Though it seems to have levelled out somewhat in recent years, there's no denying that Pokémon is one of the most recognised and prolific Nintendo brands around. It seems that this almost wasn't the case, though, as Tsunekazu Ishihara recently revealed in an interview with 4Gamer. Apparently, Pokémon was initially going to stay exclusive to Japan, until Iwata stepped in.
Before he was the president of Nintendo, Iwata was president at HAL Laboratory. Pokémon was of course a massive hit in Japan, and while there were some plans to bring it west, nothing was set in stone. Hiroshi Yamauchi – the then-current Nintendo president – wanted the team to both localise the first generation and begin work on the second generation. Only one of those was attainable at the time and so the team decided to focus on making Pokémon Gold and Silver. However, it was here that Iwata stepped in and plotted out how to make an English version by analyzing Pokémon Red and Green's source code. Here's the quote:
4Gamer: So Game Freak at the time was in a state where resources couldn't be spared for ports or planning out things such as Pokémon Stadium?
Ishihara: Yes. On top of Uchiyama-san's unconditional command of overseas development, he was also there instructing us to "hurry up and make the next title" [laughs]. However, we only saw one possible choice at the time, and decided to focus our attention on Gold and Silver rather than an English version, and thought "overseas development is just a dream within a dream," and gave up on that idea. But that's where one man raised his hand—HAL Laboratory's president Iwata.
4Gamer: Specifically speaking, what kind of work did Iwata-san do?
Ishihara: To begin with, Iwata-san got the source code for Red and Green, and bam, read through it all, then began mapping out a course on how to make a foreign version for it.
For the full translation, check it out over on Siliconera.
What do you think? What's your favorite Pokémon generation? Do you think Pokémon would have come to the west regardless? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source siliconera.com]
Comments 21
Thanks Iwata, your attempt, effort and dedication for bringing us to the west, this great series that today is still very enjoyable, fun for everyone.
I kind of wish Iwata had stuck with development rather than becoming president, everyone seems to speak highly of his abilities as a developer.
@Morph Really tho, every time I hear a story of his programming days, it's about how he overcame some insurmountable technical problem.
@Morph If it wasn't him being the president at the time, Nintendo would've been bankrupt. Also, he still did some development during his time as a president like he helped make Pokemon Go for example.
Iwata-san....why oh why did you have to leave us soon? You died faster than Gunpei Yokoi.....
To me, Iwata sounds like Quint from Jaws - everyone is wondering how to solve the problem, and he's the dude in the corner who's like "Yeah, I can do it."
@Churchy
Except Iwata managed to get the job done
@shaneoh Aye, that is true. And as far as I know, Iwata never made any monologues about sharks.
Iwata was really a gem of a person. Anyone who writes him off with pithy memetic comments of "Please understand" is refusing to acknowledge just how much he actually did for the games industry, let alone Nintendo.
@Socar that's impossible to say maybe they would maybe they wouldn't he certainly did a good job in the beginning
Cool article, thanks for sharing.
For me, generations 1 & 2 are my favorites, with gen 3 at a close second. Yellow was the first game I ever played. Silver blew my mind with all its upgrades and enhancements. (And those animated Pokemon in crystal! lol)
In fact, tonight I'll be playing yellow with my girlfriend, it's her first time playing through
Thank goodness he managed to bring it to the U.S.
I just thought you modded games in order to change the text when you localize it.
Good job getting Pokemon to the west. Can't wait for these games to hit the eshop.
I bet if we had the people who run NoA today back during Pokemon's release they would have said "nope!" and we would have been left in the cold, looking enviously at Europe, Japan and Asia.
This just makes me more bitter hes gone.
I read this the other day. Iwata was just plain awesome.
Awesome, had Iwata not done this Nintendo wouldn't be making money off the brand like they do nowadays. Iwata we honor you for your courageous decision.
@TossedLlama Fear not, I only watched the first one. After the shark dies I didn't see much point. Even so, a 3D shark with 80's technology is tempting.
Thanks Iwata and the team who helped bring it to the west. There are a lot of people in my family who love Pokemon.
@amiiboacid
Modding as we now know it wasn't a thing back then as games were generally not extensible. Additionally, GameBoy games were written in assembly code and games were not written with localization in mind. Strings of text were often scattered all throughout code and not in a uniform way. Remember that the games industry was very young and there is still no method of development that is universally settled upon.
Nowadays, all text is separated into highly organized files that can be localized by specialists, but it can still be a tough job to link it up to its context, etc.
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