Anyone remember what it was like when it all started? I remember

>>26373945
>church
lol

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>>26373945
>Pokemon just hit America.
>See all other kids trading cards and playing the Gameboy Games.
>All Friends at school have Red or Yellow.
>Be only kid that picks Blue.
>Squritle is bro for life.
Fast Forward
>28 years old.
>Still play Pokemon.
>Girlfriend plays Pokemon.
>Both Genwunnars.
>Found out she still has her old copy of Yellow.
>I still have old Blue copy.
>Find old gameboys and link cables. We want to battle our old teams.
>Nostalgia and good vibes.

We are engaged, wedding is in October, still hyping about Sun and Moon.

Feels good man.

>>26374163
That gif is oddly fitting

I remember not knowing you could evolve through trading until some kid brought his link cable. I gave him a random haunter for his yellow version pikachu to see if it would follow me. After haunter evolved and pikachu didnt follow me, i begged for it back. Ended up trading my Venasaur for it back. But to be fair, Gengar became my first level 100 pokemon through nonstop elite 4 battles.

>>26373945
This is a recollection from the Canadian 90s, beginning late '98, when I was 8 years old. I remember catching the first episode as it aired, just by happenstance. From there, it all began. As soon as the episode was over, I rushed up to my room and started drawing every Pokemon I could remember from the show. I was taken.

A few weeks later the games came out, and that Christmas I received a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Red version. Cards, books, toys, magazines, everything I could get my hands on I did. This was during the burgeoning days of home internet use, so wild speculation on hidden Pokemon were still running wild across playgrounds.

Friends and I would go to each other's houses after school to watch the show, play the card game, and battle when we could get link cables together. This continued for years, and I remember keeping up to date on any information I could find regarding the release of Gold and Silver versions. I remember old Angelfire websites with Japanese promotional images, and feeling as though I had discovered some font of treasure.

Pokemon was such a pervasive cultural phenomenon back then, with the films getting widespread theatrical releases, corporate promotions, every conceivable product, and more. For a child, it truly was a time of wonderment, and Pokemon truly was a product of the times. By the time Ruby and Sapphire were released, the fervor had wound down. I can only suspect that if Pokemon Sun and Moon had been released today as the first installation of the series, that the franchise would not achieve the same level of success.

Nothing has come close to eclipsing the impact on collective childhoods as Pokemon has had, and one really did have to be in the midst of it to appreciate it. These days I work as a teacher, and the only franchise that seems comparable to Pokemon's influence may be Minecraft. But even that pales in comparison to the global presence that Pokemon held during those few short, unforgettable years.

>>26373945
Fuck off, nostalgiafaggot.

>>26374261
cringe.

>>26374295
true though

>>26374060

I don't think this has ever been more appropriate: *tips fedora*

I used to draw pictures and read books about Pokemon a lot because my parents never bought me the games. Still bitter about it obviously

Technically that's not true. I got Crystal version after years of begging to get one of them, but that was the only version I ever had bought for me.

I also watched my friends play on the yard at school a lot. They would fuck with the link cable and glitch out the battle scenes.

>>26374261

Fellow 1990 year of birth master race?

>>26374295
>he never had the pokemania experience

I would make fun of you but I just feel sorry for you dude.

>>26374341
no, I had it. But it wasn't as fantastic as you think it was. It was just another children stuff fad. It may seem for us that it was huge because it was our children stuff fad.

My parents love Jesus they never fell for the whole pokemon is satan thing though.
I had no friends to battle with but did fight my brothers in pokemon. Trading was mostly trading with them too and only for the stuff not in my game. They never liked pokemon they just played it for my sake so while it was nice still left like I was solo in it.

Then my mom let Jason from boy scouts play my Blue and he deleted my save data. He had to have known what he was doing.

It wasn't til around Gen 3 that trading card scene got big. I made some trades and had all the Mewtwo cards. Then i got banned from school because to much stealing.

>>26374371

You deserved it.

>>26374163
>Find old gameboys and link cables. We want to battle our old teams.
You forgot the part about how your save data expired and your old teams are dead. Nice made up story however.

>>26374163
You're using genwunner incorrectly, assuming you think it means you started out with rby

I remember getting the Promo tape in the mail and watching it. Little did I know that 20 years later Pokemon would still be a thing and I would still be this into it. hope I still have that thing lying around somewhere.

I remember in Elementary school they had to ban Pokemon at recess because there was a black market for cards, including mafia like tactics if sellers were crossed. This one kid had a gigantic binder of cards including Japanese ones, the entire damn school would crowd around him at recess and it was like a god damn auction house. Good times.

>>26374355
But it wasn't. It really was on an unprecedented scale. Just ask any adult or teen. It was minions times ten. It wasn't exclusive to kid nostalgia

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Oh man. I remember being in kindergarten and boys playing the cards in the library. This was shortly before it became super popular. The librarian was mad and told them that it was all a fad. Her exact words were "you are so young, so you don't understand, but it 2 years time, no one will even remember the word "Pokemon". It's just some silly game that you will all forget about once you get older."

>>26374325
i bet your dick is cut too

>>26374442

Well normies certainly stopped giving a shit after GSC

I remember playing Pokémon Red and Blue with my cousin before we went to school.

>>26374393
Not that guy but what are you talking about my save data for red and yellow are still fine, what expiration?

>>26374338
>master race
>>/reddit

>>26374163
>Both Genwunnars.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>26374496
op is brazilian tho

nobody in brazil has cut dicks

>>26375980

To be fair, Gen 3 is absolute shit

I remember looking forward to band class, we would trade cards before and after we played, and also if the teacher was just working with one section the rest of us would bust out our cards.

It was rampant all over school, especially lunchtime obviously, and it got to the point where teachers started confiscating pokemon cards because kids were stealing them right out of people's desks and backpacks. They were banned.

I remember going to see the first and second movies in theaters and the line was wrapped around the building. My brother and I were near the front of the line for the first showing, and I remember when we left and passed that long ass line of kids asking us "how was it?!!"

Amazing.

>>26373945
You know what I miss? The sense of adventure.

First game I picked up was Crystal, and it blew away my mind that I didn't know what was going to happen next. I remember so many mistakes I made because I didn't understand the mechanics exactly.

I miss that, and even more so after I played RBY, just that sense of adventure. The newer the game, the more it sets you up to save the world and be the center of events. The newer ones feel so much more linear, go from A to B to C, and handholding.

Man, Pokemon used to feel like an adventure. Or maybe I just got older.

I remember looking forward to Beckett pokemon collector.

At my school we had a courtyard that turned into a marketplace for pokemon cards for years. It was surreal, people yelling out what they had for trade, kids selling cards for money.

>>26373945
>schizophrenically religious parents
Is this an america thing or something? I live in the UK and keep hearing horror stories about this shit but literally no one I've ever met had these kind of issues.

I remember when gold and silver was coming out, our grandma got is this magazine with previews of some of the new pokemon (not coro coro, it was english). I remember seeing ampharos and being instantly taken, I knew I would get him as soon as I possibly could in the game. I remember the magazine said his name was "Denryuu" or something and I drew a million pictures and wouldn't shut up about how I couldn't wait to get my Denryuu.

>>26373945
Pokemon was the first game I could call my own.

I was adopted at around the age of 3 after being taken away from my abusive mother and being put in a foster home. In the home I wasn't allowed to touch the video games my brothers and sisters played.
When I was adopted, my parents owned a NES that I used for a bit, but it was theirs.
One day they kinda just pulled into a parking lot and told me to wait. They came back with a gameboy, and I was super fucking thrilled.

Out of all the carts they got, only one of them was colored. It was vibrant red, so obviously that was the best game.
I played on someone else's save file because I couldn't read. Eventually, I tried to give the gameboy back. My parents told me it was mine. I didn't understand what having something like that was like, until that point in time.

Pokemon taught me how to read, it gave me something to talk about with friends, it introduced me to the internet with things like "pokegods", and it made 3 year old me happy.

>>26374393
You forgot the part about r/b/y having a long battery life compared to g/s/c

>>26376240
>all that sense of adventure
>maybe I just got older

I'd say it was both. RBY were very non-linear. GSC had a pretty open-ended middle section and a bunch of optional dungeons. They haven't really designed that much freedom into the main games in a while. Gen 3 had a lot of optional areas, but it all required surfing, so it wasn't as much fun. Gen 4, 5, and 6 were all very linear...

On the other hand, you and I absolutely got older and (presumably) wiser. So... the games got easier, and then they designed them to be easier on top of that.

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>>26376349
Pojo magazine, I almost guarantee it. I still have my Gold & Silver preview copy.

Can't find an image of the cover, but here's probably the issue that came out soon after.

>>26376486
Thanks for confirming that it's not just in my head. Looking for a fun hack now.

this is so cute.

>>26376579
When you're 30 you begin to become very nostalgic.

Or maybe it's just me.

>>26376355
This is a very inspiring story, anon.
Do you and your parents go along this well up to this day?

>>26376615
I began at 17 desu and at 21 it's already becoming weaker

>>26376240

Fuck you, now I have to buy one of the gen 1 games and replay them.

>>26373945
I think I was about 6 when I started playing blue, I wasn't aware that pkmn meant pokemon so I didn't even realise you could swap pokemon in battle.

>>26376679
http://emulator.online/gameboy/pokemon-red-version/
>Be current year
>Buying something

>>26376486
Well, to be fair, Diamond and Pearl did have a somewhat open-ended middle section, but they removed it in Platinum and Diamond/Pearl were absolute shit compared to Platinum.

>>26376738
But anon, if you spend $9.99 you can transfer your Red, Blue, and Yellow bros to Sun and Moon.

I mean, come on, dude. That's pretty great in itself.

>>26376738
fucking poorfags

>1999
>I had just turned 4
>Aunt gives me gift, says "I didn't know which version you wanted so I got you both."
>Freak out as I open Red AND Blue
I then proceeded to climb to the top of my school's Pokemon hierarchy.
>tfw shitting on kids twice your age with your elite Poke squad
Truly the best of times.

>>26378150
Nice.

A kid sold me a Gameboy Color (turquoise) and Pokemon Blue for $2.