This version is available here: archive.org/details/20060317 You could already find this and related files in various archives documenting the leaks, but it seems people were having trouble finding the stuff, so here. This comes with my own translation notes for the debug menu from when I was making this video, as well as some controls in the readme file.
I thought the Silhouette looked lame until I saw the slide in animation happen when the battle starts. It's actually such a gorgeous design choice and gives you the feeling of being the trainer behind the Pokemon when you pick your actions.
The trainer artwork on the bottom screen was a simple, but amazing detail. It give more immersion to the player, 'cause it's like a trainer's screen to choose a order, and the upper screen is for your and opponent Pokémon.
This is so nice to see. As a child I always thought that all these game devs have their games planned out perfectly and couldn’t imagine how an unginished Pokémon game could look like and that the people working on the games are masters of game development or some wizards, especially with all the marketing and stuff. Now as an adult watching this I feel like they just went to work everyday, sat down, worked on details, make a model here, refine a sprite there, make a new city from scratch, okay how do we do that and what should it look like? Makes the whole process feel more humane and makes you realize that the devs are also just humans and we were allowed to see something forbidden we normally would have never gotten to see.
ikr, this is making me want to work on a pokemon game too I already code for a living, would be amazing to work on a game like this, be able to test it, debug it, add features that you would like to see in a game and know the players will like
I've only found one part that doesn't line up so far. There's a screenshot of the Floaroma Galactic incident where it shows beta sprites for the grunts, with darker blue hair. But it seems like this build is from before that. Either way, it's still really close.
I saw that screenshot and it's definitely from a later build. I'd say somewhere after March and before July. For what it's worth, that specific screenshot was used in an August 2006 issue of CoroCoro Comic, which also shows a screenshot of the dark blue-haired Galactic grunts harassing Rowan in Jubilife, so I guess they planned for them to have the same hair colour as Saturn initially.
@@glitchymess That reminds me, will you be diving into the other builds as well? I know videos like this take a very long time to make, but I'm really curious about the February 17th build.
@@stardmg I'd like to, but unfortunately I haven't had much success building any older ROMs :/. If I manage to make or get a hold of a February build then I definitely will cover it, but you might be better off keeping an eye on the TCRF page as it's updated.
Interestingly, at 1:37 when the GameCube is checked it says in Japanese that it's the "Revolution" with the "Remote controller", referring to the working title of the Wii.
32:41 This event script is present [and translated] in the final version along with using the proper sprite for Cyrus. I used a bad Action Replay code that reset all the flags in the game while I was in Veilstone. I eventually found my way to Floaroma and I was so shocked to see him. I couldn’t find anything that documented this unused script at the time and I had no way to do it myself
I love how all of the “musicless” areas play the 206 mystery zone music which I guess makes it all the more fitting seeing as it’s literally the placeholder theme
This is so surreal. I'm looking at some of the screenshots of the beta on Bulbapedia (which have been there for years now) and everything is matching up 1 to 1. I'm so psyched that this has seen the light of day. Thanks for uploading this, great work!
they might have already had the entire (if not , the majority of the) plot and designs finished by that point , just need more polishing and actually adding the other stuff
The bulk of work is undoubtedly the battle engine and everything surrounding that, and seeing as that seemed to be mostly complete it wasn't wasn't at all
The most interesting thing I immediately noticed is the lake music. It went unused under normal circumstances in the final game, however if you hacked the game or used a glitch to go out of bounds, you would hear this music in an area called the "Mystery Zone"
It's also due to a lot of these themes being early composition mixes (used widely in various areas before other music is completed) + intentionally incase a player enters out of bounds to Mystery Zone.
wish we could get something like this for XY and Black and White. Just imagine a 2012 build for XY and a 2009 build for Black and White. or maybe even something from two years before those games released like 2008 and 2011
They did make a sample build of a pokemon game for the public to try it out before the game came out. The game might have been Pokemon Black and White, I think. It was not really a demo per say, if I am recalling correctly. They just never put it onto the Nintendo 3DS shop. I believe that Nintendo even said that when they were setting up the demo kiosks for the public to sample it. Pokemon X and Y was already finished to used on PC already included inside of an emulator.
I believe that they let no one video the demo that they set up maybe. What I found online about them talking about only said that they were not going to post it onto the Nintendo 3DS eshop afterwards. I did not even save the weblink for where to download the game built in emulator due to my current life situation, otherwise I might have at least saved it somewhere to view for later.
12 minutes in and I'm just now realizing that none of the sprites are animated yet. I wonder if it wasn't even planned for them to be animated yet at this point.
If I'm not mistaken, while they are still modeled in the final (probably left over from this build or a later one), the side walls in buildings aren't visible in the final unless you modify the camera right? Like, they changed the standard camera angle in the final?
Yeah, they altered the camera angle in the final version, and I'm not really sure why they did that. The angle used here still exists in the final as a valid camera preset under the Camera List menu. The walls still exist though.
Nintendo might have intentionally made this version for the public to get noticed while they worked on more pressing matters behind the scenes. I might have a statement from Nintendo stating it somewhere. They did talk about Cherish ball functionality somewhere where spies would never even look for the information. They did perfectly code them into the game, and made 100% certiainty that they would not crash the game. Nintendo also explained why they make Cherish balls usuable in any pokemon game that has access to them, even by hacking the game. Nintendo also disabled the Apricorn ball functionality from being used in Pokemon X and Y, with them being crystal clear NOT TO let spies get ahold of the their exact words with them possibly able to reverse it. I do not even remember where I even found it at in the first place. I just clearly remember finishing Pokemon X and Y basic game so fast that there was no walkthrough/guide book even made for the game yet.
I believe that Nintendo knew roughly how long the game was going to be beat roughly around this point of time as well. They definitely explained why they slowed down the speed of the health bar for the final game.
I know what you are talking about, and I believe that I found the source that explains it, obviously not saving it for later use. Nintendo definitely explained in a very similar fashion how you explained the health bars droppimg fast resembling the time of how long the final game would take as a whole. I was not saving the links since I thought that I was only person who ever found them at the time, and it would be awkward to save something to look at years laters; if I ws just going to delete it at some point before evidently someone would likely be needing it sometime in the future. I actually foresaw this entire comment thread being made as well.
I always thought the 4th gen kinda limited itself so they could better implement 3D models in 5th gen, but then again the essence of pokemon has always been 2D sprites and im so grateful for how these games look. I dont know about you but I definitely prefer the DP aesthetic over BW
It’s so interesting that for the beta theme at 2:56, the layered melody is actually on the surface. In the BDSP remakes the theme was re-composed to sound like the beta version as opposed to DPPt's final version
@@brandonlee8123 it sounds slightly different from the mystery zone theme. I believe the mystery zone theme was from an even earlier build than the February 2006 beta. Probably from 2005 but none of the builds from before February 2006 have been leaked yet.
1:31:34 I actually really like the bottom screen functionality in HGSS and wish they had this poketch app in the final. Being able to quickly open all of those menu options was great, especially if they expanded this like they had in HGSS to make all notable things like items and pokemon also on the bottom screen.
They still save 100% of their drawing to use for future reference for future pokemon design ideas. I believe that one of the pokemon design was made by going through their old pokemon Betz designs, and they made it better. I know that j found an interview with the person talking about it in more details. He did say that it could be unlikely that the beta designs will ever be used in official games, and I do not think that he talked about the actual reality of it actual happening or not; for his drawings at least. It might have been the beta turtle drawing being turned in Tirtouga if I am recalling correctly. Also we had a strange experience back when we were in college that was more than likely his pre-evolutionary/baby stage of the evolutionary line as well. It likely knew absolutely nothing, and would need experience share to gain any experience points.
I just noticed at 27:55 it says “Gym Leader Hyouta (Roark) was defeated!” and not “Galactic Grunt”. Never thought the galactic grunts were also gym leaders.
Ah yeah, it does. Likely just copy-pasted trainer data being used as placeholders. Regarding the title... It's effectively random which splash screen appears but makes no gameplay changes as far as I know.
The silhouettes look unnecessary but I would've loved to see that in the final game. maybe include different poses unlocked later on or that'll happen under certain circumstances. regardless this is all some neat footage. thank you for this!
I like how the nincada encounter in Eterneta Forest and the Doduo on route 201, while not part of the normal spawns in those areas, are the swarm encoutners in those areas in the release version. I wonder if some of the swarm encounters were based on the beta build spawns.
I kind of like the huge ass birds and wish they kept it! It' makes a really believable reason as to why the act of actively rummaging through an old mans stuff and blatantly stealing an his Pokémon wouldn't bother you in that instance. I mean if a bird the size of east Texas just jumped me, yeah I would want to avoid that thing too.
Not as interesting of an addition as everyone else's, but the battle with Fantina was actually a battle with Byron, hence the all-Steel team. I spotted his name, Tougan, in the dialogue. Neat since the "default" battle the game seems to go to (like for the Galactic Grunts in Jubilife) is Roark (Hyouta).
The Craziest thing in 1:23:19 Is that When Pokémon Cries were played in reverse playback for a brief moment, They were used for the move Growl, or in this case… Roar during the in game Pokemon battle as well.
I saw you set that Murkow's ID to the funny numbers, dont think I didnt notice >:) Seriously though, I watched this whole video in one go and it was great to see all this info laid out like this- super interesting to see, great work!
Personally, I think it's interesting that there's a design for the Move-Screen - but it's clear they ultimately scrapped it in the final version. But ended up bringing it back in later games. I know there's "Skins" in Generation 5 for the C-Gear as well, then in Generation 6, they seemingly brought back the designs / backgrounds for the Move-Screen... Only to scrap it all again another generation later. It feels like Game Freak was ( were ) incredibly indecisive about this feature in particular, I'm curious as to why honestly...
I wonder if there's beta builds of both Ruby & Sapphire, Black & White, X & Y and Sun & Moon? Just imagine a 2001 build of Ruby & Sapphire, a 2009 build of Black & White, a 2012 build of X & Y and a 2015 build of Sun & Moon.
I'm sure backups from various stages of development for these games all exist, though I can't say for sure if somebody has a hold of them or not. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to take a look at them all one day.
It's pretty obvious as to why they dropped the idea of all Pokemon having gender differences. Having 4 sprites (1 male, 1 female, and a shiny sprite for each gender) for nearly all 493 Pokemon would have taken an insane amount of space.
I think you could be right regarding space concerns, though I'm not sure if it would matter that much in the end. The final archive size for the Pokémon sprites is just over 11MB, and having all the extra sprites may bump it up a few megabytes at best. The Shinies are just palette swaps, so there's no concern there. I think the reality is that GAME FREAK realised that the task was taking too long and just dropped it, only opting to give differences for select Pokémon. It would have been a nice addition to have and could've added some nice variety to the games, but oh well.
Not going to lie, the games look better than what we got at some points, and it looks like it was originally way planned to also be another gba game as well, this art style reminds me of something you'd see in a pokemon fan game nowadays.
Im totally agree that removal of trainer silhouette in background. Just amazing looking, but point, our eyes like attracted to this. Focus, my opinion, switched back to battle and this is important.
They use the unused track of the RSE title theme which is literally within the data of the final game and when this game enters the lake area, the music that plays is the exact theme for Mystery Zone when your going through walls, trees, etc. via hacking
I love the post-hoenn path of Maxie haha. From Team Magma to Sinnoh Gym Leader to Galactic Grunt. The rise and fall of this guy deserves its own spin-off XD
Interesting how your videos typically have sub 1k views and this has 131k! This video would be your growth point for sure! Keep up the great content and im glad RUclips promoted this so we have your entire channel as a goldmine:D
Considering both Bonsly and Munchlax had finalized cries by this point (From XD), its possible that the cries that they had used were due to them being used as the base cries for those Pokemon, Chimechos is similar enough to Munchlax, and Deoxys was similar enough to Bonsly's.
Just some small things I noticed on my own that were not noted in the video. 2:45 - What is also missing is the original "Lake" theme and in its stead is the unfinished version of "Route 206 (Day)." 10:07 - Only Lucas has a map sprite. Also, it would be nice if you did a compilation of the linear portion (first fifty minutes of the video) that just fades in and out to the more significant changes specifically for the gameplay aspect. And wherever the point requires an extended clip, it will resume until it is shown. And for points next to each other, the clip can just resume until there is nothing left and moves onto the next fade. Just something optional and not at all required. This is still a good video and I appreciate you taking the time to make it.
I wouldn't say that exactly as it and other compositions (route theme - Route 206/Mystery Zone, cave theme - Victory Road/Buildings) but placed in various parts of the game as more music was being processed to later versions of game builds.
I love the trainers spotting you as you walk into the tile, it’s such a small thing but makes everything looks so much smoother somehow! Wish they would bring that back instead of the complete pause and pan
If the Pokémon fans of today existed back when this beta first came out they would’ve based their entire opinion of the game off of it and declared Diamond and Pearl as terrible games.
Maybe because nowadays the games are announced a few months away from release and what you see is what you’ll get. Game Freak doesn’t change the entire look and content of the build within 5 months anymore.
The hardware that Nintendo has for making pokemon episodes can make a lot more visually stronger episodes than likely what you have seen already of the show, the specific one being the prequel episode to the Ninja Village episodes of X,Y, Z the series being absolutely amazing to watch. NO I DO NOT HAVE IT RECOREDED SOMEWHERE TO SHOW YOU ALL!!! They also annotated it on the screen to remind themselves to work on the idea in the future because they knew that they would eventually ultimately completely forget about it as well. Nintendo likely will not even directly acknowledge that the episode is actually real as well, despite it not actually being one of them not being allowed to air on television; I think. Maybe they are not airing it on television because of the addictive nature of the episode itself. Nintendo might also say something like the episode will definitely distract people and airing it on television will definitely more than likely get it uploaded on social media somewhere, something they do not want to occur likely in the first place as well.
The hardware that was used to make Snlw White and the seven dwarves could add in custom credits even way, way back in the day, so it only sort of surprised me to see it on the screen; they might get emailed about it as well if they aired it live on television as well.
Munchlax makes perfect sense as the company was perfectly aware of the websites prior at least 4 weeks of me finding them. It could have been around when they were making the demo of the game, maybe. The demo looks like not everything that they were doing. They stated in an interview that I found that they did a lot more through testing with the game than are willing to publicly admit. They also included notes from that testing inside of the game in different ways, only accessible via alternative ways of playing the game, minus one should be pretty obvious. That was honestly all they could do. I could say more here, but I do not want trigger any questions about the topic matter. Especially since I really cannot answer them. There was some of the messages that confused Nintendo at that point in time as well. I was just a more mature kid starting over the game for fun, and was just triggering them. Roark congratulating you after you defeat the Elite 4 in the remakes of the game, I can at least somewhat explain. It can only happen right before he goes back to his gym to be challenged. He only says the phrase once, and then acts like he never said it at all.
In order to successfully trigger Drakrai in the game, you would have to do to what I did legally in the game somehow to visit the island, once the exact cretria was met to make Drakrai actually show up in the game. He will not show up if you are even one cutscene script short, just me I tried. It took me a little while to actually uncover the steps needed to make Drakrai even show up in the game. The videoes that you are watching about how to get Drakrai now for the game remakes are just the content that they said they would upload sometime in the future if the games ever got remade. Nintendo snuck all of the information that found into the sailor trainer by the lake. It js actually really interesting to read.
The Drakrai that you will be obtaining from the Membership Pass event for the game remakes is not the exact same Darkrai that you are going to legally encounter on the island. I know this because I saw the binary numbers of both Drakrai compared side by side, and they were infact different in the original games. Nintendo made sure to make enough Drakrai boxes for the original games to not disappoint players when they knew they would eventually get the island by cheating the game. I would assume that Nintendo made them already in advance because of their former account with the previous games development. They knew already that they could not actually make the pokemon key item available in time for the launch of the game, and made sure that the Membership Pass code worked via action replay for the first two games and the sequel as well. They made a note not to forget to make it available for the next game, hence the Membership Pass event for Pokemon Platinum and maybe they talked about making it available via the game remakes as well down the line as well. I know that I saw something about them talking about a message to specifically look for a message related to the moon cycles in the future.
Nintendo takes notes of everything that they do regarding game development, and does the appropriate interviews regarding the content that they feel is important for the public to know about. That includes even way back then regarding the Lage of Rage information that they specifically said they waited to do until they felt like a majority of the players were at that point of the game wondering what the deal with the Red Scale was and what exactly to do with it as well.
That also includes the information regarding Pokemon Gold and Silver inclusion of the two regions being combined into being able to fit In a single game copy. They explained in full detail way back exactly what happened. It was only made possible by a custom program that an employee made, that much Nintendo probably remembers as well without resorting the interview for more information. It is definitely worth for anyone curious to take a look at if you can find it somehow. Nintendo makes sure that all and any interview that they conduct is preserved for anyone to find, despite them not really acknowledging that they even did one of them on the main Nintendo website. I believe that a Nintendo rep confirmed this, regarding to not fully rememberong the exact details, an interview that I somehow clearly remember reading somewhere online. I think that I am recalling them conducting the original interview because they knew that they would eventually forget the more specific details, and they wanted to be able to use the interview for more uses in the future as well.
Maybe Nintendo will eventually release this specific interview publically in the future. It does contain all of the information that the player base has questions on, and maybe they even said so in the interview directly even. It has been a really long time since I actually read it, but I know that they future proofed it as they were conducting it.
Pokémon Diamond was my first own game when I was a kid, and I was really happy beeing able to play it. I had such a great time, Gamefreak did a great job. They would later fix those issues these games had in Platinum, and this is the version videogame fans play nowadays, but Diamond and Pearl are still nice games, and I had a great time playing Pkmn Pearl recently (probably the "nostalgic goggles" helped me going flawlessly through the game though).
This is amazing. However, I hope that one day something similar happens and the internet gets their hands on the beta versions of the Unova games, all of them but especially the first ones if I had to choose. Would be so nice to see the betas of those ones
Note: Doing the Slow Bike Tweak or using the "Bad Egg" option without any pokemon will result in an assertion fail. (Basically the BSOD) If you prefer X+Y the game will dismiss the assertion fail. Mainly leads to a crash.
Pokemon Platinum is my favorite so i love gen 4 vids so much thanks for making this its def interesting, btw do u actually live in antarctica? If so thats so cool 😮
that battle sim debug menu and camera view debug are insane. battle sim probably saves so much direct pokemon development and would be alot of fun to use. and the camera thing is crazy as it shows the games are actually fully 3d that whole time. not just an illusion for certain scenes and scenarios...
Wow, a fascinating watch for sure. Seeing lots of previous gens work used as placeholders (like gen 3 sprites) is way more interesting than I would have thought. Bulbasoar crys for everyone was particularly funny
small detail but on dawn’s big trainer sprite her shirt has these weird white bits at the bottom which i thought was some sort of error. turns out her concept art (it’s on bulbapedia) has her shirt with a white trim at the bottom! probably removed from the final sprite to make it look cleaner
![Eminem - Fuel (Shady Edition) feat. Westside Boogie & GRIP [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/k1OquBida9s/mqdefault.jpg)
This version is available here: archive.org/details/20060317
You could already find this and related files in various archives documenting the leaks, but it seems people were having trouble finding the stuff, so here.
This comes with my own translation notes for the debug menu from when I was making this video, as well as some controls in the readme file.
The silhouette in the bottom screen looks like it would have been so awesome to have in the final version of the game.
@Ayjop utility: Reminds you of who you're playing more and makes you feel like you're the trainer and not just hitting the icons
I would have loved it
Gen 5 kind of use that idea.
@Ayjop having a different looking bottom screen takes you out of the experience? that is arguing for the sake of arguing. just say you like it less
I thought the Silhouette looked lame until I saw the slide in animation happen when the battle starts. It's actually such a gorgeous design choice and gives you the feeling of being the trainer behind the Pokemon when you pick your actions.
The trainer artwork on the bottom screen was a simple, but amazing detail. It give more immersion to the player, 'cause it's like a trainer's screen to choose a order, and the upper screen is for your and opponent Pokémon.
It's a shame it didn't stay, though... That would have been so cool!
would be even cooler if the silhouette animated as you giving order or when you throw pokeball, use item, etc
@@Bos_MeongRIGHT
This is so nice to see. As a child I always thought that all these game devs have their games planned out perfectly and couldn’t imagine how an unginished Pokémon game could look like and that the people working on the games are masters of game development or some wizards, especially with all the marketing and stuff. Now as an adult watching this I feel like they just went to work everyday, sat down, worked on details, make a model here, refine a sprite there, make a new city from scratch, okay how do we do that and what should it look like?
Makes the whole process feel more humane and makes you realize that the devs are also just humans and we were allowed to see something forbidden we normally would have never gotten to see.
My exact thoughts too :)
ikr, this is making me want to work on a pokemon game too
I already code for a living, would be amazing to work on a game like this, be able to test it, debug it, add features that you would like to see in a game and know the players will like
Dawn's sillhouette looks like she's about to sing bad apple
lmao yeah
LMAO You are right!!
This beta perfectly corresponds to the 2006 screenshots and footage.
I've only found one part that doesn't line up so far. There's a screenshot of the Floaroma Galactic incident where it shows beta sprites for the grunts, with darker blue hair. But it seems like this build is from before that. Either way, it's still really close.
I saw that screenshot and it's definitely from a later build. I'd say somewhere after March and before July. For what it's worth, that specific screenshot was used in an August 2006 issue of CoroCoro Comic, which also shows a screenshot of the dark blue-haired Galactic grunts harassing Rowan in Jubilife, so I guess they planned for them to have the same hair colour as Saturn initially.
@@glitchymess That reminds me, will you be diving into the other builds as well? I know videos like this take a very long time to make, but I'm really curious about the February 17th build.
@@stardmg I'd like to, but unfortunately I haven't had much success building any older ROMs :/. If I manage to make or get a hold of a February build then I definitely will cover it, but you might be better off keeping an eye on the TCRF page as it's updated.
i feel so old
Interestingly, at 1:37 when the GameCube is checked it says in Japanese that it's the "Revolution" with the "Remote controller", referring to the working title of the Wii.
Ah, indeed it does... Hadn't noticed it myself, nice catch!
That’s such a great catch, dude
@@prestonpope gotta catch em all
@@Usario321 gotta catch some of'em
Awesome catch!
32:41 This event script is present [and translated] in the final version along with using the proper sprite for Cyrus. I used a bad Action Replay code that reset all the flags in the game while I was in Veilstone. I eventually found my way to Floaroma and I was so shocked to see him. I couldn’t find anything that documented this unused script at the time and I had no way to do it myself
Thanks for sharing !
I love how all of the “musicless” areas play the 206 mystery zone music which I guess makes it all the more fitting seeing as it’s literally the placeholder theme
This is so surreal. I'm looking at some of the screenshots of the beta on Bulbapedia (which have been there for years now) and everything is matching up 1 to 1. I'm so psyched that this has seen the light of day. Thanks for uploading this, great work!
insane how much stuff they had to finish within 5 months 😨
they might have already had the entire (if not , the majority of the) plot and designs finished by that point , just need more polishing and actually adding the other stuff
It's not much, actually. The hard part was almost complete, and save for some unexpected issues, editing a map or changing sprites is no big deal.
Jesus, tells me a lot how much doing 2d would've so much easier
The bulk of work is undoubtedly the battle engine and everything surrounding that, and seeing as that seemed to be mostly complete it wasn't wasn't at all
Its weird how they cant do it now
That Beta battle UI was incredible. I don't get why they gave up on it
Too distracting probably for the devs
The most interesting thing I immediately noticed is the lake music. It went unused under normal circumstances in the final game, however if you hacked the game or used a glitch to go out of bounds, you would hear this music in an area called the "Mystery Zone"
It's also due to a lot of these themes being early composition mixes (used widely in various areas before other music is completed) + intentionally incase a player enters out of bounds to Mystery Zone.
Yep, heard this sooo much when i used action replay to find legendaries/skip parts.
@@Gamexpertvids So you’re saying the intentionally have the music play when you go to the mystery zone?
@@AaronAlert77 well kinda, it's more like it plays when you enter an area without assigned music
@@kerfrizz3050 they had to program that in tho right
wish we could get something like this for XY and Black and White. Just imagine a 2012 build for XY and a 2009 build for Black and White. or maybe even something from two years before those games released like 2008 and 2011
im sure theyll be next
True
They did make a sample build of a pokemon game for the public to try it out before the game came out. The game might have been Pokemon Black and White, I think. It was not really a demo per say, if I am recalling correctly. They just never put it onto the Nintendo 3DS shop. I believe that Nintendo even said that when they were setting up the demo kiosks for the public to sample it. Pokemon X and Y was already finished to used on PC already included inside of an emulator.
@@joshernsteen2066 video?
I believe that they let no one video the demo that they set up maybe. What I found online about them talking about only said that they were not going to post it onto the Nintendo 3DS eshop afterwards. I did not even save the weblink for where to download the game built in emulator due to my current life situation, otherwise I might have at least saved it somewhere to view for later.
12 minutes in and I'm just now realizing that none of the sprites are animated yet. I wonder if it wasn't even planned for them to be animated yet at this point.
There's also no entering animation when going in buildings.
If I'm not mistaken, while they are still modeled in the final (probably left over from this build or a later one), the side walls in buildings aren't visible in the final unless you modify the camera right? Like, they changed the standard camera angle in the final?
Yeah, they altered the camera angle in the final version, and I'm not really sure why they did that. The angle used here still exists in the final as a valid camera preset under the Camera List menu. The walls still exist though.
Probably considering Emerald had it
Nintendo might have intentionally made this version for the public to get noticed while they worked on more pressing matters behind the scenes. I might have a statement from Nintendo stating it somewhere. They did talk about Cherish ball functionality somewhere where spies would never even look for the information. They did perfectly code them into the game, and made 100% certiainty that they would not crash the game. Nintendo also explained why they make Cherish balls usuable in any pokemon game that has access to them, even by hacking the game. Nintendo also disabled the Apricorn ball functionality from being used in Pokemon X and Y, with them being crystal clear NOT TO let spies get ahold of the their exact words with them possibly able to reverse it. I do not even remember where I even found it at in the first place. I just clearly remember finishing Pokemon X and Y basic game so fast that there was no walkthrough/guide book even made for the game yet.
That silhouette at the bottom for the battles is ACE!
It looks awesome
Wow that bottom battle menu looks cooler with the outline of ur character
It's funny how the hp bar was way faster in the beta
I think this is a pretty accurate indicator of the final version being slower so the game could have more hours
@@yisussb iirc it's actually a bug they didn't notice, though I don't have a source to back this up
I believe that Nintendo knew roughly how long the game was going to be beat roughly around this point of time as well. They definitely explained why they slowed down the speed of the health bar for the final game.
I know what you are talking about, and I believe that I found the source that explains it, obviously not saving it for later use. Nintendo definitely explained in a very similar fashion how you explained the health bars droppimg fast resembling the time of how long the final game would take as a whole. I was not saving the links since I thought that I was only person who ever found them at the time, and it would be awkward to save something to look at years laters; if I ws just going to delete it at some point before evidently someone would likely be needing it sometime in the future. I actually foresaw this entire comment thread being made as well.
@@yisussb Diamond and Pearl aren’t short games by any means so that’s just silly
It's neat to see that the game was planned to be a lot more 3-dimensional. It kinda looks like Pokémon Black and White, and their sequels.
They probably tan out of time and implemented all of those later
I always thought the 4th gen kinda limited itself so they could better implement 3D models in 5th gen, but then again the essence of pokemon has always been 2D sprites and im so grateful for how these games look.
I dont know about you but I definitely prefer the DP aesthetic over BW
@@yisussb thats boring
@@solierix i am a boring man
@@yisussb you like gorillaz tho so maybe you do have taste
Laughed my ass off when Starly came in with the Bulbasaur cry
It’s so interesting that for the beta theme at 2:56, the layered melody is actually on the surface. In the BDSP remakes the theme was re-composed to sound like the beta version as opposed to DPPt's final version
Yep, heard this sooo much when i used action replay to find legendaries/skip parts.
@@brandonlee8123 it sounds slightly different from the mystery zone theme. I believe the mystery zone theme was from an even earlier build than the February 2006 beta. Probably from 2005 but none of the builds from before February 2006 have been leaked yet.
The same process is used in night tracks, take a look at the route 228 for example
Its kinda creepy seeing the beta of diamond and pearl cus this was my first pokemon game and seeing it unfinished like this is weird and cool
Agreed, it gives a feeling which is hard to describe
It’s cursed. Like a weird lucid dream I had. Everything seems normal, but it’s all out of whirl.
@@JM-tj5qm yeah I got the game in 2007 the year I turned 10 now I’m 24
@@JM-tj5qm mine was Silver Pearl my 2nd
How many people grew up with gen 4?
I did and my first Pokémon game was diamond
I remember it very vividly
The bottom backdrop looks way better than most games during battles.
the silhouette looks cool
6:16 HOLY SHIT SO THAT'S WHY YOU CAN GET DODUO WITH POKERADAR HERE IN THE FINAL VERSION
Not in the remastered :(
@@AcingTrickshots you 100% can.
Guess they forgot to remove it for the pokeradar
@@Kingler03 i guess u guessed wrong
I love the bottom screen design so much more holy fuck
They had a portable PC way before Let's Go did it!
Wish they'd kept that. :(
@@hawktalon7890 Especially for M.Coronet exploration, I can only approve that lol
I may not like many decisions from the newer Pokémon games, but a portable PC would have definitely been a godsend in these games
1:31:34 I actually really like the bottom screen functionality in HGSS and wish they had this poketch app in the final. Being able to quickly open all of those menu options was great, especially if they expanded this like they had in HGSS to make all notable things like items and pokemon also on the bottom screen.
Omg i LOVE the silhouette of the avatar in the lower screen in battles, i dont understand why they removed it!!
This personally fascinates me more than the remakes. I love seeing the Beta sprites and elements from Pokemon. The coolest is still from GSC.
GSC's were basically an entirely different game, so yeah, I doubt something could top it
@@M0D776 I want some of those beta Pokemon to come back in a later entry even if it's unlikely. Some of them looked really cute.
They still save 100% of their drawing to use for future reference for future pokemon design ideas. I believe that one of the pokemon design was made by going through their old pokemon Betz designs, and they made it better. I know that j found an interview with the person talking about it in more details. He did say that it could be unlikely that the beta designs will ever be used in official games, and I do not think that he talked about the actual reality of it actual happening or not; for his drawings at least. It might have been the beta turtle drawing being turned in Tirtouga if I am recalling correctly. Also we had a strange experience back when we were in college that was more than likely his pre-evolutionary/baby stage of the evolutionary line as well. It likely knew absolutely nothing, and would need experience share to gain any experience points.
Beta Buizel seems so much rounder to me; might just be a trick of the front sprite posing to me though. I love that. We need more round Pokemon.
Reminds me of Old, Chunky Pikachu
That's cute
@@M0D776 Pikachu went on a diet
I just noticed at 27:55 it says “Gym Leader Hyouta (Roark) was defeated!” and not “Galactic Grunt”. Never thought the galactic grunts were also gym leaders.
Also at 33:57 the logo changes to Diamond instead of Pearl??
Ah yeah, it does. Likely just copy-pasted trainer data being used as placeholders.
Regarding the title... It's effectively random which splash screen appears but makes no gameplay changes as far as I know.
That entire battle is the same as the Roark fight so they probably just reused that fight there for some reason
This UI is actually really crispy, the way the battles look is nice. A lot of this shoulda stayed
I think the silhouette during battles is cool, but slightly distracting. If it were less opaque it would be perfect
That’s probably why they removed it tbh
The silhouettes look unnecessary but I would've loved to see that in the final game. maybe include different poses unlocked later on or that'll happen under certain circumstances. regardless this is all some neat footage. thank you for this!
I clicked on the video thinking it would be a 5 minute showcase without looking at the runtime but BOY WAS I WRONG
It’s definitely unpolished but really interesting to look at. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that these games once looked like this
I like how the nincada encounter in Eterneta Forest and the Doduo on route 201, while not part of the normal spawns in those areas, are the swarm encoutners in those areas in the release version. I wonder if some of the swarm encounters were based on the beta build spawns.
It’s funny how the overworld in the beta is infested with Zubats & Geodudes just like in the regular games
Today marks the 15th Anniversary of this build for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl :(
I love the shade of Lucas/Dawn in the second screen in battle!
I kind of like the huge ass birds and wish they kept it! It' makes a really believable reason as to why the act of actively rummaging through an old mans stuff and blatantly stealing an his Pokémon wouldn't bother you in that instance. I mean if a bird the size of east Texas just jumped me, yeah I would want to avoid that thing too.
I was going to say maybe it was too scary but then I remembered the giratina jumpscare lmao
LMFAO😭
I love the swirling intro when you’re about to battle tbh
The recovered pokemon treasure
Not as interesting of an addition as everyone else's, but the battle with Fantina was actually a battle with Byron, hence the all-Steel team. I spotted his name, Tougan, in the dialogue. Neat since the "default" battle the game seems to go to (like for the Galactic Grunts in Jubilife) is Roark (Hyouta).
55:04 It's really impressive the fact that beta front sprite of Ekans ended being it's Gen 5 sprite xD
They probably lost the original asset lol
this was really calming & interesting to watch, thank you
It took our Krow 14 years to comment the almost two hours. Let's compliment him or her for that and leave a like.
i hope they keep the trainer sillouette in the finale release of the game, it looks cool!
And they still didn't release the final game with the trainer silhouette? Man, they are slow...
What are you talking about they just removed it
@@GS.com8
Joke
You
@@Nandinandito ?
@@GS.com8 it's a joke. They weren't being serious
The Craziest thing in 1:23:19
Is that When Pokémon Cries were played in reverse playback for a brief moment,
They were used for the move Growl, or in this case… Roar during the in game Pokemon battle as well.
I saw you set that Murkow's ID to the funny numbers, dont think I didnt notice >:)
Seriously though, I watched this whole video in one go and it was great to see all this info laid out like this- super interesting to see, great work!
Personally, I think it's interesting that there's a design for the Move-Screen - but it's clear they ultimately scrapped it in the final version. But ended up bringing it back in later games. I know there's "Skins" in Generation 5 for the C-Gear as well, then in Generation 6, they seemingly brought back the designs / backgrounds for the Move-Screen... Only to scrap it all again another generation later. It feels like Game Freak was ( were ) incredibly indecisive about this feature in particular, I'm curious as to why honestly...
I wonder if there's beta builds of both Ruby & Sapphire, Black & White, X & Y and Sun & Moon? Just imagine a 2001 build of Ruby & Sapphire, a 2009 build of Black & White, a 2012 build of X & Y and a 2015 build of Sun & Moon.
I'm sure backups from various stages of development for these games all exist, though I can't say for sure if somebody has a hold of them or not. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to take a look at them all one day.
@twilightprincess541 Oh really?
22:15 even the programmers knew they look alike!
I kinda wished that they kept the cut scene with Cyrus cause I felt like it could of fit and gave us more info on him imo
Why did they replace the Dawn/Lucas silhouette of the bottom screen by a pokeball? I love the silhouette
Crazy how much stuff was missing only 6 or 7 months before the release date
i was thinking the exact same thing and im suprised not more people brought it up.
@@MR_FIAT Someone explained that a lot of the hard part was already done. If they had 6 months to finish, they had a bunch of time left.
It just wasn't merged into the main branch but they had everything locally
It's pretty obvious as to why they dropped the idea of all Pokemon having gender differences. Having 4 sprites (1 male, 1 female, and a shiny sprite for each gender) for nearly all 493 Pokemon would have taken an insane amount of space.
I think you could be right regarding space concerns, though I'm not sure if it would matter that much in the end. The final archive size for the Pokémon sprites is just over 11MB, and having all the extra sprites may bump it up a few megabytes at best. The Shinies are just palette swaps, so there's no concern there. I think the reality is that GAME FREAK realised that the task was taking too long and just dropped it, only opting to give differences for select Pokémon. It would have been a nice addition to have and could've added some nice variety to the games, but oh well.
I still think it'd be nice for more Pokemon to have gender differences; but some of these as shown in the beta sprites were a little arbitrary.
Black and White had animated sprites with multiple frames for 649 sprites and was released on the same system...
It's not really a space question, I think. It's just unneccessary work, lol
@@madridpawmot Black/White's animation actually doesnt have that many actual frames, the battle animations there are rendered in real time
My first ever pokemon game...
Just can't stop feeling emoitional
Not going to lie, the games look better than what we got at some points, and it looks like it was originally way planned to also be another gba game as well, this art style reminds me of something you'd see in a pokemon fan game nowadays.
@ヒヒダルマ also by 2006 the gba was dead tbh(especially in japan where except rythm tengoku nothing serious got released this year for gba)
It's amazing, the inside of the houses are totally 3D!
They are in the final too, you just have to hack the camera.
Im totally agree that removal of trainer silhouette in background. Just amazing looking, but point, our eyes like attracted to this. Focus, my opinion, switched back to battle and this is important.
They use the unused track of the RSE title theme which is literally within the data of the final game and when this game enters the lake area, the music that plays is the exact theme for Mystery Zone when your going through walls, trees, etc. via hacking
I love the post-hoenn path of Maxie haha. From Team Magma to Sinnoh Gym Leader to Galactic Grunt. The rise and fall of this guy deserves its own spin-off XD
1:29:14 Looks like the concept of having access to your PC Pokémon everywhere isn't new...
Interesting how your videos typically have sub 1k views and this has 131k! This video would be your growth point for sure! Keep up the great content and im glad RUclips promoted this so we have your entire channel as a goldmine:D
The pokemon contest looks so different! I loved more than the actual version... :(
Considering both Bonsly and Munchlax had finalized cries by this point (From XD), its possible that the cries that they had used were due to them being used as the base cries for those Pokemon, Chimechos is similar enough to Munchlax, and Deoxys was similar enough to Bonsly's.
also i think i prefer the Beta ui, for the bottom screen at least
just the bottom screen yeah - otherwise it's even more laggy than final DP lol
They def should've kept the bottom screen
@@xhale671 right? It looks so clean! I would kill for a romhack that puts the images back because fuck it’s ice
Pretty cool how even in the final you can find Doduo on Route 201 with a swarm, might be a hidden inside nod.
戦闘画面の下画面のデザイン好き
かっこいい
Just some small things I noticed on my own that were not noted in the video.
2:45 - What is also missing is the original "Lake" theme and in its stead is the unfinished version of "Route 206 (Day)."
10:07 - Only Lucas has a map sprite.
Also, it would be nice if you did a compilation of the linear portion (first fifty minutes of the video) that just fades in and out to the more significant changes specifically for the gameplay aspect. And wherever the point requires an extended clip, it will resume until it is shown. And for points next to each other, the clip can just resume until there is nothing left and moves onto the next fade. Just something optional and not at all required. This is still a good video and I appreciate you taking the time to make it.
Interesting how the 'Mystery Zone' was the beta Lake theme
I wouldn't say that exactly as it and other compositions (route theme - Route 206/Mystery Zone, cave theme - Victory Road/Buildings) but placed in various parts of the game as more music was being processed to later versions of game builds.
I wish i could get a copy of this to run on an emulator. I want to play with the camera and sun location menus
pokemon diamond was my first game so seeing this is surreal
I love the trainers spotting you as you walk into the tile, it’s such a small thing but makes everything looks so much smoother somehow!
Wish they would bring that back instead of the complete pause and pan
If the Pokémon fans of today existed back when this beta first came out they would’ve based their entire opinion of the game off of it and declared Diamond and Pearl as terrible games.
True🤣🤣🤣
That's Actually Right🤣
Maybe because nowadays the games are announced a few months away from release and what you see is what you’ll get. Game Freak doesn’t change the entire look and content of the build within 5 months anymore.
Modern games arent as polished as they used to be
I wish they kept the 3D camera for building interiors, it looks so nice.
Why is professor oak’s house filled with 6 nurse joys and 1 maid 🤔
This was made 16 years ago.
Where did time go?
The hardware that Nintendo has for making pokemon episodes can make a lot more visually stronger episodes than likely what you have seen already of the show, the specific one being the prequel episode to the Ninja Village episodes of X,Y, Z the series being absolutely amazing to watch. NO I DO NOT HAVE IT RECOREDED SOMEWHERE TO SHOW YOU ALL!!! They also annotated it on the screen to remind themselves to work on the idea in the future because they knew that they would eventually ultimately completely forget about it as well. Nintendo likely will not even directly acknowledge that the episode is actually real as well, despite it not actually being one of them not being allowed to air on television; I think. Maybe they are not airing it on television because of the addictive nature of the episode itself. Nintendo might also say something like the episode will definitely distract people and airing it on television will definitely more than likely get it uploaded on social media somewhere, something they do not want to occur likely in the first place as well.
The hardware that was used to make Snlw White and the seven dwarves could add in custom credits even way, way back in the day, so it only sort of surprised me to see it on the screen; they might get emailed about it as well if they aired it live on television as well.
@@joshernsteen2066 Dude you're so right. You're our hero.
18 years now
Munchlax makes perfect sense as the company was perfectly aware of the websites prior at least 4 weeks of me finding them. It could have been around when they were making the demo of the game, maybe. The demo looks like not everything that they were doing. They stated in an interview that I found that they did a lot more through testing with the game than are willing to publicly admit. They also included notes from that testing inside of the game in different ways, only accessible via alternative ways of playing the game, minus one should be pretty obvious. That was honestly all they could do. I could say more here, but I do not want trigger any questions about the topic matter. Especially since I really cannot answer them. There was some of the messages that confused Nintendo at that point in time as well. I was just a more mature kid starting over the game for fun, and was just triggering them. Roark congratulating you after you defeat the Elite 4 in the remakes of the game, I can at least somewhat explain. It can only happen right before he goes back to his gym to be challenged. He only says the phrase once, and then acts like he never said it at all.
In order to successfully trigger Drakrai in the game, you would have to do to what I did legally in the game somehow to visit the island, once the exact cretria was met to make Drakrai actually show up in the game. He will not show up if you are even one cutscene script short, just me I tried. It took me a little while to actually uncover the steps needed to make Drakrai even show up in the game. The videoes that you are watching about how to get Drakrai now for the game remakes are just the content that they said they would upload sometime in the future if the games ever got remade. Nintendo snuck all of the information that found into the sailor trainer by the lake. It js actually really interesting to read.
The Drakrai that you will be obtaining from the Membership Pass event for the game remakes is not the exact same Darkrai that you are going to legally encounter on the island. I know this because I saw the binary numbers of both Drakrai compared side by side, and they were infact different in the original games. Nintendo made sure to make enough Drakrai boxes for the original games to not disappoint players when they knew they would eventually get the island by cheating the game. I would assume that Nintendo made them already in advance because of their former account with the previous games development. They knew already that they could not actually make the pokemon key item available in time for the launch of the game, and made sure that the Membership Pass code worked via action replay for the first two games and the sequel as well. They made a note not to forget to make it available for the next game, hence the Membership Pass event for Pokemon Platinum and maybe they talked about making it available via the game remakes as well down the line as well. I know that I saw something about them talking about a message to specifically look for a message related to the moon cycles in the future.
Nintendo takes notes of everything that they do regarding game development, and does the appropriate interviews regarding the content that they feel is important for the public to know about. That includes even way back then regarding the Lage of Rage information that they specifically said they waited to do until they felt like a majority of the players were at that point of the game wondering what the deal with the Red Scale was and what exactly to do with it as well.
That also includes the information regarding Pokemon Gold and Silver inclusion of the two regions being combined into being able to fit In a single game copy. They explained in full detail way back exactly what happened. It was only made possible by a custom program that an employee made, that much Nintendo probably remembers as well without resorting the interview for more information. It is definitely worth for anyone curious to take a look at if you can find it somehow. Nintendo makes sure that all and any interview that they conduct is preserved for anyone to find, despite them not really acknowledging that they even did one of them on the main Nintendo website. I believe that a Nintendo rep confirmed this, regarding to not fully rememberong the exact details, an interview that I somehow clearly remember reading somewhere online. I think that I am recalling them conducting the original interview because they knew that they would eventually forget the more specific details, and they wanted to be able to use the interview for more uses in the future as well.
Maybe Nintendo will eventually release this specific interview publically in the future. It does contain all of the information that the player base has questions on, and maybe they even said so in the interview directly even. It has been a really long time since I actually read it, but I know that they future proofed it as they were conducting it.
Barry's old sprite looks like something that a romhacker threw together in a few seconds without thinking to worldbuild.
Pokémon Diamond was my first own game when I was a kid, and I was really happy beeing able to play it. I had such a great time, Gamefreak did a great job. They would later fix those issues these games had in Platinum, and this is the version videogame fans play nowadays, but Diamond and Pearl are still nice games, and I had a great time playing Pkmn Pearl recently (probably the "nostalgic goggles" helped me going flawlessly through the game though).
the trainer silhouette on the bottom screen reminds me of the UI of the Persona games for some reason
This is amazing. However, I hope that one day something similar happens and the internet gets their hands on the beta versions of the Unova games, all of them but especially the first ones if I had to choose. Would be so nice to see the betas of those ones
Note: Doing the Slow Bike Tweak or using the "Bad Egg" option without any pokemon will result in an assertion fail. (Basically the BSOD) If you prefer X+Y the game will dismiss the assertion fail. Mainly leads to a crash.
Bulbasaur cry goes brrrrr
Pokemon Platinum is my favorite so i love gen 4 vids so much thanks for making this its def interesting, btw do u actually live in antarctica? If so thats so cool 😮
I looooove that battle UI, looks so much better than the one in the final
This is very interesting! I didn’t know that the Japanese dialogue of beta version is slightly different from the final version.
that battle sim debug menu and camera view debug are insane.
battle sim probably saves so much direct pokemon development and would be alot of fun to use.
and the camera thing is crazy as it shows the games are actually fully 3d that whole time. not just an illusion for certain scenes and scenarios...
I've never seen the beta version of the game before. I thoroughly enjoyed the video, thank you for this gem. 😊
this is like some crazy fever dream you barely remember once u wake up
Is it just me or does the bass GO HARD in the Oreburgh City Beta X_X
Wow, a fascinating watch for sure. Seeing lots of previous gens work used as placeholders (like gen 3 sprites) is way more interesting than I would have thought. Bulbasoar crys for everyone was particularly funny
2:45 Lake Verity's music is also different.
small detail but on dawn’s big trainer sprite her shirt has these weird white bits at the bottom which i thought was some sort of error. turns out her concept art (it’s on bulbapedia) has her shirt with a white trim at the bottom! probably removed from the final sprite to make it look cleaner
I wouldn't have minded that battle transition tbh
They should’ve kept the diagonal tree pattern that would’ve been nice!
I love those battle transition animations wish they kept it