Pokémon Red and Green Versions: Difference between revisions

Pokémon Red Version ポケットモンスター赤
Box art of Pokémon Red Version, depicting Charizard.
Pokémon Green Version ポケットモンスター緑
Box art of Pokémon Green Version, depicting Venusaur.
Basic info
Platform:	Game Boy (enhanced for the Super Game Boy and Super Game Boy 2)
Category:	RPG
Players:	2 players simultaneous
Connectivity:	Link cable
Developer:	Game Freak
Publisher:	Nintendo
Part of:	Generation I core series
Ratings
CERO:	Not applicable[1]
ESRB:	Not applicable
ACB:	Not applicable
OFLC:	Not applicable
PEGI:	Not applicable
GRAC:	Not applicable
GSRR:	N/A
Release dates
Japan:	February 27, 1996[2][3]
North America:	September 30, 1998 (as Red and Blue)
Australia:	November 1, 1998 (as Red and Blue)
Europe:	October 8, 1999 (as Red and Blue)
South Korea:	Unreleased
Hong Kong:	N/A
Taiwan:	N/A
Websites
Japanese:	Pokémon.co.jp Nintendo.co.jp
English:	N/A

Pokémon Red Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター赤 Pocket Monsters: Red) and Pokémon Green Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター緑 Pocket Monsters: Green) were the first Pokémon games ever released to the public, in Japan on February 27, 1996.^[2][3] Introducing the gameplay concepts that went on to provide the standard for games in the core series games, these games were eventually localized and released worldwide as Pokémon Red and Blue Versions, using a combination of the engine from the Japanese Pokémon Blue Version and the obtainable Pokémon from Red and Green. Much as would become standard, Red and Green were later joined by a solitary version, the aforementioned Blue, which slightly improved upon their features and provided the code for the international releases (Red and Blue), and eventually Pokémon Yellow, a second solitary version based on the anime.

In 1999, the sequels to these games, Pokémon Gold and Silver were released with the Game Boy Color in mind but remaining playable on the original Game Boy like Red and Green. In 2004, the remakes of these games were released for the Game Boy Advance as Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.

Plot

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Red and Green begins the Pokémon series in the region of Kanto, where players play the role of an ten-year-old boy just starting off on a journey as a Pokémon Trainer from his home of Pallet Town, on the same day as his rival. After obtaining a starter Pokémon (a choice of the Grass-type Bulbasaur, the Fire-type Charmander, or the Water-type Squirtle) from Professor Oak, the local authority on Pokémon (and with the player's rival choosing the Pokémon whose type weakens that of his or her Pokémon), players journey across the region, defeating the eight Gym Leaders: Brock, Misty, Lt. Surge, Erika, Koga, Sabrina, Blaine, and Giovanni. After all eight have been defeated, the player goes on to challenge the Elite Four, Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, and Lance, and finally, in his or her last battle, the current Champion, the player's rival.

Along the way, the player will encounter the villainous Team Rocket, a group of criminals that seek to exploit Pokémon as tools, rather than train them as friends and partners, and must defeat them to put a stop to their actions. The rival will also continuously harass the player, challenging him or her to a battle multiple times, with an increasingly powerful team. As the player's own Pokémon become more powerful, he or she draws ever closer to the Indigo Plateau.

Connectivity

The two games introduced the ability to allow players to trade Pokémon between two cartridges using a Game Boy link cable. To take fullest advantage of this feature, several Pokémon are exclusive to each game of the pair, making it required that a player trade with others in order to complete their Pokédex. The link cable also makes possible battles with another player, allowing one to pit their Pokémon against equals when their Pokémon are as powerful as they can be, at level 100. Trades done between Pokémon games in different languages are impossible in this generation, and will always result in corruption if it is attempted. This is due to the fact that the games can't automatically translate the Pokémon as there isn't enough room on either cartridge for all of the text in so many languages (a feature that would later become possible). If a battle between two different region games is to be attempted, the battle would simply not work, with the save file left intact.

Features

Gyms

As would become the case for each Pokémon game in the core series to come, there are eight Gyms in Kanto, each with their own type affiliation. The Gym Leaders are: Brock (Rock) at Pewter City, Misty (Water) at Cerulean City, Lt. Surge (Electric) at Vermilion City, Erika (Grass) at Celadon City, Koga (Poison) at Fuchsia City, Sabrina (Psychic) at Saffron City, Blaine (Fire) at Cinnabar Island, and Giovanni (Ground) at Viridian City.

Elite Four

Another standard established by Red and Green, the goal for players, the Elite Four, is located at Indigo Plateau. The Elite Trainers are Lorelei (Ice), Bruno (Fighting), Agatha (Ghost), and Lance (Dragon). The Pokémon Champion is the rival, Blue, who does not specialize in any one type.

Pokémon

Each game contains pre-recorded data on 151 different species of Pokémon, including Mew, a Pokémon even Nintendo was not aware of initially.^[4] However, not all Pokémon are available to the player, regardless of version; trades must occur between players in order to complete their Pokédex without the use of cheats or glitches. In addition, Mew is not normally obtainable in either game; the only legitimate way to obtain Mew is through a Nintendo sponsored event.

Version-exclusive Pokémon

The following Pokémon are only obtainable in one game of this pair. In order to obtain Pokémon exclusive to the other game of this pair, they must be traded either from that game or from another compatible game of Generation I or Generation II which has that Pokémon available.

Red 0023 Ekans Poison 0024 Arbok Poison 0043 Oddish Grass Poison 0044 Gloom Grass Poison 0045 Vileplume Grass Poison 0056 Mankey Fighting 0057 Primeape Fighting 0058 Growlithe Fire 0059 Arcanine Fire 0123 Scyther Bug Flying 0125 Electabuzz Electric

Green 0027 Sandshrew Ground 0028 Sandslash Ground 0037 Vulpix Fire 0038 Ninetales Fire 0052 Meowth Normal 0053 Persian Normal 0069 Bellsprout Grass Poison 0070 Weepinbell Grass Poison 0071 Victreebel Grass Poison 0126 Magmar Fire 0127 Pinsir Bug

Legacy

Pocket Monsters Red and Green set the precedent for what has become a blockbuster, multi-billion dollar franchise. In Japan, Red, Green, and the third version Blue combined have sold 10.23 million copies.^[5] In the United States, Pokémon Red has sold 4.83 million copies, while Pokémon Blue has sold 5.02 million copies.^[6] These numbers combine to make a total of 9.85 million copies sold in the US.

Pocket Monsters Red and Green were the namesake of the Generation III remakes of FireRed and LeafGreen released in 2004, even in regions where Blue was paired with Red.

Development

This section is about general development info. For development leftovers and unused content, see Pokémon Red and Green beta.

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Wikipedia has nifty info from official sources. Post it and cite it here

Female player character

There were originally plans for a female protagonist as older sketches suggest. Green from Pokémon Adventures seems to be based on her. The character was redesigned and included in the remakes of the games, to continue the standard of including a female protagonist.

No Mew present

According to the interview by Satoru Iwata with Tsunekazu Ishihara and Shigeki Morimoto about the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, localized as Iwata Asks, they admitted that after the debugging tools were removed, they added Mew in the remaining space on the ROM. Nintendo thought that this would have been risky because altering the internal data after completing the testing period meant that any new bugs and/or glitches created by adding data without recurring to debugging tools would have been much harder to fix. Standard programming practices usually discourage altering the source code and not testing it just before releasing the software to the customer.^[7]

Poké Balls

Main article: Poké Ball

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 Pokémon Red and Green 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.^[8]

Concept art

Early concept art by Ken Sugimori

During a gaming exhibition called Game On, early concept art of Pokémon Red and Green by Ken Sugimori was featured, along with pre-release material from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. 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 battles, the Safari Zone, Red riding on a Lapras, a Blastoise, Celadon City, Silph Co., and a town with a fountain which could have been reworked into Celadon City. Some other Pokémon are identifiable in a raw or semi-normal form, such as Gastly and others are prototypical of an entire class of Pokémon, such as a basic Dragon-type.

GameCenter CX

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Expand based on the information provided by Satoshi Tajiri, if applicable

A Japan-exclusive special Pokémon episode of GameCenter CX, known as Retro Game Master outside of Japan, included an interview with Satoshi Tajiri, where he revealed early Pokémon character profiles of Nidoking, Slowbro and Kadabra. 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 Rhydon, 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 Pokémon Red and Green 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.^[9]

Soundtrack

Main article: Game Boy: Entire Pokémon Sounds Collection CD

The soundtrack contains all of the background music and sound effects used in the games, all of which were composed solely by Junichi Masuda. This includes Pokémon cries and Pokédex entries read by "Dexter", Ash's Pokédex.

Staff

Main article: Staff of Pokémon Red and Green

Trivia

Pre-release flyer with the earlier release date

• Development of Red and Green started during 1990, making their development the longest of all Pokémon games by far.
• The game's main characters, Red and Green, have several default names, among them サトシ Satoshi and シゲル Shigeru, respectively. These names come from Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri and his friend and fellow Nintendo developer, Shigeru Miyamoto. When the games were translated into the English Red and Blue, the default names became Red and Blue. Alternative names that could be chosen were Ash and Gary, after the anime characters that share the names Satoshi and Shigeru, respectively.
• While Red and Green are the first Pokémon games released, they were not necessarily the first Pokémon trademark ever registered. Mew was the first Pokémon trademark ever applied for; the application for the Pokémon was submitted on May 9, 1990, while the application for Pocket Monsters Red and Green was submitted on September 11, 1995. Before Red and Green were granted registered trademarks on December 26, 1997, Mew (then spelled ミュー, not ミュウ) had already become the first Pokémon trademark registered, granted on March 31, 1994; ミュウ was later granted on August 6, 1999.
• Mew was added to the internal data after the debugging features were removed. The programmers took a great risk in doing so, since further tests for glitches that would have been caused by adding Mew could not be done, which goes against standard programming procedures.
• The games were originally scheduled for a December 21, 1995 release, according to an old Nintendo of Japan flyer.^[10] This could explain the copyright year of 1995 that appears in the games' introductory sequence, and all subsequent games and official merchandise.
• In The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, Professor Oak references these games with his password, "REDGREEN".

References

This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.