always look at his old works, and reuse them accordingly. The cover art is just another, more notable and visible, case of it. Now, if only some of those Spaceworld Designs could see some reuse... Anyway, that's all I have. Hopefully this is closure on the whole thing! 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 one of my bigger theories regarding the Spaceworld 1997 Demo for Pokemon Gold and Silver. For those of you who don't know, this was leaked quite recently. This is based on some facts from an old Corocoro Magazine that me and my friend translated when I was making an analysis of the whole thing. Jynx has a very interesting history as some of you may know, but I feel like there may have been a much bigger backpedal regarding it all. So, what's the theory? Well, I believe that Jynx may have played a role in the story of Pokemon Gold and Silver at some point. And trust me, I have plenty of evidence to support this. This specific Corocoro Issue (December 1997, shortly after Spaceworld happened at the end of November) has some hints dropped about it. I had a friend (credit to Sam Akechi on Facebook) translate segments of it after getting a clear enough image, and it says quite a few interesting things. For starters, the Kimono Girls were Jynx Trainers (which made some sense given they are based on Geisha Girls). The magazine drops a question stating something among the lines of Jynx being related to summoning Ho-Oh. Thus, given how the Kimono Girls help summon Ho-Oh in HeartGold and SoulSilver, we can see that there was definitely some kind of concept with it being summoned through forms of dance. Note that Jynx DOES hatch an Articuno Egg in Pokemon Snap: this concept was not new, and may well have been intended to be a cornerstone of the Pokemon's lore. Hell, the section of the magazine even shows Ho-Oh coming down as a result of a dance. Now, there is more to this than just Jynx being a dancer aiming to bring Ho-Oh down to earth. It also claims the city (Known as Old City in the Demo's Files and Debug Menu) is Kyoto-Like. Given we now have the demo available to us, there is much more to this phrase now than ever before. You see, the entire continent of the game is just like Japan, as you can see by an image I uploaded to TCRF right there. It's just at an angle. It is quite unusual, as even the Kanto Region was placed where the real-life Kanto Region would be. However, this is a theory for another blog post. Seriously, I have a LOT lined up for this blog. Obviously, Jynx had all but been swept under the carpet by the time the Final Game dropped due to the level of controversy spiraling from her face. Well, blackface to be exact. The controversy persists today, and for good reason: Japan does have a history of racist caricatures and that also persists to this day. Defenders say that she is based on a fashion trend, others say that she is a remnant of the racism of the Pre-2000s. Which is true? Well, that's not what this article is for, nor do I ever intend to go into it. Regardless, Jynx has been pretty much completely erased from the lore of the series, and chances are she ain't coming back...which is a shame, because I actually like the Pokemon. Fake Out and a decently strong Icy Wind does wonders in Doubles, y'know? Gotta end Landorus-T's life somehow. But Jynx had even more interesting Dev History in Pokemon Gold and Silver's timeline: she had a unique sprite in the Spaceworld Demo that was changed completely during development. Some sprites had changes like this, but few had entire aesthetics changed. The Venomoth Article I did before covered a change like this, but Jynx's changed her skin color to purple, much like how we see her today. The anime around 1999 had the same old black face, and the magazine still had Jynx with the black face. So clearly, this was a backpedal. So, is there anything else about Jynx that we can discuss here? Well, the level of backpedalling here is not to be underestimated. Hell, Sabrina's Jynx in the Gym Challenge TCG Set was even censored for international audiences due to the controversy.
Anything else to discuss here? Well, as of now I have nothing else to really say. However, if I do find more backpedal evidence I will make a Part 2 or Follow-Up Article to this. There is so much Dev History here, it's kind of crazy. To note, this is the article that brought The Jynx Controversy into the big news outlets, and also what made her get censored for years and years to come. |
About meSo I really, really like researching Prototype Pokemon information. That's about it. I also do things on Smogon, I guess. Archives
January 2021
Categories
All
|