Somewhere, out there, exists an early prototype of the first Pokemon game, and thanks to a group of Pokemon fans, they might have allowed for the public to get a glimpse at some of the interesting bits and pieces within, similar to the Spaceworld Gold and Silver beta from last year. According to Helix Chamber, the site that managed to get ahold of these assets, an anonymous source contacted them, claiming that they had a prototype Generation 1 Pokemon game. After trying to contact this mysterious person, they were given a zip file that contained assorted files that were ripped right from the ROM. Though they refused to dump the ROM in full, (which is potentially concerning, in regards to the validity of the files) there's some never before seen early designs that would later be cut or repurposed for the final release of Pokemon Red and Green.

First revealed was an early working logo for Pocket Monsters, with an included unfinished Rhyhorn in the center. Also supplied were back sprites for these prototype Pokemon, but no front sprites were given, nor did the owner give a reason for omitting them. Front sprites were made in an attempt to re-create what could be, but they are in no way official, or part of the "leak", only existing as artistic interpretation.

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What has been hypothesized and deciphered by Helix Chamber are numerous things, such as a different evolution for Wartortle, a potential beta design for Tyrannitar, a weird form of Psyduck, Red's original design, and much more. A full breakdown can be seen at the source below.

Around the middle of last summer we were approached by someone who claimed to have Gen 1 prototypes and wanted to remain anonymous. We communicated via a private IRC channel of their making, and they provided us with some answers.

— Helix Chamber (@helixchamber) February 18, 2019

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Source

 

[Joe88]

Now I want red to have a whip.

 

[VinsCool]

Pretty interesting to see some of these made it to the beta Gold Silver version, before being scraped afterwards.
Same for some proto Gen 2 pokémons there.

 

[BlueFox gui]

WHY DID THEY KILLED TRIFOX???

 

[DKB]

My God the art for the pokemon for these games was awful. Always thought Mew looked like something was mentally wrong with him.

 

[AlanJohn]

Can't put my finger on it, but something tells me these are fake.
Some of the designs seem too modern (especially the sprite work on the trainer).

Some of these pokemon seem just absurd, like the balloon one. Also, it's well known that some of the scrapped gen 1 pokemon were just used in gen 2.

 

[leon315]

mmm, where's missingno?? i can't see him...

wait: Red has whip o.O?! why Red needs a whip??

 

[smileyhead]

I can see why the whip was removed lol

 

[chrisrlink]

funny whips were used for the cooltrainer and tamer sprites and rocket )but their evil so understandable) guess they didn't want red to be a cruel mofo

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Correction: That's Rhydon in the logo, and probably because it was the first Pokemon created at that.

Edit: Seems that Helix Chamber refers to it as Rhyhorn as well. Am I missing something? Was Rhydon called this at any point? Just seems to be a mistake/typo to me, but I could be wrong.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Explains why Pokemon are so willing to fight for you, it's either that or get whipped

 

[catlover007]

Imho the Pokemon sprites look mostly authentic(with some of them probably being traced or scanned from a hand drawing).

But the trainer sprite looks fake to me. Compared to the final sprites(https://www.spriters-resource.com/game_boy_gbc/pokemonredblue/sheet/8729/), it's far large, it wouldn't even fit well on the title screen. It's stylistically completely different, proportions and depths more pronounced via shading, then in the final sprites, besides the different outlining. Every pre release concept art shows Red as a boy and not some tough Pokemon torcherer, it contradicts the original idea of Pokemon: kids collecting Bugs.

 

[lordelan]

Still looking better than most of the more recent generations.

 

[Justinde75]

Meh no dumped rom makes me believe its fake

 

[Ryccardo]

Meh no dumped rom makes me believe its fake

This... despite the fact it would still be fakeable (it's not exactly the least documented game)

 

[DarkCoffe64]

If these are legit, I would love to see some of these pokes in future games, but I say that would probably never happen.

 

[radicalwookie]

That Crocky has seen some shit in his life

 

[raxadian]

The problem is that nowadays stuff like this is hilarious easy to fake.

 

[x65943]

Can't put my finger on it, but something tells me these are fake.
Some of the designs seem too modern (especially the sprite work on the trainer).

Some of these pokemon seem just absurd, like the balloon one. Also, it's well known that some of the scrapped gen 1 pokemon were just used in gen 2.

Agreed

Not nearly enough cross hatching on Red

 

[raxadian]

Agreed

Not nearly enough cross hatching on Red

Actually, I can totally believe there was a Red with a whip in the early stages.

Is just... why sprites go big? were they aiming for the game to be for the Super Gameboy or something?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Can't put my finger on it, but something tells me these are fake.
Some of the designs seem too modern (especially the sprite work on the trainer).

Some of these pokemon seem just absurd, like the balloon one. Also, it's well known that some of the scrapped gen 1 pokemon were just used in gen 2.

I'd argue it's one of the more legitimate ones, and internal documents that have already come to light confirm its existence, even if the sprite restoration isn't perfect.
Read the breakdown of what Barunda is here:

Did I say stuff isn't ready to be shown? Fooled you, we have something for today!

Who is the orb? A question for the ages.

Or right now. This thread will briefly go into how we connected a name to a face (and not much else but a face). pic.twitter.com/0TNVMbda0Z

— Helix Chamber (@helixchamber) June 21, 2018