Before a Pokedex filled with 807 Pokemon was even a thing, Game Freak was working on pitching a game called “Capsule Monsters.” Most of the early designs made it to the final game when its name changed to “Pocket Monsters.” But before we even came in contact with the beloved 150 ‘mons from Gen 1, lots of prototype monsters had to be designed first.
Helix Chamber, a site that focuses on unearthing early Pokemon history, published a trove of prototype data about Pokemon Red and Green. One of their most interesting findings is the list of Missingno. ‘mons. And to be clear, we’re not referring to the glitchy encounter here; we’re referring to Pokemon prototypes that were eventually scrapped. Most of the data about them in-game remain as unused cry and name references, or in this case, back sprites. Take a look at them below:
You might recognize some of the sprites, such as 127 (which looks like some sort of Psyduck), 134 (smaller Meowth from the back), and 181 (that’s totally Wartortle). These sprites were either part of an evolutionary line that was scrapped – such as 069 being a younger Zubat – or slightly tweaked, as is the case with Wartortle becoming a second evolution instead of the final one. A few of these no longer exist, such as 021 Omega. It’s overwritten in the game’s code as Mew.
Even the player sprite went through some changes. There was going to be an “evolved” version of the player character, holding a Pokeball in one hand and a whip in another. Here’s the intro animation sprite that shows the progression of the character, similar to the shrinking effect when you become an overworld sprite:
There were also some early data about trainers (referred to as “dealers”) and other NPCs, such as Shinjuku Jack and Silph Chief, and a whole lot of other information. To read about everything that Helix Chamber has discovered so far, head over to their post.
