A little taste of the history of Pokémon

Hello everyone, today I want to inform you about some news from the birth of Pokémon.

Do you think the name Pokémon is only the combination of the words pocket and monsters?
Yes it’s true but originally had been assigned other names.
Capumon/Capsule Monsters created by Satoshi Tajiri

This is the cover to the Capumon/Capsule Monsters game pitch and manga that was originally shown to Nintendo in order to get the ball rolling on starting the Pokemon games; to the left is a very early concept piece featuring an overworld map, and to the right? Doesn’t that scene look somewhat familiar?

Other images from Capsule Monsters:


Later Game Freak release the first game of Pokémon for Nintendo console: Green, Red and Blue.
The Game include all the 150/(151) Pokémon.
Mew was not present at all during beta testing of the Pokemon Red and Green games, it was added at the very last minute to the games prior to their release without any debugging or testing done for the Pokemon’s data; this was considered risky since putting Mew into the empty data space could have posed a problem and added new bugs to the game-and of course, it did.

Silver and Gold version:

Kurusu, this was the originally proposed water starter for the Johto region, and was a usable starter Pokemon for one of the very early Pokemon Gold/Silver demos that were playable at the Nintendo Spaceworld Convention, each starter was randomly given to players, and had a held item being a nut and a moveset, Kurusu’s were Growl, Water Gun, and Tackle


Honoguma, this was the originally proposed fire starter for the Johto region, and was a usable starter Pokemon for one of the very early Pokemon Gold/Silver demos that were playable at the Nintendo Spaceworld Convention, each starter was randomly given to players, and had a held item being a nut and a moveset, Honoguma’s were Ember, Scratch, and Leer


Happa, this was the initial design for the Pokemon Chikorita, and was a usable starter Pokemon for one of the very early Pokemon Gold/Silver demos that were playable at the Nintendo Spaceworld Convention, each starter was randomly given to players, and had a held item being a nut and a moveset, Happa’s was Leech Seed, Tackle and Serene

Blaziken and Latias/Latios were once going to be one in the same Pokemon, but it looks like that never came to be, this image is also a first draft of what later became a fullblown illustration of the same girl riding on Latios:

Another image featuring the prototype Pokemon and unused trainers that were depicted in the Ken Sugimori interview page.

Images and information from fuckyeahbetapokemonart.tumblr.com

You know other information about Pokémon leaks, prototype character or other information?
Talk about in this post, add photos, and more!

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Great article Pokemon Center Italy! It is always interesting to look at concept artwork. Here are a couple other illustrations from Capsule Monsters. The sketch of the guy in the shop is my favorite. I don’t really know why, but I always remember it:

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I enjoyed reading this article immensely and I really liked those drawings. Thanks for sharing PCI. Much appreciated. :blush:

great read

Nice…would love to get ahold of those original drawings…

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Sweet post, yeah, to think of the prices of those sketch’s would be crazy. Pokémon is still young compared to many other cartoons/anime; and some of the priciest items ever are the concept art for those.

Your post gets me thinking about Rhydon being the 1st pokemon ever created. Then I think it was characters like clefable, gengar. Hmmmm I can’t remember what comes next :S

Great Read! Im totally into this older alpha/beta pokemon stuff!
Here’s a video I did a while ago compare pokemon and pulseman

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yes, Rhydon was one of the 1st pocket monsters ever created.



(The first 10 Pokémon that were created and coded into Red/Green.)

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Prototype Pokémon and characters on Bulbapedia

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I found more information about errors that developers have not corrected.
THIS post is full of interesting info.
:blush:

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Your video inspired me to make my first custom card :stuck_out_tongue: wish it was real…

I drew the helioptile so dont gotta credit no one for that :blush:

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^ I want it, haha

Somewhere in my basement is an old red version guide for pokemon (most likely with cut outs and drawings as me and my sister loved wrecking collectible items that we had no idea were considered collectibles) that showed some of the basic art for pokemon such as Charizard before they got their official look. I need to search for it!

Also, does anyone know if there exists art of Gyarados prior to it’s official look? Or any other pokemon for that matter?

@pokemoncenteritaly – Speaking of Pokémon firsts…

Mew (ミュー or ミュウ, depending on the era) was the first Pokémon trademark ever submitted and registered:

• Mew (ミュー) applied for its trademark on May 9, 1990
• Mew (ミュー) was officially registered March 31, 1994
• Mew (ミュウ) applied for its trademark on June 17, 1997
• Mew (ミュウ) was officially registered August 6, 1999

Interestingly, Mew was both submitted and registered prior to the Pocket Monsters franchise itself:

• Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター) applied for its trademark September 11, 1995
• Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター) was officially registered December 26, 1997

As you previously mentioned, Mew was the last Pokémon creature to be coded into the game; this was due to extra data becoming available upon removing the debugging tools. The finalized version (post-debugging stage) permitted an extra 300 bytes of data - enough to program one creature. This action was particularly dangerous due to the cartridge limitations at the time. Ergo, the programmers were warned not to alter the game any further. Least to say, Shigeru Morimoto couldn’t resist; he secretly programmed the mysterious pink feline despite the word of caution. Mew was originally intended as a harmless prank amidst GameFreak developers and staff, yet a glitch revealed its presence unto the public. Oh, the irony!

Nevertheless, I believe that it was positive irony. Mew’s exposure definitely increased franchise popularity :blush:

In addition, Yoshi (NES, 1991) deserves an honourable mention in this thread. Why? Pocket Monsters: Red & Green was struggling to continue beyond its initial development stage; it required additional financial funding due to its extensive development. Yoshi was created as a side project to help generate financial income. Luckily, the sales from this particular game ultimately perpetuated the advancement of the first Pokémon video game.

Thanks, Yoshi :heart:

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I never knew that about Mew. I remember reading and watching DYKG about the history with Yoshi. It is crazy to think that pokemon may have never happened. It is literally right up there with Mario. It almost makes Mario look like he is just some sort of silly out of shape plumber. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Cool history on Mew. Mew has been a long time favorite pokemon of mine since I was a kid. Always interesting to hear any of these stories from Pokemon’s inception.

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Thank you! I love your video!!!

Soooooooo, how much for that 1996 Encyclopedia? :stuck_out_tongue:

Y!J for $10; Probably the most unique art of any card or paperback in my collection. I would really like to see an encyclopedia of all publications printed by Pokemon.

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Agreed with you there.

If you ever come across another one, let me know! I’d love to purchase one of my own!