2nd Gen Question about the Pokedex in the original Pokemon games...

[EvaXephon]

My friend believes that, in the original Pokemon games, the Pokedex was a blank book that Trainers filled out by hand. Not Red and Blue, but the original Red and Green released in Japan in 1996.

Is this true, or is he mistaken?

 

[Ivysaur]

Of course not, the pokédex has always been a tool you got on the game, and carried the info there as in all the following games.

Maybe he's mistaken because, in the instruction booklet, you had an unfinished list of pokémon you should "fill in" once you caught thme in the game, but, in-game, you still got the Dex from Prof. Oak at the beginning.

 

[IIMarckus]

That most certainly was the case. It was that way in Red and Blue too.

"It's encyclopedia-like, but the pages are blank!"

 

[Swampert 22]

Well, I know that you shouldn't pay to much attention to it, but if you've ever read the Pokémon Adventures the PokéDex has to be manually filled in when a Pokémon is caught...:)

 

[Zenoah]

Maybe it was back in the day when they filled things out by hand.

 

[coolcatkim22]

Maybe in the beginning of the games production but later on they may have decided to make it electronic to make things easier.

 

[Legobricks]

It certainly explains why Pokedex's don't come up with a whole Bulbapedia page on any given Pokemon, and why new pages are only filled once the player catches a Pokemon.
It's quite obvious that they were originally books, and even though now they're electronic devices now, I still think information is inputted manually by the trainer (hence why there is A: not much info, and B: differing information in different versions of the same game generation).

Yes Ash's Pokedex in the anime does tell him stuff even only when he first sees a Pokemon, but that's most likely just to make the anime flow better.

 

[TTH]

I could see myself as trainer filling out the Pokedex!

Oddish: An odd looking radish. Tried to eat it but it used stun spore on me.

Mew: The noise it makes is ****ing annoying me.

Lucario: Who the hell has a spike on their chest? Note to self: Never hug.

 

[ExtremeDarkness]

me too. i think it would be easy filling out the pokedex!

 

[ChibiVamp]

I could see myself as trainer filling out the Pokedex!

Oddish: An odd looking radish. Tried to eat it but it used stun spore on me.

Mew: The noise it makes is ****ing annoying me.

Lucario: Who the hell has a spike on their chest? Note to self: Never hug.

lol! entries like that would certainly make for a more interesting pokedex and it might be cool to compare what you wrote with your friend's entries.