I remember reading about Pocket Monsters in Nintendo Power about a year before it came out in the US. I put it in the back of my mind. A year later I was writing game reviews for a major newspaper, and I went to my first E3 and saw how Pokemon was going to be marketed in the US, and I knew it would be a hit. Speaking of which, according to my original press kit (which I still have), the Pokemon slogan was "Catch 'em if you can," not "Gotta Catch 'em All" and Ash's name was Casey. Anyway, when I got back from E3, I told my editior I wanted to cover everything Pokemon. He was like, "Yeah, sure, whatever." But he kept his word, and when the game did come out, I was writing Pokemon articles left and right when it got popular. I was getting paid for my artciles back then, so I like to say that Pokemon helped pay my way through college. I don't play Pokemon as much now, but I sure do have memories about it back then!
