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01
Capsule Monsters
The game was originally going to be called Capsule Monsters or Capsumon, but the name was unable to be trademarked which led to it being revised to "Pocket Monsters" which was shortened to Pokemon.
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02
Early Capsule
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03
Catching a Pokemon
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04
Lapras
As we can see, this early Lapras design heavily represents the one we ended up with. The final result just looks a little less bland and dinosaur like.
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05
Battling
Some early battle concepts showing Slowbro and Gastly as well as Blastoise and Staryu.
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06
Closeup of that battle Scene
Here's that same scene. Note the whips the trainers carry, which were later omitted from the final battling concept but still included in certain sprites like Sabrina and the Rocket Grunts.
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07
Transfering pokemon
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08
town
Early concept of a Pokemon town. Note what appears to be a Primeape in a cage on the left page.
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09
Trainer
A trainer exploring a cave with his Rhydon (a slightly earlier design). Notice the Pokemon hatching from an egg down the bottom of the picture. This shows that the concept of breeding/hatching Pokemon eggs existed long before Gold and Silver.
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10
Early Battle Scene
Too bad the fantastic 'monkey in a hat' didn't see a final release. We can only imagine that it went on to inspire Primeape/Mankey. The left looks a little like Lickitung or Kangaskhan.
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11
Statistics Draft
Is that Charizard?
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12
Kanto Map Draft
Early map of the Kanto reigon. The numbers likely represent where the gyms were originally going to be located, or just the order in which the player would visit the areas.