Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow Leaks Explained

The Pokemon Teraleak has utterly consumed discussion around the franchise, and with good reason. This particular leak has unveiled more about the franchise than any leak prior, and those reveals include some enlightening information about the original Pokemon games.

It’s hard to overstate just how much has come from the Pokemon leaks, which is evident from how they’ve taken over the internet. For many, these leaks (or ‘the’ Teraleak, as their sum is known) have entirely reframed how many see the franchise—especially the scrapped short fiction and character bios. Though what’s been seeded about upcoming franchise installments has been major, the unearthed history of scrapped Pokemon, unused lore, and prototype sprites has truly captivated fans.

The Leaks Surrounding Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow Explained

Much of what the Teraleak reveals concerns Pokemon from Gen 3 onwards, but there’s still a good deal of material for those invested in Gen 1. Specifically, those interested in Pokemon Yellow (and, by extension, Red and Blue), will be happy to know that there is a treasure trove of information available—albeit a far slighter one than the generations that followed. The prime aggregator for these leaks is Centro Leaks on X, though much of the archival has been done by The Cutting Room Floor, a wiki committed to cataloging scrapped content from video games.

Early Gen 1 Sprites

A big part of the Pokemon leaks has been the reveal of scrapped sprites, be they prototypes of finalized Pokemon or Pokemon that never saw the light of day. For Gen 1’s Pokemon Yellow, scratchpad files have been unearthed via the Teraleak that show some early sprites. The sprites were spread across two folders, both dating back to 1998 and both sporting a similar range of dates.

Many of these sprites are more reminiscent of the original Red and Blue than their finished counterparts in Pokemon Yellow, with notable examples of this trend including Wartortle, Blastoise, and Gyarados. Gyrarados actually appears twice within this particular leak, with another early sprite in the second folder that is nearly identical to its finalized depiction—albeit with a single awry pixel that had its color changed in the final release. In the same folder as Gyrarados’ very minor tweaks, Exeggute and Rhydon can be found in the same condition; both are nearly complete in their presentation, save for a few out of place pixels.

The Yellow sprite leak doesn’t really show off much design history per se, with most early sprites here being close to their final selves. Where there are distinctions in these sprites, they mainly relate to a change in pose. This is the case for Pokemon like Nidoking, Poliwrath, and Scyther, who are both drawn from different angles and with different poses. Other than those Pokemon, though, this stands as one of the leaner parts of the Game Freak Teraleak, with most of these folders’ offerings being rougher versions of final sprites. That’s not to say this information isn’t historically valuable, but it only scratches the surface of what might still be out there.

Fans Probably Haven’t Seen The Last Of Gen 1 Info

The Pokemon Teraleak is just that, a terabyte of information. There’s a lot that’s yet to be uncovered in this mind-boggling assortment of files; Centro Leaks alleged on October 13th that only 10% of the leak had, at that point, been unveiled. At the time of writing, more details are still being spun from the source code—a point of initiative for The Cutting Room Floor. Further dissection of the code will likely unveil more secrets about Gen 1, and these sprites show that the Teraleak certainly stretches back to 1998, and possibly even further.