Rare 'Pokemon Gold' Demo Leaks, Revealing Never-Before-Seen Pokemon

This morning, the Pokemon world was shaken by the unearthing and leaking of a legendary, lost demo [...]

By Matthew Hayes

This morning, the Pokemon world was shaken by the unearthing and leaking of a legendary, lost demo for Pokemon Gold, which debuted years before the game actually released. For 20 years Pokemon fans have been searching for, drawing from, and speculating about this demo. Theories have formed and revolved around it, and countless fakes have come and gone. Now, the real thing is out there, and it's yielding incredible new information.

We're not going to link you to the actual rom for obvious legal and ethical reasons, but suffice to say that it's in many, many hands right now, and comes with a handy debug mode. Players have been mining its depths for new information and finding all kinds of surprises. Many Pokemon were still being designed and prototyped when this demo made the rounds, and now we get to see some new Pokemon and evolutionary forms for the first time ever.

For example, did you know that Pinsir originally had an evolution? You can see it below next to Scizor. Ditto originally had an evolved form as well, though it's slightly less appealing. Check them out:

pinsir_ditto

We also see some baby or infant forms of Pokemon on the sprite sheet as well. For example, check out this nameless baby Doduo. What would this even be called? A Doduno? Why does it have three heads, and then evolve into something with two heads? So many questions:

doduno

A poster on 4chan, where the demo was leaked, posted a long list of interesting details:

  • Girafarig was going to be Dark/Normal

  • Umbreon was meant to be Poison-type (explains the dex entry)

  • Ledian was meant to have star-shaped patterns on its body, which explains its category (five-star Pokemon).

  • Slowbro's shell was meant to be its own Pokemon.

  • Ampharos was Electric-type in the demo, not Electric/Dragon like the pamphlet said. (They probably changed it.)

  • Smoochum was meant to be pure Ice.

  • Sunflora was meant to be Grass/Psychic.

  • Vulpix, Tangela, Meowth, Ponyta, Goldeen, Paras, Doduo, Grimer, Growlithe, and Girafarig were meant to have pre-evolutions.

  • Baby Pokemon such as Pichu, Cleffa, and Igglybuff were meant to evolve at Level 12.

  • Tangela, Qwilfish, Farfetch'd, Pinsir, Lickitung, and Ditto were meant to evolve.

  • Murkrow's hat was going to actually resemble a witch's.

  • Sneasel was going to be pure Dark.

  • Ho-Oh was going to be pure Flying.

  • Togepi didn't have an evolution.

  • Snubbull was going to be Psychic-type with no evolution.

  • Scizor was going to be Bug/Flying.

  • Houndour and Houndoom were pure Fire.

  • Weepinbell had a branched evolution.

  • Bellossom was going to be Grass/Poison.

  • Politoed, Xatu and Espeon were meant to evolve from Heart Stone.

  • Umbreon, Gloom and Weepinbell's branch evolution were meant to evolve from Poison Stone.

The full sprite sheet can be seen below:

Enjoy this slice of history, Pokemon fans. It's been decades coming!

[H/T The Cutting Room Floor via ResetEra]

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