Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver beta

During the planning and development stages of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, CoroCoro magazine released some information about the upcoming games, including game sprites and locations. Everything in the article was found in the final games with a few modifications and cleanups. Other discoveries are related to unused elements in the localized releases of the games.

Universal development leftovers

Sprites

Before the games' release, there were pictures from CoroCoro magazine that depicted Silver's, Chikorita's, Pikachu's and Pikachu-colored Pichu's beta sprites. These were changed later on. An early back sprite of Ethan was also shown. His hair is slightly different and there is a symbol on his hat. There is also a prototype sprite for Lugia.

There are initial screenshots as well. One depicts the Slowpoke Well whereby a Team Rocket Grunt is standing where Proton is in the final version, as was the case with the original Pokémon Gold and Silver. Another screenshot shows the Mystri Stage in the Sinjoh Ruins that shows the three circles being identically colored instead of the three different colors specific to each one in the final version.

Also, Cyndaquil's front sprite in the introductory opening is different from its front sprite used during normal gameplay.

Beta back sprite of Ethan	Silver's beta front sprite	Chikorita's beta front sprite (leaf coloring is darker)	Pikachu's beta front sprite	Pikachu-colored Pichu's beta sprite

Beta battle screen, showing Ethan and Silver's aforementioned sprites	Unfinished Slowpoke Well, lacking Proton	Early version of the Mystri Stage, a platform in the Sinjoh Ruins used for summoning one of the Sinnoh game mascots.

Items

All items present in the internal files of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon Platinum are found in the coding of HeartGold and SoulSilver, in addition to the latter's exclusive items. Unused items within HeartGold and SoulSilver's programming include:

• Photo Album, a key item for storing photos; was replaced with photo storage integration in the PC;
• SlowpokeTail, an expensive but useless item; makes a comeback from the original games and can be obtained through hacking but has no function. Interestingly, it was made a key item (it was a regular item in Generation II).

Debugging features

The same debugging tools found in the programming of Platinum are also present in HeartGold and SoulSilver.

Localization-specific findings

Due to legal issues related with gambling, the interior design of both Goldenrod and Celadon Game Corners was completely overhauled in all non-Japanese releases of HeartGold and SoulSilver. However, the original design is still present within the coding of the localized releases, despite being severely limited, since most dialogue scripts were removed (with the exception of the Coin purchase interface, which is still completely functional and translated) and the slot machine interface pointers are redirected to the Voltorb Flip interface instead.

By youandretube25

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Beta versions of Pokémon games

Generation I Red and Green • Yellow Generation II Gold and Silver (Spaceworld '97 demo) • Crystal Generation III Ruby and Sapphire • FireRed and LeafGreen • Emerald • Colosseum • XD Generation IV Diamond and Pearl • Platinum • HeartGold and SoulSilver Generation V Black and White • Black 2 and White 2 Generation VI X and Y • Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Generation VII Sun and Moon • Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon Generation VIII Sword and Shield Unreleased Pokémon Picross

This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.