Some highlights:
Route 2 had Trainer battles
"Jack" Trainers were placed on some maps
Tower Rival might have been on 6F rather than 2F
More than just the Silph 5F Juggler were helping Team Rocket
Further confirmation of a Chief encounter in the Safari Zone
Sprites in Gen 1 have the ability to appear or disappear, which ones are handled via a file called VANISH.DMG. Two earlier versions of this file exist, CAST_UP.DAT, which is very unfinished, and VANISH.DAT, which appears to have been made in July-Sept 95.
Here is my analysis:
pastebin.com/1sqyfbvs
FireRed and LeafGreen are not just the standard roms from 2004, they actually got the build system working and compiled a new build (with still unknown changes) more than 20 years later! Very interested in what changes they made.
...and it seems that the Wailmer on Amy and Liv's party was swapped out for an Azurill with Slam (and presumably another unknown move) in the footage itself, after all.
Lady Briana (057): Lv. 10 Taillow (IV: 0) Quick Attack Growl Lv. 10 Wynaut (IV: 0) Charm Encore Lady Cindy (058): Lv. 10 Zigzagoon (IV: 0) Tackle Tail Whip Twins Amy & Liv (247): Lv. 9 Volbeat (IV: 0) Tackle Flash Lv. 9 Wailmer (IV: 0) Splash Water Gun Twins Gina & Mia (248): Lv. 10 Pelipper (IV: 0) Gust Growl Lv. 10 Shroomish (IV: 0) Absorb Leech Seed Hiker Lucas (335): Lv. 10 Duskull (IV: 0) Night Shade Disable Lv. 10 Poochyena (IV: 0) Bite Scary Face Hiker Mike (336): Lv. 9 Sharpedo (IV: 0) Bite Leer
While final RS has parties that appear to go to the Festa 02 demo Trainers, these do not actually fully match (as seen in the footage from said demo). Here are the actual parties, taken from the July 10th, 2002 files trainerp.dat and tr_pokep.dat:
Final art and two concept sketches on Dialga and Palkia each, Dialga on top of the disc and Palkia upside-down on the bottom. One Dialga design has spikes instead of a xenomorph-like head and a long wing or fin on its body that somewhat resembles Arceus's ring, the other has longer and thicker spikes on its head contained in a ring. One Palkia is mostly the same with some differences in the patterns on its body, but the other is hunched over or in a pose similar to Latias with a rounded fin or wing on its back and a very different head and face shape.
Found out about the "Make All" documentary too late, tried a last minute save a few hours after the auction ended with others but, oh well. Another item joins the pile of things we know about but don't have.
Enjoy the earlier Dialga and Palkia designs, at least.
It's part of a series of common messages (COMMSG) including things such as Pokecenter and Mart signs, the Oak Aide text, and the hint text for talking to a Strength boulder, which it immediately precedes.
(Re: "Victory Road," this map was once used as Rock Tunnel, and likely was as DGN02.MAP)
An unused version of Victory Road 3F from Pokemon Red and Green. The blockset mostly lines up except for one, which places a ground block on one of the mounds inside the cave. A pressure plate can be seen in the top right corner of the map not touching two or more walls, which would allow players to push the boulder off of it once placed.
I feel confident in saying that "earth_up" ("Ground rose up somewhere!") was text meant for moving a Strength boulder off of a pressure plate.
This action is impossible to perform in Victory Road due to all of them being placed in corners, but was possible in "DGN02.MAP," an earlier Victory Road.
"Last" is often complicated.
Nosepass and Chimecho were both added in early September 02, but it's unclear when something like Ralts stopped being a dog or if Kaenoh was even Torkoal without any builds from that time period. Both of them also had designs dating back to 01 so that's another factor.
I'm still thinking Evolotto was the other one (266), it seems to have survived the longest as a single stage.
Revision: 269 has to be Kaen. It was only modified once past its placeholder file and that happened on August 30th 2002, it was quite literally the only cut Pokemon that would have still been in the game by then. Nosepass, its replacement, was modified once in a September 10th batch.
It's one of the few Pokemon that you reach the conclusion of "this is why it was cut" multiple times just trying to think about how it worked. Evolutions were set up like:
Method -> Value -> Target
So what is the target evo, the 0 placeholder? The template also only allowed for 5 evos.
Of course, the ultimate irony of this would be that one of the cries we have belongs to one of the few cut RS Pokemon we don't have a sprite of and the other belongs to something annoying to program back in and balance appropriately due to its ridiculous gimmick of "evolving into anything."
Evolotto was present up through May, Kaen was present through Festa 02, both were the last Pokemon to be fully cut (ie. not replaced with something "similar" like Psycho Dog -> Kirlia or Bachin -> Plusle).
I originally thought Boyatto would have been one, but it was replaced with Glalie in May.
After some time, I now believe that cries 266 and 269 went to Kaen and Evolotto.
Torkoal is present with the first cry group; displaced, but in a way similar to later evos.
There's some evidence that Spinda was a counterpart to Evolotto, whose random evolution probably used PIDs. It is next to it.
Mega Darkrai in its eye-like mode, with pinks and blues used for its colors.
The Veil from Destiny 2, a massive, eye-like, biological construct with pinks and blues at the front.
I have been wondering if Mega Darkrai was partially based on The Veil from Destiny 2; a giant eye-like object that sat hidden at the center of a city on lockdown and whose powers were used to allow the sleeping residents to still interact with the world using hologram avatars.
I was honestly completely bowled over by Mega Darkrai. It’s such a big swing and somehow weaves together three design ideas into one misleadingly simple appearance: an evil eye, an eclipse, and a haggard ghost in rags. Darkrai's infamous legs emerge to mimic an eye's optic nerve.
Mega Darkrai in its eye-like mode, with pinks and blues used for its colors.
The Veil from Destiny 2, a massive, eye-like, biological construct with pinks and blues at the front.
I have been wondering if Mega Darkrai was partially based on The Veil from Destiny 2; a giant eye-like object that sat hidden at the center of a city on lockdown and whose powers were used to allow the sleeping residents to still interact with the world using hologram avatars.
Silver's final sprite with his "BACKUP/SGB_COL.DMG" palette from April 24th, 1999.
It is funny how this makes more sense for his jacket than the red highlight, but obviously gives him the wrong hair and Poke Ball colors. He ends up looking a bit too much like James.
Working through my backlog, converted the earlier Trainer parties file "DMONSK.DAT" to pokegold standards (for readability purposes, all values are decimal in the actual file). This was created on April 28th, 1999 and is a snapshot of the game as it was in the early Johto era:
pastebin.com/1mHh3a5Q
a while ago we also restored Ken Sugimori's artwork of Ho-Oh from throughout Pokémon GSC's development.
insane to see how his style developed in just three years
Serebii Update: Pokémon has released a small animation to commemorate the start of 2026, the year of Pokémon's 30th Anniversary
www.serebii.net
Abandoned Mine is a very strange dungeon, largely due to the extremely unfinished state it was in as of SW97. It's unclear what, if any, mechanics the minecart tracks would have had, but we can at least confirm it had Strength + Current puzzles.
I would assume B2F went on to inspire Ice Path B1F.
As suspected, it seems like this dungeon reused the Seafoam Islands current puzzle idea. However, unlike Seafoam, it looks like the boulders would have been diagonal when blocking currents on the floor below, judging by the diagonal holes block. That informed my placement of the leftmost block.
Six borderline random Pokemon map parts floating in a black void.
It seems to be possible to partially reconstruct the overwritten Abandoned Mine B3F by using a combination of the ladders on the maps surrounding it and a cluster in the (largely sequential) blockset that goes unused. Very partially.
After its removal, comments in the final structure file indicate that it was replaced with the Amulet Coin at first. The Amulet Coin later moved up to the first itemball slot and an Ultra Ball took its place, which was not part of the original item layout.
Screenshots from development files showing where the Honey Pot item would be and its replacement and then that information in pokegold/pokecrystal.
Screenshot of Crystal showing which specific item it was.
The cut Sweet Honey mechanic would have used a Honey Pot item for storing it, spreadsheets from the 2020 leak mention that it was found in the Goldenrod Dept. Store basement before it was cut, luckily the July 14th structure file was commented and shows its exact location:
Cover of the Japanese Nintendo Spaceworld 1997 trade show guidebook by weekly famitsu magazine. This has art for The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon - Pikachu, and Mario - Yoshi on the cover.
Alright! Woo! Another rare treat! For the first time that I know of here are full scans of the Nintendo Space World '97 Official Guidebook: archive.org/details/zine...
I'm getting 2400dpi scans of the art done right now but everything else is uploaded #nintendo #zelda #pokemon #mario
The faux Eelektrik attached to Mega Eelektross are made out of its overflowing mucus. They are "collectively called 'false Eelektrik' by scholars—the left one being 'Eeleftrik' and the right 'Eerightrik.'"
Some people use its mucus for beauty regimens, with no formally established benefit.
It's probably fine that the biggest clout-seeking leak accounts are just posting DeepL-translated company notes now when I have literally seen it make up sentences that don't exist and duplicate existing ones with different syntax before.
It's definitely 256% accurate.
