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The last chapter of Shudo's novelization was the Lt. Surge fight. As you could probably expect, Surge seems to be a foreigner who speaks Japanese with an American accent. So the "war" he brings up in the game, Shudo interpreted, was probably Vietnam. Given that, by 1996 or so, Surge would've been in his early to mid-40s, which checks out. More interestingly, his Raichu seems to exclusively speak "English-Pokemon," because Pikachu can't understand what he's saying, although he could communicate with Ash's Caterpie just fine. Also the Vermillion Gym is inside of a hollowed out USS Enterprise.
Shudo skips Ash catching Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, putting him at Vermillion with no new Pokemon or badges after a month. I guess he would've included all three and maybe Krabby in a third volume, if it had been made.
Not a too-real Shudo quote, but a funny one nonetheless:
>“Pikachu, my strategy is... do whatever you like! I won’t give you a single command.”
>Pikachu suddenly ran out onto the gym’s battleground.
>“Do whatever you like... that’s his strategy?” Misty sighed.
>“Well, given that it’s Ash, maybe it’s better he doesn’t give any orders... Yeah, this could actually be a good idea.” Brock kept nodding in an attempt to convince himself.
Fittingly, it was Brock who came up with the "lightning rod + speed" strategy in the anime. In the novel, it's Pikachu.
