Partially unused and glitched

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Partially unused or semi-glitch things are a side effect of how data in the Pokémon games is retrieved. Functions that retrieve data may simultaneously load valid but unused data leftover from development, as well as glitch data which was never intended to be added there.

There are also similar concepts such as 'glitched (or unused) but with used elements', where something glitched or unused is used by the game in a different form (such as the BoulderBadge 'item' and lift floor entries), which appear in lists (the Cerulean City badge man and elevators) but are not necessarily inventory items.

Examples

Pokémon

  • The MissingNo. before index number 191 have some leftover unused but valid data.
    • Nine of them have some unused cry data. The cries for the rest is the result of all the parameters being 0 (Nidoran♂ pitch 0 and length 0 (256)).
    • There are 39 entries in between the 151 existing Pokémon. Adding these together is 190 Pokémon; a former total of Pokémon in leaked source code of Pokémon Blue. Some of the MissingNo. were once unreleased Pokémon, such as Gorochu (index number 175) before they were removed and the games were recompiled to reflect this. However, three MissingNo. (182, 183, 184) had some data repurposed for the Kabutops Fossil, Aerodactyl Fossil and Ghost front sprites. In the Pewter Museum, internally the game actually loads the Fossil MissingNo. index number to retrieve its front sprite. Note while trading MissingNo. to Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal results in specific Generation II Pokémon, contrary to popular belief they may not have been intentionally defined as those Pokémon/the actual Pokémon the MissingNo. were is different according to the source code leak, and some related publicly released information such as the index numbers of unused Pokémon (matching some of the MissingNo.) in the 2018 educational Satoshi Tajiri: A Man Who Created Pokémon manga.
    • The names "MISSINGNO." (けつばん) itself (and ゴースト for index number 184 (Ghost) in the Japanese versions (not to be confused with ゆうれい, the final term for Pokémon Tower ghosts)) were intentionally hard-coded into the game. This contrasts with the other glitch Pokémon such as 'M (00) which have their names as unrelated data in the game extrapolated beyond the names table.
    • All MissingNo. Pokédex numbers were to set 000, and in Japanese Pokémon Blue, MissingNo. were given the placeholder Pokédex entry "コメント さくせいちゅう" (meaning 'comment to be written') and became the ??? species. This was not translated, resulting in a glitched Pokédex entry in the localized Pokémon Red and Blue and the corruption of MissingNo.'s original height and weight (1.0 m (3.3 ft) and 10.0 kg (22.1 lb), respectively), showing instead a height of 10.0 ft (3.1 m) and a weight of 3507.2 lb (1590.8 kg).
    • No MissingNo. can learn any moves by level-up or evolve (unlike the other glitch Pokémon), however they have starting moves and learnable TM/HM moves (the results of glitch data extrapolated by Pokédex No. 000/also the reason why 'M (00) also starts with Water Gun, Water Gun, Sky Attack and not intentional).
  • Many 'Pokémon' that retrieve placeholder data in general, such as ?????????? and the function to make its sprite a "?" in a circle, ? (glitch Pokémon)'s sprite; in those cases they are commonly forced as glitch Pokémon so bring some invalid data with them (such as base stats for glitch Pokémon with index numbers other than 0 and 252-276/index numbers greater than 439). Possibly - (while appearing as an Egg named "-" that partially behaves like one, it has base stats and types which are glitched and were never intentionally programmed. This is a similar case to Generation II glitch Egg before it, and its back-sprites which are glitch sprites).

Items

Main article: Unused items
  • ItemDex/RGBY:007 and ItemDex/RGBY:044 are remnants of unused items but are considered glitch items. The ????? (0x07) can be used as a substitute for Surfing and was called Lapras (ラプラス) in the source code leaks, but item 0x2C (an item that brings up Oak's message that it isn't the time to use it) still has no name ("???") even in the source code leaks. ????? itself is the later version of the ??? placeholder item name for items that haven't been finished yet or are never meant to be used. In the source code leaks, there were more of these items. (Some ???became Safari Ball, BoulderBadge, CascadeBadge, ThunderBadge, RainbowBadge, SoulBadge, MarshBadge, VolcanoBadge, EarthBadge, unused PP Up; though it is possible some of the ???split into items with a different intended purpose).
  • The item versions of the BoulderBadge through to EarthBadge have valid names and effects, but do not appear as actual items and may be considered as glitch items. However, they appear in a different form for the list of badges at the badge man's house in Cerulean City; where instead selecting them brings up a description for that badge. The BoulderBadge and CascadeBadge act like throwing bait and throwing a rock in the Safari Zone respectively (affecting the opposing Pokémon's catch rate), while the rest bring up Oak's message that it isn't the time to use the item.
  • The unused PP Up copy may also be considered as a glitch item, and brings up Oak's message that it isn't the time to use it. It also has a different price at the Poké Mart (worth 9800 Pokédollars instead of 0).
  • The unused inventory version of the Pokédex.
  • The unused inventory version of the Safari Ball. This has been carried forward through the Pokémon generations, and finally became a legitimate item (without a cheating device) in Pokémon Sword and Shield's The Isle of Armor expansion as a possible item from the Cram-o-matic.
  • The unused inventory version of a Game Corner Coin. In the source code leaks, it was called the パチンコダマ (Pachinko Ball).
  • The set of unused rank names and badges, such as かいがらバッヂ (ShellBadge) or プチマスタ (Petit Master) are a leftover from development (their names are corrupted/mojibake outside of the Japanese versions), but unintentionally can be forced as glitch items beyond the index number of the last valid non-TM/HM (Max Elixer; 0x53) with invalid effects because the data structures for the names are close together (this also applies to the names of floor destinations beginning with B2F, strings from the new name screen such as JACK, etc.)
  • The Teru-Sama (カビチュウ) are remnants of unused items but may also be considered as glitch items. There are 32 different Teru-Sama in Gold/Silver, and four of them became Pokémon Crystal exclusive items; Clear Bell (hex:46), the GS Ball (hex:73), the Blue Card (hex:74) and the Egg Ticket (hex:81). Its international name may be a reference to Western-release programmer Teruki Murakawa and the Japanese honorific -sama, and its Japanese name as an unexplained pun on カビゴン (Kabigon or Snorlax) and ピカチュウ (Pikachu), although there has been an internal joke within Game Freak pertaining to Kōji Nishino looking similar to "Snorlax" and apparently eating moldy (黴, kabi) food. It is typically not possible to use the Teru-Sama (only give them to a Pokémon or toss them), unlike the ????? from Red/Blue/Yellow. The purchase price for each Teru-Sama is 39,321 Pokédollars but this may have been a side-effect of Game Freak potentially using binary-coded decimal for items in Pokémon Gold and Silver in the past but no longer using it in the final versions (because 39321 is 9999 in binary coded decimal; which would have probably made it 9999 Pokédollars at the time). Originally, a few of the original items behind the Teru-Sama were discovered thanks to data-mining; for instance, Teru-Sama 0x38 will act as a Poké Flute if a Use option is hacked on to the item, and more (but not all) have been found thanks to the source code leaks.
  • There are duplicates of TM04 and TM28 in Generation II without any uses, only to give, toss or sell them for 19660 Pokédollars. The item descriptions match the real TMs. Their index numbers are located just after the real TM04 and TM28 items.
  • TM51-TM55 from Generation I (which have the effects of HMs Cut through to Flash as disposable TMs) have their names as a result of a subroutine to generate TM and HM names based on the index number. HM08-HM13 also exist in Generation II.

Trainers

  • While Trainer 0x00 (accessed with a Special stat of 200 during the Trainer escape glitch) is a glitch Trainer with no signs (except its placing as the first indexed Trainer counting 0x00) of ever being used in the final games, it may have belonged to an unreleased valid Trainer according to the source code leaks.
  • Juggler (unused Trainer class)'s name was originally ジャック (Jack) during a period of development when he was a Trainer known as Shinjuku Jack (a reference to Takayuki Haneda, pseudonym "Shinjuku Jacky"; who mained Jacky Byran in the game Virtua Fighter by Sega) before all references to Jack were removed (except as a pre-set name) and the Trainer in his place became the unused Juggler copy. However, a list of Trainer Classes in Japanese mentioning Jack where the unused Juggler would have been remains in the final versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions.
  • A similar situation to the Juggler also applies to the Chief. Furthermore, some extra unused information can be retrieved from his Japanese name Silph's Chief or Silph's Manager (シルフのチーフ), possibly suggesting he was linked to the Silph Co. before being cut from the game. In the source code leak, the Chief also used Blaine's newer design (like in the final games) instead of the Scientist sprite although this did not survive by the time the final ROMs were released. (At the time, the actual Blaine had his own cut design, which can still be seen in the manuals of the final game)
  • Prof. Oak is another unused Trainer class in Generation I. He has three rosters (and they only differ based on the final form of the starters; Venusaur, Charizard or Blastoise) at levels even higher than the Pokémon League Champion, which has lead to speculation that he was the original champion, or served a similar late game (or even post game) role. Professor Oak however is sometimes discussed together with Pokémon glitches, because he can be accessed with the name character MN in the old man glitch (as the third, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh character in the player's name) or Special stat 226 Trainer escape glitch. Often he is fought with the wrong roster rather than with one of his three valid ones.
    • When battling any Trainer using a glitch, the player must specify the roster if they want to fight a specific team, and the later the Trainer class index number the more this is necessary to avoid teams of glitch Pokémon, because beyond the last valid roster, Trainers will use Pokémon from the rosters of the next Trainer class, before all valid rosters are exhausted (for instance, in the Ditto glitch sub-glitch of the Trainer escape glitch this is used by altering the Attack stage of the transformed opponent (7 by default and can be 1 (-6)-13 (+6)); for instance, 6 Growls would allow the player to access that Trainer's roster 1.
      • In the old man glitch however, the set of rosters for all Trainers are brought up from Trainer class 256 (using a roster index number for Trainer 256 matching the index number of the last fought Trainer) instead. As Trainer 256 is far beyond the last valid Trainer Lance (Trainer 47), fighting valid rosters this way is typically inviable (though there are exceptions such as arbitrary code execution). Players often call Trainers accessed through glitches simply glitch Trainers, especially if they are using glitch Pokémon or a roster with an index number exceeding their last possible roster (more strictly, it could be argued Lance with glitch Pokémon isn't technically a glitch Trainer but a real Lance using a glitch roster which may include glitch Pokémon). There are further situations for encountering valid Trainers but with unintended rosters, such as encountering a Trainer after the ZZAZZ glitch (forcing the Cable Club roster), or how the first roster of Trainer 0x34 is taken from $A5A5 in the SRAM (save file), rather than a constant location in ROM.

Maps

  • Some partially unused glitch maps, such as Map 0x0B (actual unused data include potential placeholder data (such as the music for map 0x0B matching Viridian City), the unused Fly flag for going to map 0x0B, the hidden Max Elixer in unused but glitched map 0x6F).