PixlBit

                  

                  

If you grew up in the 90's chances are you are very familiar with that music and intros. Pokemon was a global phenomenon, you couldn't walk anywhere without someone mentioning Pokemon or go to a store without seeing Pokemon products, real, bootleg, or otherwise. I remember I was 8 years old when I was introduced to Pokemon. It was recess and I remember my best friend and I would hang out and talk about stuff by ourselves. We would talk about cartoons and games and stuff kids would talk about.

That day he was talking about this show were you can catch monsters and use them to fight other monsters. He told me it was called Pokemon and said it was very good. He told me I could watch it on Kids WB on Saturdays. It was thursday and couldn't wait to see what it was about, so I told my dad if he could go to our local video rental place. Yes this is the very same rental place I have mentioned countless times on previous posts. I told him to look for something called Pokemon.

He came back and brought me a vhs tape that had the first 3 episodes, according to what the video rental guy, which we will call Mario because he looked like Mario from the SMB movie, said. I watched it, and I was hooked. I watched it, and watched it, and watched it. I think I may have watched it 7 times. I think I must of worn off the tape or something because my dad said that the next few times he went to rent stuff, "Mario" was a bit angry cause one of his customers complained that the vhs didn't work properly.

This is how I got to watch episodes of Pokemon, via vhs tapes, as I always get up for school and weekends were for resting. I eventually got merchandise, like toys and shirts and posters and stuff. It was great. One day, my friend told me there was a game based on the Pokemon cartoon, he showed me that it was for the Gameboy. At the time I only had an N64, and I was lucky to have one and was wondering if my parents would even let me get one. I asked, they said they would get me a Gameboy and the Pokemon game for xmas, as long as I did well in school. 

         

I told my friend the news the next day and told me that there's 2 different versions of it. He told me that the games were the same, so it really was up to my preference in color. I told my parents to get me Red version, should they get me the Gameboy. They said okay. I was happy, but also excited to find out how the games were. The wait didn't help though since Pokemon was everywhere in my school, that only made me more impatient. 

Christmas eventually came and to my surprise, I got a Yellow Gameboy Color and a version of Pokemon Blue. My parents said they had gotten me Blue over Red because they couldn't find it anywhere, and they told me the GBC itself would be useless without a game. I didn't care, all I cared about was that I finally got what I had wanted. I got to the title screen and noticed it was the same as the beginning of the first episode of Pokemon, I knew I was in for something amazing. I went into the tall grass and met good ol Professor Oak. What followed from there was probably the hardest choice that I ever had to make.

Unlike in the anime, you actually have a choice of selecting 1 of 3 starter Pokemon. I was wondering where was Pikachu. I saw him in the cartoon, but at the time I didn't know the anime was based on the game, not the other way around. It was a hard choice, as my only source of knowledge of starter Pokemon came from the first episode itself. And I hadn't watched too much of the anime to know if they ever came out in later episodes. I decided on Charmander because a lizard with fire in its tail was really interesting to me. 

                       

I noticed that the game was very different from the anime. At the time I didn't notice I was playing an rpg, though I did notice the game was turned based, as opposed to action based like the show. As I played I got more and more addicted to the game and began to understand it better. I loved it more than the anime itself. I loved it more because this was your journey on becoming a Pokemon Master, and the Pokemon you catch and train to help you achieve that goal. I loved the Pokemon and how each and every one of them was different and unique. I loved that you had so many options on who to be your partners. I remember the first few gyms giving me trouble as I was at a type disadvantage, it was hard but winning at the end felt so rewarding. 

The game was unlike anything I hadn't played anything like it before. It really gave you the impression that you were on a journey. They had such a strategic element to it, you really couldn't just choose whichever Pokemon and fight, there was much more than that. Each Pokemon had a type, lets say Charmander is a fire type, which means it has an advantage over Bulbasaur because it was a grass type, but is weak to Squirtle because it is a water type. Each Pokemon had resistances to other types as well. Pokemon could learn up to 4 moves, via leveling up and through Technical Machines and Hidden Machines. You could also try to make a balanced moveset for your Pokemon to make up for its weakness. For example, Bulbasaur will have a clear edge over Squirtle, but if you taught Squirtle an Ice type move, you would have a shot at defeating a Bulbasaur, as grass types are also weak against ice.

Pokemon grow stronger the more they fight. After each fight, a Pokemon earns experience points and if they ear enough they level up and grow stronger. Some Pokemon evolve after reaching a certain level. I was aware of how evolution worked thanks to the show. An evolved Pokemon is stronger, and there were some Pokemon that could evolve one more time. I was really amazed when my Charmeleon evolved into a Charizard. It was such an amazing moment. But as I mentioned, you have to factor many more things likes moves, type advantages and resistances, and so forth. You also had to have a balanced team. It really was complex for a childrens game.

The games had a multiplayer function too, you could use a Link Cable to trade and battle with other people. I actually got a Link Cable for xmas as part of this GBC starter pack thing. It came with a bunch of stuff. Problem is since it was winter vacation, I had no one to trade or battle with, so I had to wait till it was the start of the school year.

           

Eventually the start of the school year began and me and my friend talked Pokemon. I was finally able to talk to him and my other friends about Pokemon properly. At least I thought. My friend then took out a deck of cards and they happened to be Pokemon cards. I asked him where he got them. He told me that they just came out and that his brother had gotten a job where they pack them or something. I wasn't sure to believe him, but he always had a ton of them. I wanted some cards too, but unfortunately I didn't know anywhere in my neighborhood where they sold them.

I remember my dad taking my mom, brother, and me to a swap meet. This swap meet wasn't like those that sold used things, this one only sold new things, so I guess it wasn't a swap meet. I remember seeing a booth or whatever you called them, and inside it, it had walls with packs of cards hanging on them. They were Pokemon cards. I told my dad if he could buy me one, he said sure and my brother and I each grabbed a pack. The one I remember grabbing had Charizard on the front. I began to open it and I saw the first card I got was a Charmander, then a few more, then I got a Charmeleon. I thought that it would be neat if I got a Charizard, and to my surprise, I had gotten a Charizard, and I noticed the card was shiny, and on my first pack too. My brother got a holographic Mr. Mime, I can't remember what else he got.

I told my friend that I had gotten a Charizard on my very first pack, he didn't believe me so I had to bring it the next day. I showed him and he was surprised. Getting holographic cards was a rare thing back then since the cards were random, now in days it is easier as all the packs I bought near 2008-2010 always had 1 inside. Either that or I was just lucky. It was a special thing getting something that rare when your odds were near zero. I told him if Charizard was that rare since I knew he would be the right person to ask and he said yes, it was by far the rarest card. He told me that all holographic cards were rare, but Charizard is the rarest.

                        

There was this mall my dad took us to once and there was this store that sold Japanese stuff like games and toys. Near the register I saw a glass display case with alot of holographic cards. Each had a price. I saw Venusaur that was 50 bucks, Blastoise was 75, and Charizard, I kid you not, was 200 dollars. I thought it was 20 bucks but I asked the guy in the register and he said it is indeed 200 bucks. Basically the card was worth its weight in gold, I had such a rare thing in my possession.

Word of mouth caught on in my school that someone had Charizard. I think no one at school had it, or had ever seen it. I remember alot of kids making me offers to trade it. One kid offered me an Alakazam for it, another offered me an Electrode, another offered me a Nidoqueen and a Nidoking, and many different offers. I even got bullied at school over the thing.

My friend would then eventually give me Pokemon Cards as he had a ton of them. And I mean a ton. I remember one time he brought this gift bag, he told me I could take it home and grab whatever I wanted from it, under the condition that I meet some kids he was supposed to meet after school and give em cards, since he was leaving early or something because his family was going on vacation and had to catch a plane. I said sure. Some kids couldn't wait and we had to give em cards during class under our desks, we almost got in trouble. I did as requested and went home. I was amazed at all the different cards, there were new ones from Team Rocket themed cards and such. 

             

After school was the best. Kids would get out their Gameboys and Gameboy Colors to battle and trade. You couldn't do this during recess or lunch unless you went to a secluded area that didn't have adult supervision. We did this quite a few times, but after school was definitely the safest time to play Pokemon without getting in trouble. I remember it being very intense. Battles with another human player was much more intense than playing against the game. I remember winning and losing, but it was quite fun. I remember kids used to bet lunch money, snacks, toys, and cards during battles. Some kids even betted Pokemon from their game. It was serious business. We made friends and rivals in the playground, we really felt like real Pokemon Trainers.

Trading was fun too as both versions had exclusive Pokemon. I remember trading as there were some Pokemon I didn't have. Trading was always interesting for rumors, like some kids would say they have this Pokemon, some would exchange tips and so forth. Some kids didn't know were Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres were, some didn't know about Mewtwo. Some kids even started looking around to see if anyone had Mew. Back then, Mew was something of an urban legend. There were references to Mew in the game, but no one knew if it existed.

I remember that one of these Saturdays I had to wake up and watch new episodes of Pokemon. I watched them out of order on vhs but can clearly tell how depending on how many Gym Badges Ash had. I remember waking up one Saturday morning and it was still early. I had to go through a bunch of cartoons to watch Pokemon. I also saw Batman Beyond for the first time too. Eventually I got to watch Pokemon and can you guess what was the new episode at the time? It was about Ash's  Charmeleon evolving into Charizard. I was just stunned, that the very first episode I woke up to see was the one Charizard first appeared in. It certainly isn't a coincidence that I picked Charmander, then it became a Charizard eventually, then my first holographic card was Charizard on my first pack, and now my first new episode of Pokemon had Charizard for the first time.

               

I eventually learned that the episodes also ran through the weekday, so I as finally able to watch the show properly. One of my friends, the girl who I made friends with because of Sailor Moon, loved Pokemon too. We would talk about the show and she would tell me that she cried in this episode. The episode was about Ash leaving Pikachu in a forest full of other Pikachu, it was really sad as it showed a montage of Ash and Pikachu, from when they met till now, it certainly didn't help that the music playing was sad too. Alot of the episodes were sad too that they made me cry, my friend included, like ones where Ash had to let go some of his Pokemon in order for them to be happy or because they are needed somewhere else. I have been rewatching it lately and I'll admit that they still bring tears to my eyes.

Time passed on an eventually schools started to prevent Pokemon in schools. I saw it in the news. My school didn't outlaw Pokemon, it just didn't want us to bring Pokemon cards, toys and games to school. That didn't stop us though. We just had to get crafty. Kids who got caught with any of the above would get their stuff confiscated and/or got sent to the principles' office. I remember one time some of my friends and other kids were walking to somewhere, and they noticed a binder on the ground, one of the kids grabbed it and it had alot of rare cards inside. They took em and some kids told me if I wanted any, I said no. It was stealing and one thing Pokemon mentions is never steal another trainer's Pokemon. The kid who the binder belonged to must of flipped desperately looking for it. I almost got in trouble as I was still in the area. I would tell him who took it, but the other kids who took his cards were from other classrooms, so I didn't know them. Though you really shouldn't leave something like that lying around.

Time passed by and my best friend told me about new Pokemon. I thought he was lying, he said they are from a new pack or something called Neo Discovery...

          

So those are my Pokemon Memories from Generation 1. As you can see, it was too long so I had to cut it short and divide it in parts. I've been working on the whole thing for years as I've mentioned previously, so hope you all enjoyed part 1. I'm guessing the timing works right as today marks the 20th Anniversary of the original Pokemon games and the franchise as well. Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow  are out now on the 3DS eShop, and you can get a download code via Amazon as well. I introduced my little brother today to the first Generation games with Pokemon Blue, and he is having a blast. Reminds me of me when I was a kid.

What are your Pokemon memories from the early years of the franchise?  I'll be back next time with a post on Generation 2. Thanks for reading and Happy 20th Anniversary Pokemon.