Pokemon Origins and History 1989 thru 1995

 

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History

Origins

In 1965, Satoshi Tajiri was born and grew up in Machida, a suburb of Tokyo. He developed a fascination with nature, spending his time exploring and capturing insects, toads, tadpoles, and other small creatures in the surrounding ponds and fields. However, as urban expansion took place in Japan, the nature in Machida began to diminish.

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When Tajiri was 13 and attending junior high school, an arcade hall opened in his neighborhood, introducing him to video games. He instantly became captivated by them. While studying electrical engineering at Tokyo College of Technology, he transformed his hobby doujinshi into a magazine called "Game Freak," inspired by the film "Freaks" (1932) that fascinated him at the time. Tajiri self-published the first issue of Game Freak at the age of 17 in March 1983, filling a void as specialized video game magazines were still nonexistent in Japan.

During this time, Tajiri crossed paths with Ken Sugimori, who aspired to be a manga artist and later became the illustrator for Game Freak. However, the magazine ceased regular publication and folded in 1988. Despite this, Tajiri had already established himself as a respected game journalist in Japan's emerging video game industry

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In 1986, Satoshi Tajiri, together with Ken Sugimori and a group of other passionate individuals, formed a casual development team called Game Freak, named after their previously published magazine. In the years that followed, they independently worked on creating Quinty, a puzzle game, balancing their efforts with their personal commitments to education and jobs.

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However, they faced a challenge as none of the members possessed the skills to compose music for the game. Tajiri was determined to find a solution and reached out to Junichi Masuda, who was born in 1968 and eventually joined the team as the composer. With Masuda on board, they successfully finished Quinty in 1989, which was published by Namco.

Recognizing the potential of their work, Tajiri officially established Game Freak Co., Ltd. on April 26, 1989. This marked the beginning of their journey towards becoming one of the world's most successful and renowned video game companies, with their iconic creation, Pokémon, leading the way.

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1989 – 1995: Development of Red & Green

Further information: Pokémon Red and Blue § Development

Two original Game Boys connected with a Game Cable Link.

Pokémon was conceived by Satoshi Tajiri while he was working on Quinty and before he established Game Freak. At the same time, Nintendo unveiled plans to release the Game Boy, a portable gaming device that would have a link port for connecting multiple consoles. Tajiri remembered a moment while playing Dragon Quest II where he didn't find a rare item, while his friend Ken Sugimori found two. This sparked the idea that the link cable could be used to transfer items between cartridges. Tajiri combined this revelation with his childhood love of catching insects and other creatures to develop the concept of a virtual recreation of his experiences. He described the game as a reflection of "a boy's summer day" and an attempt to recapture his lost world.

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In March 1989, Nintendo co-founded Ape, Inc. with Shigesato Itoi. This subsidiary of Nintendo was created to develop Mother(1989), an RPG written by Itoi, but also with the intention to give outside talent a chance to pitch new, innovative games. At the time, Ape and Nintendo were both located in the same office building in Kanda-Sudachō, Tokyo. Ape's management included Ishihara, who was a friend of both Itoi and Tajiri and later became Vice President of Ape in 1991. Tajiri had a close relationship with Ishihara, which prompted him to present his idea for Pokémon at Ape's office. Present during Tajiri's pitch was Kawaguchi, who worked at Nintendo's General Affairs Department and was also a manager at Ape. Kawaguchi brought the idea to Nintendo's president, Yamauchi, who was reportedly impressed and saw the potential. Coincidentally, Ishihara had also come up with a similar game idea called Toto, which involved using the Game Boy as an insect cage. Ishihara and Ape were discussing this game around the same time. Eventually, GF and Ape agreed to merge their projects together. Tajiri initially collaborated with Ape on the project, but due to the difficulties and Ape's busy schedule with Earthbound, Tajiri decided to take control and work on it independently. As a result, Ape, Inc. is not credited in the final product.

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The development contract for Pokémon was signed in the early 1990s, with a planned release date in October. Satoshi Tajiri was the director of the project, working under Tsunekazu Ishihara, who served as the game's producer. Ishihara managed the budget, staff, and work schedule, as well as monitored the overall progress of the game and acted as a liaison between Game Freak and Nintendo. He also contributed ideas to the development process and helped with debugging.

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Ken Sugimori was in charge of the graphics and character design, while Junichi Masuda created all the music and sound effects and also participated in the programming. The budget given to Game Freak by Nintendo was low, and as a result, Pokémon was initially planned as a small, limited game based on Tajiri's concept of trading. However, as development progressed, Game Freak realized that their ambitious ideas for Pokémon would be challenging to execute. 

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Sugimori admitted that at the time, no one at Game Freak had much knowledge of RPGs, saying, "We thought we could handle it, but as we began working, we realized it was going to be tough." Due to these challenges, development on Pokémon was temporarily put on hold. 

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During this time, Game Freak focused on developing their second game, Smartball, in 1991. However, Game Freak was commissioned by Nintendo to create Yoshi, a simple puzzle game suggested by Ishihara. Yoshi was a huge success, selling over three million copies worldwide and allowing Game Freak to continue operating.

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Over the next few years, Game Freak developed four more games: Magical Tarurūto-kun (1992, only released in Japan), Mario & Wario (1993), Nontan to Issho: KuruKuru Puzzle (1994, only released in Japan), and Pulseman (1994). These games further solidified Game Freak's presence in the gaming industry and kept the company afloat until they could return to developing Pokémon.

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It is often said that the development of the first Pokemon game took six years, but this is not entirely accurate. The six-year timeline includes the planning and finalization stages, and Game Freak did not work on the game continuously for six years. After the initial development phase in 1990 and 1991, the staff at Game Freak would work on the game sporadically. By October 1992, a significant number of Pokémon had already been designed, and a poll was conducted among the staff to determine their popularity. More such polls were held to decide which Pokémon would make the final cut. However, development took a backseat until the summer of 1994, when Pokémon production resumed after the release of Pulseman. Game Freak had gained more experience by then and had even hired new staff members. Atsuko Nishida, a graphic designer, joined the team and created iconic Pokémon like Pikachu. Tsunekazu Ishihara, another staff member, used his knowledge of card games to enhance the battle system and proposed the concept of Pokémon types. Ishihara also came up with the idea of the Pokedex, a device that allows players to keep track of their captured Pokémon. 

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Pocket Monsters Red and Green were finally finished in December 1995. A release date of 21 December 1995 was announced in magazines and on flyers, but the date was missed. After sufficient cartridges, manuals and packages had been manufactured, the pair of games ended up being published on 27 February 1996. However, the property was copyrighted in 1995, and "© 1995" is shown on the title screens and cartridges. This year is since used on the copyright notice seen on many Pokémon products, even though no actual Pokémon product was released in 1995.

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Please click on the following link to access the next section on Pokémon: Pokemon History 1996 thru 1998