Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow Version Variant Guide (Print Runs)

[kinggr]

Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow Version Variant Guide

The purpose of this guide is to educate people about the different variants (also referred to as print runs) of Pokémon’s Red, Blue, and Yellow versions. It should be noted that this is not an official guide, and all information is simply evidence-backed speculation. This guide will be updated periodically as/if more evidence or findings are made regarding the Red, Blue, and Yellow version variants.

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Quick Summary

Red Version

	First Print	Second Print	Third Print
Screenshot	Sandshrew vs. Meowth	Pidgey vs. Rattata	Pidgey vs. Rattata
ESRB	White	White	Black
Fiber Stamp	100%/55%	83%/81%	83%/81%
Bottom of Box	Double-Ended	Y-Fold	Y-Fold
Insert	Fixed	Removable	Removable
Folding Tab Code	U/DMG-APAE USA	DMG-APAE USA	DMG-APAE USA-1
Cartridge Code	DMG-APAE-USA	DMG-APAE-USA-1	DMG-APAE-USA-1
Cartridge ESRB	White	White	Black

Blue Version

	First Print / “Red Error”	Second Print	Third Print	Fourth Print
Screenshot	Sandshrew vs. Meowth	Sandshrew vs. Meowth	Pidgey vs. Rattata	Pidgey vs. Rattata
ESRB	White	White	White	Black
Fiber Stamp	100%/55%	100%/55%	83%/81%	83%/81%
Bottom of Box	Double-Ended	Double-Ended	Y-Fold	Y-Fold
Insert	Fixed	Fixed	Removable	Removable
Folding Tab Code	U/DMG-APEE USA	U/DMG-APEE USA	DMG-APEE USA	DMG-APEE USA-1
Cartridge Code	DMG-APEE-USA	DMG-APEE-USA	DMG-APEE-USA	DMG-APEE-USA-1
Cartridge ESRB	White	White	White	Black

Yellow Version

	First Print	Second Print	Third Print	Fourth Print
Screenshot	Pikachu vs. Caterpie	Pikachu vs. Caterpie	Pikachu vs. Caterpie	Pikachu vs. Caterpie
ESRB	White	Missing	Black	Black
Fiber Stamp	83%/81%	100%/55%	100%/55%	83%/81%
Bottom of Box	Y-Fold	Double-Ended	Double-Ended	Y-Fold
Insert	Removable	Fixed	Fixed	Removable
Folding Tab Code	DMG-APSE USA	U/DMG-APSE USA	U/DMG-APSE USA-1	DMG-APSE USA-1
Cartridge Code	DMG-APSE-USA	DMG-APSE-USA/DMG-APSE-USA-1	DMG-APSE-USA-1	DMG-APSE-USA-1
Cartridge ESRB	White	White/Black	Black	Black

Summary Table

Pokémon Red Version

Pokémon Red Version sports three different variants. I’ll refer to these variants as the first print, second print, and third print.

First Print Red

The earliest variant is denoted by a pixelated white ESRB on the front of the box, and a Sandshrew vs Meowth screenshot on the back of the box.

On the right side of the box, you can find a “100% Total Recovered Fiber 55% Post Consumer Content” stamp.

The bottom of the box is a smooth flap that can be used to open the bottom of the box. This type of box is commonly referred to as a double-ended box.

If you look inside of the box of a first print Red version, the insert, which holds the cartridge, can only be found fixed (glued) to the inside of the box.

While the box is open, the 4 little tabs which lock the open/close flaps in place read U/DMG-APAE USA.

Finally, the cartridge of a first print Red is designated by the DMG-APAE-USA code and pixelated white ESRB symbol.

Second Print Red

Much like the first print Red, the second print Red also possesses a pixelated white ESRB logo on the front of its box. However, unlike the first print’s Sandshrew vs Meowth screenshot, the second print carries a Pidgey vs Rattata screenshot on the back of the box.

Second print Red copies are accompanied by an “83% Total Recovered Fiber 81% Post Consumer Content” stamp on the right side of the box, rather than the “100% Total Recovered Fiber 55% Post Consumer Content” stamp found on the first print boxes.

Additionally, the bottom of a second print Red box is closed off. This type of box is commonly referred to as a Y-fold.

In the interior of a second print Red box, the cartridge holding insert can only be found removable, unlike the fixed insert found in the first print. When the insert is removed from the box, the box is hollow with no fixed internals.

The four tabs on the top and bottom of the box read code DMG-APAE USA.

Finally, the cartridge of a second Red version is found with the DMG-APAE-USA code and pixelated white ESRB, like the first print run. Therefore, the first and second print cartridges are identical on the exterior.

Third Print Red

The third print of Red is much more obvious than the first or second print. The solid black ESRB logo on the front of the box is an immediate designation of a third print. This revision can only be found sporting its predecessor’s Pidgey vs Rattata screenshot on the back of its box.

Third print copies possess an “83% Total Recovered Fiber 81% Post Consumer Content” stamp on the right side of the box much like the preceding second print.

Additionally, third print Red versions carry over its predecessor’s closed bottom “Y-fold” design.

In the interior, the cartridge holding insert is carried over from the second print box. Once again, when the insert and content are taken out, the box is hollow with no fixed internals.

The folding tabs on third print Red version boxes read DMG-APAE USA-1.

Finally, a cartridge of a third print Red is found with the newly revised DMG-APAE-USA-1 code and solid black ESRB symbol.

Pokémon Blue Version

Pokémon Blue Version sports four different variants. I’ll refer to these variants as the first print, second print, third print, and fourth print.

First Print Blue

The earliest variant of Blue version carries a pixelated white ESRB on the front of the box and a Sandshrew vs Meowth screenshot on the back of the box. The only way to distinguish this print from a second print Blue box is the text on the back of the box accidentally referring to the game inside as “Red version”.

On the right side of the box, you can find a “100% Total Recovered Fiber 55% Post Consumer Content” stamp.

The bottom of the box is a smooth flap that can be used to open the bottom of the box. As stated above, this type of box is commonly referred to as a double-ended box.

If you look inside of the box of a first print Blue version, the insert, which holds the cartridge, can only be found fixed (glued) to the inside of the box.

The four folding tabs on either side of the box read U/DMG-APEE USA.

Finally, the cartridge of a first print Blue is designated by the DMG-APEE-USA code and pixelated white ESRB symbol.

Second Print Blue

Nearly identical to its predecessor, the second print Blue version carries over the first print’s pixelated white ESRB logo on the front of its box and the Sandshrew vs Meowth screenshot on the back. The only difference being the correction from “Red” to “Blue on the back.

Second print Blue copies also carry over the “100% Total Recovered Fiber 55% Post Consumer Content” stamp from their predecessor on the right side of their boxes.

The bottom of a second print Blue box is double-ended, like the first print.

The cartridge holding insert is fixed, just like it is in the first print.

Identical to the first print, the four folding tabs on either side of the box read U/DMG-APEE USA.

A second print Blue cartridge is identical to a first print Blue cartridge as well, with the DMG-APEE-USA code and pixelated white ESRB.

Third Print Blue

The third print of Blue is similar to Red version’s second print. The pixelated white ESRB logo on the front of the box and the Pidgey vs Rattata screenshot on the back of its box are demonstrated below.

Much like Red’s second print, Blue’s third print can be found sporting an “83% Total Recovered Fiber 81% Post Consumer Content” stamp on the right side of the box.

Third print Blue versions also have a “Y-fold” design on the bottom of their boxes, much like second print Red version.

The cartridge is held via a removable white tray, ending the predecessors’ fixed cartridge holder designs.

The four tabs on the top and bottom of the box read code DMG-APEE USA, ending the U/ code found in the first two revisions.

Finally, a cartridge of a third print Blue is found with a DMG-APEE-USA code (like the first and second print) as well as a pixelated white ESRB.

Fourth Print Blue

The fourth print Blue can be seen as the equivalent to the third print Red. This variant sports a Black ESRB on the front of the box, and a Pidgey vs. Rattata screenshot on the back of the box.

The fourth print of Blue version carries over the “83% Total Recovered Fiber 81% Post Consumer Content” stamp on the right side of the box from the third print.

Additionally, fourth print Blue versions carry over its predecessor’s closed bottom “Y-fold” design.

In the interior, the cartridge holding insert is carried over from the third print box’s box.

The four tabs on the top and bottom of the box read the newly revised code DMG-APEE USA-1.

Finally, a cartridge of a fourth print Blue is found with the DMG-APEE-USA-1 code and solid black ESRB symbol, much like the cartridge in a third print Red version.

Pokémon Yellow Version

Pokémon Yellow has a little bit more uncertainty than Red and Blue version. I’ve found 4 variants of Yellow version so far, and I’m outlining them in the orders which I believe are accurate.

First Print Yellow

Like the first print of Red and Blue, the first print of Yellow also displays a pixelated white ESRB on the front of the box. The back of the box displays a Pikachu vs. Caterpie screenshot, although this screenshot is consistent throughout all of Yellow’s print runs and offers no differentiation.

On the right side of the box, you can find an “83% Total Recovered Fiber 81% Post Consumer Content” stamp.

The bottom of the box is a Y-fold.

If you look inside of the box of a first print Yellow version, you can see that the cartridge holding insert is removable, just like the insert of Red and Blue’s later runs.

The four closing tabs of a first print Yellow read DMG-APSE USA.

Finally, the cartridge of a first print Yellow is designated by the DMG-APAE-USA code and pixelated white ESRB symbol. This cartridge is exclusive to this variant of Yellow version.

Second Print Yellow

A second print Yellow version, can be misinterpreted as a first print, can be differentiated by its lack-of, or missing ESRB symbol. The box shares a lot of DNA with Red & Blue’s early production boxes.

Second print Yellow copies carry the “100% Total Recovered Fiber 55% Post Consumer Content” stamp on the right side of their boxes.

The bottom of a second print Yellow box is double-ended.

The cartridge holding insert is fixed.

The folding tabs can be found to read U/DMG-APSE USA.

From eBay surveying, I’ve found that many of these missing ESRB boxes’ cartridges contained pixelated white ESRB symbols with code DMG-APSE-USA. I did reach out to a few sellers (who advertised that they were the original owners of their copies) to verify if the cartridge was replaced for resale purposes. I was told that the pixelated white ESRB cartridge was what came with the box.

This variant muddies the water a bit because this missing ESRB Yellow version unboxing displays a solid black ESRB cartridge on the cartridge (DMG-APSE-USA-1).

I would conclude that the transition of white to black ESRB happened during the production of this variant.

Third Print Yellow

My newest finding for the revision of this guide has to be the third print Yellow version. This variant displays the already known black ESRB symbol on the front of the box.

A “100% Total Recovered Fiber 55% Post Consumer Content” stamp is found on the right side of the box.

Additionally, this variant has double-ended ended box.

The cartridge holding insert is fixed.

The folding tabs can be found to read U/DMG-APSE USA-1.

Finally, a cartridge of a third print Yellow is found with a DMG-APSE-USA-1 code and a solid black ESRB symbol.

Fourth Print Yellow

A fourth print Yellow sports a Black ESRB on the front of the box, like the third print. The shade of yellow of a fourth print Yellow is also noticeably brighter than an earlier revision.

The fourth print, also carries the “83% Total Recovered Fiber 81% Post Consumer Content” stamp on the right side of the box, unlike the third print.

Additionally, fourth print Yellow versions ditch the third print’s double-ended box for a Y-fold.

In the interior, the cartridge holding insert is changed yet again from a fixed design to a removable design.

The folding tabs can be found to read DMG-APSE USA-1.

Finally, a cartridge of a fourth print Yellow is found with a newly revised DMG-APSE-USA-1 code and solid black ESRB symbol, just like the third print.

Final Thoughts

Most images above were researched from surveying eBay listings and Heritage Auctions listings. One new feature I’ve added to this guide was the folding tabs, brought to my attention by @adamw , many thanks for allowing me to borrow your folding tab photos, check out his informative guide that extends to next generation games as well!

Next, I should probably share my findings and speculation on the matter:

Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, denotes that they established the E rating in 1998:

I estimate this symbol released between March 11th - April 1998, as Castlevania Legends (released March 11th 1998) was the last Game Boy game to obtain the old K-A ESRB rating and Bomberman GB (Released April 1998) was the first game to miss the K-A rating and obtain the new pixelated white E ESRB rating.

Meanwhile, on September 28, 1998, Nintendo released Pokémon Red and Blue.

Source: www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-video-games/pokemon-red-version-and-pokemon-blue-version/

During Red and Blue’s release, the pixelated white ESRB E symbol was still in use. In 1999 however, ESRB changed the look of their symbol from a pixelated white E to a solid black E:

Source: www.esrb.org/history/

I estimated this change of ESRB symbols to have happened in the month of September of 1999. Spawn cartridges, released September 15th, 1999, seem to exist with pixelated white ESRB symbols on their cartridges, while Antz cartridges, released September 27th, 1999, seem to only exist with solid black ESRB symbols.

Upon further research however, I noted that Pokémon Yellow Version, which released on October 19th, 1999, was obtainable with a pixelated white ESRB symbol, during a time where games could then be found with the solid black ESRB symbol. Therefore, there is uncertainty as to when exactly the solid black ESRB symbol completely replaced the original pixelated white ESRB symbol for good.

I speculate that Nintendo had the White ESRB Yellow boxes queued up for production during this time period, resulting it being the earliest print of Yellow version. The missing ESRB Yellow box initially confused me into thinking that it came first as it can contain white ESRB cartridges and early production box features (such as a double-ended box with a fixed insert), though because it can contain black ESRB cartridges as well, it had to have been packaged during the the transition of white to black ESRB. This concludes it as the second variant. The last two variants of Yellow version, are less obvious, than the first two variants. I speculate the third print is the double-ended box simply because Red & Blue had double-ended boxes before they had Y-fold boxes.

I can justify Red & Blue’s early prints to be the Sandshrew vs. Meowth variants simply because Sandshrew and Meowth are both Red version exclusive and thus misleading to be displayed on Blue’s box, thus the correction to non-version exclusive Pokemon. Blue version’s “Red” text on the back of the box is another clear error that called for a revision to be made, establishing a difference between the first and second print Blue version.

I plan to add additional information to this guide regarding production codes, cartridge motherboards, and anything else I may come across, hopefully in the near future. I’d need to purchase some more game variants to verify this information however, so bear with me.

I’ll end off with an updated summary table that includes all of the information that I have so far confirmed thus far.

Version History

Currently, this guide is version 2.1.

Version 1.0 → 2.0

• Added Blue version’s “Red” text error
• Added Yellow version’s Black ESRB/Double-Ended variant
• Added folding tab photos
• Early production run renamed to first print
• Mid production run renamed to second print
• Late production run renamed to third print

Version 2.0 → 2.1

Formatting modifications by @pfm

[lyleberr]

This is amazingly interesting and something I’ll have to check next time Im near my old boxes. Thanks for all the great and detailed information!

[brendantheclayboy]

Fine work you’ve done here. I’m grateful as this particularly helps me man. I prefer the Sandshrew/Meowth for sure. It’s funny how the older, earlier releases of things always look better.

[fiery]

I needed this. Very informative, thanks!

[jkanly]

Awesome article! I don’t know if it muddys the water some, but Red, Blue and Yellow versions I’d had were all purchased at the same time through a military base exchange in late 1999. The Red & Blue both had the pixillated “E” & meowth/sandshrew scenes. The Yellow version had the solid black “E”, and has the “100% total recovered fiber, 55% post consumer content” label. I don’t know the recycling labels said for the red/blue. It’s possible that being a military base, they had the red/blue as leftover from the early release, but less likely as more than a year had passed since the red/blue release.

Also an interesting note: for Red & Blue Spanish copies (Roja & Azul), they didn’t bother with the recycling labels or ESRB rating on the box. The Spanish editions had a Charmander/Squirtle fight scene for Red, and a Wartortle/Spearow fight scene for blue.

[gengaranimal]

Interesting. While I haven’t paid much attention to this beyond the white ESRB box logo, I do notice that my Blue version—which appears to line up with early production—does not have the removable cardboard cart tray. Instead, it has the built in divider that is glued inside the outer box, while my mid production Red has the removable tray. @kinggr, any info on this as further evidence of first production packaging, and perhaps another way to differentiate?

Also, I’m curious about the carts themselves. They are usually stamped on the label with a number that likely relates loosely to production run. For eg, my early Blue is stamped with a “34” and my Red is stamped with a “22.” And in my time in video game collecting, early systems and carts are frequently ID’d by looking at the chip stamp numbering, or board markers. Of course, mismatched carts and packaging would not be uncommon, and for those seeking first run products, it seems the carts would at least be as important as the packaging (The Revenge of Shinobi software revisions being a great example of this). Is there any info on the carts themselves as it relates to production runs?

Thanks for your post.

[trainerjack]

Excellent thread! It was a great read. It looks like I’ve got a mid production copy.

[ascendedbidoof]

I had no idea there was another variant outside of just the two labels. I immediately had to look at my copies of Red/Blue and I have the first print run for both! This guide was really informative and detailed, I definitely appreciate the time and dedication that went into it! Good job!

[kinggr]

First off, I apologize that this response is taking longer than it should have, I wanted to make sure my edit was not only accurate but also well-written.

@jkanly

Awesome article! I don’t know if it muddys the water some, but Red, Blue and Yellow versions I’d had were all purchased at the same time through a military base exchange in late 1999. The Red & Blue both had the pixillated “E” & meowth/sandshrew scenes. The Yellow version had the solid black “E”, and has the “100% total recovered fiber, 55% post consumer content” label. I don’t know the recycling labels said for the red/blue. It’s possible that being a military base, they had the red/blue as leftover from the early release, but less likely as more than a year had passed since the red/blue release.

Also an interesting note: for Red & Blue Spanish copies (Roja & Azul), they didn’t bother with the recycling labels or ESRB rating on the box. The Spanish editions had a Charmander/Squirtle fight scene for Red, and a Wartortle/Spearow fight scene for blue.

Thanks for bringing this up, I noted the three variants of Yellow Version that I found to exist. I’ve never seen a variant of Yellow Version with the solid black ESRB symbol and 100% Total Recovered Fiber, post it if you can that’s super interesting! And as far as those Spanish copies go, I’m not keen on them, but I did notice that they do not have ESRB symbols as well. European prints also do not have ESRB’s and they have different fonts on the box as well as a red stripe reading “Nintendo” going down the box.

@gengaranimal

Interesting. While I haven’t paid much attention to this beyond the white ESRB box logo, I do notice that my Blue version—which appears to line up with early production—does not have the removable cardboard cart tray. Instead, it has the built in divider that is glued inside the outer box, while my mid production Red has the removable tray. @kinggr , any info on this as further evidence of first production packaging, and perhaps another way to differentiate?

Also, I’m curious about the carts themselves. They are usually stamped on the label with a number that likely relates loosely to production run. For eg, my early Blue is stamped with a “34” and my Red is stamped with a “22.” And in my time in video game collecting, early systems and carts are frequently ID’d by looking at the chip stamp numbering, or board markers. Of course, mismatched carts and packaging would not be uncommon, and for those seeking first run products, it seems the carts would at least be as important as the packaging (The Revenge of Shinobi software revisions being a great example of this). Is there any info on the carts themselves as it relates to production runs?

Thanks for your post.

I too noticed the embossed 22 and 34, though I have not had any indications of what they mean yet. I did add what’s certain about the cartridges however, with the DMG codes.

[gengaranimal]

nice–I know the outer packaging details are most helpful for sealed game collectors, but the info and pics you’ve added are very helpful

[cbd1235]

I’m not sure how well this does or doesn’t fit into the E4 site, being a trading card site predominantly. But what I can say is that this is exceptionally well done, and it is a great asset to this site.

Thank you for writing such a great guide!

[adamw]

Hi there, fellow variant addict, and congrats! I have been doing a lot of the same research, but logging it in a different place:

www.videogamesage.com/topic/6629-pokemon-generation-i-us-box-variant-guide-featuringthe-left-bros-of-pokemon/

I think I have more information, though

Here are some key general points. The boxes with an openable bottom flap are often referred to as “double-ended boxes”. This is what WATA calls them on its tags. The other style are called “y-fold boxes”. For Pokemon games, the correlation of fiber percentage and box style is 100% consistent (though I was actually trying to not tell the world about it as it is useful for identifying fakes; there’s an extremely good fake box maker who gets this wrong, but not much else). The correlation of insert styles is also 100% consistent: double-ended boxes *always* have a glued-in insert, y-fold boxes *always* have a removable tray.

There are some other small and interesting ways in which all y-fold boxes and all double-ended boxes for Red, Blue and Yellow differ; for instance, the Cubone on one side of the box is smaller on all y-fold box prints than on all double-ended box prints. I’m keeping a couple other similar differences under my hat for fake identification purposes.

However, it’s not as simple as “double-ended boxes old, y-fold boxes new”. There are double-ended boxes for much later games; there is a print of Crystal that comes in one, for instance. There are even Game Boy Advance games in double-ended boxes. There are also games much *older* than Pokemon in y-fold boxes.

I actually believe, at least for GB/GBC/GBA games (it gets more complex if you pull in the home consoles), that double-ended boxes were printed in the US, and y-fold boxes in Japan. Which box style was used for which was probably determined simply by where Nintendo decided to schedule production of the boxes, for whatever reasons made sense at the time.

There are some other interesting properties of the boxes that I think you didn’t notice. Open the top of any box, and look at the right-hand tab under the flap (it’s usually on all the other tabs too). There will be a code on it. This is the print code. For what you’re calling “early production” Red, that code is U/DMG-APAE USA; for “early production” Blue it’s U/DMG-APEE USA. For mid-production it’s DMG-APAE USA and DMG-APEE USA. For “late production” it’s DMG-APAE USA-1 and DMG-APEE USA-1. All other GB/GBC/GBA games have a code in the same place that identifies the print run. The U/ prefix, I believe, indicates “printed in the US”. I’ll get to why I believe that later.

Y-fold boxes often (but not always) also have a *date code* on the top-right tab that gives the exact date the box was printed. This is extremely useful for identifying when prints happened, and I am super sad that double-ended boxes don’t have them (there is no other way I’m aware of to identify a box’s production date). For Pokemon games this code is in YYMMDD format. It’s sometimes printed in a color that’s very hard to see (on Red, the print code is white and easy to see, but the date code is a muddy grey that’s quite hard to see).

For Blue you’re also missing a key and very interesting point: early copies of the first print have an error that was later corrected. Early copies of first print Blue say, on the first of five bullet points in the back text, “Collect up to 139 different Pokemon playing the Red version. Using the Game Link cable (sold separately), trade with a friend who has the Blue version to capture all 150”. That’s meant to read “Collect up to 139 different Pokemon playing the Blue version…trade with a friend who has the Red version to capture all 150”. Fairly early during the print run, they noticed this error and corrected it. They did *not* change the print run code when they did this, so both the “Red text” and “Blue text” variants have the same print code (U/DMG-APEE USA); at first I was calling these “first print” and “second print”, but it’d probably be more correct to refer to them as variants of the same print.

So, for me, this is how Blue and Red go:

#1 U/DMG-APAE USA, U/DMG-APEE USA: White ESRB, double-ended box, Sandshrew screenshot. Blue #1a: “playing the Red version” text. Blue #1b: “playing the Blue version” text.
#2 DMG-APAE USA, DMG-APEE USA: White ESRB, y-fold box, Rattata screenshot.
#3 DMG-APAE USA-1, DMG-APEE USA-1: Black ESRB, y-fold box, Rattata screenshot.

Naturally, most of the first prints were printed…before the game came out, so in mid-1998 most likely. As they have no date code I cannot tell for sure if there was any later top-up run of those prints. Interestingly some of them came with consumer safety booklet U/DMG-USA-6, but some came with U/DMG-USA-7, and obviously you’d think the ones with -7 were printed later than the ones with -6. I don’t know of a way we can tell how *much* later, though. It could just be that it took them two weeks to print all the boxes and they happened to get a new shipment of consumer info booklets in the middle, and switched over.

The later prints have date codes, so we can get a much better idea of when they were printed. My Red #2 was printed on 990820 - 20th August 1999. My Blue #2 is still being shipped. My Red #3 was printed on 991020 - 20th October 1999. My Blue #3 was printed on the same day. I’ve also seen a couple other codes for those prints in listings. For Red #2 I’ve seen 990709. For Blue #2 I’ve seen 990727. So we know #2 (that’s the white-ESRB Rattata print) was being produced as early as early July 1999, and the black-ESRB print at least by October 20 1999. Both of those dates put these prints around the NA release of Yellow, i.e. they were done to restock for an anticipated surge in demand for Red and Blue alongside Yellow’s release. It’s possible there were *also* later runs of #3 done alongside Gold/Silver and/or Crystal, but if so, I have not seen any yet.

So, onto Yellow! There are *definitely* four prints of Yellow. Precedence is hard to establish. This is how I have them currently:

#1 DMG-APSE USA: White ESRB, y-fold box
#2 U/DMG-APSE USA: No ESRB, double-ended box
#3 U/DMG-APSE USA-1: Black ESRB, double-ended box
#4 DMG-APSE USA-1: Black ESRB, y-fold box

All of those definitely exist. I have copies of 1, 2 and 4 in-hand, and a copy of 3 is in the mail to me right now. If you want to see #3 ‘live’, there is one listed on eBay for an eye-watering price: www.ebay.com/itm/164720613044 .

Again there are date codes on the y-fold box prints, so we can know when *those* were being produced with quite a lot of accuracy. I have two copies of the white-ESRB y-fold print (#1 in my precedence), dated 990817 and 990729. Both of those dates are well before Yellow’s release, so we know *for sure* that white-ESRB copies were printed well before the release of the game and sold on day 1. That’s why I tend to place it at #1.

The double-ended prints have no date codes, so it’s harder to tell precedence. However, one interesting factor is: manuals and carts. I didn’t mention manuals yet, but they also have print codes, like the boxes. The manual that came with what I call the “#1” print had code DMG-APSE-USA. For the print I call “#2” - the no-ESRB logo, double-ended box print - it seems to me that the contents of the box actually *changed* at some point. Most copies of it I’ve seen come with cart DMG-APSE-USA-1 - which is the one with the black ESRB logo - and manual U/DMG-APSE-USA-2. But *some* copies seem to have come with cart DMG-APSE-USA - that’s the one with the white ESRB logo - and manual U/DMG-APSE-USA-1. I have never seen a manual coded U/DMG-APSE-USA; I suspect they are either extremely rare or were never actually released. An interesting point here is that the manuals have an ESRB logo too, on the inside front cover. Manual DMG-APSE-USA - the one that came with the white-ESRB y-fold box print - has a *white* ESRB logo. Both manuals that came with the no-ESRB double-ended box print - U/DMG-APSE-USA-1 and U/DMG-APSE-USA-2 - have a *black* ESRB logo (the difference between them is that -2 has some pages at the back that -1 is missing; I think this was basically an error in -1 that was corrected in -2). I suspect manual U/DMG-APSE-USA would have had a white ESRB logo, and if one ever actually did make it into the wild I’d love to find it and check.

So basically, the contents of the no-ESRB-logo box “smell” later than the contents of the white-ESRB-logo box to me. That’s why I place the white-ESRB logo box first. I have heard from multiple people who say they got a no-ESRB-logo box on or near release date, though, so it’s possible that they were still printed before the release of the game on October 19, 1999 though; there’s quite a large window there between when I know the white-ESRB boxes were being printed, and when the game actually came out.

The black-ESRB double-ended box print is very rare so it’s hard to be super sure of its contents, but I think it had the same contents as the later no-ESRB double-ended box prints: U/DMG-APSE-USA-2 manual, DMG-APSE-USA-1 cart (and the same packins, which is a whole other kettle of fish I’ll get to later, but importantly, one of them is a flyer that advertises the release of Pokemon Stadium in “March 2000” - implying that the boxes likely were printed before that date). To me this suggests that it didn’t happen much later than the no-ESRB print. I tend to believe that all the double-ended box prints got done within a relatively short timeframe around the game’s release, between say August 1999 and March 2000; because the ESRB logo changeover was happening *right at that time*, some confusion or lack of the right image file or whatever resulted in the logo being left off the boxes entirely for a while, and the initial situation of early copies having a white-ESRB cart but a black-ESRB manual with some pages missing; the carts got changed to black-ESRB and the manual got fixed relatively quickly, and then somewhat later, they got around to putting the new ESRB logo on the box.

My copy of the black-ESRB y-fold print has date code 010409 - April 9 2001. That’s obviously very late! It’s long after Yellow came out. It’s after Gold and Silver came out, even. It’s three months ahead of the release of Crystal, so my best guess is my copy comes from a resupply print anticipating some additional demand for Yellow when Crystal came out. It would be great to get some date codes from *other* copies of this print, though, but because of that, and because of my feeling that all the double-ended box prints happened quite close together, I tend to make this the last print.

Quick note on the overall logic of print codes: it’s *weird*. The basic format is:

“[L/][T-]PPP-IIII-RRR[-N]”

L is a print location identifier. It’s not always present. PPP identifies the “platform” - DMG is Game Boy, CGB is Game Boy Color, AGB is Game Boy Advance, for e.g. T is an optional prefix used on some promotional materials - things like posters often have a “T-” prefix, Nintendo Power/Player’s Guide ads often have a prefix like “GP-” or “NL-”, I’m not sure of the exact significance of these. IIII identifies the actual “thing”: for a box or cart label or manual or strongly-game-related insert it’ll be the game code or related to it (so for Red, for instance, the box, manual, cart and game-specific insert codes all have ‘APAE’ here). RRR identifies the region the item is *meant for*, not where it was printed (so for materials from US games, this is always USA, whether it was printed in the US or Japan). N is a revision identifier; usually the *first* print of any item omits this entirely, then the *second* print (first revision) is -1, *third* print (second revision) is -2, and so on.

Slightly oddly, even though there’s a region-the-thing-is-meant-for code, game codes sometimes change between regions *too*. Red is APAJ in Japan, APAE in North America, and APAU in Europe. I guess this was for cases where the game code was used alone as an identifier but regional differences are significant, or it’s just because the actual content of the game is really different in each case.

As I mentioned, the print location identifier prefix is not always present. My best theory is that each item or the game it’s related to has a “home” print location, which is probably the first place it was ever printed, and codes for copies of it printed there don’t have the identifier at all. If that item is then printed *somewhere else*, the prefix is added. But this doesn’t quite hold up in all cases; for instance, the first prints of US Red and Blue have the U/ prefix on their box, manual and insert codes. I can only guess that the “home” location for all directly-game related materials is Japan because the very first prints of the games were always done in Japan (the Japanese prints), but it’s really hard to figure out. Anyway, main point is, if the prefix is there you can tell from it where it was printed - U/ is US, J/ is Japan, I’ve also seen H/ which I don’t know the meaning of, seems like it might be somewhere in Latin America though - but if it’s not there you can’t be sure, you need the location to be stated on the material somewhere (manuals and fliers often state it, but not *always*; boxes rarely do) or you need more context to infer it. To me print location is significant because there’s a strong correlation between where the *box* was printed and where the *contents* were printed. It seems to me that double-ended boxes always had contents printed in the US, and y-fold boxes always had contents printed in Japan (this obviously makes sense - the boxes, manuals and packins were likely all printed together, especially for game-specific packins). Any time I see a y-fold box copy with a manual code starting U/, that smells wrong, for instance.

The revision codes are kinda straightforward, except I’m not sure precisely how they relate with geography. I *think* they were probably just incremented per geo, more or less regardless of how that ‘correlated’ with the equivalent revision in any other geo; some things are very in sync between the two (e.g. consumer information booklets, which are coded DMG-USA, DMG-USA-1, DMG-USA-2 etc. etc.; AFAICT the same revisions of DMG-USA and U/DMG-USA always have the same contents) but others aren’t (like the Yellow manuals, DMG-APSE-USA-1 does not have the same error that U/DMG-APSE-USA-1 has, and I’ve noticed other small discrepancies between “the same” manual from US and Japan).

[adamw]

BTW, I also have some data on population. I’m actually trying to collect every variant so I don’t want to give this all away until I have them all, but I *do* have all variants of Red, Blue and Yellow, so this is my population survey for those prints:

Prevalence survey for Pokémon: Blue Version

Print #1: 20/203 (9.85%)
Print #2: 112/203 (55.17%)
Print #3: 49/203 (24.14%)
Print #4: 22/203 (10.84%)

Prevalence survey for Pokémon: Red Version

Print #1: 114/176 (64.77%)
Print #2: 46/176 (26.14%)
Print #3: 16/176 (9.09%)

Prevalence survey for Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition

Print #1: 74/181 (40.88%)
Print #2: 70/181 (38.67%)
Print #3: 17/181 (9.39%)
Print #4: 20/181 (11.05%)

In that data, Blue “#1” is the “Red text” error variant of the Sandshrew print, Blue “#2” is the corrected “Blue text” variant.

The most interesting point there is: Sandshrew is common. It’s by a long way the most common print of both Red and Blue. The Blue “Red text” error variant, though, is quite rare. The final prints of Red and Blue (the black ESRB prints) are also quite rare, as are the black-ESRB prints of Yellow, but this is likely less interesting to most collectors than the “Red text” error variant, as that error indicates the *earliest known production*.

Oh, also, there’s no equivalent of the “Red text” error for Red. So it’s possible to identify rare early production copies of Blue, but not of Red.
My survey is of *all* copies. If you only consider *sealed* copies, the numbers change a bit, because sealed copies skew late. For e.g. here are the sealed numbers for Blue:

Print #1: 1/28 (3.57%)

Print #2: 8/28 (28.57%)

Print #3: 10/28 (35.71%)

Print #4: 9/28 (32.14%)

so for *sealed* copies, the picture is different, and Sandshrew is less common. This makes intuitive sense: remaining sealed copies of older games tend to be dead stock, and there’s much more likely to be dead stock of the later prints than the earlier ones. This of course means a *sealed* “Red text” Blue is an even rarer thing. I actually know one other sealed copy of it definitely exists, though it’s not in my survey because it wasn’t on a platform I’m currently tracking there. It definitely seems analogous to the “Left Bros.” situation for Super Mario Bros. 3, if you know about that - you can get a cart-only or even a box copy of Left Bros. without *too* much trouble, it’s not so incredibly rare, but a high quality *sealed* one is a very expensive proposition indeed.

I know WATA and Heritage Auctions know about this error, though I also know they only found out about it recently (I know some people on Reddit knew about it as long as seven years ago). I am absolutely *fascinated* to see what happens the first time they sell a sealed Blue “Red text” copy.

[kinggr]

@adamw

Thanks for your information! I actually had been in talks about the order of Yellow version with the white ESRB possible coming before the missing ESRB box! My original comparison came from only the original 3 games, and I was pointed into the direction of generation 2 where Gold & Silver actually contain inserts, though crystal contains a glued cartridge holder.

I’ve been meaning to edit this guide with new information, once I could confirm it, and I am hearing this from multiple sources. I did notice the Blue text error as well noted under Heritage Auction’s descriptions, but I couldn’t confirm it on the box.

Nonetheless, thanks for your input! I’m hesitant to revise without concrete proof such as photos, hence my delay in revision, but once I get the time I’ll likely hunt for some evidence. A huge piece of evidence sent to me was this video of a missing ESRB Yellow unboxing, where we see the cartridge has a Black ESRB.

@jkanly,

The video I linked reminded me of your post, where you mentioned a 100% Fiber Yellow with a Black ESRB. Was your cartridge black, or was the box? If you are saying that your cartridge was black, and the box was missing the ESRB, then I’m confident that the missing ESRB is infact the second print! Just weird how Nintendo shuffles around the order of box composition.

[grandgengar]

I’d like to find you and kiss you OP

[adamw]

Oh, I have photos of everything, I was just lazy to upload.

Here’s the two variants of Blue #1 side by side:

https://www.happyassassin.net/blog/DSC01814.JPG(image larger than 4 MB)

And no, before you flip out, my “Red text” copy isn’t sealed, sadly! It’s one of those where the owner just slit the seal and left the plastic on. It *is* in fantastic condition, though, and I love it.
Let me know what else you’d like pictures of. I own every variant of the main series US GB/GBC/GBA games I’m aware of except two of LeafGreen and one of FireRed at this point.

[smpratte]

This thread is a wealth of knowledge! I already went and bought a game just because of the thread.

[adamw]

Here’s a shot of my earlier dated white-ESRB Yellow, showing the codes on the tab (print code and date code):

http://www.happyassassin.net/blog/yellow1prod.jpg(image larger than 4 MB)

My data on population, carts, manuals and packins comes from an extremely comprehensive survey of past HA and eBay listings I’ve been doing for the last couple of months. I wrote a database schema and tool to maintain it, which is public: pagure.io/gvt . I’m keeping my copy of the DB private at least until I can complete my collection, because it represents a huge amount of work on my part and because inventory is tight and prices are high and I don’t want to make my life any harder than it is already , but I’ll probably post it once I have the prints I’m missing. For every listing I find I record what box it is, what cart and manual (if any) it is, any visible tab or cart codes, and what packins are included (I’m also tracking condition and sale price, for price trend purposes, but haven’t done any visualization yet because visualization is hard and I skipped too much math in school…) If you record *enough* listings, the patterns as to what packins go in what boxes become very clear. There are a few minor mysteries for me now (like *exactly* which prints included which version of the Pokemon Stadium flyer…), but I have a pretty solid picture overall.

[adamw]

Oh, yeah, those cart stamp codes - my considered opinion is that they’re just factory identifiers. I don’t think they indicate production order, at least not in any interpretable way. And I say this as someone who has several “00” carts I’ve been tracking those codes in my db, as I said, and there’s no clear pattern like “copies that I can tell are early in other ways have 00 code carts”, it just doesn’t go like that (though my Red text CIB copy does have a 00 cart as it happens).

If you want to know when a cart was produced I believe you can open it up and check some production codes on various components inside, at least you can for NES games (not sure if it still works for GB/GBC/GBA games). But I don’t believe the stamp code tells you anything about it, I think it just identifies the factory or production line or machine or something that did…something to the cart.
Oh, there is one thing - when they actually revise the *image* on a cart, that code gets a suffix. This applies to, I think, Ruby/Sapphire and FireRed/LeafGreen. There’s a v1.01 of FireRed/LeafGreen, and if that’s the version of the game on the cart, the stamp code has an “A” suffix. I think Ruby/Sapphire have three versions at least, though I need to check that.
FireRed/LeafGreen Player’s Choice boxes, I think, always came with “A” carts, for instance. First prints always came with non-A carts. If you’re being super persnickety about correctness, you’d want those to match.

[adamw]

So, I’ve been thinking it through, and this is my best theory as to how the production of Yellow went down.

Some time in 1999 - let’s say May or June - the Nintendo Pokemon committee met, and planned the initial print run of Yellow for the US release. They also decided to print some extra Reds and Blues to supply anticipated new demand for copies of those alongside Yellow, but these were a lower priority and could be printed later. *At that time*, the intent was to print all the copies in Japan. So they used whatever data they had on sales of Red and Blue and preorders (if they were open that early) and surveys and TV viewing figures and whatever else, and decided on a number of copies to be produced, and a schedule for printing and shipping them.

Now remember, shipping a large amount of stuff from Japan to the US takes time. You have to do it on *an actual ship*, or probably several of them. You don’t just arrange that overnight. So this whole thing had to be kind of locked down ahead of time.

So they set their target and schedule and laid it out for the folks who’d actually do the job, and everything went down just as planned. There’s nothing “odd” or “weird” about that print, the white-ESRB one. All copies of it, AFAICT, came with the same cart, manual, and packins. The ESRB logos on the box, cart and manual all match up. The manual isn’t missing any pages.

They finished that production run, loaded all the games onto ships and sent them off to the US in plenty of time to arrive by release day - let’s say by the end of August, though I’d need more data to be sure - and figured they were done. They switched the Japanese factory over to producing copies of Red and Blue to be shipped over in batches as they were done, or something along those lines.

I think what happened next is: sometime around maybe mid-August, someone at Nintendo US or Japan looked at some numbers and thought “uh oh. I don’t think we planned enough Yellows”. That committee meeting back in May got it wrong. Maybe preorder numbers shot up, maybe retailers started requesting way more copies than expected, who knows. Whatever: I think the committee met again and decided they needed more copies than they had originally printed.

However, by the time this happened - let’s guess sometime in September - they realized that they didn’t have time to swap the Japanese plant back to Yellow and print more copies there and ship them to the US in time for the launch. Schedules just wouldn’t allow it, plus that’d mess up the plan to have more copies of Red and Blue available. So the committee had another meeting and came up with a plan: leave Japan printing Red and Blue and print some more copies of Yellow *in the US*, probably at the same place that printed the first print copies of Red and Blue. The carts would be made in Japan and maybe air-freighted over (since they’re way less bulky than an entire boxed game) - I don’t believe Nintendo had the capability to produce carts anywhere but Japan - but the boxes, manuals and packins would be printed in the US.

So that’s what happened, but it’s important that (in my scenario) this was kind of a last-minute emergency plan. In my mind’s eye I’m kinda envisioning this being one of those “oh god what do we do” moments, not a calmly planned out thing with lots of time. If I’m vaguely right that this was happening maybe September, they had about a month and a half to get the US plant set up and printing stuff and figure out the logistics of getting the carts flown over and getting them in the boxes and getting the boxes out to the distributors and retailers, all of it coming as kind of a surprise as I suspect no-one in the US was originally expecting to be printing *any copies of Yellow at all*.

And *then*, while they were panicking about that, someone from the ESRB called their buddy at Nintendo and said “HEY! Have you heard about our new logo? We want that on all your games from now on!”, and probably someone yelled a curse word very loud.

So, here let’s think a bit about those different box styles. The way I think, as I said, the Japanese Box Factory printed y-fold boxes. The American Box Factory printed double-ended boxes. Neither could do the other. I’ve no idea why, that just seems to be how it was. Now, think about how printing actually works. You print the whole box out flattened, then form it into shape. And the flattened form of a double-ended box is quite different from the flattened form of a y-fold box. So: I don’t think they could just take the image files used at one factory and load them into the printers at the other. I think it was more complicated than that. If they wanted to print the same game in both places, I think someone basically wound up recreating the cover art on top of the other box template.

Further, I think for Pokemon Gen 1 they actually had a kind of “master template” in each country with some elements that are the same on every Gen 1 game: the Nintendo logos, the Cubone on the side, the Snorlax and Pikachu on the back. And then for each game they set the correct base box color (Blue, Red, Yellow) and layered on all the other elements that varied between games or were changed over time - the ESRB logo, box text, screenshots, things like that.

Anyway, point is: I think they couldn’t just take the box art files from the Japanese printing and use them to print the new boxes in the US. Someone had to try and recreate the appearance of that box as closely as possible, on the double-ended box template. And while they were doing that, they decided (or were kinda required, perhaps) to change out the ESRB logo. They also decided - maybe just “hey, if we’re doing it there, may as well do it everywhere” - to change it in the manuals.

So while they were rushing to get all this done, two mistakes were made: they left the ESRB logo off the box *entirely* for a large initial portion of the run, and they left out a couple of pages of the manual. Another theory is they finalized the box art without having the art for the new logo but didn’t want to use the old one so intentionally left it off, but since it *is* in the -1 manuals, I don’t like that theory. Either way, though - it basically boils down to “this print run was a late emergency plan that happened to coincide with the ESRB logo switcheroo, and everything was kinda rushed”.

Whenever the mistakes were noticed, they decided not to junk what they’d done and start over. They just fixed things on the fly. First they noticed the manual booboo and fixed that, then after a lot of copies had already been printed, they got the new logo onto the box art.

As for the cartridges, probably the cartridge factory (in Japan, remember) started shipping carts to the US for this emergency plan as soon as it was hatched (or they even shipped spares they had lying around, or whatever), with white ESRB logos. And again due to pressures of time and required production, or just to avoid waste, it was decided to use them, not junk them and wait for black ESRB carts to start showing up. So that’s why we have a smaller number of earlier instances of this print with white ESRB logo carts.

All of this was happening right around the release date, while they were basically just churning out as many copies as possible as fast as possible and desperately trying to get them shipped out, in my little scenario. The overriding urge was “get copies printed and get them out, in whatever state”. They didn’t have time/capacity to double check everything and make it all line up nice, as was the case for the initial Japan-printed copies, so everything got done in a hurry and fixed on the fly. I’m guessing they basically kept this production operation running until they were sure they had enough copies to satisfy demand around the game’s release, then shut it down and never used it again. When they wanted top-up copies printed again later, they just did them in Japan again, hence the existence of my #4 print (the y-fold black-ESRB one).

To support my theory, I’d be interested if anyone who was there at the time remembers whether there were issues with Yellow supply being short - stores selling out, people not being able to find copies, stuff like that…