The Index List and Missingno.s



The Beta Artwork

Asking Game Freak About It

So this is my long-speculated but now-confirmed theory about Red/Green's development, now put into a proper form.Summarised, what I've found out is:Here's what led me to form this theory:This is the bulk of the evidence. It's the order in which the Pokémon were added into the games, and since Ken Sugimori has apparently confirmed Rhydon as the first Pokémon designed, this can be seen as the order in which Pokémon were designed too. It definitely makes sense anyway... so yeah.The most useful part of this list is how it follows a completely random pattern until 190, however each Pokémon is a valid Pokémon except for 39 Missingno.s dotted randomly throughout. Very importantly, these Missingno.s, when taken into the Time Capsule, are all read by the Gen 2 cart as a particular Gen 2 Pokémon, each Missingno. corresponding to a different one. These 39 Pokémon are the ones that were taken out after being added in.Note how after 190 the list loses composure and just follows the Gen 2 Pokédex numbers. This implies those Pokémon were created afterwards, a statement solidified by the next evidence:Spot the odd one out? These are all the designs of Pokémon that definitely came out in Gen 2. And when you look at their numbers on the index list, things start to add up. That's Chikorita #191, Qwilfish #250, Marill #222, Girafarig #242, Cyndaquil #197 and... Tyranitar. Yeaaahh.So at the worlds this year I decided to ask Shigeki Morimoto, the guy who made Mew, about it. Since I asked him at the autograph table, where he would have his translator, I didn't have long so I can pretty much outline the exchange as this:Me: "So in Red and Green, were there originally exactly 190 Pokémon?"*Translator relays to Morimoto; he sort of jumps in his chair enthusiastically (lol) and seems very happy, grinning at me*Translator: "Yes; we decided to save the rest of the designs for later"Me: "So for example Ho-Oh was made for Red and Green first? Since it was in the first episode of the anime?"*he hears Ho-Oh and looks confused, then then when the translator says the rest to him he remains the same*Translator: "No, not Ho-Oh. He wasn't made earlier."And then I say domo arigato and get rushed out by the queue building behind me, heheh. However what he said about Ho-Oh just doesn't make sense so I'm guessing that was an error in the translation. Since Ho-Oh is #49 in the list and appears in anime episode 1 it obviously had been made by that time so he probably tried to say Ho-Oh wasn't made for Red and Green, and was just in there with no real intention of keeping it in.So yeah, those are my findings! I hope you all find them interesting.