Pokémon Red and Green beta

This article lists the development leftovers and unused content of the Japanese and English Generation I games, , and that have been documented by fans.

No Mew present
According to the interview by Satoru Iwata with Tsunekazu Ishihara and Shigeki Morimoto about the release of, localized as Iwata Asks, they admitted that after the tools were removed, they added  in the remaining space on the. Nintendo thought that this would have been risky because altering the internal data after completing the testing period meant that any new and/or es created by adding data without recurring to debugging tools would have been much harder to fix. Standard practices usually discourage altering the  and not testing it just before releasing the  to the customer.

Poké Balls
Some concept art depicts Poké Balls on the ground, in two pieces. This is most likely just a carryover from when Pokémon was still the concept of Capsule Monsters. Strangely, the original Poké Ball sprites from lack the button in the center of the Poké Ball.

Rebattling Trainers
In an interview with Shōko Nakagawa in her book Shōko Nakagawa: Pokémon Taught Me The Meaning of Life, Tsunekazu Ishihara revealed that originally, the game was programmed to trigger a battle with each Trainer any time the player walked by them, regardless if the player had already defeated them in battle previously. The wild Pokémon encounter rate was also significantly higher originally. The Trainer rebattling was omitted from the final release and the wild Pokémon encounter rate was significantly reduced.

Release date
The games were originally scheduled for a December 21, 1995 release, according to an old Nintendo of Japan flyer. This could explain the copyright year of 1995 that appears in the games' introductory sequence, and all subsequent games and official merchandise.

Prerelease border
On page 153 of the December 1995 book New Game Design by Game Freak is a summary of 's final plot. Two screenshots of the game are shown which use an unseen border resembling a Super Game Boy border. In it, "POCKET MONSTERS!" is written in a different size. The border has more Pokémon on it than the Super Game Boy borders from the final game. and are included, suggesting the screenshot may be from Japanese Red. does not appear in the border.

Concept art
During a gaming exhibition called , early concept art of by Ken Sugimori was featured, along with pre-release material from. The concept art depicts rough versions of various concepts that made it into the final releases of the Generation I games. They seem to include various s, the, riding on a , a , Celadon City, Silph Co., and a town with a fountain which could have been reworked into Celadon City. Some other are identifiable in a raw or semi-normal form, such as, and others are prototypical of an entire class of Pokémon, such as a basic.

GameCenter CX
A Japan-exclusive special Pokémon episode of , known as Retro Game Master outside of Japan, included an interview with Satoshi Tajiri, where he revealed early character profiles of,  and. Notably, they are given a National Pokédex number which matches their internal index number, rather than their final Kanto Pokédex number. Nidoking, for instance is noted as being #007, rather than #034, either suggesting that there was another method of ordering the Pokémon proposed, or that they reflect their ordering in the internal data. The latter is supported by interviews with Ken Sugimori, which verify that, which has an index number of 001, was the first Pokémon ever created, and early sketches from Capsule Monsters featuring Rhydon. Nidoking is also referred to as マイコー♂ Maikō♂, indicating that there were either placeholder or alternate names for Pokémon before the development of had finished.

In addition to this, it was confirmed in an interview with Shigeki Morimoto that there were originally going to be 190 Pokémon in Generation I, indicating that the 39 MissingNo. found in the internal index are formatted Pokémon.

Professor Oak battle
At the beginning of the undefined's adventure, Professor Oak introduces to the  using a sprite that is similar to the  sprites of other characters. In addition to this, he also has three full teams of programmed in, each consisting of a level 66, level 67 , level 68 , level 70 , and the final evolutionary stage of one of the  at level 69. His Pokémon are of an even higher level than those of as, suggesting that he was at one point intended to be faced late in the game.

If the starter used is :




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If the starter used is :




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If the starter used is :




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This battle is present in all Generation I games and can be triggered in different ways.


 * By performing the using a  with a  stat of 226 if the wild 's  is lowered by 4, 5, or 6 stages (each number of stages will yield a different one of the three teams).
 * By performing the Old man glitch with a player's name containing the character in the third, fifth or seventh slots, Professor Oak can be battled as a glitch Trainer; however, he will not have a defined roster.
 * By performing a specific select button glitch in the Japanese.

There are no preset dialogues for Professor Oak to be used either before the battle or after defeating him.

In the Japanese versions, Professor Oak is referred to as オーキドせんせい Ōkido-sensei during the battle instead of the usual オーキドはかせ Ōkido-hakase.

Bird type
The Bird type may have been a prototype for the Flying type. This can be seen in the final releases: MissingNo. is recognized as a dual-type. The Bird type is present in the internal data of the Generation II games, possibly due to their engine being an upgraded version of that of the Generation I games.

Directions
Unused text strings within the game show option dialogs for North/West (Japanese: きた/にし North/West), North/East (Japanese: きた/ひがし North/East), and South/East (Japanese: みなみ/ひがし South/East). These do not appear in the final release, with the only in-game option dialogs being Yes/No (Japanese: はい/いいえ Yes/No) and Heal</sc>/Cancel</sc> (Japanese: あずける/やめる Heal/Cancel). (For unknown reasons, there is no unused South</sc>/West</sc> (Japanese: みなみ/にし South/West) option dialog.)

Unused Trainer class
A Trainer class known as  (Japanese: シルフのチーフ Silph's Chief) was omitted from the final releases, though like Professor Oak, a with an NPC with this data can be accessed through modification of the internal data or saved game data as well by cheating. It is apparently mentioned in-game by one of the s in Celadon City, and shares its battle sprite with the Trainer class since its index number of   precedes it (Scientist's is  ). He has no defined roster, instead using the one for the first Scientist on the internal list. Also like Professor Oak, he has no preset dialogues programmed in either for before the battle or after defeating him.

Its Japanese name suggests that the President of Silph Co. was originally planned as a that could be challenged to battle.

Unused Trainer actions
There is unused data within the games for trainers to use various items that goes unused.

Extra field move
An extra field move might have been planned as there is an unused entry between and  within the internal data. It could also have been an HM as it is placed between the aforementioned HM02 and HM03 and all HMs are ordered by number in the internal data. Given its index number of   and that the highest index number used for actual moves is  , other moves beyond the 165 introduced in Generation I were once planned as well.

The unused text string "Ground rose up somewhere!" (Japanese: どこかでじめんがもりあがった！) might be related to this scrapped field move.

Music
An unused track has been discovered in the internal data. The music is originally high-pitched and incomplete as only the individual audio channels are left. There have also been attempts at recreating what the full theme would sound like.


 * Original music:


 * Recreation attempt:

Locations
There are three map locations which are each identical to another map used in the final releases, except for the fact that the default theme used in the alternative location is different.


 * The house invaded by Team Rocket in Cerulean City: has index number   instead of   and plays Caves of Mt. Moon
 * The 's entrance at : has index number   instead of   and plays Vermilion City Theme
 * The Poké Mart at Cinnabar Island: has index number   instead of   and plays Cinnabar Island Theme

In addition, 25 deleted map locations with leftover header data are present in the internal list of location index numbers.


 * Three use the map header (index numbers  )
 * 17 use the Pokémon League map header (index numbers  ,   and  )
 * One uses the Pokémon Tower map header (index number  ).
 * Three use the Rocket Hideout map header (index numbers  ).
 * Another uses the Rock Tunnel map header (index number  ).

Formatted data exists for an additional map location. It is located straight after the final town in memory (Saffron City) but just before. Its associated data is completely blank, even its header data and coordinates on the Town Map (as it is set as being part of Pallet Town, with coordinates (0,0)), except for the fact that an unused flag when checked allows the undefined to to it. Attempting to travel to this location simply freezes the games.

There is an unused warp tile in Celadon City. It is internally programmed in to lead to 5F of Celadon Dept. Store, which in turn has its internal data located away from the data for the other floors, possibly suggesting that it was originally a completely different map in earlier stages of development, which is supported by the aforementioned discovery.

A part of the internal data relates to a Poké Mart placed between the data for the and Cinnabar Poké Marts and may be associated with the formatted map location as mentioned above. The item list contains s, s, s, s and s.

Items
Regularly unobtainable Key Items with the names of all the Badges exist in the internal data (index numbers  ). This could mean that the Badges were originally going to be items that were carried in the undefined's Bag; however, as Key Items, they appear to be actually used in the list of Badges presented by the Gym Badge man in Cerulean City. The BoulderBadge (index number  ) and CascadeBadge (index number  ) are the only ones that do something when used in &mdash;they allow the player to throw and Rocks, respectively, as in the  battles. When used in the overworld (except dungeons and caves), it changes the background music to a single channel of Guidance; if used in a dungeon or cave, it changes the background music to a single channel of ～オープニング～ ~Opening~. This is due to the function that plays the "throw Bait or Rock" sound effect attempting to load it but referring to the wrong soundbank.

Key Item ????? (index number  ) enables the undefined to without using a. Badges are not required either. Due to this ability, it is often referred to as Surfboard. In the final releases, the move Surf can be used by a Pokémon as a field move serving the same function. It may indicate that Surf was not originally implemented as a field move or that this is a debugging item used by the programmers. Unlike the move Surf, it also allows surfing on 's Cycling Road and does not trigger the "Cycling is fun! Forget Surf</sc>ing!" (Japanese: せっかくのサイクリング！&#8943;&#8943;なみのりはやめとこう) message.

The Pokédex is also present as a Key Item with index number   and can be accessed during battle, much like does in the. It also causes the to load the overworld tileset and turns the HP bar to letters when used in battle.

Coin is programmed in as regular inventory item, having index number  . It cannot be used for slot machines or price exchanges, rendering it completely unusable. It will stack if multiple Coins are obtained; however, it is not stored by the Coin Case. It can be sold for 5 each at any Poké Mart and bought for 10 each from a Poké Mart with a modified item list. Actual Coin Case-stored Coins are available for double the price, at 20 per Coin, and cannot be sold. In the Trainer's Guide (manual) of, it is listed as a "miscellaneous item"; thus, it is the only item to be included in this category.

TMs 51-55 (index numbers  ) were planned and contain each HM's respective field move by order. They stack as any other TM and can be sold at Poké Marts.


 * TM51 teaches like HM01; can be sold for 1500 and bought for 3000
 * TM52 teaches like HM02; can be sold for 7000 and bought for 14000
 * TM53 teaches like HM03; can be sold and/or bought for 0
 * TM54 teaches like HM04; can be sold for 4000 and bought for 8000
 * TM55 teaches like HM05; can be sold for 2000 and bought for 4000. Also appears as Cancel</sc> (Japanese: やめる Cancel) and hides items below it; this secondary effect might be due to its index number ( ), which puts it at the bottom of the item list in the internal data.

Another Key Item named ????? (index number  ) and a fake (index number  ) exist and are completely useless. The fake PP Up can be sold for 4900 and bought for 9800, unlike the real PP Up, which is sold and/or bought for 0.

Sprites
Different front sprites of were planned for, notably the ones for , , ,  and. These were featured in the November 1996 issue of, which published general information about the game.

Cries
Certain MissingNo. use specific leftover cries.


 * Cries with index numbers   (Base 0, Pitch 128, Length 16),   (Base 29, Pitch 244, Length 64), and   (Base 34, Pitch 255, Length 64) do not appear to resemble the cry of any actual.
 * Cry with index number   (Base 14, Pitch 224, Length 96) resembles 's cry, cries   (Base 15, Pitch 64, Length 192) and   (Base 15, Pitch 64, Length 128) resemble 's; cry   (Base 15, Pitch 32, Length 192) resembles 's and cry   (Base 17, Pitch 32, Length 16) resembles either 's, 's or 's cries.
 * Cry with index number   (Base 29, Pitch 0, Length 128) is modified from 's but resembles 's, suggesting that the Pokémon might have been originally planned for Generation I instead of Generation II.

Text
Unused text strings referring to Badges and titles exist in the Japanese versions, but were not translated for the localizations. The katakana used for the (loanword) of "badge" is also slightly different, being バッヂ Baddji instead of バッジ Bajji. These names appear in the internal item list of the Japanese versions on offsets  , which would suggest that they are items; however, they do not have valid effects if they are forcedly used as items. The most likely scenario is that these names originally belonged to different multiple lists.


 * かみなりバッヂ Lightning Badge
 * Not to be confused with the, which is named オレンジバッジ Orange Badge in Japanese.
 * かいがらバッヂ Shell Badge
 * おじぞうバッヂ Jizo Badge
 * A possible reference to the Japanese variation of, known as Jizo.
 * はやぶさバッヂ Falcon Badge
 * ひんやりバッヂ Cool Badge
 * なかよしバッヂ Friendship Badge
 * バラバッヂ Rose Badge
 * ひのたまバッヂ Fireball Badge
 * ゴールドバッヂ Gold Badge
 * ゴールドバッジ Gold Badge is actually the Japanese name of the.
 * たまご Egg
 * ひよこ Chick
 * ブロンズ Bronze
 * シルバー Silver
 * ゴールド Gold
 * プチキャプテン Little Captain
 * キャプテン Captain
 * プチマスタ Little Master
 * マスター Master

Default player and rival names
The unused default name for Red in the English versions is Ninten</sc> while 's is </sc>. While it is impossible to view these names during regular gameplay, changing a few es in can allow for these names to appear as shown here. This references the fact that in the years surrounding the releases of the Generation I games, Sony was Nintendo's main competition. Ninten is also the default name of the main protagonist of, a game developed by Creatures, Inc., which has worked on the Pokémon games since the start.

In the Japanese versions, the unused default names for Red and Blue differ between and  :
 * In Pokémon Red and Green, Red's unused default name is やまぐち Yamaguchi while Blue's is いしはら Ishihara. Yamaguchi refers to Wataru Yamaguchi, an art director that worked on the original games, while Ishihara refers to Tsunekazu Ishihara, the current president and of The Pokémon Company and who was the games' producer at the time.
 * In Pokémon Blue, the unused default names for Red and Blue are, respectively, ゲーフリ Gēfuri, an abbreviation of Game Freak's name in Japanese (ゲームフリーク Gēmu Furīku), and クリチャ Kuricha, a reference to Creatures, Inc.

Unused in-game trade
A -for- in-game trade was originally planned. The Beedrill's nickname in is ピピん Pipin and チクチク Chikuchiku in. This explains why the international releases contain unused text strings referring to a Beedrill nicknamed Chikuchiku</sc>.

Safari Zone Hidden PCs
Unused coding leftover in the game shows that three specific house maps (DF, E0, and E1) contain data for Pokémon Center PCs in the same location PCs would be located in a Pokémon Center. checks where the last location of a Pokémon Center was and if it sees that it was a Safari Zone rest house, will not teleport you to that location. The invisible PC data was later removed in releases.

Unobtainable Nugget in Safari Zone entrance
If the Itemfinder is used at the Safari Zone entrance, it will say an item is nearby but it cannot be obtained without cheating.

Unused Elite Four Walking sprites
There is sprites for the four members of the Elite Four walking but as they all stand still, the sprites never get to be seen.

Super Effective Dragon type
The Dragon type is super effective to itself in Generation I. However, due to the only Dragon move being doing 40 HP of damage, this behavior never gets to be seen.

Unused Move Effects
There are unused effects for moves, the only effect to go used is 23 as the effect was assigned to in the original Pokémon Red and Green. {| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="multicol" style="background:transparent; width:100%"

Unused Trainer Parties
There are a number of Trainers with teams that are never referred to or called on in the game data that are leftover.

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Interestingly, one of the leftover Trainers found his way to the remakes. The originally-unused Engineer appears in the Vermilion Gym in Generation III, under the name of Baily. He uses the same Pokémon team as the unused Trainer and replaces the that stood in the same place in the original games. His placement in the game's internal data also matches the original unused Trainer.

Pokémon names
During the promotional period that preceded the English release of both the and, a large amount of  were shown with different names from those they had in the final releases. Some of these names were similar to their final names, but some were quite close to their Japanese names, and others were completely different from any current Pokémon name.

In addition to promotional materials distributed before the games' English releases, the book Pokémon Trainer's Survival Guide, one of the earliest player's guides available in North America, erroneously refers to Haunter as Spectre, its pre-release name.

Text
Before the English releases of, screenshots were released of a with the  where the text string "The Blue</sc> wants to fight!" was used. While this text would work with a typical, such as "The Lass</sc> wants to fight!" or "The Hiker</sc> wants to fight!", as they were not given personal names until Generation II, it would cause problems with Gym Leader, Elite Four, rival, and link battles, leaving them to end up as "The Misty</sc> wants to fight!" or "The Lance</sc> wants to fight!", as these Trainers did not at the time have titles, only their names. Because of this, the The was dropped in the final releases, leading to the somewhat odd sentence style in Generations I and  of:
 * "{Trainer's class or name} wants to fight!"
 * "{Trainer's class and name} wants to battle!"

A screenshot in the instruction manual of English Red and Blue still contains the text "The Brock</sc> wants to fight!", possibly suggesting a late removal. The instruction manual also mentions Pokémon Leaders instead of Gym Leaders.

A slightly different grammar was also going to be used for other text strings.


 * "{Player} sent {Pokémon} out!" instead of "{Player} sent out {Pokémon}!"
 * "A wild {Pokémon} appeared!" became just "Wild {Pokémon} appeared!" (this change would be reverted in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, where it has been kept since then)
 * Similarly, "The enemy {Pokémon} fainted!" became simply "Enemy {Pokémon} fainted!" (also reverted in XD as the The was reinstated)

Text
On page 31 of Pokémon: Official Nintendo Player's Guide, a different text string for using on a tree on the overworld was used. It reads "Oddish Cut</sc> down a bush!", being used in a screenshot when cutting down the tree next to the Vermilion City Gym. The fact that Cut can also be used to destroy areas of tall grass may have been the reason for the change to "{Pokémon} hacked away with <sc>Cut</sc>!" in the final releases.

has tileset data for <sc>Green</sc>. lacks any equivalent data for <sc>Red</sc>, however.

Super Game Boy Border Tiles
The US versions of Pokémon Red and Blue have tileset data for Pocket Monsters! logo on their Super Game Boy Border tiles. The European releases overwrote this data as it was needed.

Move Animations
After the episode Electric Soldier Porygon, all versions of Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue had the screen flashing frames of attacks for moves such as, , and slowed down to reduce the possibility of players having a seizure.

Chief Trainer Class
The Japanese name of the unused trainer class is 「シルフのチーフ」 (Silph's Chief), implying that at one point the player may have had to or had the option of battling the Silph Co. president.

Spanish Fishing Error
When encountering a Pokémon using a fishing rod, the game says "The hooked <POKÈMON> attacked!" In the Spanish localization, this was erroneously translated to "¡El malvado <POKéMON> atacó!". The word "malvado" translates roughly to "wicked" or "evil."

French TM Acronym
The acronym for TM in the French localization of the games is CT. It is used incorrectly in one area of the game. When the player exchanged Lemonade for CT49, the text reads "TM49... TRIPLATTAQUE!".

Squirtle Pokédex Entry
In the Spanish and Italian localizations of the games, both versions erroneously refer to Squirtle's shell as "concha" and "conchiglia" which translates to "seashell" in Spanish and Italian respectively.

Substitute Behavior
In the Japanese Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, and later Yellow; the moves, , , and will fail if the foe or opponent Pokémon has a substitute active on the field. This was fixed in all localizations. The error reappears in and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. This error was later fixed in Generation III.

Pokédex Weight Change
In the Japanese Pokémon Red and Green, 's weight is listed as 6.0 kg. This was corrected in the Japanese Pokémon Blue to 60.0 kg. is also affected as its weight in the Japanese Pokémon Red and Green is listed as 2.0 kg, this was also corrected in the Japanese Pokémon Blue to 20.0 kg.