Pokemon Gen 1&2 Iceberg
Red, Green, Blue, Yellow. Gold, Silver, Crystal. Main games only.
Explanations:
Badges as Useable Key Items: Badges would be in the menu, and would function like a scythe, surfboard, skateboard, etc. Probably scrapped early on?
Exeggutor is based on the Jinmenju.
Dunsparce is a Bee Snake.
"Imakuni?" is some costumed person in the card game. Japan only.
Scrubbing Bubbles mascot is appropriated and made into a pokemon in the Manga.
Most legit sources say, Rhydon and then Kangaskhan are the first pokemon programmed in. Pokemon have index numbers that show what order they were programmed in. This is why Missingno might evolve to Rhydon or Kanga. Another theory is that since all the Missingnos are cut pokemon, one was the "marowak that's supposed to turn into kangaskhan".
In the Japanese version of one of the games, it mentions that "humans and pokemon would marry" back when they weren't different. The English version says they "ate at the same table."
Apparently, venemous snake wine is a thing in eastern Asia...
Diamond and Jade for GameBoy Color were in fact, Telefang.
Takeshi Shudo was a scriptwriter for the anime. did he create Lugia, who was then adopted into the games?
Hurry Get Away is a scrapped battle mechanic of Yellow.
one Trainer class in G1 had a whip. The Whip was a relic of an earlier idea, where the Player battles a wild pokemon directly.
Cue Ball is a skinhead with a name change, referencing his baldness instead of his racism.
What do you call those gambling machines that dispense pods containing prizes... apparently they were a big deal in Japan in the 90s.
Pokemon Green's Lavender Town song IS different than Blue's. However, floating on the web is a faked LT song with stuff added, to be read on a spectrogram. Original Green Lavender Town song just has a few obnoxious noises. The Blue one's better.
Eevee's theme is "familiarity". It's an amalgam of familiar pets, to show its gimmick of becoming variable.
Pokemon Gen 1 had a theme of genetic modification and uncertainty about where the line between organic life, and artificial technology is drawn.
Mew may have been secretly added without the company knowing, until long after the fact. If not for the revelation of Mew's hidden presence, Pokemon may have never gotten past Gen1.
Gen1 had a discreet storyline about Giovanni trying to procure a Master Ball from the Silph Co., to recapture Mewtwo. Mewtwo destroyed Cinnabar Lab shortly before the events of the game take place.
GameFreak had staff members of APE, a development team that made Mother / Earthbound Zero. In Mother, there's a mountain called Mt. Itoi (after Mother's creator Shigesato Itoi), and in it hides a psychic gray alien with catlike ears and a tail, named Giegue / Giygas. Mother 2 / Earthbound also has an item called "Dragonite", that transforms its user into a dragon.
Music to Hurry Get Away to (warning: loud) (could it have been Giovanni's theme?)
There may be a scrapped "Sound/Noise" type, as several pokemon over the generations have a prominent sound/noise theme.
Is Lickitung the Beast that Licks the Filth?
There may have been a cut storyline in Gen2, about a little girl who goes missing, and a building burning down. It's possible to trigger a "Glitch City" glitch in Gen 2, and encounter a white little girl sprite, who then crashes the game.
Depending on your name, you may battle glitch trainers, including Oak, and see Missingno with the sprites of fossils.
In 2005, an in-game glitch was discovered in Yellow, that allowed you to encounter Mew.
In the Gen1 Missingno glitch pokemon encounters, Mew is just barely out of range. You cannot encounter Mew through missingno.
You can see the Truck by trading over a pokemon with Cut and going over to it. It's actually background tiles, not a sprite.
There was a now-lost development screen of Raikou, in grayscale, in the early 90s.
I could NEVER catch metapod or kakuna in any GB game I played. IDK why, if it's some... simulation universe glitch thing for me or what. But I NEVER managed to catch those wild metapods or kakunas. Ever. ??
Lapras being in an underground lake in a cave in Gen2, seems to happen in Super Mario 64. Apparently the Japanese like the Loch Ness Monster. Being in an underground lake in a cave.
Charizard 'M is the Cancel Button. When you fight him, you're really fighting the Cancel Button.
The Shorts Kids are of a trainer class identified in the original language, by wearing shorts.