How Pokémon Red & Blue Were Made: The Untold Story Behind the Games

The Wild Story of How Pokémon Red & Blue Almost Never Happened

The origins of Pokémon Red & Blue aren’t just about making a video game—they’re about childhood nostalgia, real-life bug-catching adventures, unexpected Nintendo skepticism, and a near-disastrous crash that almost erased everything.

If you think Pokémon was always destined for greatness, think again. Back in the late ‘80s, Nintendo didn’t even understand the concept of collecting monsters. But one man’s childhood obsession with insects turned into the highest-grossing media franchise in history. Here’s how it all happened.

From "Dr. Bug" to Game Freak: The Man Behind Pokémon

Before Pokémon was even an idea, a young boy named Satoshi Tajiri spent his childhood in Machida, a suburb of Tokyo, obsessed with catching insects. He’d roam forests, rivers, and rice fields, hunting bugs and studying their behaviors. He even earned the nickname “Dr. Bug” because of his expert-level skills in catching them.

But as urbanization took over his hometown, the forests disappeared, and kids could no longer experience the joy of bug-catching. Tajiri wanted to bring that feeling back—except this time, instead of real insects, they’d be digital creatures.

That wasn’t his only passion, though. In 1978, he discovered arcade games, becoming obsessed with Space Invaders. With no internet or gaming magazines around, Tajiri decided to make his own gaming magazine, called Game Freak, in 1983.

This wasn’t just some casual zine. He hand-wrote, stapled, and sold it himself, and it became so popular that one issue sold over 10,000 copies.

One of his readers? Ken Sugimori, an artist who would later design all the original Pokémon. Sugimori reached out to Tajiri, offering to draw illustrations for the magazine, and the two became fast friends.

Game Freak Goes From Magazine to Game Studio

As Tajiri and Sugimori became more invested in gaming, they realized something: Most arcade games weren’t that great.

So instead of just writing about them, they decided, “Let’s make our own.”

Thus, Game Freak transformed from a fan magazine into a game development studio in 1989. Their early projects included games like Mendel Palace and Yoshi—but Tajiri had bigger dreams.

That same year, Nintendo released the Game Boy, and with it, the link cable. That’s when it hit him:

"What if creatures could travel back and forth through the cable? Like they were alive?"

That was the spark. The dream. The birth of Pokémon.

The Struggle to Make Pokémon Real

Tajiri officially began work on Pokémon in 1990, with six years of development ahead of him—an eternity in the game industry. He and his tiny team faced:

• Trademark issues (The original name, Capsule Monsters, had to be changed to Pocket Monsters due to legal conflicts.)
• Game Boy hardware limitations (They had to squeeze 151 Pokémon into a tiny cartridge.)
• Skepticism from Nintendo (Executives didn’t get why kids would want to collect creatures.)

Even with Nintendo’s hesitation, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto (the guy behind Mario and Zelda) loved the idea and gave Tajiri some key advice:

"Why not release two versions with different Pokémon to encourage trading?"

That one suggestion changed gaming forever.

Early Pokémon Ideas That Never Made It

The Pokémon we know today looked very different in early drafts. Some ideas that got scrapped include:

• Buying Pokémon from shopkeepers (instead of catching them).
• A “charisma” stat that affected interactions.
• The player fighting alongside Pokémon (which was cut because… well, that defeats the purpose).
• Selling Pokémon for gold, the game’s original currency before it changed to yen.

Some of these ideas eventually came back in later games (Pokémon Centers replaced inns, and Pokémon Eggs first shown in early sketches became a real feature in Gold & Silver).

One huge breakthrough was the introduction of Pokémon types. Originally, Pokémon were just "weak" or "strong," which made battles boring. By introducing Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, and more, battles became way more strategic.

Near Disaster: The Crash That Almost Killed Pokémon

After four years of development, Game Freak hit a major crisis.

Their Unix computers crashed, and they almost lost everything—all the Pokémon designs, maps, characters, and code.

Nobody knew how to recover the data. Tajiri and his team panicked.

Game Freak’s composer/programmer, Junichi Masuda, called his old company, searched forums, read books—anything to save the project.

Miraculously, after days of work, they recovered the files.

If they hadn’t? Pokémon might never have been released.

The Final Stretch: Nintendo Still Had Doubts

By 1996, Pokémon was ready to launch in Japan—but nobody expected much.

• The Game Boy was seven years old and fading in popularity.
• Even Nintendo wasn’t confident the game would sell.
• Industry insiders thought it would flop.

But when Pokémon Red & Green launched on February 27, 1996, kids went wild.

The game slowly became a sensation—word-of-mouth and schoolyard trading turned it into a must-have. Suddenly, Pokémon fever exploded.

Pokémon Takes Over the World

As Pokémon grew, Game Freak was stunned by how big it became. Soon, they expanded into:

• An anime series
• A trading card game
• Manga, toys, and merchandise

And when it launched in North America in 1998, it became a global phenomenon.

Pokémon outsold Final Fantasy VII in Japan.
Pokémon sold over 31 million copies worldwide.
Pokémon became the biggest media franchise ever.

Game Freak didn’t expect this. Even Miyamoto didn’t expect this.

But kids around the world got it.

They understood what Nintendo had originally doubted: The joy of catching, collecting, and battling creatures.

How Pokémon Changed Gaming Forever

What started as one kid’s love for bug-catching turned into a multibillion-dollar franchise.

Satoshi Tajiri didn’t just make a game—he created a cultural movement.

And the secret?

He designed Pokémon to feel like a real adventure. He wanted kids to experience the thrill of discovery.

In the end, that’s why Pokémon worked.

It wasn’t about just playing a game. It was about going on a journey.

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