Can we catch ‘em all?: Versions, remakes, and media archaeology in Pokémon

[BulbaBot]

Can we catch ‘em all?: Versions, remakes, and media archaeology in Pokémon

In the first of seven articles, Pokémon Professor and Archaeologist Becca takes you on a journey into the world of core series games through the lens of media archaeology and media specificity.

Read more on Bulbanews

 

[Bittersweet]

This was a really interesting read. Looking forward to more from this series of editorials.

 

[ShinyLinoone]

Loved this article and cannot wait for more! Something tells me that looking through media archaeology like you said, I can make a pretty sound prediction that there will not be any releases in the core series exclusively for the New Nintendo 3DS. When the Gameboy Color came out, Game Freak made three games that were only enhanced by it and not exclusive: Yellow Version, and Gold and Silver Versions. Crystal WAS GBC exclusive, but that is just a pattern that I cannot see being repeated. And there was NO DSi exclusive release. New 3DS is just a slightly enhanced version of the 3DS, and Game Freak never makes titles exclusive to the slighty enhanced model.

 

[magentafeelings]

The author left out the UK + Ireland and Australia + New Zealand in the order of usual release dates. UKIE are generally (but not always, see Black + White) released around or slightly after the US. As far as I remember, before (almost) worldwide release, AUSNZ were usually a bit after everywhere else.

 

[ChronoCroc]

Loved this article and cannot wait for more! Something tells me that looking through media archaeology like you said, I can make a pretty sound prediction that there will not be any releases in the core series exclusively for the New Nintendo 3DS. When the Gameboy Color came out, Game Freak made three games that were only enhanced by it and not exclusive: Yellow Version, and Gold and Silver Versions. Crystal WAS GBC exclusive, but that is just a pattern that I cannot see being repeated. And there was NO DSi exclusive release. New 3DS is just a slightly enhanced version of the 3DS, and Game Freak never makes titles exclusive to the slighty enhanced model.

only problem is this: Yellow was no more enhanced by the GBC than Red, Green, and Blue were in Japan - only once it hit Western shores was it as colorful as you remember.

 

[minime9891]

I loved this. Being one of the people who was a kid when red and blue came out and growing up with it, and now playing the game as an adult it's nice to see an educational approach to the games that isn't like so many studies out there that look at them as a kids thing without looking into the nuances of them. I look forward to the upcoming articles.

 

[OneShot]

Dear 8bitbecca,

I'm sorry, but you're overthinking it.

Love,
OneShot

 

[ArchivistBecks]

Well, I think it depends heavily on the source code structure tolerated by the New Nintendo 3DS. The Game Boy Color has additional code sections that games designed for the Game Boy, but those sections on both systems are identical. That's why games are compatible across the platforms. As for Crystal, I'm talking about that mid-generation crossover heavily in my Generation II article The lack of DSi exclusive is difficult to place historically. It may lie within the dependencies of the platform, perhaps they were considering moving to a new system more quickly than expected.

New information on the New 3DS is absolutely paramount for new core series releases, but I CAN guarantee that the next set of remakes will be playable on both the 3DS and New 3DS (likely with enhanced features).

Loved this article and cannot wait for more! Something tells me that looking through media archaeology like you said, I can make a pretty sound prediction that there will not be any releases in the core series exclusively for the New Nintendo 3DS. When the Gameboy Color came out, Game Freak made three games that were only enhanced by it and not exclusive: Yellow Version, and Gold and Silver Versions. Crystal WAS GBC exclusive, but that is just a pattern that I cannot see being repeated. And there was NO DSi exclusive release. New 3DS is just a slightly enhanced version of the 3DS, and Game Freak never makes titles exclusive to the slighty enhanced model.

I'm an archivist, game scholar, and media archaeologist. Overthinking it is part of the job

Dear 8bitbecca,

I'm sorry, but you're overthinking it.

Love,
OneShot

Didn't leave them out for one critical reason: they're heavily taken from the North American version. In fact, in most generations the code is identical, just as it is with Iberian and Latin American Spanish. From what I've been able to research, it seems the delay in release has more to do with trade restrictions than anything else, which proves why it's so critical to look at games in their larger societal contexts.

Talking about this in the next article *hint, hint*

Loved this article and cannot wait for more! Something tells me that looking through media archaeology like you said, I can make a pretty sound prediction that there will not be any releases in the core series exclusively for the New Nintendo 3DS. When the Gameboy Color came out, Game Freak made three games that were only enhanced by it and not exclusive: Yellow Version, and Gold and Silver Versions. Crystal WAS GBC exclusive, but that is just a pattern that I cannot see being repeated. And there was NO DSi exclusive release. New 3DS is just a slightly enhanced version of the 3DS, and Game Freak never makes titles exclusive to the slighty enhanced model.

only problem is this: Yellow was no more enhanced by the GBC than Red, Green, and Blue were in Japan - only once it hit Western shores was it as colorful as you remember.

This is very true, however it is slightly outside the realm of media archaeology and more of a trade restriction issue. According to my research, it appears that importation to the UK was slightly more difficult than importation to Australia and New Zealand. However, leaving out the mention implies I didn't think about it, so I'll edit it.

 

[ShinyLinoone]

Loved this article and cannot wait for more! Something tells me that looking through media archaeology like you said, I can make a pretty sound prediction that there will not be any releases in the core series exclusively for the New Nintendo 3DS. When the Gameboy Color came out, Game Freak made three games that were only enhanced by it and not exclusive: Yellow Version, and Gold and Silver Versions. Crystal WAS GBC exclusive, but that is just a pattern that I cannot see being repeated. And there was NO DSi exclusive release. New 3DS is just a slightly enhanced version of the 3DS, and Game Freak never makes titles exclusive to the slighty enhanced model.

only problem is this: Yellow was no more enhanced by the GBC than Red, Green, and Blue were in Japan - only once it hit Western shores was it as colorful as you remember.

The enhanced color was only put in in international releases? Did no know that. But this further probes my point that Game Freak almost never takes advantage of the slightly enhanced rerelease.

 

[Gabo2oo]

...Okay, why was the article completely rewritten today? It's okay to correct some stuff here and there in an already-released article, but is changing everything even allowed in Bulbanews?

In regards to the new article: in my honest opinion, it doesn't give anything new. It not only just resolves around something most Pokémon fans already know, but also, it doesn't actually explains or focuses on the why of that, except for one paragraph that it's not more than basic speculation. It's like overthinking something that it's much more simple than this article makes it to look. That was also a problem in the original article from October 28th: it didn't tell us much more than "we can analyze games and its inner data to know more than just its cover".

Besides, as far as I know, Nintendo and Game Freak have aknowledged several times that Pokémon Red and Blue are based on Pocket Monsters Red and Green (which, at the end, is not untrue), rather than claiming that Pocket Monsters Green is an isolated version that wasn't localized or anything. Of course I could be wrong, but that "Generation 1 Official Version Tree" picture doesn't seem very legit to me. I also don't recall them ever marketing the games as "exact translations", but rather just as games, without looking much onto its Japanese origins.

I'm really sorry, but this is the first time I see an article I completely not like. It's also the first time I believe a Bubanews article is giving incorrect information (even an opinion column is based around facts, but here even those facts don't seem very legit to me). It's also the first time I give a completely negative review about something here; it's somewhat dissapointing.

 

[Archaic]

...Okay, why was the article completely rewritten today? It's okay to correct some stuff here and there in an already-released article, but is changing everything even allowed in Bulbanews?

It was an error in the system for new article submissions. Seems it didn't like article titles ending in "?". Fixed it, the 2nd article is now properly in its own separate article.

 

[Silktree]

New information on the New 3DS is absolutely paramount for new core series releases, but I CAN guarantee that the next set of remakes will be playable on both the 3DS and New 3DS (likely with enhanced features).

I'm sorry, but I don't see how you can guarantee any such thing. Chances are that the next generation will be playable on the New 3DS and 3DS, but it doesn't have to include any remakes.

Unless you were just referring to ORAS, but in that case we know that they're regular 3DS games.

 

[ArchivistBecks]

Actually, I think I can make a pretty educated guess that I'm willing to stick my neck out for. But I quite enjoy being wrong, it means I learn a thing! With Nintendo and Game Freak, their releases follow predictable patterns except for the weird ones noted here by other posters (Crystal is especially a funny duck, I don't even know where to begin to comprehend who made that technical decision). So I base my thoughts on the future by considering what happened in the past. Which media archaeology is great for.

With remakes, ever since FireRed/LeafGreen, we've had remakes in all but Black/White. Nintendo capitalizes on nostalgia, it's one reason I adore this company. So Gen III remakes Gen I on the GBA, Gen IV remakes Gen II, and Gen V exists in its own magical world. When I first submitted my grad thesis, everyone told me I was crazy to swear a remake for Ruby/Sapphire were on their way for the 3DS. Literally got laughed at. So now Gen VI remakes Gen III. What we have left to remake is Gen IV. I don't think they'll remake that for a while, but I do think they will remake it with some backwards compatibility.

So far in Nintendo's history, systems with the same name often maintain some level of backwards compatibility, but that has nothing to do with the systems and everything to do with their data structures. GB/GBC had very compatible data structures, but GBA did not. DS/3DS, also compatible data structures. It's possible NDS (is there another acronym for this yet?) will have a vastly different data structure, but honestly I doubt it. The structure has remained consistent for so long.

The only thing that gives me pause is the leap between GBC and GBA in terms of having similar names but vastly different structures, so there's a chance that Nintendo will throw us through a loop, I just don't see where they've gotten the new tech to make such a jump, retain the same name, and go back on their typical backwards compatibility schema. At least not based on advertisements on specs so far.

PS: If someone can do a scholarly study of who on earth makes Nintendo's confusing naming decisions, which almost always make customers have no idea what's compatible with what, please send my way!

New information on the New 3DS is absolutely paramount for new core series releases, but I CAN guarantee that the next set of remakes will be playable on both the 3DS and New 3DS (likely with enhanced features).

I'm sorry, but I don't see how you can guarantee any such thing. Chances are that the next generation will be playable on the New 3DS and 3DS, but it doesn't have to include any remakes.

Unless you were just referring to ORAS, but in that case we know that they're regular 3DS games.