Ten Years Of Pokémon!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Sorry if someone else was going to post a topic about this...

On the 27th of February, 1996, the first Pokémon games were released in Japan.

Comment, discuss and/or congrartulate.

For example, you may post your own Pokémon history, like when and where and how you first heard about Pokémon, which Pokémon game you bought first, when you began to collect TCG and so on.

My Pokémon History

I was born in 1985, so I was 10 years old when Pokémon started in Japan.

The first time I heard about Pokémon was in a Finnish videogame magazine in 1999. They said that the TV show was going to be shown in a Finnish channel named MTV3. I did not care about that info though, I didn't know at all what that was all about. But then the First episode was seen and I heard my schoolmates talking about it. I decided to watch the second eppie, Pokémon Emergency. I kinda liked it, and eventhough I did not intend to watch every single episode, I began to watch it occasionally. But by the time they showed Pokémon Shipwreck and Teantacool & Tentacruel I was addicted.

At the same time the millenium changed and my emotional life was in crisis. I had a crush on a girl who rejected me and I felt very down. Pokémon was the only bright spot in my life. The first eppie I taped was just appropriately Bye Bye Butterfree. Meanwhile, the Pokémon phenomenon grew stronger and stronger. The Trading Card Game entered Finland. Some adults protested. They claimed their children only thought about Pokémon and could not focus at school. These people attacked the lyrics of the Finnish PokéRap "Kaikki kerätään" (in English, 'We collect them all') and first MTV3 stopped showing PokéRap, and than the whole series. Fortunately I had already taped a video casette full of episods and watched them regularly. I never knew what the Card Game was all about, but at some point I began to collect cards which had a picture of Pokémon on one side and its appearance in the anime on the other. I am not sure what they are called, please correct me.

In summer 2000, Pokémon got remission of sins. The TV series began again. I bought the first movie on video without even seeing it first and became probably one of my hometown's biggest fans. It was not until the end of the year I noted the Game Boy games. I got an emulator of Game Boy and started playing Pokémon Yellow. I went to the cinema to watch the first movie though I already had it on tape. Soon after that came the second film and I thought that was the best movie ever.

Somewhere in early 2001 I found the PokéMasters main site in the World Wide Web. I rceived lots of useful information there. The message board I figured out in September after the terrorist attacks. About the same time I entered LUKIO, the Finnish equivalent to High School. I already had used Pokémon philosophies to get better at school and I worshipped the legendary birds and LUGIA. In november my land skipped the entire Orange League and started Johto League! My interest in anime began to fade, but I bought a Game Boy Advane of my own and could play Pokémon Red everywhere.

Spring 2002 I downloaded the banned episodes. I also did subtitles for the eppies. Autumn 2002 Saior Moon started in our country. I decided to take a break from The PokéMasters and make my own homepage. My interest in Pokémon was on the lowest level at that time. I regained my hobby after returning to TPM in winter 2003. I began to translate TVTOKYO previews and that situation continued until I entered Finnish army in summer 2004.Before that I had used The PokéMasters to refresh my English and I got a good degree in that subject in lukio. But now I had to stop watching Pokémon until the Advance Generation began in Finland.

It was, however, a disappointment for me and, for a reason, MTV3 stopped completely showing Pokémon recently.

But now I have 2 Game Boys and Pokémon Red, Pokémon Sapphire and Pokémon Ruby. I still play them and in Pokémon Red I have the Mews I got from ILikePokémon from Australia.

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/9418/poke17yc.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3205/poke29ox.jpg

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[Magmar]

I... can't believe it's been 10 years O_O

[mr_pikachu]

Mikachu: At least in the U.S., a trading card company called Topps (or was it Upper Deck? Hrm...) released cards that are at least similar to the ones you were talking about. I got a couple of the ones that were released for the first movie, myself.

Well, I first heard about Pokemon during a news report when I was nine or ten. You should all know what it covered without me even saying it, but in case anyone doesn't know instantly, it was about the Porygon episode and the mass seizures in Japan. I didn't know what Pokemon was then, and I believe the reporter even mispronounced it as "Poke-man", which didn't help a bit.

Soon after, a friend of mine got into Pokemon. I thought he was nuts at first. It seemed stupid to me, and as I was inconsiderate then (yes, I'll admit it), I gave him a fairly hard time about it. But he kept insisting that it was cool, and I tried out his copy of Pokemon Red one night (of course, he didn't let me save, as it was his game).

Several hours of continuous gameplay later, I realized that the game was more fun than I had initially thought. I slowly developed an appreciation for the video games as well as the anime, which was actually the first animated show I had watched in years. (I didn't learn until years later that it was an anime, not just a regular cartoon.) I even got into the TCG, although I was awful at deck-building. I didn't realize until the night before I went to my first tournament, for instance, that I had something like seven Charmanders in my deck. I didn't have any Charizards, mind you. In that tourney, I was lucky to win two out of four.

Well, I got into the anime, and have since watched the vast majority of the episodes shown in America to this day with only a few missing. I also bought nearly all of the CDs with Pokemon music. The TCG died down, and since I couldn't find anyone to play against when the local card shop stopped holding tournaments, I stopped playing for a number of years, and the only cards I collected were promos with the movies. I kept playing the games, but multiplayer battles were out of the question once my friends (even the one who got me into Pokemon) stopped playing, saying it was "childish" or something along that line. Middle school wasn't much fun, especially because of other things which I was dealing with. The Pokemon games and anime became two of the very, very few things I could turn to for any sort of enjoyment.

In 2002, I discovered a place on the web called TPM. I tried to sign up on the forums, but every username I tried was already taken. I grew frustrated after awhile, and finally I decided that if the next username I tried was already taken as well, I'd forget about TPM. So I typed in the first thing that popped into my head: "mr_pikachu". I've used that alias ever since. Ironically enough, I first joined in order to get info on the third generation games, Ruby and Sapphire. But I soon discovered the Shipping forum, which piqued my curiosity, and I branched out from that into Fanfic once I read a piece in both forums by Togepretty called "A Part Well Played". Soon after, I wrote my first fanfic, which I soon learned was a sad excuse for a fic. But I persisted, developing my writing by reading the works of others. I started trying to give advice for others' work as well - actually, I was a bit of a nuisance for awhile, as I overcriticized like crazy. But I toned it down a lot once I fully realized how much I was putting people off. Not to mention that my first fic wasn't really that good, anyway.

Also, a couple of years ago when I met a friend of mine at college. For the previous four or five years, I had hid my enjoyment of Pokemon from everyone except my parents and grandparents. But I found out that he had played the Pokemon TCG years before, so I risked telling him that I enjoyed Pokemon as well. We proceeded to play a few hundred TCG games over the next several weeks, almost all of which I lost horribly. But I learned a lot of new tactics and ideas for deckbuilding, and I began to look again for places which might offer tournaments. To my surprise and delight, I found one, and I started going to their weekly tournaments, honing my deck and my skills. (He has since considered not playing me any more, because my deck takes advantage of many strengths offered in the newer sets.)

And in October of last year, I was modded in Fanfic. Not much to really say there, other than that spending so much time reading good writing and getting a sense of what was good reviewing and what was not definitely helped me. I'm just glad to be on the job.

A little while ago, I went to my first City Championship TCG tournament. I had a rather disappointing showing, but it was to be expected considering the weak points that I was unable to work out of my deck. I've since built a new deck for beta testing, and I'm hoping to find a way to eliminate the one major weakness which it has.

In the meantime, I plan to continue watching the anime, writing and reading fanfiction, playing the TCG and video games, and enjoying everything that TPM has to offer. I enjoy this place, and I want to see it, along with Pokemon itself, continue.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

Time's flying indeed. I remember first reading about Pokémon in 1997 in an awesome (and now long defunct) German Nintendo magazine. The first screenshots were horrible but they already showed some of the many merchandises that were released. By late 1998 everyone was already eagerly awaiting the game, me included - after all it was able to safe the downfall of then almost dead GameBoy all by itself.

In fall 1999 Pokémon was released in Germany, first the anime (which I didn't like at all) then the games. In November 1999, a few days before starting to work I got my first Pokémon game, the Yellow version. I loved it right away and played through it as quickly as possible. None of my friends like the game though and so I didn't touch it again for a while after being done with it.

In spring 2000 I started playing again, this time most of my friends had suddenly joined the craze and we spent almost every day catching and training better and better Pokémon. In summer 2000 the Austrian championships were held where I placed 2nd out of 128 competitors (most more than 10 years younger than me, lol).

In late 2000 I got the internet and in January 2001 I joined TPM, posting here ever since. I met many nice people here, continued to train my Pokémon, got new games on several systems. In my prime I counted more than 100 Pokémon on level 100 my own. After Pokémon Stadium 2 was released the craze slowly died down. The 3rd Pokémon movie was quite a disappointment and my friends and also myself stopped playing. On September 11, 2001 I caught my last new Pokémon for training, an Ekans and a Rapidash. A few days later they were on level 100 but due to the lack of a competitor they remained unused.

I continued buying the new Pokémon games on the portable systems and also liked playing them but it was never quite the same anymore. Last year I also got Pokémon XD but never touched it so far, too busy with other stuff.

Grats on 10 years of Pokémon - if you can say one thing about those games is that none of them, not even oddities like Pokémon Snap - were disappointments. Pokémon stands for quality and enjoyable games.

[Lady Vulpix]

I first learned about Pokemon in 1997 as well. I was 18 back then. Later that year, my brother and I started playing Pokemon Red together. I also started watching the anime and even made an anime website named Charmander Anime Zone, thugh it was originally my brother's idea.

Then in 2000, as I was looking for material for that website, I stumbled across TPM. I liked it, and even more once PCG began, so most of my Pokemon-related activity has been taking place on TPM since then. I played a few more GameBoy and GBA Pokemon games (and 2 rounds of Pokemon Stadium with my cousin Sebastián who tried to win a battle through bluffing and failed), and stopped watching the anime once Advanced Generation began, but I still write Pokemon-related stories for the Battle Range and intend to keep doing so. I love what we're doing there.

[homeofmew]

There is a 10 yr event go to Pokemon.com for more info there is a Houston/Galleria thing.
Along with Space Center Houston doing a pokemon thing there too, along with that Pokemon Regonals there too... If you drop By I'll see you all there

[DarkestLight]

Feels like more than 10 years -.-


Let's see. It was 1998. I was with a friend of mine, and we had both finished being testers for the Sega Dreamcast system. Armed with 30 bucks each, he tells me that I should buy this game called Pokemon, because it has little guys that can fight.

Now, earlier tha month, I was getting back into my GameBoy. I needed a new game to play, so we went to the nearest store, and grabbed us both a copy {Red ;_;}

Life changed ever since.

He tehn told me aboutthe anime, and I said I'd try to wake up in time to watch it. I caught it one day, kinda thought it was funny, saw the gimmick with Team Rocket lasting forever {Wow..how right I was} But was like eeh, and took the game with me to class {I wa in what..High school back then. 10th grade.. Yeah tenth,

The next few weeks had me like a crackfiend. I got my best friend into it, and put so much time tinto it, that I bought another gameboy to trade with myself, borrowed my friends games and worked on both games in the nighttime hours until I had all 150.

That was 1998. 1999 came around, and all my friend in HS were on Pokemon. Everyone in my school was, it was scary, I mean, they even had the tomodachi pikachu's and crap. Battles everyday, me helping many a kid through the tougher gyms--crazyness. All the controversy in the realm of Pokemon fueled ourt school even more to keep going.

But all things came to an end. At the height, I had a few cards, {and would resell them back on the street >) and busted my butt to beat eveyone I could. But as college came, everyone fell out of it-except me. I go on to college, and then Gold and Silver comes out.

Yeash I became a hermit. Went to calss, came back, played. Come to find out, my friends are still playing it. So whenever I travel home, I battle them and what not. Still fun times. Played alot of the spinoffs of the Series, and then I get to 2004 {?} When Ruby and Sapphire come out. Wrote up a strategy guide for it on my website, and continued to use Pokemon to help in my fanfiction. Totally imersed I say.

Need to backtrack a bit. IN the years 1999-2003, I was online, and I was part of a Pokemon Guild. As such, playing this game also gave me higher edges in RPing and what not. Looking out for the new scoops on the new Generation, watching all the specualtions {Mewthree is still my favorite speculation topic LOL} I dont remember when I joined TPM, but I've stayed and learned a hell of alot form them abut the whole EV world.

Good thing to, so when Colosseum came out, I didn't waste my time with the craptastic Legends they gave me. And so now I jump to 2006. With Pokemon Ranger in the air for me, waiting on more releases of D/P {Even thugh I hate almost all Pre-evo's!! ><}, still reading here and writing my fanfiction. I'm really never going to leave Pokemon

[Dark-San]

[b][size=3] Whoa! It looks like most of us have a pretty much history about their background with pokemon. Okay, mine begins like this.

Gameboy Games

Pokemon starts at 1996. However I only pick up the anime like 4 years later in the year 2000. Then everybody was talking about red, blue and green. I only started playing their game only when the yellow version got released. Till now, I still prefer the yellow version above others since it is the only special one with the pikachu following behind you. To date I've played every game from yellow to ruby and sapphire.

Animated Series

I've started watching the anime series also in the same year. I caught the anime series from the point when Ash first gotten Pikachu till the portion when he won the Orange Islands League. I stopped watching the anime when they begin their Jotho League. Surprisingly it was also Pokemon animes that lead me to watching other Japanese animes.

There was one evening when I missed an episode of the series due to a study commitment. I went over to MIRC to download that particular episode and there was this episode one of Onegai Teacher that caught my eyes. Hence I download that as well. Though my pokemon fever had died down, my strong interest of searching for the best animes that Japan had to offer is still going strong.

Trading Card Game

I started playing the card around the later stages of 2000. Then I was a noob and was easily trash by others. I played a hefty sum of 20 tributes in the deck and the number of trainers then was a single digit.

Disappointed by my deck's state, I went online in search of a message board that could actually helped me boost up and improve on my strategies. Roarkiller did introduced Pokemasters to a group of my friends, however I heard about people also talking about Pojo too.

In order to get the best of both worlds, I joined both message boards and posted the same deck in both message boards for my every tournaments. I would analyse and experiement with the changes recommended by the members.

Pojo did a crappy job and I was losing every tournament whenever I followed their deck fix. The members at Pokemasters did a decent job for the deck fix. Hence I stopped posting at Pojo and stayed on faithfully with TPM. This commitment pays off and I was ranked one of the top 10 players in my nations.

Even after when I officially retired from Pokemon TCG and took up Yu Gi Oh Duel Monsters. The members of TPM would never fail to surpise me with their deck fix.

[Shuppet Master]

Here's my Pokemon history.

I was born in 1972, so I was graduated from high school and bouncing around colleges in Texas when I first stumbled onto Pokemon. I was 22 at the time(my birthday is in December) and the only entertainment I had was old video games like Final Fantasy II for the Super Nintendo and the only cartoons were on WB and Fox Network(back then, WB had some competition). I was introduced to Pokemon through the anime, but the first episode I saw was probably the gym battle with Brock. I was intrigued and started to watch Pokemon religiously, and was introduced to the games through commercials.

I've been playing the games since then, but recently I dropped off because of other interests(Food Network, Iron Chef, and Yu-Gi-Oh). Hopefully these new games will get me back into the groove.

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Well, euhm I played Blue for a while, then Gold and Crystal (which I keep on playing) and Sapphire once.

I'm addicted to the Metallics and the animé never really interested me. Although I liked some gym battles. To much talk and happy endings. I only like pokemon battles.

I slacked off, before going to GHPF and learning what a forum was all about, I then turned my attention to TPM after 2 years of GHPF, I now browse the two forums on a daily base and I got modded on GHPF.

That's about it.

[darktyranitar]

Ten years, and I'm just about 2/3 out of it.

Well, let's see... it was around 1999 that I discovered Pokemon while visiting my cousin. He was playing Pokemon Red/Blue. I was ten years at that time. My little brothers and sisters then brought some collectible Pokemon figures, and that was it.

2000 came. The Pokemon anime series was then aired, and it had picked up my interest to keep watching. At that time, a lot of other kids in my school also picked up the interest in Pokemon. We even made an illustration book on Pokemon. Also, I discovered the new GSC Pokemon, although I only had their japanese name. I remembered that I really liked Lugia, Thyplosion, etc. But my most favourite at that time was no other than...Tyranitar!

It was also at that time that I got myself a Pokemon CD from my other cousin (who totally abused the CD. The CD was full of scratches). The CD has got some Pokemon games, from Blue, Red and Yellow to Gold and Silver (which was in Japanese). So, I played the game on the CD (hehe, shame me for not buying GBC...).

2001 was the downfall for Pokemon in my school. Some of my friend stopped liking Pokemon, believing in on some of the controversial false fact on Pokemon: that they are devils, part of zionist and other crap like that. I myself almost stopped liking Pokemon, but kept on watching the anime, playing the game (I finally got an english version of Crystal around that time).

2002: I moved to Secondary school. Met a few people that also like Pokemon. At year's end, me and my friend brought our first Pokemon deck: it was Team Rocket's deck. We battled together, but it was me who continued buying cards.

2003 was the year I discovered TPM from a website on Pokemon TCG. If you remembered Roarkiller, it was his website: Roarkiller World (if I'm not mistaken). I went to TPM because I wanted to check on the TCG board there. At that time, it was the release of Neo Destiny set. Since I liked Tyranitar, and there was a card named Dark Tyranitar released on the set... you know the rest.

Other than the TCG board, I also dropped by on the Anime board. I then know a lot of people there; Zak, Hanada Tattsu and some other guy that I have forgotten already.

I made my way quite late on the fanfic board. I remembered reading Squirtle's Trainer by A Grilled Fish at that time, and I thought: How come people can write this stuff? After that, I also read some other fanfic, like Wildside of Bruno, Guilty by Design, Is It Destiny etc. But I've never replied on them.

It wasn't until 2004 that I got into some reading on some fanfic and replying on them. I remembered the first one as "To Those Who Still Cares" by Kikyo (now named Sango). It was that fic that started my first fanfic, Dragon Flame, which didn't do quite well. Also, early that year I got myself Pokemon Sapphire.

2005: I began to make my return on TPM after a hiatus of about 3 month. I then began to read fanfic, and the first on was Spirit Splice by EvilMewf0ur. I then read some other fanfic, but it wasn't until I met classy_cat18 and read her fics that I began to write my second fanfic, Demon Inside.

2006 came. The latest thing that I did on this forum was involving in ASB, and boy it was fun. I also continued writing my fic and reading other fics at the fanfic board. I hope this forum can continue to live on along with my interest in Pokemon.

[Blademaster]

I discovered Pokemon 1 day before school; the first episode I ever saw was "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad." You don't forget important, life-altering events like that... :p

It's funny... I never was a fan of Pokemon before that day, because of the name alone: I originally thought the show was about a Spanish-Jamaican superhero or something, lol.

"Look, up in de sky, mon!

Es el ave! Es el aeroplano!

...No, mon - iss Pokemon!

...Geez, looking back, I was a pretty stupid twelve-year old...

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Mikachu: At least in the U.S., a trading card company called Topps (or was it Upper Deck? Hrm...) released cards that are at least similar to the ones you were talking about. I got a couple of the ones that were released for the first movie, myself.

Yes, I found my collection and those were and are Topps Trading Cards indeed.

Grats on 10 years of Pokémon - if you can say one thing about those games is that none of them, not even oddities like Pokémon Snap - were disappointments. Pokémon stands for quality and enjoyable games.

I must agree. The games have been awesome. At least those that I have played.

I hope nobody got me wrong when I said that the Advance Generation was a disappointment. What I meant was the anime season. In my opinion it was on one hand too exaggerating and on other too simple. The first season does much better justice to the games.

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

I don't aggree. I loved GSC and was utterly really, really dissapointed by RS. FRLG made it better with the double league and the islands, but still RS were a big blow off.

[darktyranitar]

I agree with MLG. I love GSC because of all the gym leaders that we can fight.

[mr_pikachu]

Uh, guys? I think Mikachu was actually saying that the anime in the Hoenn arc has been disappointing. Not the third-generation video games.

I hope nobody got me wrong when I said that the Advance Generation was a disappointment. What I meant was the anime season. In my opinion it was on one hand too exaggerating and on other too simple. The first season does much better justice to the games.

Unless I'm just completely misreading that post (which is possible, considering that I'm about to go to bed at 8:30 in the morning), I'm pretty sure Mikachu's saying that the anime seasons in Hoenn weren't nearly as good as the corresponding video game; they didn't do the games justice.

...Which I'm still not sure I agree with, but you're certainly entitled to your opinion. ^_^;;

...

Lay off, will ya? It's been a long day!

[darktyranitar]

Well, that could also be true...

Eh, I don't know. Perhaps Mikachu was saying that the old anime series flowed well along with the game storyline. And I'm just stating that I like GSC, that's all.

And like mr_pikachu, I have been staying up quite late. So, the words just came out without me thinking a lot of it... Sorry if I don't make sense... :p

Ah, mr_pikachu... Isn't TPM a great way to spend our time! :biggrin:

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

I know that he said the Animé was lame. But I just said that I think that the RS games were lame =D I hope you get the picture. Maybe FRLG were better, but I still think Advance sucks.

[rinku]

On what grounds do you think RS sucked? The fact that there were only 200 pokémon available, the fact that only 7 of them were legends, the fact that the game world and storyline were only about 1.5 times as big as GSC or that it was in full colour?

[Blademaster]

...Uh, the first two...

Actually, I've never had any complaints about any of the Game Boy games. Pokemon Colliseum and XD, however, were pretty bad... A Game Boy version on the Gamecube, with all the modern graphics and coolness. Is that too much to ask?

[rinku]

Right. The fact that 2/3 of those 200 (133 of them) were new types, 33 more new ones than were added for GSC sucked so bad...

The problem is, GSC effectively doubled the previous game in size, area and added features. There was never any chance of RS doubling GSC - just as DP is unlikely to double RSE (though if they implement some sort of wireless network, it could happen, and more). But you did get a significant increase in gameplay and more new pokémon than last generation.

You sure you weren't just sore because they didn't implement 2nd->3rd generation trading/import?

[Blademaster]

(looks around)

...Who, me?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

In spite of you sleeping too little, I guess you got me very right. I don't care about the smallness of R/S, even while it's a Game Boy Advance game after all. BUT there should have been more Pokémon available. Still it does not make it a bad game. You can, after all, pick up a copy of Red/Blue/Green/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal/Fire/Leaf to play with your favourites.

[Blademaster]

You can, after all, pick up a copy of Red/Blue/Green/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal/Fire/Leaf to play with your favourites.

...Really?

Hey, Mik... uh... (looks at name) O_o'''

...Uh, MY! Do you know where they still sell those older ones? I recently sold my Pokemon Yellow; they ripped me off... they gave me $2 for it!

But, anyway, I'm asking 'cuz I recently 'adopted' an N64 w/ Pokemon Stadium (need something to spice it up) and because I wanna try out that Mew code from the archives.

...Does anyone remember that? Something about that kid on Route 24-25 w/ the Slowpoke, that Gambler outside of Celadon, etc.?

I know, I'm too curious. So shoot me. :p

[mr_pikachu]

Well, here's the thing about the Mew glitch in RBY.

Also, you might try Game XChange for old games. They have a decent selection. For online stores, eBay's always good.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

...Really?

Hey, Mik... uh... (looks at name) O_o'''

...Uh, MY! Do you know where they still sell those older ones? I recently sold my Pokemon Yellow; they ripped me off... they gave me $2 for it!

If my name is difficult you should play Pokémon Green in Japanese. Living in Finland, I surely don't know any shops in your country.

You might think this here is off topic.

But how do you think Pokémon has changed during ten years? That is something we could discuss here, and we have already touched the subject.

[Jeff]

I know this is kind of an old thread but I figure I'll share my poke-history with everyone.

I remember in my Freshman year of High School (in 1998), some kids that sat near me at lunch were talking about this crazy new Japanese cartoon show called "Pokey-mon" or whatever, and to me they were just speaking giberish. I also remember there being a game about all those pokemon things that were from the show, and when I saw the commercial (the one with the psycho bus driver), I heard the announcer say things like "catch" and "train" and I thougt to myself (and maybe even said out loud) "Oh God, not another virtual pet thing!" I couldn't stand vitual pets with all that beeping they made when my 11-year-old sister was "feeding", or doing whatever to hers.

My parents apparently had heard that pokemon was a cool game and decided to get me and my younger brother the games as surprise presents for Christmas that year, I got red, he got blue. I still had very little interest in playing the game but later that day when we went to visit some relatives, a funny thing happend... I was bored! So I started playing and when I got tired of it, I let my sister start a file, and that is how I found out you could only have one file to a game. So I started my own file again, then after Christmas break was over, this kid that my Mom used to watch at the time accidently saved over my game. I got mad at him and that is how he found out that you could only have one file to a game. When I got mad at him, I realized that I really did like the game and by that summer I was trading cards with every kid on my street, reading up on the upcomming Gold and Silver versions, and even making up some of my own pokemon (some of which I posted in a thread here in GD a while back).

In 2000, in my GS reasearch I stumbled across this website called The PokeMasters, and read it almost every day. Sadly though, the site was down by 2002, but I discovered the forums that following year, and started periodically checking the threads for info on upcomming games. By 2004, things started looking really fun here, with talks about the upcomming FireRed and LeafGreen, speculation about the upcomming Nintendo DS, and of course, all the politcal debates between TPM's liberal wieners and right-wing nutjobs, so I decided to join.

Now, I'm back to just checking the site periodically, but maybe that will change again when Diamond and Pearl come out. Those games are starting to really interest me since I feel like they will really renew my interest in Pokemon that has lied dormant for the past couple of years or so.