[celebi23]

So, here's a little something that I've been working on for awhile. With all of the HG/SS hype lately, it got me interested in continuing this project. My goal was to collect information about G/S, before it was delayed in March of 1998. I compiled a website containing my findings (not really organized, mostly an information dumpsite)
http://web.me.com/celebi23/Spaceworld_97_Pokemon/Main.html

The most amazing part of my findings is that I've been able to track down about 4-First hand accounts of the Pokémon Gold/Silver Spaceworld 1997 Demo. With those, I was able to create a decent summary of the demo. Please keep in mind that I had to use Google/Yahoo Babelfish/Excite translation tools so, the translations may not be 100% accurate. If anyone is fluent in Japanese & would want to translate some of these pages, that would be amazing

Combined Spaceworld 1997 Demo Information

• Expected Release Date: March 1998
  
• Tentative Price: 3500 yen each
  
• Game was 80 percent complete.
  

(<--The demo stations in the right bottom corner of this picture)



A map of the Gold/Silver Demo area. The Silver Demo area is on top & the Gold demo area is on the bottom. On the far right part of the map is the Gold/Silver movie area. Some demo stations were located in this area as well. They showed a short video with names/artwork of new Pokémon. There were 60 demo stations for Gold & 60 for Silver.

Now on to the summary:
Demo was played on November 22nd, 1997. The demo originally lasted 10 minutes. This was later reduced to 5 minutes due to the long lines.

Demo started with Lapras surfing, Pikachu singing, Charizard's Flamethrower. Title screen is Ho-oh/Lugia depending on which demo you played.

You had to say what time it was before the demo could continue. Professor Oak appeared at the start of the game to introduce you to the world of Pokémon. You're automatically named Ash Ketchum.

The game started in the town "Silent Hills". You started in your room.


(Click for a larger version)

There was a random assignment of a LV.8 Pokémon:


Kurusu
PokéDex No.:212
Type:Water
Moves:Growl, Water Gun, Tackle


Honooguma
PokéDexNo.:
Type: Fire
Moves: Ember, Leer, Scratch


Happa
PokéDex No.:152
Type: Grass
Moves:Tackle, Serene, Leech Seed

No matter which started you were given, a Nut was equipped to it. When your Pokémon's HP amount drops below half, it is automatically recovered at the end of the turn.
You had the following items:
PokéBalls x 5
Heal Powder? x 10
Mint Berry x 1
Revive/Revival Herb? x 1

In your room, you had an N64, dolls, radio, computer, etc. A radio transmission played:
"Oak disappeared from Kanto. There is a view of moved the location for a new Pokémon & this event might be the cause. The safety is a concern."
It might be at this point that Oak found the new Pokémon. The PC is connected to a homepage somewhere & says "Yoroidori (Eaamudo/Skarmory) is the newly discovered Pokémon. It's type is flying & it's classified as metal.
The rival shows up. It is another boy from Red/Green/Blue?

In the demo, you couldn't go into Oak's Lab or even a Pokémon Center to rest your Pokémon. Someone stops you from entering the Pokémon Center.

Taking the exit on the west side of town, there were a few patches of tall grass. The following Pokémon were confirmed as wild Pokémon:
Pidgey
Rattata
Pikachu
Mariru (Marill) (No,179)
Kirinriki (Girafarig) (still used the old design of two heads)


Sunny (Sunflora)
Haneko (Hoppip) No.214
Rediba (Ledyba) No.202

When a Pokémon was captured, it is recorded in your Pokédex (you automatically start with one in this demo). With the new Pokémon, it only states "Newly discovered Pokémon. Under investigation."

When encountering a wild Pokémon, a PokéBall pattern displays on the screen. Graphically, it's similar to Red/Green. Your Pokémon has it's back to you & it is facing the wild Pokémon. Under the HP gauge, there's a gauge to show how much more experience your Pokémon needs to get to the next Level. When capturing a Pokémon, the ball splits, One half above the wild Pokémon & the other half below. Much more like the Anime's version of capturing Pokémon.

There is a highland to the west of this area that resembles Veridian Forest. There's some Pokémon Trainers in the grass. The wild Pokémon in this area:
Caterpie
Metapod
Paras
Venonat
Clefairy
Meowth
Slowking

Two of the Pokémon Trainers in the Forest were:

Schoolboy


Lass


There is ??? at the end of the Forest. Your rival is also there. Talk to him & the demo ends. While it was getting dark, Hoothoot & Puku (a flying squirrel, maybe Sentret?) were found in the Forest.

I combined the following sources to create the summary of the Spaceworld 1997 Demo:
http://www.reocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/5553/prepm2.html
*http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reocities.com%2FTimesSquare%2FCastle%2F5553%2Fprepm2.html&sl=ja&tl=en
*http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&trurl=http://www.reocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/5553/prepm2.html&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
*http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http://www.reocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/5553/prepm2.html&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2


http://web.archive.org/web/20021114111108/http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~niki/poke2.html
*http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20021114111108%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bekkoame.ne.jp%2F%7Eniki%2Fpoke2.html&sl=ja&tl=en
*http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&trurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20021114111108/http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~niki/poke2.html&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
*http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http://web.archive.org/web/20021114111108/http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~niki/poke2.html&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2


http://www3.synapse.ne.jp/pacific/users/pokemon/ibutsu/kingin_time_capsule/pokemon.html
*http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww3.synapse.ne.jp%2Fpacific%2Fusers%2Fpokemon%2Fibutsu%2Fkingin_time_capsule%2Fpokemon.html&sl=ja&tl=en
*http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&trurl=http://www3.synapse.ne.jp/pacific/users/pokemon/ibutsu/kingin_time_capsule/pokemon.html&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
*http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http://www3.synapse.ne.jp/pacific/users/pokemon/ibutsu/kingin_time_capsule/pokemon.html&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2


http://park3.wakwak.com/~pokepale/pokeold/archive/kingin.htm
*http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpark3.wakwak.com%2F%7Epokepale%2Fpokeold%2Farchive%2Fkingin.htm&sl=ja&tl=en
*http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&trurl=http://park3.wakwak.com/~pokepale/pokeold/archive/kingin.htm&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
*http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http://park3.wakwak.com/~pokepale/pokeold/archive/kingin.htm&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2


http://koikinnohp.web.fc2.com/text/kousatu02.htm
*http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fkoikinnohp.web.fc2.com%2Ftext%2Fkousatu02.htm&sl=ja&tl=en
*http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&trurl=http://koikinnohp.web.fc2.com/text/kousatu02.htm&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
*http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http://koikinnohp.web.fc2.com/text/kousatu02.htm&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2


http://hakuda2.web.fc2.com/ir/poke2/t6.html
*http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fhakuda2.web.fc2.com%2Fir%2Fpoke2%2Ft6.html&sl=ja&tl=en
*http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&trurl=http://hakuda2.web.fc2.com/ir/poke2/t6.html&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
*http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http://hakuda2.web.fc2.com/ir/poke2/t6.html&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2

Other
*www.nintendo.co.jp/n12/report/112202.html
*www.nintendo.co.jp/n12/report/112203.html

Here's the website version of the above post:
http://web.me.com/celebi23/Spaceworld_97_Pokemon/Combined_Demo_Info.html

And a short summary of the video shown near the G/S demo area:
http://web.me.com/celebi23/Spaceworld_97_Pokemon/Combined_Video_Info.html

I've got a ton more information on http://web.me.com/celebi23/Spaceworld_97_Pokemon/Main.html
Screenshots of G/S before it was delayed in March of 1998, early game art, the first PokéDex entry (Screenshot is Amphrados from some point in 1997), press releases, magazine scans, etc.

[celebi23]

Got some updates (too much to post in a reply so, I'm only posting the links):

* Added some information from Yamauchi's Spaceworld Keynote
*Added some pieces of Sugimori artwork to the Combined Demo Summary
*Put together an analysis of a video clip from Spaceworld 1997
(Thanks to Miretank)
*Confirmed the Gold title screen from the Spaceworld 1997 Demo

[KingMike]

Any chance of the English version of that Spaceworld video?

[celebi23]

[celebi23]

A couple of updates. First off, I know that my website is acting up. It's just not displaying the html pages in Safari. If you view the source of the pages, everything is still there. I just republished the entire site & that didn't fix it I'm going to call Apple's MobileMe support on Monday

Second, some of the earliest Pokémon Gold/Silver artwork came from this magazine cover

http://web.me.com/celebi23/Spaceworld_97_Pokemon/Game_Review_Volume_14_files/game14.gif

No scans from the magazine itself exist. That might change soon. I did a search on Google & came up with

http://ameblo.jp/trio-the-punch/entry-10332216419.html
http://ameblo.jp/trio-the-punch/image-10332216419-10243930367.html

It looks like the guy has a whole collection of these magazines. I sent him a message (yay Google Translate ) asking if he actually has that issue & if he could scan it & then email me the scans. Will keep you guys updated