History WhatCouldHaveBeen / PokemonGoldAndSilver

* The map in the 1997 demo is significantly more expansive than Johto or Kanto (although not as big as the two regions combined) and had a much larger scale, being based on the entire Japanese archipelago instead of just the Kansai, Chubu and Kanto regions. There are even cities based on Kyushu (Hoenn) and Hokkaido (Sinnoh). Kanto is already present, but it's more cut down than in the final game, being reduced to just one large map with a vaguely similar layout and a few notable landmarks (Pallet Town, the department store, the Silph Co. building, Mt. Moon, the Pokémon Tower, etc). It would have worked as a city (the last one visited before traveling to the Pokémon League, if its position on the world map is any indication), and Red (possibly named "Blue" here; not to be confused with the Gen I rival, who went by "Green") would have served as its Gym Leader.[[note]]Interestingly, toward the end of the [=Red/Green/Blue=] saga, Pokémon Adventures implied that Red would become a Gym Leader in the future. The manga had been showing clear Gen II influences by this point, such as cameos of Ho-Oh and the Firebreather trainer class. Similarly, the beginning of the Yellow saga seemed to be setting up for it to happen, with Misty revealing that Red had asked her for help in getting official permission to become a Gym Leader. It's likely that these were [[EarlyDraftTieIn remnants of early plans to have Red as a Leader in the incoming Gold and Silver saga,]] to coincide with his role in early versions of the game (the manga's writer implied that he has access to builds of Pokémon games during their development). When the GSC saga finally happened, it was revealed that [[AbortedArc Red was allowed to become a Leader but had to decline due to certain health issues related to the time spent frozen in ice,]] so Blue took the position instead, mimicking the game's final version.[[/note]]

* The 1997 Space World demo featured completely different starters (the above-mentioned ones), different Japanese names for the Pokémon, and a vastly different overworld. It also had the starting town as named "Silent Hills". Some of the original names were: "Elebaby" for Elekid, "Pukuu" for Harisen (Qwilfish), "Sunny" for Kimawari (Sunflora), "Painter" for Doble (Smeargle), and "Yoroidori" for Airmd (Skarmory).

** Pinsir and Ditto were also originally going to get new evolutions. Pinsir's evolution being Scizor's counterpart: it evolved via trading (at one point with a Metal Coat), was a Bug/Steel-type, and used the same BST as it's pre-evolution but with different stat distribution. It was likely scrapped due being ''too'' similar to Scizor and was later reworked into Heracross.

* There was a cut DeliveryStork Pokémon.

* Originally there were two towns between Violet City and Goldenrod City, later merged into Azalea Town. There was also no Cianwood City -- the sea routes beyond Olivine City would instead go south and then east, connecting to Goldenrod City.

** The demo features two cut Gym Leaders named Gama (which may have been a prototype of Clair) and Okera. Both use generic sprites from other classes rather than individual sprites.

** Pinsir and Ditto were also originally going to get new evolutions. Pinsir's evolution being Scizor's counterpart: it evolved via trading (at one point with a Metal Coat), was a Bug/Steel-type, and used the same BST as it's pre-evolution but with different stat distribution. It was likely scrapped due being ''too'' similar to Scizor.

* The Steel type had practically nothing to do with the one we know. It was weak to Water and Electric (which merely resist Steel-type attacks now), resisted Poison (instead of being immune), Fighting (instead of being weak) and Rock (the only interaction that was kept), and was notably immune to itself (whereas it's now a resistance).

* In an "Iwata Asks" interview, it was confirmed that ''Gold & Silver'' were intended to be the last installments in the series, hence the final battle with Red, as the developers felt that they were too much of a ToughActToFollow. However, they were so popular that the developers created ''Pokémon Crystal'', and the rest is history.