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Post by Da Robot on Feb 6, 2009 2:19:37 GMT -5
(I have to admit, I should have made this thread last because Pokemon hit the decade mark around last year in the west but whatever).
The purpose of this thread is to reminscet about the early day/your memories of Pokemon.
(In simple terms . . . MY POKEMONES MEMORIES . . . LET ME TELLS YOU THEM!)
Here's the beginning of my story.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ FLASHBACK! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ FLASHBACK! ~ ~ ~ WAVY LINES EVERYWHERE! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I remember all the way back in around November 1998 when I was a little more than 9 (and a half) and it was near the end of the school year, when Pokemon first came into my life through the anime.
I remember when it was first shown on in the mornings at 8:00 weekdays and the first episode must have been one set in Viridian Forest. Then sometime later (possibly the summer vaction of December down here) it was switched to 4:00 weekdays, I don't why that happen but TV ratings must have been the answer.
Around the same time, I remember seeing game magazines talk about the upcoming Pokemon games on the Game Boy, I remember seeing those years ago, a little top five list with Blue at #1 and Red at #2. And I think this made me and my brother want the games. Since I was the young "peer pressured sibling" I would be forced to have the #2 game Red but then . . .
The next issue of that same magazine came out with games list having Red at #1 and Blue at #2 and like I said I would ended up getting the #2 choice and that's how it stayed to Christmas Day, he got Red and I got Blue (and a GB Link Cable as well, first multiplayer GB game for me and him!).
It didn't matter I got Blue, the only thing that made them different was the exclusive Pokemon in each version and since I (or my brother) didn't know when we started it didn't matter.
(Later mention, I would like Blue for having Meowth's (Pay Day!), Bellsprouts and cute little Vulpix!)
Now back to Christmas Day, I remember reading the instruction manual (it's around my room somewhere, today) reading up happly begining my Pokemon adventure learning about the world, Pokemon, items and trying to comprehend what TM/HM's actually did.
I remember the first Pokemon, I got . . . Bulbasaur the Grass type . . . Why you may ask?
Because the instruction manual recommended for beginers to chose the Grass type because they would have an easier experience against the Gym Leaders (well at least the early ones) than picking the Squirtle (Water) and Charmander (Fire).
Unfortunalty my brother also picked Bulbasaur, and it wasn’t until much later we relised that we could not get
I remember leveling my Bulbasaur all the way past level 16 and then it evolved into Ivysaur and that’s the last I remember from Christmas.
Later on the game didn’t seem that great to me because I thought it was supposed to be like the cartoon/follow the cartoon, I thought since I had chosen Bulbasur, I would get Squritle and Charmander eventually from someone in the game and of course for those of you who have played you never get all 3 starters from a single game (except for Yellow version).
One of the most confusing things I did in the game (and I’m surprised the game allowed you to do it) was go through Rock Tunnel (link from Ceurlean City to “depressing as hell when I think about it today” Lavender Town, seriously why do people live there!) was I went through Rock Tunnel . . . Without HM Flash, and I stumbedled my way along walls through that dark cave. It wasn’t until I got emerged through the other that brother told me I needed HM Flash to see in the tunnel. I think the even sadder irony being that Flash is used only in that 1 place in the game, NOWHERE ELSE!)
(From what I remember about RT without Flash is that it is all the dark and walls are slightly lighter shade, but you can’t see any trainers without bumping into them. In the remakes FR/LG there is actually a small circle of light around the character even when not using HM Flash).
I’m was going to keep writing this but I want to know if anyone is even going to bother reading it? I only at the start of the year 1999 and well . . . 1999's GOT A WHOLE LOT OF STORY LEFT FOLKS!
So anyone here interested?
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Post by Fryguy64 on Feb 7, 2009 5:29:35 GMT -5
My family were early adopters. The TV series came out here before the games, and we had copies of Red and Blue imported from America. My first choice was a Squirtle... and I've been a fan of the water type starters ever since (except Piplup - he's balls). When the games were released here, I knew a few people at college who picked them up. I soon found the RPGamer Pokemon Forums, and met a few helpful contacts (including Nedroid, my favourite comic artist). I even created a website about Pokemon, but by this time my mind had started to wander. The UK got Pokemon releases over a year after Japan and long after America, meaning that while everyone I knew online was creating GS teams, I was stuck creating an imaginary GS team before even playing the games. But anyway, I was a massive Pokemon fan right up until around, oh, say, May 2001.... and then SSBM was announced, and we all knew what happened then! Check this out: Pocket Monster Island at the Wayback Machine! It's the final update where I announce my search for the trophy characters has moved to NinDB! Memorieeeees! |
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Post by kirbychu on Feb 7, 2009 5:34:22 GMT -5
My family were early adopters. The TV series came out here before the games, and we had copies of Red and Blue imported from America. My first choice was a Squirtle... and I've been a fan of the water type starters ever since (except Piplup - he's balls). Really? On Sky, or something? I didn't have that back then...  I'd read a lot about the games in various gaming magazines, and really wanted to play them, but I didn't really get into it until it was released here. I couldn't afford to get it right away, but I bought NOM's special walkthrough issue and read it several times. Then the cartoon started on ITV, and I recorded every episode. And around the time episode 5 came on, I'd saved up enough to buy Red. ;D |
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Post by TV Eye on Feb 7, 2009 10:36:43 GMT -5
I was in, like the third grade and a kid I knew had just brought in the Pidgey evolution set of toys. Everyone was like "Holy shit! Those look awesome! What are they?"
"These are Pokemon" he said. On WB at 3:00. Good times.
I was also obsessed with the games when they came out. Everyone on the block had one. I had Red and my first Pokemon was a Charmander. After that though I would always choose Squirtle.
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Post by Johans Nidorino on Feb 7, 2009 11:50:52 GMT -5
The first thing I ever learned about Pokémon was the news about the Electric Soldier Porygon incident from which many Japanese kids got seizures; those news had Pikachu on it performing an Electric-type Pokémon move. My dad warned me about how dangerous were video game characters becoming with the pass of years, and I got a bit afraid of it.
However, it seems Pokémon survived and people were increasingly loving the Pokémon phenomenon. I never got the Red or Blue versions in 1998 or 1999. In 1999 I barely knew they had even come to America (although I knew they had been released in Japan), perhaps because 1999 was the year when I missed a few issues of the Nintendo magazine I was subscribed to.
In 1999, I read that a Nintendo crossover game was about to come out! And they didn't mean Mario Party, which was awesome as well. Those were very happy days in my life. I had never considered that Nintendo would do something like that, making Mario fight against other famous Nintendo characters such as Samus, Fox, Donkey Kong and Link in a multiplayer fighting game. When the game came out, they explained its features, such as the stages it included, the items, and the characters that you could play as. It turned out that they included a Pokémon in the game and I laughed out loud at it. Both Kirby and Pokémon were 2nd-party game series, so I didn't expect them to be in Super Smash Bros.
When I learned that an additional Pokémon was going to be an unlockable character, I realized they were too many existing Pokémon to have picked only one, or that the Pokémon series was getting pretty popular. I looked for Jigglypuff in a Pokémon poster that showed the first 150 species with their prototype names, and I realized there were a lot more; they were able to evolve, and they were classified by types, which caught my attention. It was very similar to the building toys I played with as a kid, which had elemental types and combinations of them.
At that point, I hadn't played the Pokémon games yet, even though some friends from school recommended me to play them. Before I even tried, the Pokémon anime was about to be shown on the Latin American Cartoon Network, fully translated to Spanish. It was a fun and interesting show and I couldn't stop watching it everyday; it made me learn a lot about the Pokémon species from the poster I owned.
I traveled to Florida in November, and wow! I was amazed at how Pokémon was everywhere! Lots of apparel, Poké Dolls, action figures, toys from fast-food restaurants, etc. They were not only in random toy or apparel stores, but also at theme parks such as Universal Studios or Disney's Magic Kingdom. Not only that, but Pokémon: The First Movie was about to be released and there was a lot of hype for it. Mewtwo, the mysterious last Pokémon from the poster I owned was going to battle Mew, Pokémon #151, who wasn't even in the poster and had psychic powers as well. I didn't watch the movie during that year, but I did in 2000 when it came to my country. I loved it, and I loved the trailer for it.
In 2000, my brother became friends with a boy from another country who came over during his vacations. He owned a Game Boy Pocket and Pokémon Yellow Version, and there's where I first played it. Pokémon was a cute top-view RPG in which you traveled by modern-looking towns, and it was easy to learn how to handle Pokémon battles. I fell in love with it, and deeply desired to own the game, even though I didn't have the money for it yet. However, my parents bought my brother Pokémon Stadium for N64, and I had the chance to witness the mechanics of the game with more attention.
1 or 2 weeks before Pokémon Gold and Silver came out, I finally bought Pokémon Yellow (for me) and Pokémon Blue (for my brother). It felt good to finally have Pokémon of my own.
Well, that's pretty much my story of how I came to play and like Pokémon. A lot has happened from 2001 to 2008, but the above story is how it all began, so I guess my story is incomplete much like Robot's.
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Post by mrmolecule on Feb 7, 2009 18:52:33 GMT -5
I'll tell mine when I have real free time. Which is not now.
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Post by Koopaul on Feb 7, 2009 22:55:10 GMT -5
Pokemon was actually what made me a true blue Nintendo fan. Before then, I just played the games, and didn't do... um... the things I do now.
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Post by kirbychu on Feb 8, 2009 7:19:41 GMT -5
Pokemon was actually what made me a true blue Nintendo fan. Before then, I just played the games, and didn't do... um... the things I do now. ... ....... ...............  |
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Post by Arcadenik on Feb 8, 2009 11:55:56 GMT -5
I remember my first Pokemon episode. It was the one about helping Paras gain confidence so it would evolve into Parasect.
I remember my first Pokemon game, it was Gold, though I was disappointed that Meowth wasn't in it. I chose Chikorita and it became one of my powerful Pokemon in my team: Meganium, Pidgeot, Kadabra, Ampharos, Crobat, and Quagsire.
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Post by parrothead on Feb 8, 2009 13:48:42 GMT -5
I first heard of Pokemon when my mother showed it to me on the news. It was talking about the children in Japan who had seizures watching the Porygon episode. My mother was worried about me playing video games, because of photosensitive seizures. Right now, I found out that a flavor enhancer called monosodium glutamate (MSG) makes me have seizures, especially when I eat too much of it. It can be found in some ramen noodles (which I used to eat so often), packaged seafood, condiments, flavored chips, some Asian restaurants, and even in some fast-food restaurants.
While I was subscribed to Nintendo Power, an issue that came with a Pokemon Power issue showed me what the first episode of the Pokemon anime looked like. It was a comic version of it. On the last page, it told me what channel the Pokemon anime will be aired on. I went to a store and bought Pokemon Blue randomly, because I couldn't think of any good game to buy; however, I was kind of curious about why this series is good. Then I played it while I watched for the anime, but then I didn't see it. Then, I checked on a television guide and it actually aired at 6 AM Eastern Time. When I watched the anime, the first episode I watched was "Pokemon Shipwreck". It was one of my fond memories. The game had catchy music and fun gameplay as well.
When several other Pokemon titles came out along with VHS tapes of the episodes, I became interested in buying some of them. When I was planning to watch another Pokemon episode, I noticed it wasn't airing at 6 AM anymore, but it was changed to 2 AM for a short while, then it no longer aired on the same channel and was aired on the WB channel (now The CW Television Network).
When I got older, I slowly lost my interest in the Pokemon series, not only because it became a little overrated, but also because my parents were creeping me out about this. It made me think that my parents think the Pokemon series is just for the younger audience, which it looks like it, but it's not just for young gamers. Even my sister (who was 29 back then, now 39 and will be 40 this May) disliked seeing me with Pokemon stuff. So I decided to take my Pokemon posters off the walls in my room. I was 14 back then, and my brother was 16 back then. My brother became interested in the series as well, but then later passed away on November 28, 1999. I didn't cry very much when he passed away, because I believed he would be in Heaven, while I needed to worry about myself more. Also, this was when I first noticed myself not being easy enough to cry. Before my brother passed away, I sent Pokemon Blue to Nintendo of America to load Surfing Pikachu and its surfing minigame, but later noticed that I should of sent Pokemon Yellow.
Later, I became bored of the series and quit buying some of its games and stuff, and sticked with buying some other Nintendo titles, but then my parents didn't even want me to buy a bunch of games. I thought I was about to lose my interest in Nintendo, but then when Super Smash Bros. Melee first showed in a Nintendo Power issue, I became interested in it and started buying it as soon as it hits stores. When I saw some Japan-only characters in it, they amazed me. I looked on the Japanese Nintendo web site and saw some interesting titles that were only released in Japan, like Densetsu no Stafy and Tomato Adventure. It made me wonder why they weren't brought into North America. This is how I got into Japan-only and lesser-known Nintendo title business.
And the story continues. Currently, I am thinking about buying Pokemon Diamond (because my birthstone is a diamond) and will try to obtain Shaymin at Toys "R" Us before the end of February 14. I'm thinking the Pokemon series with Wi-Fi connection would be more fun than the ones before Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. It depends on how my parents would feel and how many important tasks they would have to work on. Perhaps if I help them finish up important tasks, then they'll probably let me.
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BeamClaws
Balloon Fighter
Beam claws closes the gap with his excellent foot speed!
Posts: 934
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Post by BeamClaws on Feb 9, 2009 23:15:35 GMT -5
My memories:
Watched TV show.
Had emulator. Had pokemon blue. Played it. Didn't know how to read, but I knew how to copy. Each time I played, I started a new game, got a charmander, and copied the word NICKNAME for his nick name. Oe tome I accidently entered the name when I copied nick. I kept that file. Got really far. Had strongest Pokemon, Charmander, in family. Years later I got Pokemon yellow and soon, Fire red. I named him Nick out of nostalgia.
But I never beat a pokemon game in my life.
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Post by Da Robot on Feb 10, 2009 1:19:04 GMT -5
My memories: Watched TV show. Had emulator. Had pokemon blue. Played it. Didn't know how to read, but I knew how to copy. Quote taken from back of Pokemon LeafGreen box (but I know it's on Blue/Red (from owning them I just can't find the box now) and most likely the others as well). "Basic reading ability is needed to fully enjoy the game."  Irony . . . |
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Post by Koopaul on Feb 10, 2009 10:37:08 GMT -5
Wow! You started playing video games really young. I started at five. But you know, no one else played video games but me. Oddly my first system was the NES despite the SNES already being out there. It was sheer ignorance out of my parents that I got he older system, but I'm happy for it...
Ehhh... Back on topic.
Pokemon was the first RPG I had ever played despite having owned a SNES prior.
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Post by mrmolecule on Feb 10, 2009 18:25:36 GMT -5
First off, apologies to all for the "pointless post".
I believe my first exposure to Pokémon was the "Pokémon Power" insert in my cousin's Nintendo Power. This would have to be December 1998. My first real bit of stuff was in 1999, when a classmate was raving about the Pokemon Official Handbook. Soon, I was hooked. My brother got Pokemon Yellow...let's see...
-first episode I watched part of was "To Master the Onix-pected". Don't remember the full episode.
-the stupid PokéGods rumor
-when there were only three expansion packs to the TCG
- I watched only the 2nd movie in theaters
- Pokémasters.com was the greatest website ever...
It was great, until a series of events de-railed me from Pokemon forever.
- Pokémasters.com exceeded its bandwidth and shut down. It would reopen a few months later, but as news only.
- A long-awaited game series in 2002 never materialized...
- The local WB/UPN station was acquired by Univision.
- Pokemon 4Ever never hit the local theater (I say theater because there was only one movie theater in the entire city)
- Around this time, a massive backlash came from the kids in school. Pokémon was uncool. So I kept it under the radar...
Eventually, it was all but forgotten...a few comebacks only dead-ended. Sorry...the last try was Summer 2007, when I researched how to make fake cards. But nothing ever came of that.
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Post by kirbychu on Feb 11, 2009 7:22:33 GMT -5
- A long-awaited game series in 2002 never materialized... ...Huh? Hasn't the game series been continuing pretty solidly for over ten years now? I don't remember any ever being cancelled, either... |
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