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I didn't see a thread about this anywhere, but I thought this would be an interesting thread to have to talk about/share information regarding content that was once planned for Pokémon games, but ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor. I personally find this to be the most interesting part of the franchise--especially given how much information has come to light in recent years about the games. I'm pretty familiar with Gens I and II's cut content, so below I have write-ups about both. However, if there's anything I missed or you know about--do share!
Red and Green:
Anyway, as I've run out of room for attachments and have spent three hours on this, I will conclude this portion of the Red and Green Beta write up. I'll work on the second part, which will include cut trainers in locations, in another post soon.
Photos and information were taken from Helix Chamber and RetroVision, I recommend checking them out if you're interested!
Red and Green:
Concept
Pokémon's development started back in 1990 after Satoshi Tajiri saw two Gameboys linked via link cable and being given the idea of a game in which players could not only play against each other, but with each other. The initial concept was inspired by Tajiri's own childhood as well; as a child, he liked to collect bugs, and search in every and any place he could find to discover more. Given how Japan was becoming more and more urbanised, it would soon become harder and harder for most children to be able to do this. Thus, Capsule Monsters, or Capumon, was born.
Original Capsule Monsters logo
We've had the pitch for Capumon for a quite a while, even on Bulbapedia. However, it's still incredibly interesting to see what was different at this point of development.
Firstly, acquisition of the monsters was possibly not exclusive to random encounters in the wild. There is concept art in the pitch showing that monsters could also be purchased in stores. Remnants of this can be found in the game corner where rare Pokémon can be purchased with coins.
Concept art showing Pokémon available for purchase
There was also a point in development where trainers would fight Pokémon themselves--this is why some trainers, such as Team Rocket and Cool Trainers, have whips in their Gen I sprites. The original sprite for the protagonist (named Yuuichi at this point) also had him wielding a whip. I'm not really sure how this would have worked, so if anyone has any more info on that, please let me know!
Yuuichi, the beta version of Red
The concept art for the pitch also shows the player at a hotel, implying that at one point Pokémon Centers didn't exist and that the player would heal in an Inn, like most traditional RPGs.
The images on the left and the bottom right show the player using a hotel.
Interestingly, there is a female trainer in the concept art posted above using a hotel as well. However, I can't find anything in the leaks or in leftovers from Gen I that implied a female player character was considered throughout most of development. Yuuichi is the only protagonist sprite coded into the game.
One last thing to note about the concept pitch is it does show Pokémon hatching out of eggs. As we know, breeding didn't exist until Gen II, and while there isn't anything that explicitly states breeding was in Gen I, there are some things I think imply this. Keep in mind that this part is just my own speculation--I have other things that I think back this up, but I'll bring those up later.
Yuuichi and Rhydon exploring a cave. Note the hatching Pokémon in the bottom.
Lastly, I'm not sure if it's from the same pitch or not, but there is a sprite sheet from a pitch of Pocket Monsters that contains beta versions of some sprites as well as some Pokémon have different names. The most drastic changes are Scyther (top left) and Gyarados (bottom right). I had to cut this down due to the file size, but the full version will be in the Helix Chamber link below
Now that we've gone through the concept, let's move onto something that we're all interested in: the cut Pokémon.
Cut Pokémon:
As we know, originally Pokémon Red and Green were supposed to have 190 Pokémon available. However, 39 of these got cut due to cartridge limitations, so let's look at the ones that we know of.
In the spoilers below, I'll post both the internal index from Red and Green, and a chart showing which unused Pokémon match up with which MissingNo. slot. Credit goest to Helix Chamber for both of these, I'll link their article at the end of this post.
Internal Index:
Lost Pokémon:
Now for my thoughts on each of these:
Omega:
Omega is literally just mecha godzilla. It first showed up in the Red and Green concept art as well. Notably, Omega's spot was overwritten by Mew!
Gyaoon and Gyaoon pre-evolution:
Gyaoon was first seen in the Satoshi Tajiri manga. It's front sprite is visible there, and it's back sprite is visible in the leaks. There is also a back sprite listed later in the index that seems to be the pre-evolution to Gyaoon. Interestingly, there is evidence supporting that Gyaoon was originally in slot 1 of the internal index, but moved down later on, potentially overwriting it's once pre-evolution.
Nidorino/Nidorina hybrid-lookalike-thing:
There's a back sprite that shows the second stage of the Nidoran line, that has features from both Nidorino and Nidorina. There's theories that maybe the Nidoran line wasn't supposed to be split into male and female lines originally, but I'm genuinely not sure.
Baloonda/Barunda:
It's a balloon. I'm wondering if Drifloon was inspired by this cut design?
Buu/Ice Yokai:
This yeti looking thing was originally going to be the male counterpart to Jynx! I think it's pretty cool, but it gives off even worse blackface vibes than Jynx did, so it's probably a good thing this was cut.
Deer:
It's a deer. That's about it. Likely reworked into Stantler.
Elephant:
It's an elephant but scary. Likely reworked into Donphan.
Crocky:
Not gonna lie, I love Crocky. A lot. I wish it had made it into the game, it's so crazy looking. Would've been a fave of mine for sure.
Squid line thing:
This is a two stage line. I don't have much of an opinion based on their back sprites. They just seem like squids. I'm guessing that if they were water types, they got cut for being less interesting versions of Tentacool and Tentacruel.
Cactus:
That's a cactus alright.
Jagg:
Jagg is pretty sweet. It's a shark with a freakin' spear coming out of its nose. I wish this one could have made the cut.
Bird-fish-thing line:
I have no idea what I'm looking at with these ones. Apparently they had movesets programmed for them, which means they were likely among that last ones cut. I just want to know if it's a bird or a fish, because it looks like both at the same exact time.
Orb things:
86 and 87 in the internal index are...well they exist. There's some theories that it's related to the Magnemite line, but i don't know how much of this I buy.
Water dragon-things and water dragon-thing baby:
At least I assume these are water dragons, though they look just like the ice dragon from Kirby. The middle and final stage are next to each other in the index, whilst the pre-evolution is on it's own much farther down the index. This also ties into my theory about breeding, which I'll now use to segway into that.
ALL THE BABIES:
There are quite a few baby Pokémon on the cutting list, being pre-evo water dragon-thing, baby Zubat, baby Blastoise (!!!), Konya (Baby Meowth), Mikon (Baby Vulpix), Puchicorn (Baby Ponyta), and Gyopin (Baby Goldeen). Konya, Mikon, Puchicorn, and Gyopin also all appeared in the 1997 Space Demo along with Magby, Pichu, Elekid, Mime Jr., Smoochum, Togepi, and a baby Tangela. This, to me at least, points to GameFreak seriously considering breeding as part of Gen I, before scrapping it due to limitations. Like I said, this is pure speculation on my end, but I don't think it's unreasonable. Also, Gyopin seems to have been one of the last Pokémon cut--evolution and moveset data is programmed to it.
Psyduck Mid-stage Evolution:
Yes, there was going to be a mid-stage between Psyduck and Golduck! And it's horrifying. I hate it. I'm really glad they cut this thing before it could haunt me in my sleep for years to come.
Magneton-looking thing:
So fans can't decide if this was a weird duplicate of Magneton, or if there was a midstage inbetween Magnemite and Magneton. I...have no idea. It just seems like a lot of nothing to me so I'm cool with this one getting the cut.
Marowak Evolution:
I can't forgive this one being cut, though. Fans, since back in Gen I, theorised that there was a connection between the Cubone and Kangaskhan. Well, this is more or less confirmed now, as evolved Marowak is still wearing the skull of its mother, whilst carrying a baby of its own in its pouch. Gutted that this was...well, gutted (from the game).
Kotora line:
And this. This is the one that makes me cry myself to sleep every night. Anyone who knows me knows that I love these adorable electric tigers more than I love myself, and knowing they got cut from not only Gen I, but Gen II as well, hurts me to this day. In Space World '97, it was only a two stage line, but it looks like it was to be a 3 stage line in Red and Green. Ugh, GameFreak. You hurt me so. You keep Seel and Voltorb, but don't keep these babies. I'm so mad. GIVE ME MY CUDDLY ELECTRIC TIGERS GAMEFREAK.
Pre-Blastoise:
I know I mentioned it earlier with the babies, but I thought I'd make a quick note here that there's seemingly a Blastoise pre-evolution, seeing as Blastoise was originally unrelated to the Squirtle line. It's basically just a tiny blastoise, but it's got a snot bubble going on which is kind of adorable.
OG Kamex:
Yes, the Kamex (Blastoise) we got in the final game was not the original Kamex! Wartortle's floofy ears and tail get floofier and we get this guy out of it. Not gonna lie, I know it's pretty uncreative, but I kinda like it more than Blastoise. It's programming data is largely unfinished, with only one move in its moveset being programmed. This, to me, suggests it was one of the first ones they cut when they ran out of room on the cartridge. It's a shame, really. It's also the last Pokémon in the index.
And that leaves us with last, but definitely not least...
Gorochu!:
Yes, the now famous evolution of Raichu. This guy bore fangs and horns, and now we've seen its back sprite! This is also one of the few Pokémon confirmed to have not been cut due to limitations, but due to the fact that it was kinda OP--"balancing reasons" is the exact reasoning given to why Gorochu was cut. RIP, you pointy eared, sharp toothed beast.
Pokémon's development started back in 1990 after Satoshi Tajiri saw two Gameboys linked via link cable and being given the idea of a game in which players could not only play against each other, but with each other. The initial concept was inspired by Tajiri's own childhood as well; as a child, he liked to collect bugs, and search in every and any place he could find to discover more. Given how Japan was becoming more and more urbanised, it would soon become harder and harder for most children to be able to do this. Thus, Capsule Monsters, or Capumon, was born.
Original Capsule Monsters logo
We've had the pitch for Capumon for a quite a while, even on Bulbapedia. However, it's still incredibly interesting to see what was different at this point of development.
Firstly, acquisition of the monsters was possibly not exclusive to random encounters in the wild. There is concept art in the pitch showing that monsters could also be purchased in stores. Remnants of this can be found in the game corner where rare Pokémon can be purchased with coins.
Concept art showing Pokémon available for purchase
Yuuichi, the beta version of Red
The concept art for the pitch also shows the player at a hotel, implying that at one point Pokémon Centers didn't exist and that the player would heal in an Inn, like most traditional RPGs.
The images on the left and the bottom right show the player using a hotel.
Interestingly, there is a female trainer in the concept art posted above using a hotel as well. However, I can't find anything in the leaks or in leftovers from Gen I that implied a female player character was considered throughout most of development. Yuuichi is the only protagonist sprite coded into the game.
One last thing to note about the concept pitch is it does show Pokémon hatching out of eggs. As we know, breeding didn't exist until Gen II, and while there isn't anything that explicitly states breeding was in Gen I, there are some things I think imply this. Keep in mind that this part is just my own speculation--I have other things that I think back this up, but I'll bring those up later.
Yuuichi and Rhydon exploring a cave. Note the hatching Pokémon in the bottom.
Lastly, I'm not sure if it's from the same pitch or not, but there is a sprite sheet from a pitch of Pocket Monsters that contains beta versions of some sprites as well as some Pokémon have different names. The most drastic changes are Scyther (top left) and Gyarados (bottom right). I had to cut this down due to the file size, but the full version will be in the Helix Chamber link below
Now that we've gone through the concept, let's move onto something that we're all interested in: the cut Pokémon.
Cut Pokémon:
As we know, originally Pokémon Red and Green were supposed to have 190 Pokémon available. However, 39 of these got cut due to cartridge limitations, so let's look at the ones that we know of.
In the spoilers below, I'll post both the internal index from Red and Green, and a chart showing which unused Pokémon match up with which MissingNo. slot. Credit goest to Helix Chamber for both of these, I'll link their article at the end of this post.
Internal Index:
Lost Pokémon:
Now for my thoughts on each of these:
Omega:
Omega is literally just mecha godzilla. It first showed up in the Red and Green concept art as well. Notably, Omega's spot was overwritten by Mew!
Gyaoon and Gyaoon pre-evolution:
Gyaoon was first seen in the Satoshi Tajiri manga. It's front sprite is visible there, and it's back sprite is visible in the leaks. There is also a back sprite listed later in the index that seems to be the pre-evolution to Gyaoon. Interestingly, there is evidence supporting that Gyaoon was originally in slot 1 of the internal index, but moved down later on, potentially overwriting it's once pre-evolution.
Nidorino/Nidorina hybrid-lookalike-thing:
There's a back sprite that shows the second stage of the Nidoran line, that has features from both Nidorino and Nidorina. There's theories that maybe the Nidoran line wasn't supposed to be split into male and female lines originally, but I'm genuinely not sure.
Baloonda/Barunda:
It's a balloon. I'm wondering if Drifloon was inspired by this cut design?
Buu/Ice Yokai:
This yeti looking thing was originally going to be the male counterpart to Jynx! I think it's pretty cool, but it gives off even worse blackface vibes than Jynx did, so it's probably a good thing this was cut.
Deer:
It's a deer. That's about it. Likely reworked into Stantler.
Elephant:
It's an elephant but scary. Likely reworked into Donphan.
Crocky:
Not gonna lie, I love Crocky. A lot. I wish it had made it into the game, it's so crazy looking. Would've been a fave of mine for sure.
Squid line thing:
This is a two stage line. I don't have much of an opinion based on their back sprites. They just seem like squids. I'm guessing that if they were water types, they got cut for being less interesting versions of Tentacool and Tentacruel.
Cactus:
That's a cactus alright.
Jagg:
Jagg is pretty sweet. It's a shark with a freakin' spear coming out of its nose. I wish this one could have made the cut.
Bird-fish-thing line:
I have no idea what I'm looking at with these ones. Apparently they had movesets programmed for them, which means they were likely among that last ones cut. I just want to know if it's a bird or a fish, because it looks like both at the same exact time.
Orb things:
86 and 87 in the internal index are...well they exist. There's some theories that it's related to the Magnemite line, but i don't know how much of this I buy.
Water dragon-things and water dragon-thing baby:
At least I assume these are water dragons, though they look just like the ice dragon from Kirby. The middle and final stage are next to each other in the index, whilst the pre-evolution is on it's own much farther down the index. This also ties into my theory about breeding, which I'll now use to segway into that.
ALL THE BABIES:
There are quite a few baby Pokémon on the cutting list, being pre-evo water dragon-thing, baby Zubat, baby Blastoise (!!!), Konya (Baby Meowth), Mikon (Baby Vulpix), Puchicorn (Baby Ponyta), and Gyopin (Baby Goldeen). Konya, Mikon, Puchicorn, and Gyopin also all appeared in the 1997 Space Demo along with Magby, Pichu, Elekid, Mime Jr., Smoochum, Togepi, and a baby Tangela. This, to me at least, points to GameFreak seriously considering breeding as part of Gen I, before scrapping it due to limitations. Like I said, this is pure speculation on my end, but I don't think it's unreasonable. Also, Gyopin seems to have been one of the last Pokémon cut--evolution and moveset data is programmed to it.
Psyduck Mid-stage Evolution:
Yes, there was going to be a mid-stage between Psyduck and Golduck! And it's horrifying. I hate it. I'm really glad they cut this thing before it could haunt me in my sleep for years to come.
Magneton-looking thing:
So fans can't decide if this was a weird duplicate of Magneton, or if there was a midstage inbetween Magnemite and Magneton. I...have no idea. It just seems like a lot of nothing to me so I'm cool with this one getting the cut.
Marowak Evolution:
I can't forgive this one being cut, though. Fans, since back in Gen I, theorised that there was a connection between the Cubone and Kangaskhan. Well, this is more or less confirmed now, as evolved Marowak is still wearing the skull of its mother, whilst carrying a baby of its own in its pouch. Gutted that this was...well, gutted (from the game).
Kotora line:
And this. This is the one that makes me cry myself to sleep every night. Anyone who knows me knows that I love these adorable electric tigers more than I love myself, and knowing they got cut from not only Gen I, but Gen II as well, hurts me to this day. In Space World '97, it was only a two stage line, but it looks like it was to be a 3 stage line in Red and Green. Ugh, GameFreak. You hurt me so. You keep Seel and Voltorb, but don't keep these babies. I'm so mad. GIVE ME MY CUDDLY ELECTRIC TIGERS GAMEFREAK.
Pre-Blastoise:
I know I mentioned it earlier with the babies, but I thought I'd make a quick note here that there's seemingly a Blastoise pre-evolution, seeing as Blastoise was originally unrelated to the Squirtle line. It's basically just a tiny blastoise, but it's got a snot bubble going on which is kind of adorable.
OG Kamex:
Yes, the Kamex (Blastoise) we got in the final game was not the original Kamex! Wartortle's floofy ears and tail get floofier and we get this guy out of it. Not gonna lie, I know it's pretty uncreative, but I kinda like it more than Blastoise. It's programming data is largely unfinished, with only one move in its moveset being programmed. This, to me, suggests it was one of the first ones they cut when they ran out of room on the cartridge. It's a shame, really. It's also the last Pokémon in the index.
And that leaves us with last, but definitely not least...
Gorochu!:
Yes, the now famous evolution of Raichu. This guy bore fangs and horns, and now we've seen its back sprite! This is also one of the few Pokémon confirmed to have not been cut due to limitations, but due to the fact that it was kinda OP--"balancing reasons" is the exact reasoning given to why Gorochu was cut. RIP, you pointy eared, sharp toothed beast.
Anyway, as I've run out of room for attachments and have spent three hours on this, I will conclude this portion of the Red and Green Beta write up. I'll work on the second part, which will include cut trainers in locations, in another post soon.
Photos and information were taken from Helix Chamber and RetroVision, I recommend checking them out if you're interested!