This project is what I imagined a hypothetical ‘Pokémon Green’ would look like as a 90s child when I first read about it in gaming magazines; combining the aspects of both Japanese Pokémon Green & Blue that got left on the cutting room floor in the making of the international releases of Pokémon Red & Blue. It’s namesake and visuals come from Japanese Green, along with the Pokémon sprites, overworld tileset, slot machine graphics, and layout for Cerulean Cave. Pokédex entries are sourced from Fire Red (which originated from Red/Green), then edited to fit within character limitations.

(Did YOU Know? Pokémon Green had its own exclusive Super GameBoy palette? It seems Jp Blue was built off of Red, and then they forgot about it when making Red & Blue, just reusing the Red one twice. Every town across Kanto had their colors slightly shifted from what was released in the West. Cinnabar Island almost got off clean, except the background shade of white has been changed across the board to be more green.)

Then from Japanese Blue comes the wild encounter tables, along with the in-game trades and game corner prizes. This also meant localizing the default names and nicknames for in-game traded Pokémon. For the player and rival names; apart from the primary colors; the options were ツネカズ (Tsunekaz) and ジャン (Jean) for the player, and ヒロシ (Hiroshi) for the rival. Thankfully no work was needed, as the first two already have associated Jp to Eng names from Fire Red/Leaf Green in ‘Kaz’ and ‘Janne’. Meanwhile Hiroshi is a reference to ‘Ritchie’, a challenger from the anime’s first Pokémon League.

Here are the in-game trade nicknames that were localized:

• Route 2: Jigglypuff for Mr. Mime まさる / Masaru > Victor
• Underground Path (Rt. 5–6): Rattata for Poliwag ロモたん / Romo-tan > Swirly
• Route 11: Rhydon for Kangaskhan ロダン / Rodan > Rodin
• Route 18: Persian for Tauros: ぎゅうた / Gyūta > Beefy
• Cerulean City: Machoke for Haunter (Gengar) ゴーすけ / Ghosuke > Casper
• Vermilion City: Pidgey for Farfetch'd アッカ / Akka > Quacks
• Pokémon Lab: Kadabra for Graveler (Golem) さぶろう / Saburō > Moe
• Pokémon Lab: Seel for Slowpoke オスカル / Oscar > Oscar
• Pokémon Lab: Growlithe for Krabby どうらく / Dōraku > Rascal

That's it. No new features, no quality of life improvements. Just good ol' 1998 Gen 1 Pokémon. Even trading and battling between the other three versions works via link-cable, along with full Pokémon Stadium support.

GameShark codes should work from Red Version, but due to re-importing the Jp Red/Green Pokémon sprites, things had to be moved around. Following SwimmingLink's 'picture system tutorial' the front facing sprites now load with no issues. Just save before trying any cheat codes.

Features:

• Pokémon Green Super GameBoy border and palette.
• Pokémon Green title screen & rotating title screen Pokémon.
• Pokémon Red & Green overworld graphics/tileset.
• Pokémon Red & Green front facing Pokémon battle sprites.
• Pokémon Red & Green Pokédex entries (Sourced from Fire Red).
• Pokémon Green Slot Machine graphics.
• Pokémon Red & Green Cerulean Cave layout (Also seen in Fire Red/Leaf Green).​
• Pokémon Blue localized default player/rival names.
• Pokémon Blue wild encounter/safari tables.
• Pokémon Blue in-game trades with localized names.
• Pokémon Blue Celadon Game Corner prizes.
• Updated evolve_trade.asm so Haunter evolves when in-game traded.

Apply IPS patch to a clean Pokémon: Red Version (UE) [S][!].gb

This is what I, personally, believe to be what most casual fans would want when thinking of a US/European release of Pokémon Green. It walks the line of restoring content never seen outside of Japan, while respecting the decisions made by the Nintendo of America localization team when making Red & Blue.

Download and use the patch with the "-Core" tag. Both .ips and .bps files have been provided for your convenience; either will work.

Q: Why did you not revert the Title Screen trainer sprite and positioning to those seen in Jp Red & Green?

A: I'm unsure Nintendo would have changed this themselves if tasked with making a similar product. With UE Red & Blue being built off Jp Blue, itself built off Jp Red & Green; with Yellow yet on top of that... I just didn't want to change anything that Nintendo themselves didn't explicitly go back and change again; so front facing sprites and Pokédex entries got changed in Jp Blue & Yellow, while the title screen from Jp Blue was rolled into the next release of UE Red & Blue.

"Oh but what about the overworld sprites you reverted to Jp Red & Green? Hypocrit much?"

Okay yea, you got me; but I feel those changes go hand-in-hand with the Super GameBoy's pallet for Green that we never got. Plus, some of the tileset from Jp Red & Green was reused in Yellow. At the end of the day, my choice to keep or change what is arbitrary. I'm just trying to invision what a NoA localizer would have done in their position.

For those who must have the Title Screen trainer and Pokémon position of Jp Red & Green, use a patch with the "-TitleScreen" tag.

Q: What about changing the textbox Pokéball corners to its Jp Red & Green's rounded design? Why was that left untouched?

A: Echoing what I said above, I'm unsure Nintendo would have changed these either. I kept the text boxes designs as I felt it was something unique to Gen 1 Pokémon; since the Pokéball frame was not an option in the Gen 2 games, I wanted them to stick around.

For those who must have the classic rounded text boxes of Jp Red & Green, use a patch with the "-RoundText" tag.

Q: What about the signage outside of the Pokémon Centers and Poké Marts? You have them still saying POKé and MART, when in Jp Red & Green they said POKE and SHOP.

A: I felt like this change falls under localization and would not have been changed by NoA, especially since other regions have similarly translated the sign. See Here from The Cutting Room Floor.

The timeline on this is interesting. Jp Red & Green released February 27, 1996. Then Jp Blue was first made available in December 1996 nearly 9 months later. Lastly Jp Yellow was released September 12, 1998, two and a half years after Jp Red & Green, and 18 days after the US release of Red & Blue on September 28, 1998. Yet during this development time, only did Jp Blue alter the signs by adding shading above the text, which then was used as a basis for all localized regions and releases to follow; an alteration which did not make it into Jp Yellow.

You can also see both versions of Yellow reusing the grass, amongst other overworld tiles from Jp Red & Green; yet they also have the animated flowers from Jp Blue. The devs of Yellow continued to edit and adjust many sprites and graphics away from either Red, Green or Blue's influence; yet NoA still made sure to localize both Signs, adding the shading above the text that was missing in Jp Yellow. It's widely agreed that NoA got the source code for Jp Blue to develop UE Red & Blue, but between that I infer Yellow was branched off the original Jp Red & Green instead of Jp Blue, which led to NoA playing catch-up trying to merge the source codes of their UE Red & Blue with Jp's Yellow source code for over a year until October 18, 1999.

I felt due to the localization efforts shown, there is likely no way it would have been altered if a UE Green were to have been released.

For those who must have the POKE and SHOP signs of Jp Red & Green, use a patch with the "-Signage" tag.

Q: What if I don't like the older overworld tiles from Jp Red & Green?

A: It is completely possible that NoA would not have reverted/modified the overworld tileset to that of Jp Red & Green. It's also valid to prefer one tileset over another, especially if you grew up playing with it, and would like to stay consistent with the earlier UE Red & Blue.

For those who want the overworld sprites of Jp Blue/ UE Red & Green, use a patch with the "-Overworld" tag.

Q: What if I dislike the Pokémon sprites from Jp Red & Green?

A: Totally understandable. Many have called them silly or derpy; and they may have been changed for a reason. Plus, out of all graphics in the game, Pokémon sprites are the ones players get most attached to.

For those who want the Pokémon sprites of Jp Blue/ UE Red & Green, use a patch with the "-PokéSprites" tag.

Several patches have been made to try and account for all permutations and options that players might want.

Want to experience all the content and visual identity exclusive to the Japanese releases? Use patch "pokegreen1.2.1-TitleScreen-RoundText-Signage" for the most authentic Jp Green experience without needing to learn another language.

Want only the aesthetics of Green, the encounter tables of Jp Blue; while keeping everything in line with UE Red & Blue? Use patch "pokegreen1.2.1-Overworld-PokeSprites" for the most authentic US/European Green.

Q: What about the copyright text?

A: No. I am leaving those as-is, as a hypothetical Green release would have kept them the same, (assuming it was released in the same year). No, I will not be adding the current year's date either, or anything indicating that this release happened anywhere outside of 1998.

Q: What about the Town Map border?

A: No. I don't want to. Who even looks at the town map anyway? (What? Every time they fly?) Nope, still don't want to. Changing it will have it standing out awkwardly against the other versions. Plus city names are larger in English, leaving more characters to cover up what was once border. If Green was to be localized, there would be no way they would have done this; since they removed it to make room text in the first place.

Q: What if I want the encounter tables from Jp Green? Or other similar questions about making Green even closer to its Japanese release?

A: Now you are looking for an entirely different project, as that was never my intention. I recommend checking out Vortyne's PureRGB project.

This repository builds the following ROM: - Pokemon Red (UE) [S][!].gb except it is generating for Green because I was lazy. Blah.

Hey Google analytics, here are some words for you.

Pokemon Green Rom Hack.

Pokemon Green Version.

Pokemon Green US.

Pokemon Green Mod.

Pokemon Green Europe.

Do I need the "é"?

I feel like the average person is not going to be searchig up Pokémon by their legal first name.

Pokemon Green IPS.

Pokemon Green ROM.

Pokemon Green BPS.