List of graphical quirks (Generation I)

For other glitches in this generation, see List of glitches (Generation I)

This is a list of graphical quirks in Generation I Pokémon games. They are minor glitches that usually do not affect gameplay.

Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow (all languages)

Disabling NPCs animation

When the player walks, the screen moves the objects of the stage where player is, including NPCs. That movement alters the animations of the NPCs, disabling their animations.

By LanceandMissingNo.

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Changing NPC sprites

When the walking through walls glitch is used and the player flies to Lavender Town, they can activate this glitch. They must walk down to Route 12 and walk through the side of the gate rather than actually going into the gate. Once this has been done, every NPC will have the same sprite as the player. Encountering a wild Pokémon fixes the sprites. This is due to the fact that the game fails to load the sprite graphics properly.

Cut glitch

The Cut glitch can refer to two different glitches in Generation I involving the move Cut.

Invisible tree

There is a tree near the bottom of Route 14. If this particular tree is cut down and then the player walks five steps west from where the tree was (so that the spot where the tree used to be is at the edge of the screen) and then walks back their path will be blocked as if a tree was still there. Even though the tree is not visible, it can still be cut down normally using the move Cut.

By pandakekok

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Standing on a tree

If the player cuts down a tree, stands on the spot where the object was, saves, turns the game off, then loads it, the player will be standing on the tree. The same can happen with Pikachu in Pokémon Yellow.

In Celadon Gym in Pokémon Yellow, Pikachu can also end up standing on a tree after certain battles.

This glitch occurs because the Generation I engine would not store the data needed to remember that the tree had been cleared.

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  Red standing on top of the tree outside Vermilion Gym

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  Pikachu standing on top of a tree in Celadon Gym

Invisible Prof. Oak

If the player attempts to leave too many times when choosing their first Pokémon then the player, Prof. Oak and the middle Poké Ball's sprites will vanish. Pressing start will pull up some glitched text on the screen, but exiting the start menu will fix everything.

By BungiePhantom

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Landing on an NPC

If the player lures an NPC below a ledge that can be jumped over (by blocking their movement in certain directions), it is possible to land on top of the NPC when they jump over the ledge.

By ChickasaurusGL

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Lift goes to the same floor

In any lift of Pokémon Red/Blue/Green and Yellow, if the player chooses to go to the floor they're already on, the lift acts like it is moving.

By LanceAndMissingNo.

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Menu glitch

If the player holds A when the game is saving, the menu won't disappear until player stops holding A.

By LunarRay

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Pallet Town NPC misplacement

If the player stands outside of Professor Oak's Lab in Pallet Town, the person outside it will eventually stand on the Lab's door. This is because the door tile was programmed as a non-solid tile.

By Wooggle

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Perpetual spinning animation

If the player saves the game having just entered the Safari Zone and leaves, the game assumes that the player is just entering the Safari Zone entrance, as it does not save that the player is currently in a paid Safari Zone session. Thus, upon passing by the desk, the player is prompted to pay for another Safari Zone session, although they are now traveling out towards the town below. Because the player is supposedly in a Safari Zone session, the game counts down steps passively. Upon exiting towards the bottom into Fuchsia City, the player must Fly to Viridian City and enter Giovanni's Gym. Inside, the player must walk along the spinners, proceeding to be spun around. After taking enough steps to deplete the (invisible) counter, the player freezes, the PA "ding-dong" noise will sound, and a message will pop up saying that the player's Safari Zone session is now over. If the player is in the middle of a spin while this happens, the player will be transported to the Safari Zone entrance as if they had just left the Safari Zone, and upon moving will perform the spin animation, and move slower. The player has full control over the movement of the character; the only difference is that instead of the walking animation, the spinning animation is played.

The glitch can be fixed by returning to the location where the player ran out of Safari Zone steps.

By BungiePhantom

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Changing the Player's sprite

A sub glitch involves changing Red's sprite into the sprite of another NPC. While the player is in the perpetual spinning state, they must enter a Pokémon Center then turn on the PC while hold left, then close the PC while still holding left. Red's sprite will now be replaced with the overworld sprite of an NPC based on the location of the Pokémon Center. The following list shows the towns that correspond to which overworld sprite the player will be turned into:

• Pallet Town: Professor Oak
• Viridian City: Professor Oak
• Pewter City: Lass
• Cerulean City: Lass
• Vermilion City: Lass
• Lavender Town: Jr. Trainer ♂
• Celadon City: Police officer
• Fuchsia City: Swimmer
• Saffron City: Jr. Trainer ♂
• Cinnabar Island: Professor Oak
• Indigo Plateau: Police officer
• Routes: Lass

Leaving the building or not moving will return Red's sprite back to normal.

By LanceAndMissingNo.

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Sprite corruption

The sprite corruption as seen in Generation I games

The sprite corruption glitch is a glitch that alters the appearance of the sprites in Generation I, making the sprites appear to be cut into pieces or even unrecognizable in some instances.

In Generation I, many glitch Pokémon will distort battle sprites upon their encounter; however, this can be fixed by viewing the stats of a non-glitched Pokémon in the overworld. There are other methods to the glitch, some of which involve using a Pokémon Center to heal the player's Pokémon when in a glitched area, visiting Glitch City, or catching certain glitch Pokémon.

In other generations, it may occur when a cheating device is used.

Walking through an NPC

If the player lures an NPC onto the path that Professor Oak takes to bring the player to the laboratory, Professor Oak and the player will walk right over and through her.

By Wooggle

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue (all languages)

Freezing the game in Oak's Laboratory

If the player holds "A" at the moment they interact with the Poké Ball in Oak's Laboratory, the game will be frozen until the player lets go of the button.

By LanceAndMissingNo.

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Lift Key overworld misplacement

The Lift Key glitch

In the Rocket Hideout, if the player is standing to the left of the Team Rocket Grunt who has the Lift Key and talks to him, the Lift Key will appear underneath the player when he drops it. The player can still move around and collect it if he moves downward.

This glitch was fixed in Pokémon Yellow, due to the Grunt automatically dropping the Lift Key as soon as he is defeated.

By Wooggle

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Oak Poké Ball delivery text overlapping

If the player has no new Pokémon registered as caught in the Pokédex (by only having the starter Pokémon) and/or no Poké Balls in his Bag (this includes buying/finding/obtaining any and then selling/tossing/depositing them) after defeating the rival on Route 22, Oak will give five Poké Balls to the player after being talked to. During this event in the English versions, one of the lines of his dialogue appears over the previous line, instead of on a new one.

This glitch occurs in all localizations of Pokémon Red and Blue and in the European localizations of Pokémon Yellow. In the Italian Pokémon Red and Blue, there's also a word in this dialogue that overlaps the right border of the text box. In English Pokémon Yellow, it was fixed but the dialogue contains a typo instead.

By pandakekok

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Overworld sprite misplacement

If the player does not have the Secret Key to the Cinnabar Gym, and surfs on the east coast and returns to land directly in front of the Gym, a man will appear on the roof of the Gym.

A similar effect happens if the player walks into the Vermilion Gym, walks directly left and then up so that they are facing the bottom-left trash can and press A to inspect it, or if the player is in the gate to Cycling Road. One of the Trainers in the Gym will be misplaced and return to his usual spot once the text box disappears, and when in the gate there may be a man standing on an object somewhere behind the guard.

Both of these variations of this glitch were fixed in some European releases of Pokémon Red and Blue, such as the Spanish version, and in all releases of Pokémon Yellow.

By Blaziken257

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Red's transparent white pixels

Pidgeotto behind Red, with Red's white pixels treated as transparent

File:Red Magikarp intro slow.gif

Slow motion animation of Magikarp moving behing Red

In Pokémon Red and Blue's title screen, Red's white pixels are treated as transparent.

This glitch is visible once a Pokémon quickly moves to the left and passes behind Red. At this point, the Pokémon will be visible through Red's white pixels. This includes the white portions of his hat, sleeves, eyes, face, pants, shoes, and gloves.

Trade palette glitch

If the player sees the data of any Pokémon, the palette will change its colors depending on the color of the Pokémon and the HP it has at the moment. This bug was fixed in Pokémon Yellow.

By LanceAndMissingNo.

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Pokémon Red and Blue (English)

Instant Text trick

If the player goes into the Cerulean City Bike Shop without a bike voucher and cancels out exiting the shopping menu of the bike shop, the game never resets a text based flag. Instead of the game showing all the text character by character, it will instead now show all text on screen instantly. Going back to the shop later and buying the bike will reset the flag.

Pokémon Blue (all languages)

Purple Jigglypuff oversight

Jigglypuff appears purple instead of pink when battling Gengar in the intro of Pokémon Blue (including the Japanese version), when this game is played in color.

In normal gameplay, Jigglypuff uses the pink Pokémon palette while Gengar uses the purple Pokémon palette. However, they both share the purple palette in this battle at the game intro. This is a leftover from the earlier Japanese games Pokémon Red and Green, when two purple Pokémon battled instead: Gengar vs. Nidorino (which is also seen in the international versions of Pokémon Red).

Pokémon Yellow (all languages)

Delayed Pikachu follow

	This glitch is in need of research. Reason: No reason specified. You can discuss this on the talk page.

In Pokémon Tower, if the player steps on the purified zone with a fainted Pikachu, and quickly pushes (B) and takes two steps, Pikachu will not match the player's first step until the player takes their second step and will continue to follow at a delay. As a result, Pikachu may end up a space distant from the player or overlapped with them. Walking back onto the purified zone while overlapped will return Pikachu's position to normal, regardless of speed.

By Unowninator

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Thanks to the Pikachu off-screen glitch, it can be done everywhere.

By LanceAndMissingNo.

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Freezing Pikachu

If the player jumps off a cliff when Pikachu is dancing, the Pikachu's sprite will be frozen for 7–8 seconds.

By LanceAndMissingNo.

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

References

Glitches in the Pokémon games Multiple generations Transform glitches • Glitch Trainers • Cloning glitches • Error messages • Arbitrary code execution Generation I Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches -- • 0 ERROR • Broken hidden items • Cable Club escape glitch • Dual-type damage misinformation Experience underflow glitch • Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick • Glitch City • Item duplication glitch • Item underflow Mew glitch • Old man glitch • Pewter Gym skip glitch • Pokémon merge glitch • Rhydon glitch • Rival twins glitch Select glitches (dokokashira door glitch, second type glitch) • Super Glitch Time Capsule exploit • Walking through walls • ZZAZZ glitch Generation II Glitches • Battle glitches Bug-Catching Contest glitch • Celebi Egg glitch • Coin Case glitches • Experience underflow glitch Glitch dimension • Glitch Egg • Teru-sama • Time Capsule exploit • Trainer House glitches • GS Ball mail glitch Generation III Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Berry glitch • Dive glitch • Pomeg glitch • Glitzer Popping Generation IV Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Acid rain • GTS glitches • Pomeg glitch • Rage glitch Surf glitch • Tweaking • Pal Park Retire glitch Generation V Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Frozen Zoroark glitch • Sky Drop glitch Generation VI Glitches • Battle glitches • Overworld glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Lumiose City save glitch • Symbiosis Eject Button glitch • Toxic sure-hit glitch Generation VII Glitches • Battle glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Toxic sure-hit glitch • Rollout storage glitch Generation VIII Glitches Charge Beam additional effect chance glitch • Charge move replacement glitch • Choice item lock glitch Toxic sure-hit glitch • Rollout storage glitch • Party item offset glitch Generation IX Glitches Glitch effects Game freeze • Glitch battle • Glitch song Gen I only: Glitch screen • TMTRAINER effect • Inverted sprite Gen II only: Glitch dimension Lists Glitches (GO • Mystery Dungeon • TCG GB • Spin-off) Glitch Pokémon (Gen I • Gen II • Gen III • Gen IV • Gen V • Gen VI • Gen VII • Gen VIII) Glitch moves (Gen I) • Glitch types (Gen I • Gen II)

This glitch Pokémon article is part of Project GlitchDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games.