SmearglePaints

Interesting. Could you give me an example of one of those coverage sites? I take it that the web archives don't have those pages accessible.

You must know of Pokémon Forever. What was it like back in 1999? I only started frequenting it in 2001 (I started playing the games in 2000).

Were you part of the fandom in 1998, or did those rumors surface after Yellow's Japanese release?

I got those beta screenshots from Game Freak's blog. The entry doesn't really say anything about Crystal, though.

Is there anything that makes you think Yellow was supposed to be more expansive than what it ended up being? On an unrelated note, what do you know about Pokémon 64 - the RPG game that Game Freak were developing for the N64 in 1997? Apparently, no details were ever released about it, and the project was scrapped without any announcement in favor of Stadium, Snap and Hey You Pikachu!.

Where does the Gyarados in your RCB banner come from?

Entertaining the possibility of the game being upgraded with more Pokémon, that would have meant adding up to five Pokémon - as 256 was the maximum number that Generation II's framework could hold. I wonder what they would have been like; the unknown Pokémon from the Ruins of Alph statues comes to mind.

Have you seen this? It shows Kris' beta sprites; she was supposed to look quite different.

So it seems that Crystal was originally supposed to be updated over time with new Pokémon; everything else being referred to did make its way to the final Japanese version.

I can't help but wonder if they weren't just referring to being able to download Celebi (and possibly Mew). Obviously, the authors didn't think so at the time, but Game Freak and Nintendo might have been deliberately vague back in December 1999.

Have you ever looked through archives of ABCNEWS.com to find that interview?

I'd like that. Do you still have links to those online articles you mentioned?

You probably don't have access to those magazines right now, but what about the online articles?

Game Freak had online features in mind for Crystal that they aren't even going to implement ten years later? I'm not surprised, but I am baffled.

I don't have any, but I got JeanLuc Pika-Q to buy one.

I'm also interested in pre-release coverage of Crystal, which was first known as "Pokémon X". Do you happen to have something about that?

Do you think that old English magazines have hidden gems inside them? I rather doubt it. I'd expected to find some interesting tidbits from a CoroCoro issue that covered Spaceworld, but it didn't reveal anything we hadn't discovered before. It seems to me that CoroCoro has slowly become more informative over time.

Fair enough. Where are you planning to look? Don't worry: I have no intentions of beating you to the punch.

Out of curiosity, what do you think you may find that celebi23 hasn't?

I would have liked confirmation that the boy and girl on the cover were originally supposed to be the player characters. It seems that Gold and Silver underwent some changes throughout 1997 that no one outside Game Freak is aware of.

That explains it, then. The issues must have been released a few months apart.

Thanks.

Could you confirm the date of publication, please? Sorry for bothering you, but I'm trying to make sense of this.

Are you sure about that? I recall reading that the magazine was released in March 1997, which was before the anime even started.

Are you saying that the cover has nothing to do with the actual magazine's content? That's odd.

I take it you like SailorClef's artwork too?