Pokemon on the Famicom?

[Lorfarius]

Just been working my way through the Famicom History book spanning the full 20 years and in it is an interview with the chap who came up with Pokemon as well as the guy behind all the graphics. Both of them keep referring to a Famicom version of the Pokemon (Pocket Monster) games being the first now I always thought it started on the Gameboy but I guess its possible there was a Famicom version that wasn't completed. Anyone shed any light on this?

[satoshi_matrix]

The Pokemon games for th Famicom are all hacks of other games. Pocket Monsters Yellow for instance is a hack of Felix the cat.

However, if you're refering to the GB-like game, Pocket Mosters (RED), well that not a hack for the Famicom but instead is little more than a barely funtional HongKong original that really isn't worth your time or attention.

This is based on my knowledge of every Pokémon ROM however. The original Pokemon games are said to have been in development since around 1991, so It still might be possible GameFreak started developing a Famicom version before abandoning it in favor of the Gameboy.

But even if so, it would just be a beta prototype and not really anything worth getting too excited about.   

[Lorfarius]

Ah I thought as much. The interviews seemed to indicate it was a done deal though.

[satoshi_matrix]

You might want to check the source, as the validity of it might be questionable.

[Lorfarius]

You might want to check the source, as the validity of it might be questionable.

The interviews are from the Famicom history book by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. It has several interviews with Kojima, Miyamoto, chap who created Mother etc etc

[satoshi_matrix]

Is it possible to post scans/pics? I'd like to see for myself. I'm not saying that its impossible, but a real licensed Pokemon game for the FC is otherwise completely undocumented.

[UglyJoe]

Just been working my way through the Famicom History book spanning the full 20 years and in it is an interview with the chap who came up with Pokemon as well as the guy behind all the graphics. Both of them keep referring to a Famicom version of the Pokemon (Pocket Monster) games being the first now I always thought it started on the Gameboy but I guess its possible there was a Famicom version that wasn't completed. Anyone shed any light on this?

You have misread the article.  They never refer to a Famicom version of Pokemon.  The Famicom game that they keep talking about is Quinty.  That was the first game they developed (independently, I might add).

[Lorfarius]

You have misread the article.  They never refer to a Famicom version of Pokemon.  The Famicom game that they keep talking about is Quinty.  That was the first game they developed (independently, I might add).

Yep you are right! Just been rereading it and it seems they skip straight from Quinty to Pokemon and I became a little confused 

[Doc]

The closest to the original Famicom Pokehack I've ever seen was this one that was a sort of port of Pokemon Gold. The only problems were that your character moved PAINFULLY slow, and that you'd find level three Chairzards with water moves...

[nintendodork]

Although a Pokemon game on the Famicom would rock...

It wouldn't work for alot of those reasons already mentioned...

I'm not sure they can process that  "High Quality" that the gameboy uses well enough to make your character move the correct speed or correct movesets/levels...

Plus the animations take up a good chunk of work too 

[Lorfarius]

Although a Pokemon game on the Famicom would rock...

It wouldn't work for alot of those reasons already mentioned...

I'm not sure they can process that  "High Quality" that the gameboy uses well enough to make your character move the correct speed or correct movesets/levels...

Plus the animations take up a good chunk of work too 

Graphically the over head map is similar in style to Mother so i think that shows it could be done. Plus the battle screens are always the same with the few plain boxes, images etc for Pokemon. I'd have thought it would be possible.

[nintendodork]

Pokemon, I think anyway, would be a little harder than Mother because of the better detail of the sprites...and the moves aren't just seizure inducing flashes of light

[Lorfarius]

Pokemon, I think anyway, would be a little harder than Mother because of the better detail of the sprites...and the moves aren't just seizure inducing flashes of light

I'm sure it would but the two are similar in a few ways so I wouldn't say Pokemon was impossible to do.

[mrdomino]

i found what almost appears to be a good famicom version of pokemon the other day, i can't remember its name but its in the latest goodnes and the rom title is chinese, not "pokemon"-anything.

its made by nanjing, seems to be one of those that they've put some effort into rather than a lazy hackjob like chrono trigger. music and graphics come from every pokemon game from the first up to the gba versions and the game structure is more or less based around pokemon yellow, i got up to viridian forest, its pretty much all there i think - a few things are cut down but the right pokemon are appearing in the right places so far. way better than any other attempt i've seen.

[NintendoKing]

I have one of the pokemon hack game carts, the hack I actually enjoy is "Green" because it has pokemon in it; until you get to the second level that is. Lazy hackers... lol