It’s been quite the run for these fight-crazy
pocket creatures.
For starters, yaboi, Ash “Peter Pan” Ketchum
finally won the Pokémon League, after all
these years – took him long enough, but
hey, maybe now he’s broken the curse and
can grow up like a normal child?
We’re also mere days away from Pokémon
Sword and Shield, the first new generation
of mainline games built for a home console,
and we’re beyond excited.
Venturing out into a fully 3D world, hunting
through actual fields and patches of grass,
discovering brand new beasts to join our travelling
menagerie of 5 identical Scythers, is something
we’ve dreamed of since those first spritely
steps in Pallet Town.
And yet, despite the abundance of 10-year-olds
wandering the wilderness, this world is much
more dangerous than it looks.
If you want to be the very best, like no one
ever was, you’ll need more street smarts
than the unnamed trainer who gives away all
his best Pokémon as soon as they get good!
You’ll need knowledge, street smarts, and
maybe a refresher course on that MissingNo
item dupe glitch… but failing that, here
are a few facts to catch instead.
Shall we look at some?
I’m Ben from Triple Jump, and here are 10
Things You Didn’t Know about Pokémon.
10.
The Origins of Capsule Monsters
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
Most of us already know that the creator of
the legendary Pocket Monsters, Satoshi Tajiri,
was inspired by his childhood hobby of collecting
bugs.
There’s even a nod to this in Pokémon Crystal,
where you can fight a Bug Catcher called Tajiri.
In 1981, Satoshi set up a video game fanzine
called Game Freak, where he brought on a contributor
by the name of Ken Sugimori – the artist
who only went on to design all the lovely
little critters we’d be catching years later!
As Game Freak went from magazine to actual
development studio in 1989, they produced
a game for the Famicom called Mendel Palace,
but the penny dropped for Satoshi when he
saw the Game Boy link cable.
Development on Pokémon started in 1990, but
went through a turbulent few years, struggling
to scrape together funding, for what was initially
called ‘Capsule Monsters’ – mimicking
the Japanese Gachapon machines.
Incredibly, the game was initially turned
down by Nintendo several times, before a certain
Shigeru Miyamoto saw the pitch and thankfully
changed their minds.
If anyone can spot the making of a wildly
successful franchise, it’s this guy.
9.
Professor Oak was the final boss
Professor Oak: Friendly mentor; number 1 source
of starter Pokémon; number 7 on the RSPCA’s
most-wanted list; and apparently, the ultimate
final challenge for aspiring Pokémon Masters.
At least, he was meant to be, before it was
cut from the final game.
And it’s a shame, really.
While he struggles to remember his own grandson’s
name – Yes, Professor, he’s definitely
called ‘ARSE FACE’ – the man is a leading
authority on all things Pokémon.
So, what better way to round off a heroic
journey, than to beat the sensei who started
you on your epic adventure?
Pokémon Red and Blue are chock full of glitches,
so it’s no surprise this battle is still
buried in the code somewhere, and using Game
Shark hacks, you can experience it too!
His elite team would include whichever starter
was left behind by you and your rival, along
with a Tauros, an Exeggutor, an Arcanine,
and a Gyarados.
Quite similar to your rival’s final line-up,
actually, albeit at even higher levels - those
being between 66 and 70 - making for a fierce
finale.
8.
Twitch Plays Pokémon is Canon?
Western translations of Japanese titles can
be fairly wacky as it is.
French translations however, are on another
level entirely.
In the French version of Pokémon Crystal,
the wise trio guarding the Tin Tower are called
Ken, Shuu, and Raoh, referencing several characters
from anime series, Fist of the North Star.
So far, so Easter Egg-y.
But the real silliness comes with Omega Ruby
and Alpha Sapphire, where Gym Leader Brawly
reveals his obsession with a certain spiral
deity created by Twitch.
Before battle, he says: “I discovered the
secret of true power by staring at a Helix
fossil for days and days.”
This eludes to the classic me-me from 2014
event, Twitch Plays Pokémon, where an entire
playthrough was controlled through commands,
entered in Twitch Chat.
Predictably, it was chaos, but amongst all
this chaos, emerged the Helix Fossil, the
One True Oracle and Lord of Fate!
Troll-ier viewers kept trying to use the Helix
fossil in the items menu, which became a running
joke, and eventually, included in a game itself…but
does this mean Lord Helix is now canon?
We hope so…
7.
Weird Pokédex entries
Like the internet, we feel like everything
we see in the Pokédex should be taken with
a pinch of salt, because some of these are
just really, really disturbing.
For a start, Hypno appears to be a child snatcher.
According to Fire Red, it once ‘took away
a child it hypnotized’ – but given Drowzee’s
habit of eating children’s dreams, it clearly
runs in the evolutionary line.
And Drifloon’s entry says it likes to trick
kids into thinking it’s a balloon, before
carrying them away.
Seriously, all these Poke-kidnappers creeping
around a world full of wandering kids, where’s
Professor Yewtree when you need them?
On a lighter note, poor Farfetch’d was almost
hunted into extinction by humans – we’re
fairly sure internet darling, Sirfetch’d,
is actually on a quest for revenge against
humanity so look out for him…
There are too many bizarre Pokédex entries
to cover here, but we will say this: Magcargo’s
body is apparently 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit
– almost twice as hot as the surface of
the sun.
He is literally fire…or lit…or, whatever
the kids are saying these days, when they’re
not being kidnapped by balloons and hypnotists…
6.
China exists in the Pokémon universe?
Speaking of bizarre Pokédex entries, this
one’s a real doozie.
It’s accepted that Pokémon’s regions
are heavily inspired by real locations like
Tokyo, Paris, and most recently, the Great
British Isles, but they tend not to mention
them by name.
NOT TRUE, at least in Pokémon Stadium and
Fire Red, where a throwaway Dex line about
the zombie fungus bug, Parasect, explicitly
mentions China:
“The bug host is controlled by the mushrooms
that scatter poisonous spores.
The spores are sometimes used as medicine
in China.”
So does this mean our world and the land of
Pokémon are linked?
Is there a secret portal that Beijing is keeping
hidden away?
Are they protecting us from them, or them
from us?
And if Pokémon do exist, just how tasty is
fried slowpoke tail?
So many questions…
Then again, Pokémon is filled with references
to our world – Lt. Surge being the ‘Lightning
American’, Mew being found in a South American
jungle of Guyana, etc, etc –so, maybe we
shouldn’t trust the Pokédex on this one,
either…
5.
Pokémon games on Sega Consoles?
Unbelievably, one of the most Nintendo franchises
to have ever Nintendo-ed, has seen more than
one appearance on their historic rival’s
hardware.
The Sega Pico was an ‘edutainment system’
for 3 to 7 year olds, first released in Japan
in 1993.
It didn’t take off over here, but remained
popular in Japan for years, and given the
monumental success of Pokémon, it was inevitable
that these two titans would team up to dominate
the… [heavy sigh]– ‘EDU-tainment’
market.
A special Pikachu edition of the Sega Pico
was released in 2003, bundled with everyone’s
favourite game: Pokémon Advanced Generation:
I've Begun Hiragana and Katakana!
There was also a Pokémon: Catch the numbers,
in 2002, and everyone’s favourite sequel,
“Pokémon Advanced Generation: Pico for
Everyone Pokémon Loud Battle!”
The follow-up console in 2005, Advanced Pico
Beeno – yes, the names are confusing – also
saw “Pocket Monsters Best Wishes!
ChinouIkusei Pokémon Dauundoukai” released
in 2010.
And, bonus fact, developers Game Freak also
released a platformer for the Sega Mega Drive
in 1994, called Pulseman.
While it pre-dates Pokémon, the design did
go on to inspire Gen 4 ‘Mon, Rotom.
4.
The Level 1 to 100 Glitch
There’s a good reason why you never saw
a level 1 Pokémon in Gen 1 and 2.
The reason is down to maths.
Complicated and confusing maths, but here
we go…
So, in the original game engine, some Level
1 Pokémon were calculated to have minus 54
experience points.
And because the old engine used something
called ‘unsigned integers’ – basically
meaning a number that can’t do negative
values – the game would interpret this value
as 16,777,162 experience points.
Give or take.
Making sense so far?
So if a level 1 ‘mon with this negative
54 experience, fought a battle without reaching
‘zero’ or higher, it would TEAR A HOLE
IN SPACE AND TIME, and make the game think,
based on the obscenely high experience value,
that your Poke-Noob was actually a lvl 245
powerhouse.
…Which is then rounded down to level 100,
commonly known as ‘experience underflow’
–great band name, by the way.
So… yeah.
This power levelling from 1 to 100 makes even
the rare candy glitch look like a mug’s
game.
3.
Stranded after ‘Nightmare Trade’
It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to
hear on Holidays from Hell.
You go to a nice, secluded island resort,
get conned into trading your only ticket out
of there, and are stuck forever in this tropical
purgatory.
But this is a real, albeit very rare, possibility
in Diamond and Pearl.
If you head to the coastal Route 226, and
surf along to the island, you can find the
multi-lingual ‘Meister’ (my stuh) living
there.
He offers to trade your Finneon for his Magikarp,
which is both wildly unfair, and potentially
game-ruining.
Say Finneon is your only Pokémon who knows
‘Surf’.
And you trade it, for the Magikarp that’s
unable to learn the HM Surf…
Then you realise you don’t have any other
Pokémon that know, or can learn, Surf, Fly
or Teleport.
And no rare candies to evolve Magikarp into
Gyarados.
Well you could use a fishing rod to catch
something that – oh.
You didn’t pick up any rods…
Well, good luck with the island life, because
there are no-tradesies-backsies, and you’ll
be stuck there with the creepy loner guy…
forever.
2.
Ash’s absent father could be Giovanni!
Admittedly, this is more speculation than
concrete fact, but hear us out.
We’re not told much about Ash’s absent
father: all we know for certain is that, shortly
after marrying Ash’s mother, Delia Ketchum,
he left to chase his dream of ‘becoming
a Pokémon master’.
Not the best parenting, although not quite
as bad as the classic ’nipping out for some
milk’ act.
This hasn’t stopped people from guessing
who Ash’s dad really is, ranging from the
plausible (Professor Oak), to the absurd (Mr
Mime?
ARE YA JOKIN?).
However, the most intriguing candidate for
‘Who’s that father?’ is Team Rocket
Boss, and general Bad Dude, Giovanni.
The ‘Pokémon Live!’ stage musical, of
all things, confirmed that Delia once dated
the mob boss, and was even involved in criminal
activity, before meeting Poppa Ketchum and
leaving it all behind…
But you’re LYING, Delia!
Admit it!
It’s a cover up from you and that stupid
Mr Mime –Oh god, the black hair, the cheek
markings, it’s Mr Bloody Mime isn’t it,
OH SWEET JESUS CHRI-
1.
The Mystery of MissingNo
Everyone knows about this legendary glitch
from Gen 1, but with over 20 years of rumours,
half-truths and playground nonsense-talk,
it’s well worth digging up the finer details
on the infamous non-Pokémon.
This digital monstrosity counts as a non-existent
‘bird’ type, can be higher than level
100, and knows the move ‘water gun’ twice…but
why does it exist?
Well… because ‘Maths’, again…
Each specific Pokémon has a reference number,
but the total number of variables must be
a power of two – 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc…
Since 151 is a bigger number than 128 – it’s
true, we checked –the game has to use 256
‘slots’.
MissingNo, is what shows up when it tries
to reference a Pokémon from a slot that doesn’t
have one.
While most wild areas have a pre-programmed
set of Pokémon to spawn, the strip of coast
on Cinnabar island doesn’t, so in theory,
literally any Pokémon can spawn there – including‘missing
numbers’.
Speaking to the ‘Old Man’ in Viridian
City temporarily changes your in-game name
to ‘Old Man’ too, which then affects the
calculation of what Pokémon to throw up in
the wild encounter on Cinnabar – including
Missing Numbers…
Weirdly, your personal variation of MissingNo
is also affected by your proper in-game name,
so instead of Original MissingNo, you could
also get MissingSkin, MissingBody, MissingSkin2,
MissingSprite, or MissingSubtlety.*
While we’ll never know the true nature of
MissingNo, its origins as a rumoured glitch
that turned out to be 100% true, makes it
just as legendary as any so-called ‘real’
Pokémon.
And here we are, but you know how the song
goes – “You Teach me, and I’ll Teach
You”…and so on, so let us know if we’ve
missed anything interesting, in the comments
below!
You can follow myself and TripleJump on Twitter
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I’m Ben from TripleJump, and thanks for
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