Pokémon Gold Beta Reveals Scrapped Evolutions, Pre-Evolutions of Beloved Pokémon

Two years before Pokémon Gold & Silver were released, a very early prototype was shown at a Nintendo trade show in Japan during 1997. Footage of the event showed two early Pokémon designs that never made it into the final games, as well as an earlier version of Chikorita. Fans have never been able to see the build’s entirety… until now. A poster on 4chan teased a ROM of the demo and then released it into the wild. It may not be the exact one shown during the event, but seems to be from a similar time.

Currently people are dissecting the game’s data on 4chan as well as The Cutting Room Floor, a site for documenting unused content in video games. The latter has created a helpful spreadsheet which can be navigated using tabs on the bottom to see what Pokémon looked like in the demo versus the released game.

Fans have noted that many Pokémon from the original Pokémon Red & Blue received pre-evolutions that were later removed, including Doduo, Meowth and Ditto! Other Pokémon look very different from their final designs (see the Legendary Dog trio!).

The rip is courtesy of an anonymous poster on 4chan and shows the colored sprites of the Johto Pokémon, as well as their uncolored back-sprites.

Are there any particular designs you love? I am just dying for that Pinsir evolution!