The First Time You Played.....Pokemon.

[Goron_3]

Inspired by a similar thread over at Neogaf, I wanted to start this thread because reading some posts over there got me incredibly nostalgic. My question is, what was your first experience of playing Pokemon like? Any game counts, whether it was Red, Blue, Pinball or even the later games.

 

I remember being about 8 years old and in love the Pokemon TV series and the card game, however I didn't yet own the games unlike some of my friends at school. That Christmas, I woke up to a whole bunch of Pokemon related merchandise as gifts and in the final box I unwrapped, I saw it; a purple Gameboy Colour with a copy of Pokemon Red AND Blue. I was so excited and turned it on instantly. Holy crap.

 

 

 

 

Who did I start with? Squirtle, easily. Blastoise was a bad ass and I knew I wanted him in my squad. Pidgeot, Machoke and Hypno made it into my squad before I caught Articuno and challenged the Elite 4. Man, I really loved the game. At the time I was absolutely stunned about how big the world was and the fact that they were MY Pokemon, which I could train and share my adventure with. I also remember learning the type chart for a week straight trying to get to know it all...Man I was confused why Drowsee was so good agaisnt Ghost types in Lavender town (I didn't realise they were part poison type :awesome:).

 

I played each of my games for over 100 hours each (and many restarts) whilst levelling up my Pokemon to level 100. I then heard rumours of 2 sequel games featuring even more Pokemon and I knew I was going to be a fan for life.

 

Share your experiences!

Edited August 18, 2013 by Goron_3

[Grazza]

I heard about it as a big craze that was coming over, bought Pokémon Blue, played it for about three gyms, then got confused and never played it again.

 

Sorry, that's a really boring story.

[ClowKin]

I remember playing Pokemon Ruby (first pokemon game) and my sister giving tips on how to get past the first part Having been attacked by a wild pokemon for the first time made me extremely scared and intimidated, I thought it was going to be a really hard game...

Seeing that bug catcher with 6 pokemon was too much for my poor little heart.

[Goron_3]

I heard about it as a big craze that was coming over, bought Pokémon Blue, played it for about three gyms, then got confused and never played it again.

 

Sorry, that's a really boring story.

 

Well this thread went downhill quickly.

[Sméagol]

My first (and last real) experience was Pocket Monsters green. It must have been just before or not long after it was released here (well, red and blue that is).

I picked charmander. I can’t remember my final team, but it included Charizard and Mewtwo at the very least, I’m pretty sure it also included Kadabra, Haunter and Dragonite. If I have to guess the last one, I’d say Gyarados, but that would mean I didn’t use the legendary birds.. Perhaps I didn’t.

Since I don’t understand Japanese, the fossile was random for me, I “chose” Kabuto. At the time, I wanted the other one, but if I had to choose now, I’d go for Kabuto.

[Serebii]

Although I had heard of it and read about it in magazines beforehand, my first proper knowledge of it was through a friend at school had gone to America and had picked it up. He was constantly raving about it. The show then started to air on Sky1 here around when I got Sky1. I caught a few episodes and thought it was alright (Horribly fun fact: The first episode I watched was Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden. How's that for a kick in the teeth). He then brought the game in on a Sports Day and let me play it. I loved the whole concepts, since I love numbers and mathematics so the system intrigued me.

 

I then got my mum to import Pokémon Red for me. Fell in love and got through the Elite Four in a day, battling with just my Charizard. Good times.

 

Now, 14 years later, here I am...the Pokémon Master. Some call me the Pokémon Professor. Either way, I run the most popular Pokémon site in the world. It's amazing how things escalate, isn't it?

[Ike]

Well, I found out about the series through the cartoon which was shown on Sky One every day before school. I found out later from a friend it was based on a game but it wasn't out over here yet but was out in America.

 

One day I saw an as in a Gameboy magazine (Gameboy World or something) of a mail order company selling the US version. I convinced my parents to order a copy of Red for me. My first import game.

 

I had told my friend as well and he ordered a copy of Blue, both of our orders arrived on the same day.

 

I remember sitting on the floor in my room reading the manual barely home from school. Can still remember that new manual small very strongly.

 

Of course my starter was Charmander. Originally I thought you had to KO a wild Pokemon before you could catch it (mostly due to the cartoon) and wondered how I was supposed to do it until I found you can use a Pokeball during battle.

 

Later on I got a bunch of kids from the year below into the game from watching me play it during break.

 

Actually became friends with a lot of my friends when I started year 7 because of Pokemon so it was pretty influential to me.

[Rummy]

I was a very bad child, so obviously my first experience was roms of red/blue in 1998/99ish with an emulator. I believe my first TRUE experience was a very shittly translated rom from japanese, later a decent english version, and then later officially was pokemanz blue on le gameboy! Mail-ordered from Gameplay.com and I presume was close to whenever it was actually out. On reflection actually I'm almost sure they imported the US versions, cos I recall my cart having a US code.

 

Since I played no others, bar again some shitty emu-trans that didn't stand up, so I never got into it enough. Never played any subsequents on handhelds for reasons I forget(probs being a kid with limited games/money) - having missed silver/gold I never played anything after. I tried to play HeartGold and it was all going spankingly well until one day my cart decided it was the absolutely solid HeartGold prick and would no longer load up proper quoting some sort of corruption or error.

 

Shazam. My pokemon life story.

 

 

(I once knew a story of a kid who took this so far he used to deal in floppy disks with emulators and pokemon roms on them. I heard he owed everything about his love for emulation and subsequent cheating/game hacking to pokemon roms too. This kid obviously wasn't me because I wouldn't engage in such illegalities, but I'm sure he was pretty (un)cool)

Edited August 19, 2013 by Rummy

[Goron_3]

I remember playing Pokemon Ruby (first pokemon game) and my sister giving tips on how to get past the first part Having been attacked by a wild pokemon for the first time made me extremely scared and intimidated, I thought it was going to be a really hard game...

Seeing that bug catcher with 6 pokemon was too much for my poor little heart.

 

Good to see that someone on here had Pokemon Ruby as their first Pokemon game Out of interest, did you ever go back and play the originals?

 

Although I had heard of it and read about it in magazines beforehand, my first proper knowledge of it was through a friend at school had gone to America and had picked it up. He was constantly raving about it. The show then started to air on Sky1 here around when I got Sky1. I caught a few episodes and thought it was alright (Horribly fun fact: The first episode I watched was Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden. How's that for a kick in the teeth). He then brought the game in on a Sports Day and let me play it. I loved the whole concepts, since I love numbers and mathematics so the system intrigued me.

 

I then got my mum to import Pokémon Red for me. Fell in love and got through the Elite Four in a day, battling with just my Charizard. Good times.

 

Now, 14 years later, here I am...the Pokémon Master. Some call me the Pokémon Professor. Either way, I run the most popular Pokémon site in the world. It's amazing how things escalate, isn't it?

 

You are everything Ash wanted to become and more

[Zell]

Me and my brothers all watched the TV show every morning before school on Sky One. My brother got Pokemon Red as soon as it came out (I think this was October '99). Me and my other brother naturally wanted to play it as well, expecting the standard 3 save slots, but were disappointed and could only watch on as he had all the fun.

 

A few weeks later, our family went on holiday to Florida. On Halloween evening, we all went to a stereotypical US shopping mall. We were stunned to see how much of an obsession Halloween is over in America. There were thousands and thousands of kids, all dressed up, forming a gigantic snake-like queue around the hallways of the mall. Outside every shop there would be an assistant holding a sack full of sweets to give out to these kids being hauled along by their parents. Some of the kids were too young to be described as kids: there were infants and babies being dressed up like dolls basically being paraded around like they were in a circus. Thousands of kids, so much screaming and crying. Such a surreal experience that I will never forget.

 

Anyway, the Pokemon craze was in full swing at this point so many of the kids were dressed up like Pokemon. Pikachus and Charmanders were the most common. As we were walking about the mall, we went into a games shop (I think it was EB) and we could see a big queue of people buying Pokemon Yellow, which had just come out. Then and there, my parents bought Pokemon Blue for me and Pokemon Yellow for my brother. We both already had our own Game Boys (I got a Color earlier in the year with Link's Awakening DX - still my favourite GB game ever) so we all played Pokemon for the rest of the holiday.

 

Everyone back at home was massively jealous of my brother for having Pokemon Yellow, I don't think it came out in the UK for another year. He would also initially boast that Yellow was the best one because you got all three starters plus Pikachu. Later he became jealous because you couldn't do the Missingno glitch.

 

So Pokemon Blue. Starter was Bulbasaur, of course. We would make sure that we chose different fossils and different fighting pokemon. None of us were particularly good at Pokemon, probably because we were so young. My squad eventually ended up being something like Venusaur, Machamp and two of the legendary birds I think. Took me a fair while to beat the Elite Four until I realised it was easy with Articuno and Zapdos.

 

We eventually got a strategy guide and learnt about the Missingno glitch and generally how to not suck. Me and my brother with Red traded loads of Pokemon and we both got to all 150 Pokemon at the same time (I've never bothered to catch all the Pokemon in any of the subsequent games, although I came close in Silver). I was massively disappointed because I thought that we'd get Mew instead of a bloody certificate that we couldn't even print anyway because we didn't have a Game Boy Printer!

 

When we bought subsequent games, me and my brothers would stick to the same convention: I would always buy the "second game" (i.e. Blue, Silver, Sapphire); my brother would by the "first game" (Red, Gold, Ruby); and my other brother would buy the later one (Yellow, Crystal, Emerald) when it came out. Not sure why we did this, we just did!

 

Ahh childhood memories. I need to stop posting now, I have to get up tomorrow at 6 to go to work.

[Magnus]

I have never played Pokémon.

[Ville]

1999. First I bought a GBC with Kirby and Link's Awakening DX. When Pokemon actually arrived, we got both Red and Blue, a link cable and a second GB so that my brother could play too. Me Red, him Blue, and we traded at the start so that each got all of the starters. I think we got a full guide as well, the perfect setup...aaaand it was awesome.

 

I did use the whole starter trio, but other Pokemon that I especially liked (based on the Hall of Fame records) were:

 

-Hypno

-Golduck

-Kingler

-Articuno

-Jolteon

-Mewtwo

-Vileplume

-Hitmonchan

-Zapdos

 

Seems I beat the Elite Four something like 18 times, good god. Pokedex at 150 too, 105 hours played.

 

---

 

2001. We did the same thing with G&S, Gold for me and Silver for mah bro. Just checked the cartridge, and the memory seems to have been wiped out. Oh well, I do remember getting all the new Pokemon, not the whole dex again though.

 

---

 

2003. For some reason (studies, army), I skipped both Sapphire and Ruby. I did buy Emerald years later though, and I'm actually playing through it right now. It's a solo Pokemon run, as I cannot be arsed to level up a whole squad of them critters anymore. Blaziken's something like level 56 now, got Tentacruel at lvl 38 for the dual battles, and just got Rayquaza lvl 70 too. One more gym and then to the Elite Foursome.

 

It's been ok, the music is great in this game, but I just didn't remember how goddamn tedious the fighting and leveling up is, just fight after fight after fight...I guess this is why I don't play turn-based RPGs anymore, they're so painfully slow to play! "Select...command. Execute...command. It is...super effective. Opponent...uses Hyper potion." Feck off.

 

---

 

2007, 2011. Tried both Platinum and Black, but ended up selling them at some point. Might just buy them again and a do a solo run, who knows. Doing a collect-a-thon seems a bit pointless now, especially when the new generation is coming out soon. As for Pokemon Y, it has started interesting me after playing Emerald now. A new Fairy type, 3D battles and environments, swarms, air battles etc etc, it might just spark my interest again.

 

Although...my biggest turn-off with Black were the Pokemon designs. Lord have mercy, were some of them absolutely hideous or what. Wobbly shapes and god-awful colours all over the place, *puke* It seems the same art style continues with XY though, so I just have to hope there are some decent ones amongst there as well...

[Cube]

I was a massive, massive fan of the show. I could name all Pokémon in order, and could quickly identify each one. I didn't have a Game Boy at a time, but one of my friends got bored of his so he let me borrow his (and said I could start a new save). I was so excited to start it, pick my Pokémon (Squirtle) and start battling.

 

And that is when I discovered I hated turn-based combat. The game did absolutely nothing for me, and I quickly lost interest in the series soon after.

[Guy]

Just gonna dump my Neogaf post in here:

 

I went on holiday in America when Pokemania was in full swing. I'd read about Pokemon in a bunch of Nintendo magazines and was intrigued. Borrowed my friend's brick GameBoy for something to play on the plane but, sure enough, Pokemon was on sale over there by then. Bought a copy of Red, instantly hooked.

 

Can't really remember the rest of the holiday after that. I think we went to a bunch of parks? I definitely remember spending forever trying to catch a Kangaskhan in the Safari Zone.

 

Getting my first Squirtle and wandering out into the tall grass was pretty crazy. I figured the game would be good, didn't think it would be -that- good and addictive.

 

So yeah, I pissed my first real family holiday in years away trying to catch 'em all. Kinda wish I'd paid more attention to what was going on now, but Oak was counting on me.

 

I buy pretty much all the main releases now, but haven't beaten one since Gold/Silver. It just feels so samey - I hope X/Y change that.

 

Genuinely consider Pokemon Red to be one of my finest gaming experiences of all time.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Guy
Fixed the post for typos. There were lots. I left it as it was on Neogaf, you guys deserved this.

[M_rock]

I must have been around 6 to 7 years old when I got my first pokémon game (blue version). I loved pokémon from the television series, so my parents bought me the game. I didn't understand one word english, so at first the game was very hard, and I didn't understand a thing of what I was doing haha!

 

But by slowly trying different things, I learned how to progress and started to understand some English. I continued to play all the games up until BW2, and most of the English I learned as a kid came from the pkmn games haha! It's been a lovely experience seeing the series evolve, and I'm quite sure I'll never get tired of it.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I believe that I was in the transition between junior and high school and there was this craze that was sweeping through most of the UK. All of my mates were getting the game, but it was sold out everywhere. I had to wait for weeks I believe to get it. Until then, I had hardly touched my GameBoy apart from the odd game of Wario or Tetris.

 

We had been shopping in town during that day and I believe it was a Thursday, so it must have been after school. We picked up Pokemon Red and I spent most of my time walking around town just looking/marvelling at the box and reading the manual.

 

By the time we got home, it was getting quite late and so I quickly had my tea and got down to playing this. I was glued to it and started off with Squirtle as my starter. I remember being a bit bad and playing this for a long stretch, way after everybody else had gone to bed. I was too hooked and engrossed.

 

The next day, I woke up with a massive headache, yet still wanted to play more. I remember that feeling of going into school and actually being able to take part in the chats now about the game. In highschool, we had lunchtime battles in the dining room, there was even a little league that took place. People would be giving each other tips about how to beat friends that they perhaps weren't on such good terms with at the time. There was even a bit of aggression at some points where one or two of the matches went sour.

 

That was all brilliant. Red, Blue and Yellow. By far the best memories that I have of Pokemon.

 

I remember being too burnt out by it to pick up Gold and Silver. So, skipped that.

 

I picked up Ruby a little while after that came out and I found that nobody was really playing it. In addition to that, the game kinda blew and I didn't enjoy it. I played about a third of the way through, realised that I didn't give a shit about any of the Pokemon/they lacked charm and never touched it again. The game itself wasn't all that enjoyable.

[Dog-amoto]

I've never played it. Not a single game.

 

Was a little after my time. I was probably in my late teens/twenties when it came out.

[Ronnie]

Now, 14 years later, here I am...the Pokémon Master. Some call me the Pokémon Professor.

 

You're so cool!

[WackerJr]

I remember reading about the craze in Japan and showing my friends at school an article in N64 Magazine about it and how popular it was going to become. Needless to say I got completely ribbed by my mates who couldn't believe something as bizarre-looking and Japanese as Pokemon would translate well over here!

 

I ended up importing Blue from America as it wasn't coming out In the UK for a few months. I thought it would be good, but I wasn't too sure, especially with it only being a GameBoy game with the Color (still hate the American spelling!) being out. It didn't take long for me to be hooked though, line & sinker! I loved it, and enjoyed it even more when it came out over here and I finally had friends to play and trade with. Happy days indeed! :-)

[bob]

I can't really remember much about pre-getting it. But i know my friend and I agreed to get both versions, and then trade carefully at the beginning to get all three starters. However, he got his copy of Blue when i was on holiday, and had completed it by the time i got back.

 

Anywho, i played on my own, and it was glorious. I remember levelling up my Blastoise to lvl100 because i heard a rumour you would get Bulbasaur if you did. Because i couldn't bear to have any Pokemon on my team a higher level than my prized Pikachu, i levelled him up as well. Took fucking ages wandering around the end cave place and doing the elite four over and over. Was totally worth it though.

 

After Red, i played and completed Gold, but didn't like it as much, and i haven't played any of them since. For some reason i couldn't grow to like any of the new Pokemon, and only ever ended up using the 1st Gen in every game.

[Murr]

My friend who lived across the road from me and I were really into the tv show on Sky1, One eventful afternoon he came over my house with his Gameboy and a copy of Pokemon Blue. I was so so jealous. Fortunately I had one of those SuperGameBoy players you could pop into the Snes.

 

So we both insisted to our parents that he stay over for the weekend effectively. We didn't go outside, didn't leave the bedroom other than to use the toilet.

 

He was nice enough to actually let me play it too, so we'd take turns going through it, think like an hour each. He had the overall say of what Pokemon to have in his team.

 

Well after that, I was really really in need of my own copy. I begged so much to my mum. I had originally asked for it for Christmas, and We weren't that far away from Christmas if I remember correctly. Well after days and days of begging my mum caved in and gave me a copy of Pokemon Red. And there it was... my own adventure could begin. I picked Charmander, I can always remember my first trade with my friend to get a Caterpie off him as Red only had Weedle. So I traded a weedle to him for Caterpie, trained up Caterpie to become a Butterfree and took on Brock with a team consisting of Charmander, Pidgey & Butterfree.

 

Man... dem nostalgic feels right now.

 

 

I just always remember loving the art style of the Pokemon from Red and Blue and drawing Pokemon myself too.

[Sheikah]

Man, I remember getting Pokemon Blue when it came out and blowing the game wide open. Never have I been so enthralled by a game, except maybe Final Fantasy VIII. Squirtle ftw.

 

I had this crazy obsession trying to catch a Pikachu, which was kinda rare. Once I got it, I almost did an all nighter trying to level it to turn it into a Raichu, only to later find out that I needed a thunder stone. lulz.

[rizz]

I got Blue as a Christmas present the year it came out (99?). Not sure if I had heard of PokéMon by then, I'm not sure if it had really become a craze yet, certainly not at my school anyway. I spent way, way too long being really confused as to how to leave the house, not realising that rectangle was a door mat. I chose Squirtle of course!

[Jonnas]

Just a wee lad of 9, and Dragonball GT was on TV. After it finished, I was sad to see one of my favourite shows finally end, and wondered what was I going to watch on weekend mornings from then on.

 

The following week, in DBGT's place, there was this new show... Pokémon. Great theme song, cool concept with monster-fighting, and a cute creature called Pikachu... Not sure where this is going...

 

After a few weeks, I liked it, battles were cool, Ash was a cool character to follow and cheer for, and I loved the whole concept of "Catch'em all". I thought he was going for it!

 

One week, this commercial airs during the time slot:

 

 

And I thought "I would totally buy this game!"

 

But it was around this time that my sister lost my phat, old-school gameboy... And my birthday was the next day, no use in thinking about it...

Lo and behold: during my birthday, I get Pokémon Blue... AND a new Gameboy. Sheer luck, I didn't ask for any of those things to the people who gave them to me.

During that day, I played till the Viridian Forest, turned off, read the manual, went to sleep... And the following day, I restarted the file, and my journey began.

 

Me and my Squirtle went through many adventures. I deciphered the finer points of English I didn't get yet, I trained a Pidgey until it was a Pidgeotto and kept him, I got to Lt.Surge before Ash did, I trained a bunch of Pokémon (only keeping those I thought were useful), I powered through Rock Tunnel without Flash, went through the entire game without a Bike, crushed Team Rocket, solved the riddle of Seafoam Islands (and re-solved it when I met Articuno before saving first), and beat the Elite Four with the combined might of my trusted Blastoise, Pidgeot and Machoke.

 

Soon enough, my friends also had Red or Blue, and I got a cable: Pokémania was on. Evolved my Machoke, and tears were shed when one of us had to delete their file to get all the starters. Soon enough, the 150 were ours.

 

But we also played the card game, the spin-offs (I got an N64 due to Pokémon), watched the TV show until the end of the Orange Islands (after that, that was when Ash started hitting the reset button)... It was a good time to be a kid.

 

When Pokémon Gold&Silver came out, Pokémon was bigger than ever. The new games were awesome, and all the complexity involved with the schedules and pokémon breeding and everything... That's when we took our gaming to the next level. We even got to meet a guy who found Mew somehow, but alas, no Celebi. And to this day, my Pokédex is still stuck at 248 (Raikou wasn't found, plus nobody knows in which fucking file Mew is).

 

Today, the save batteries for these games are likely dead... but they still brought precious moments to my final childhood years. Great to see the franchise going for future generations, even if my youngest cousin doesn't know what a Pidgey is (Starly's all the rage, now).

[drahkon]

Now, 14 years later, here I am...the Pokémon Master. Some call me the Pokémon Professor. Either way, I run the most popular Pokémon site in the world. It's amazing how things escalate, isn't it?

 

Dude, don't tell us. Go out and tell a lady, and then tell us how amazing it was when things escalated.

 

 

I don't even remember the first time I played Pokemon.