The reason that it took over 3 years to develop was because of the lack of programmers! There was only a small team of 4 programmers available for this project and having Pokemon Stadium to work on, thus being sidetracked.
The creator of Pokemon also thought the 21st century was going to be the end of Pokemon due to the lack of interest. He thought that he would have had to start a new project entirely, separating himself from Pokemon. But that rang untrue! People are more obsessed with Pokemon than ever.
Pokemon Gold and Silver were created for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. It was finally released in Japan in November of 1999 while it was released in North America in October of 2000.
There was also speculation of limited stock/high demand because of Nintendo’s excuse of delayed shipment from the Taiwan Earthquake.
