Pokémon Emerald is an updated version of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, that was released in Japan in September 2004 and in America and Europe in 2005. Even if the game is just an “add-on” to Ruby and Sapphire, it’s possible to find some beta and unused content still hidden in its code. As noted by Bulbapedia:
- There’s an unused map header into the ROM called “SPECIAL AREA”.It was probably used for the battle frontier back then.
- All the music tracks found in FireRed and LeafGreen are present in Emerald too, but only few of them are used for special events.
Also, from an early Pokèmon Emerald screenshot by IGN you can clearly see that ROUTE 109 had glitched up tiles!)
In the ROM LucaPM found an unused Prof.B irch sprite, that was probably used for the beta intro sequence. HEX Offset : 557AF0 (varies between ROMS)
Unused sprite:
Final sprite:
Things to notice between the unused and the final sprite:
- Different stance (of course)
- Less outlined sprite
- Shorter shirt
- Different,bigger belt
- Different designed and coloured pants
- Different right leg
- Slightly different haircut
As noted by Zero7, it’s possible that he was suppose to have his hands in his pockets, go into the now final sprite for throwing out the pokemon, then either stay in the final sprite or back to the unused sprite for the rest of the intro.