Pokémon Pinball was released in 1999 for the Game Boy Color. The game mixes pinball mechanics with Pokémon to create a pinball game where you can catch Pokémon using the ball, a Poké Ball, and evolve them via interacting with the board.
The game contains the first 151 Pokémon.
The game contains two fields: the Red field and the Blue field. Both fields contain largely the same features and have roughly the same placement of board elements; the difference mainly lies in which Pokémon species are used to represent the board elements.
Each field also has different maps, and some of the shared maps have different Pokémon encounters tied to them. Some Pokémon are exclusive to one field.
| Red | Blue | Both | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Pallet Town |
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Viridian City |
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Viridian Forest |
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Pewter City |
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Mt. Moon |
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Cerulean City |
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Vermilion Seaside |
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Vermilion Streets |
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Rock Mountain |
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Lavender Town |
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Celadon City |
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Safari Zone |
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Cycling Road |
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Fuchsia City |
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Cinnabar Island |
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Seafoam Islands |
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Saffron City |
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Indigo Plateau |
| Red | Blue | ||
|---|---|---|---|
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Charmander |
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Squirtle |
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Jigglypuff |
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Sandshrew |
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Magnemite |
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Nidoran♀ |
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Seel |
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Clefairy |
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Gastly |
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Vulpix |
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Cubone |
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Venonat |
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Lickitung |
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Meowth |
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Horsea |
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Bellsprout |
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Staryu |
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Exeggcute |
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Electabuzz |
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Hitmonlee |
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Omanyte |
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Hitmonchan |
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Kabuto |
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Kangaskhan |
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Snorlax |
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Magmar |
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Articuno |
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Pinsir |
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Zapdos |
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Lapras |
| N/A |
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Eevee | |
| N/A |
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Porygon | |
| N/A |
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Aerodactyl | |
When first starting a field, a roulette of maps appears on the field's center, and one is selected at the moment the player presses A to launch the ball. The chosen map affects what Pokémon can be obtained from Catch 'em Mode. The map can be changed during play. If the player hits a single Diglett (Red field) or the Poliwag or Psyduck (Blue field) three times, the map move mode will be activated, indicated by a "HURRY UP" icon in the center of the field. 
In this mode, the player has 30 seconds to hit some targets, after which the icon changes to say "Go to NEXT". 
The hole at the center of the field opens up, allowing the player to hit the ball into it. If the player does so, then the map will be changed to another random map.
There are three groups of maps. The first group is used when the board is started, and a map from the first group is then chosen the first and second time the player moves to a new map. The second group is used for the third and fourth time the player moves. The third group contains only the map Indigo Plateau, and is used on the player's fifth move. After reaching Indigo Plateau, the number of moves is reset to zero, meaning the player's next move will be to a map from the first group.
| Group 1 | Group 2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
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Pallet Town |
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Cycling Road |
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Viridian Forest |
|
Safari Zone |
|
|
Pewter City |
|
Seafoam Islands |
|
|
Cerulean City |
|
Cinnabar Island |
|
|
Vermilion Seaside | N/A | |
|
|
Rock Mountain | N/A | |
|
|
Lavender Town | N/A | |
| Group 1 | Group 2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Viridian City |
|
Fuchsia City |
|
|
Viridian Forest |
|
Safari Zone |
|
|
Mt. Moon |
|
Saffron City |
|
|
Cerulean City |
|
Cinnabar Island |
|
|
Vermilion Streets | N/A | |
|
|
Rock Mountain | N/A | |
|
|
Celadon City | N/A | |
The first method by which the player can obtain Pokémon is Catch 'em Mode, which can be activated either by hitting the ball into Bellsprout (Red field) or Cloyster (Blue field), or as an occasional option on the slots. Catch 'em Mode can only be activated when either two or three of the lights on the right loop are lit; what possible Pokémon the player may encounter depends on the number of lit lights. A Pokémon that is available on the current map will be chosen at random and its silhouette displayed on the center of the board. The player must hit the Voltorb (Red field) or Shellder (Blue field) bumpers 6 times in order to "flip" the silhouette of the Pokémon. Each bumper hit will reveal 1/6 of the Pokémon's silhouette; hitting the bumpers 6 times reveals the whole Pokémon. An animated sprite of the Pokémon then takes the place of the silhouette on the field. The player must hit the Pokémon 3 times with the ball to spell "CATCH!", and then a fourth time to capture it. The player will have 2 minutes from the time Catch 'em Mode is activated to complete this, and if they lose the ball, the mode ends.
Successfully catching a Pokémon will add one Poké Ball icon to the center of the field. Any Pokémon that the player has caught on the current run can be evolved (even those that do not evolve).
The second method by which the player can obtain Pokémon is Evo Mode, which can be activated by hitting the ball past where Ditto was (Red field) or into Slowbro (Blue field), once all three lights on the left loop have been lit. It can also be accessed by an option in the slots. In Evo Mode, the player must choose a previously caught Pokémon to train. Any Pokémon can be used in Evo Mode, even those that do not evolve. Whether the chosen Pokémon evolves or not is irrelevant for the pinball game itself, but evolving a Pokémon capable of evolution is the only method in which an evolved Pokémon can be registered in the Pokédex, outside of the pinball game.
In this mode, between four and eight spots on the board can act as triggers, and will be indicated to the player with blue flashing arrows. Three of the triggers, when hit, will cause an icon to appear that corresponds to the Pokémon's method of evolution; the player must collect the icon before another trigger can be hit. The other triggers will result in a message saying the Pokémon is tired, and no triggers can be hit until the Pokémon recovers, which either takes ten seconds or the ball completing an outside loop. In order to complete Evo Mode, the three triggers that spawn icons must be hit and their icons collected, and the player's ball must enter the hole that opens at the center of the stage. At that point, an icon of the evolved Pokémon is displayed, the mode ends, and two Poké Ball icons are added to the center of the field. If the newly evolved Pokémon itself evolves further, it can be selected in Evo Mode again to obtain its final stage.
How many total triggers a Pokémon can have on the board is determined by its species. See the Pokédex for each species' number of triggers.
The potential triggers that can be chosen are shown in the two screenshots below as blue arrows.
The potential locations of each evolution icon are shown in the screenshots below.
Each time the player gets 3 Poké Ball icons on the field, a bonus stage will open up. Accessing the bonus stage requires the player to get the ball into the hole that opens up at the center of the field.
Each field has two different bonus stages, followed by a Mewtwo bonus which is shared by both fields. After completing the Mewtwo bonus, the order of bonuses loops from the first bonus again. See Bonus Games for details on how each bonus functions. A bonus stage must be completed in order for the next stage to appear. If the player fails the bonus, the next time they unlock a bonus stage, it will be the same bonus.
Bonus stages can also be accessed via an option in the slots. The bonus stage that is shown in the slots is the one that the player needs to beat to move on.
Mewtwo's bonus must be completed twice in one run to encounter Mew. After Mew is encountered, Mewtwo's bonus must be beaten another two times to encounter Mew again.
Above the four lanes are lights that can be activated. If all four are activated (spelling CAVE), the slots feature appears. The word "SLOT" appears at the center of the field. 
A hole opens up on the center of the board. Getting the ball into the hole will cause a roulette of slot options to appear. Pressing A slows the roulette to a stop, and the player receives whatever option the roulette stopped on. The slot options are as follows:
| Slot | Description | |
|---|---|---|
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Small Bonus | A small bonus of 100-900 points. |
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Big Bonus | A big bonus of 1,000,000-9,000,000 points. |
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Catch 'em Mode | Starts Catch 'em Mode. This will cause the game to randomly choose either the 2-Light or 3-Light table of the current map to generate a Pokémon from, with each table having a 50% chance of being chosen. |
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Ball Saver | A 30, 60, or 90 second ball saver. How many seconds the saver has is dependent on where in the slot rotation the player it, described below. |
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Evo Mode | Starts Evo Mode. If Evo Mode is supposed to appear on the current slot roulette, but the player has not caught any Pokémon, this is changed to a slot for Catch 'em Mode. |
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Pikachu | A second Pikachu will enter the field opposite the Pikachu that exists on one of the four side lines. Pikachu will always be charged, and the Pikachu will always save the ball if the ball falls into one of its lanes. This bonus ends when the ball falls through the bottom of the board, even if a ball saver is active and recovers the ball. |
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Ball Upgrade | The ball is upgraded to the next version of the ball (Poké Ball > Great Ball > Ultra Ball > Master Ball). If the player has a Master Ball already, getting this option gives the player 1 million points. |
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Extra Ball | The player receives an extra ball. See Extra Ball for details. |
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Bonus Stage | The player automatically starts the next bonus stage they have to beat. |
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Bonus Multiplier | The next time the player plays any of the game's modes, the static points value that they receive on success will be multiplied by this number. This can be 1 (which effectively changes nothing) through 5. Bonus multipliers can stack if multiple are received before starting a bonus stage. |
If the ball is falling through one of the four lanes, or being pushed back by Pikachu, the player can control the orientation of the lights to force the ball to go through a light that has previously not been lit. Pressing the right flipper button moves all lit lights one space to the right, and pressing left flipper moves them one space to the left. Careful control of this can allow the player to frequently unlock the slot option.
Which slots are available on the roulette is dependent on how many times the player has played the slots previously. There are 25 distinct sets, and once the 25th set is cleared, the next set will be the 11th and continue on from there. See Slots for a list of the slot sets.
Outside of the elements discussed above, the following board elements exist:
Pikachu exists on one of the four lanes on the bottom of the board. To charge Pikachu, the ball must move quickly through the outer loop; this can be done on a single loop or multiple. When Pikachu is charged, a lightning bolt icon appears in the bottom left of the screen. If Pikachu is charged, falling through its lane will cause it to jolt the ball back into the playing field, potentially preventing a loss of the ball. Pikachu can be moved from left to right with the left and right flipper buttons.
Press the B button to tilt the board, changing the trajectory of the ball slightly. Careful use of tilt can be used to recover a ball that is about to fall through the bottom of the board.
Above the Voltorb (Red field) or Shellder (Blue field) bumpers are three lanes that connect the bumper area to the outer loop. In the Red Field, to access these lanes, you must first hit the button below Staryu. Lighting up all three lanes gives your Poké Ball an upgrade (Poké Ball > Great Ball > Ultra Ball > Master Ball), which does not make catching Pokémon any easier, but will allow you to get more points for interacting with the board and for bonuses. The orientation of the lights can be changed with the left and right flipper buttons. Moving through a lane that has its light lit will cause it to un-light on the Blue Field.
For the first 30 seconds after beginning a mode, or beginning a field, any ball that falls from the bottom of the pinball board will be saved and re-launched with no penalty. The indicator for whether the saver is active is just above the flippers. When it begins to blink, it is running out. A 30, 60, or 90 second ball saver can also be obtained via the slots.