Pokémon Red and Blue/Unobtainable Items

This is a sub-page of Pokémon Red and Blue.

There are several unobtainable items in the games. These remain present and unaltered in Pokémon Yellow.

Legitimate Items

#	Name	Buy	Sell	Notes
00		0	0	Appears as a glitch item if forced to load. It is called "!j" in Red and Blue and "x" in Yellow.
07	?????	0	0	This item's name was dummied out. Appears to have been used for debugging purposes, as it allows you to surf without requiring a Pokémon or the necessary badge. It can also be used on Cycling Road without the usual "Cycling is fun! Forget SURFing!" message. Additionally, while using this item, the music of the area updates normally. Attempting to use this item while facing land as you are surfing glitches the item name tile graphics and causes the game to freeze. Internally, it implements the effect of the Surf HM, unlike other HM moves, though it is similar to the out-of-battle effect of Dig, which is handled by using an Escape Rope.
08	Safari Ball	1000	500	While used, this item is unobtainable via normal means. Unlike in later generations, it is classified as a key item in Generation I.
09	Pokédex	0		While used, this item is unobtainable via normal means. It can be used both during and outside of battle, opening the Pokédex. However, using it in battle causes the VRAM to load the overworld tileset, and turns the HP bar into letters.
15	BoulderBadge	0	0	When used in battle, this item behaves like the Safari Zone "Throw Bait" function. Outside of battle, this item performs the animation anyway, which also corrupts the music due to a different SFX set being loaded.
16	CascadeBadge	0	0	When used in battle, this item behaves like the Safari Zone' "Throw Rock" function. Outside of battle, this item performs the animation anyway, which also corrupts the music due to a different SFX set being loaded.
17	ThunderBadge	0	0	Attempting to use this item displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.
18	RainbowBadge	0	0	Attempting to use this item displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.
19	SoulBadge	0	0	Attempting to use this item displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.
1A	MarshBadge	0	0	Attempting to use this item displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.
1B	VolcanoBadge	0	0	Attempting to use this item displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.
1C	EarthBadge	0	0	Attempting to use this item displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.
2C	?????	0	0	This item's name was dummied out. Attempting to use it displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.
32	PP Up	9800	4900	An unused alternate version of the PP Up item, the used one being at 0x4F. Unlike the regular PP Up, which has a buy and sell price of 0, this version is worth significantly more. Using this item always displays "OAK: <PLAYER>! This isn't the time to use that!"
3B	Coin	10	5	This item can be stacked in the inventory, but cannot be stored in a Coin Case, and attempting to use it displays Professor Oak's "This isn't the time to use that!" message.

(Source: Pokémon Red Disassembly Project - Item Prices & Item Documentation)

Elevator Floor Items

Following the list of item names, at offset 0x45B5 in the Japanese versions and 0x4A63 in the English ones is a list of the floor names used by elevators. These are stored in the same format as the item names, and as a result can be loaded as items. They lack valid effects, have a placeholder buy and sell price of 0, and have invalid effect pointers, causing all kinds of glitchyness (ranging from a crash to Arbitrary Code Execution) when used.

#	Name
54	B2F
55	B1F
56	1F
57	2F
58	3F
59	4F
5A	5F
5B	6F
5C	7F
5D	8F
5E	9F
5F	10F
60	11F
61	B4F

(Source: Pokémon Red Disassembly Project - Item Prices & Item Documentation)

Untranslated Entries

Starting at 0x45F5 in the Japanese Red and Green are strings leftover from a scrapped badge ranking system. This data can also be found at offset 0x4A92 in the English games, though since they weren't translated they only display as gibberish, due to the fact that the English games overwrote the Japanese font and didn't keep it.

Worth noting is how the word "badge" is rendered as バッヂ (baddzi), rather than バッジ (bajji), like in the final games. This may be due to how the 「ヂ」 and 「ジ」characters have historically had different pronunciations. Historically, 「ヂ」 sounded either like "di", "dzi" (pronounce the "ds" at the end of an English word, and then add an "ii" sound to it) or (approximately) "dgi" (as in edge, badge), depending on dialect. And historically, 「ジ」 sounded (approximately) like "zhi" (as in massage, "mirage", collage). As such, the original choice of 「バッヂ」 over 「バッジ」 may have to do with the fact that the 「ヂ」kana was historically a slightly more accurate rendering of English "dg" into Japanese.

#	Name	Translation	Notes
62	かみなりバッヂ	Thunder Badge	Possibly reworked into the Thunder Badge, whose Japanese name is the "Orange Badge".
63	かいがらバッヂ	Shell Badge	Possibly reworked into the Cascade Badge.
64	おじぞうバッヂ	Kṣitigarbha Badge	Unknown what type the gym associated with it would have been.
65	はやぶさバッヂ	Falcon Badge	Possibly intended for Giovanni, who appears to have originally been a Flying-Type Gym Leader.
66	ひんやりバッヂ	Chill Badge	Unknown. The final games lack an Ice-type gym.
67	なかよしバッヂ	Friendship Badge	Unknown what type the gym associated with it would have been.
68	バラバッヂ	Rose Badge	Possibly reworked into the Rainbow Badge.
69	ひのたまバッヂ	Fireball Badge	Possibly reworked into the Volcano Badge.
6A	ゴールドバッヂ	Gold Badge	Possibly reworked into the Marsh Badge, whose Japanese name is the "Gold Badge".
6B	たまご	Egg	The rank you would have started the game with, when you didn't have any badges.
6C	ひよこ	Chick	Your rank after obtaining one badge.
6D	ブロンズ	Bronze	Your rank after obtaining two badges.
6E	シルバー	Silver	Your rank after obtaining three badges.
6F	ゴールド	Gold	Your rank after obtaining four badges.
70	プチキャプテン	Petit Captain	Your rank after obtaining five badges.
71	キャプテン	Captain	Your rank after obtaining six badges.
72	プチマスタ	Petit Master	Your rank after obtaining seven badges.
73	マスター	Master	Your rank after obtaining eight badges.
74	エクセレント	Excellent	Potentially your rank after beating the game. Unusual in that it is not terminated by 0x50.

(Source: Pokémon Red Disassembly Project - Item Documentation)

Alternate HMs Set

There exists a second set of HMs directly following the regular TMs, which are numbered TM51 through TM55. They behave like regular TMs, so they can be stacked in the inventory as well as sold at Poké Marts. Irrelevant data is interpreted as their price, since the last defined price is for TM50.

#	Name	Buy	Sell	Notes
FB	TM51	3000	1500	When used, teaches a Pokémon the move Cut.
FC	TM52	14000	7000	When used, teaches a Pokémon the move Fly.
FD	TM53	0	0	When used, teaches a Pokémon the move Surf.
FE	TM54	8000	4000	When used, teaches a Pokémon the move Strength.
FF	TM55	4000	2000	When used, teaches a Pokémon the move Flash. Bears the identifier $FF and appears as Cancel.

(Source: Pokémon Red Disassembly Project - Item Prices & Item Documentation)

Hidden Items

Deleted Map

There are coordinates for a hidden Max Elixer at coordinates (14,11) of unused map 0x6F, for which there is no map data.

Game Corner

The hidden coin item on the ground directly three tiles above the top-left slot machine on the cluster of machines that is the second from the east side is supposed to give you 40 coins. However, due to a typo in the routine that handles picking up hidden coins, only 20 coins are found instead.

Safari Zone Entrance

In certain areas around the Safari Zone entrance, using your Itemfinder causes it to tell you there is a hidden item nearby, but this item is actually unobtainable. The item is a Nugget located at the coordinates (10,1), which is outside of the map boundaries, and leaving said boundaries would just cause the game to crash. This suggests that the map was changed during development without the hidden item having been removed, as hidden item data is separate from other map data.