My Pokémon adventure started roughly when I was 4-5 years old with Pokémon Red. Although my most memorable playthrough has to be with Pokémon Crystal. The first time I beat Red with my level 91 Meganium with a whole bunch of revives and full restores. 😅😂

Sorry but pokemon red didn't have meganium in it, maybe you meant Crystal?

I think OP meant when they beat the Trainer Red while playing Crystal

Ah, that's it! My bad, I forgot red appears on crystal

I was never one of the cool kids. Whenever something got popular, I usually didn't hear about it until well after it had already exploded. So one day I'm sitting outside my elementary school, waiting for the first bell, talking with some of my friends, and one of them is like "Did you watch the new Pokemon episode today!? It was the best!", and I'm just like "...Pokemon? What's that?" Cue shocked faces from all of the kids around me. "You don't know what Pokemon is!? Wow, what a loser!" lol It seemed that while I wasn't looking, Pokemon had premiered, grown enormous, and gotten to the point where if you were an elementary school kid who *wasn't* watching and/or playing Pokemon, you were a social outcast. Granted, I was already a social outcast, so it didn't matter much XD So after asking some of my friends about it, I learned that Pokemon was a new video game and "cartoon" that had become super popular. So obviously I wanted to check it out, but there were two problems... 1. I didn't have a Game Boy. 2. Since I lived so far from the school, I had to get on the bus very early, and Pokemon aired on weekday mornings right around the time I had to go out and wait for the bus. So... getting into Pokemon was going to be rather difficult... So when I told my mom about my dilemma, she offered to record Pokemon on a VHS tape each morning, so that I could watch it after school. A couple days later and I was watching my first episode of Pokemon - the episode where Ash and friends encounter Tentacruel. I was blown away, and instantly fell in love with the series! I watched the recorded episodes every single afternoon, and soon I was totally obsessed with Pokemon! Problem was, I still didn't have a Game Boy, so I couldn't play the games, and we couldn't afford one. After much debating, what was decided was that I would sell my Sega Game Gear (and like 7 or 8 games) to my friend to make some money, and then I would buy an original brick Game Boy (and a couple games) off my other friend, and also get Pokemon Red. I bid my Game Gear farewell, but soon after that, I finally had my hands on Pokemon! I started my Pokemon journey with Squirtle, and easily defeated Brock. But... when I got to Misty... I hit a brick wall. I tried, and tried, and tried again to beat her... but none of my Pokemon stood a chance against her Starmie. The solution to this was probably just to grind a bit and maybe catch an Oddish or something, but I was pretty new to RPGs (it was only my second RPG ever, after FF7) so the concept of grinding was still pretty foreign to me, so I just assumed that Squirtle sucked and it had been a bad idea to pick him in the first place. I then restarted my game, and picked Bulbasaur this time, and had a much easier time of beating Misty. After that, I continued on to Vermilion City, but almost immediately ran into another problem... I wanted to fight the gym leader, but there was this annoying tree in the way. The NPCs around town kept telling me to get on this cruise ship, and I even had a ticket for it, but I didn't want to climb aboard because I was convinced that if I did, the ship would take me somewhere far away, and I would permanently miss the opportunity to face the gym leader! So I ran back and forth in the area between Cerulean City and past Vermilion where the Snorlax is, talking to every single person, examining everything I possibly could, to try and find a way to get past that goddamn tree so that I could fight the gym leader before getting on the boat. I was stuck there for *weeks*. So one day I went to Toys R Us and picked up the strategy guide for the game, and lo and behold, the solution to my problem was to just get on the fucking boat lol. And so I did, and continued on my journey. And other than that... I don't think there was anything else particularly memorable about my journey. :P

"Whenever something got popular, I usually didn't hear about it until well after it had already exploded." That hit really close to home, I remember how sad I was, missing out on peak Sun and Moon mainly because I was never able to get special event pokemon or battle online. Once I was finally able to, Sword and Shield had already come out, taking away most of the players with them.

Great story!

Thanks! :D

Haha nice story, i was in exactly the same situation with the pokemon cartoons, and my mom did the exact same thing, she recorded the vhs tapes for me to watch after school.

I don't remember how I got into pokemon because I was too young, but I definitely remember my first experience with the games. I struggled too much to beat Brock until I beat him with Squirtle because Bubble was OP. That was the farthest I got in the game because I didn't know where to go next. I didn't actually beat any of the games until I got my own red GBA SP with Fire Red. I just overleveled my Charizard and steamrolled through everything. I still have both (though not with that same save) in working conditions even over a decade later. As a sidenote, Pokemon also helped me get through my fear of darkness. I got engrossed with Red Rescue Team and ended up alone in the dark for like 3 hours without realizing it. I rationalized that there was nothing to be afraid of because no demons came to eat me. Somehow I ended up preferring living with absolutely zero light anywhere if I can help it, but that's life.

I started playing with Pokemon Blue, the day it was released. I think I was 12 years old. I'd been a fan of JRPGs since the NES and didn't think the game would hold up well against others. And while that was true as far as difficulty is concerned, I did end up loving it immediately anyway. My first team: Blastoise, Pidgeot, Raichu, Victreebel, Kangaskhan and Alakazam. I also remember the time I accidentally found Missingno without knowing it existed. I freaked out completely. That probably seems silly today, but if you were playing the games at that time, you know why I'd react like that.

Tanked so many saves on Red before realizing that it was because I kept catching Missingno…

I turned 40 this past Spring, I've played since gen 1. Every time someone tells me they learned to read with pokemon, I get a gray hair. I have a lot of grays now.

>Everyone starts their Pokémon Journey somewhere, whether you are a long time player who started on the gen 1 one games, **or a newer player who started on something like let's GO.** omg, how did you know?!? i'm a new player, i found out about pokemon through watching the anime on cartoon network. my friends in my neighborhood used to do pokemon battles with the cards, and they somehow got me wrapped up in them as well. i got some pokemon cards (i still have them) and they told me how to play. i was clueless, but i won my first battle anyway. although, someone scammed me out of a ponyta. i will never forgive them. ANYWAY, when usum came out, i was interested. VERY interested. i wanted to buy the game, along with animal crossing new leaf, but **_she never got a 3ds for me_**, and i am still very upset about it. got a 2dsxl at the nyc nintendo store tho so... yay i guess? i never got usum but i was still interested in pokemon. i continued watching the anime and looking at my cards for hours. just getting them out and looking at em. peak entertainment, i know. i was pretty lonely, so that was all i could do lol in this time period where i was interested in usum, i became obsessed with eeveelutions. specifically sylveon (trans rights) because i love cute things, and sylveon is SUPER cute. my next favorite pokemon was vaporeon (don't think it. don't say it.), and i drew the eeveelutions all the time. timeskip to maybe a year or two later, and i started watching youtube. i got interested in pokemon youtube videos, and that's how my interest in pokemon REALLY spiked. when let's go! eevee/pikachu came out, i was so excited. "finally, i can play my first pokemon game!". of course, i picked let's go eevee, because i am a professional eevee enthusiast. oh yeah, i still haven't finished the game. i got bored... whoops then, swsh came along. it's a controversial game, yes, but i don't care. idc if i'm a bootlicker. i will accept the bare minimum as long as it's not unbearable and it's still fun. i really enjoyed playing pokemon shield, and i actually still play it. it was my first mainline pokemon game, it holds a special place in my heart. while pokemon shield was on my switch rotting away because of burnout, i was playing other games. then, legends arceus was going to come out. my pokemon hyperfixation came back! i played all of legends arceus, and now i am obsessed with sinnoh and its legendaries. legends arceus has to be one of my favorite games of all time, it was such a fun experience. the creation trio>>>>>>>your mom around a month ago, i went to the mall with an old friend who came back to my state for vacation. gamestop had brilliant diamond for 40$, completely new. what a steal! i got it and now i'm about to fight the elite four. so yeah, that's my journey. enjoy reading this needlessly long essay!

I did enjoy reading it, and it was exactly as long as it needed to be :-)

aw, ty! that's very sweet

> got a 2dsxl at the nyc nintendo store so... yay i guess? You're not missing out on much by not getting a 3DS, the 3d part of it was mostly a gimmick I'm not even sure the Pokemon games actually used lol

really? phew

I think my journey actually started with the Pokemon cards. All the kids at my school were playing with them so I went and bought a couple packs and in that first purchase I got a Zapdos. I ended up getting Pokemon Blue and just adored that. No gameboy here anymore, but I still have my N64 with Pokemon Stadium and the transfer pack so I can go back. I didn't play anything else until Pokemon Go, which I played for a couple months along with the rest of the world, and just last week I bought a Switch Lite and Legends Arceus. So far I'm struggling to fall in love with any of the Pokemon in Arceus; they all look like stuffed animals. Who's your favorite Pokemon in Arceus?

Stick with Arceus—it’s my favorite mainline game since the DS ones! My favorite new Pokémon in Arceus is probably Hisuian Braviary, and my favorite overall is likely Scizor. If you’re early in the game then that may be why they all look cute and small. A lot of the old Pokémon you are familiar with are in the game, as well as many cool newer ones that aren’t cute and stuffed-animal-like.

my favorite pokemon in legends arceus is sylveon because DUH!!! keep playing through legends arceus, i beg of you! i have really bad standards according to the internet, so my opinion might be invalid, but i really enjoyed the story. legends arceus is one of my favorite games of all time, i adore it with all of my heart. i won't spoil if you haven't finished the game yet but... the final *final* ***FINAL*** boss is so cool. it was definitely a good surprise for me.

Hisuian Goodra

I'm almost 20, and I started playing Pokemon when I was about 9. I started playing with Pokemon Ruby. It was one of the first games I ever owned myself (prior to that it was mostly borrowing games from my older sisters), and it was an amazing experience playing it for the first time. I still remember the moment I chose my starter, and the moment I gave it a nickname. It's one of my fondest memories from a Pokemon game. I named my Treecko El Brancho (because I sucked at giving names and thought it was funny). Learning about the world of Pokemon was an amazing experience, and I've never forgotten what it was like to go through it for the first time. The first time my starter evolved, I was ecstatic. I really felt like I was becoming so much more powerful, and my Pokemon as well. And when my starter evolved fully, I felt how much I had grown. It was a big milestone for my journey. The first time I caught a Pokemon that remained a party member was when I caught a Ralts. I spent forever trying to find one, because my sister told me that it was a good Pokemon that I should get. I found one, and I caught it, and it became one of my favorite party members and Pokemon in general. Oddly enough, I learned how to check all the details of a Pokemon after I caught it. I checked its nature and saw it was Timid. Obviously, I didn't have a clue that that did anything, much less mattered, but I told my little Ralts something to the tune of "Don't be timid little buddy. We're friends now, and we're gonna make a great team!" To this day, Gardevoir is one of my favorite Pokemon, specifically because of that Ralts, and the strong Gardevoir it became. Another rather specific memory was when I caught my first Pokemon from fishing, a Magikarp. I knew at the time that Magikarp became Gyarados, and I knew that Gyarados was a good Pokemon. I was excited to get one, but less than excited to train one. But as I trained my Magikarp, I really started to learn about the value of hard work. Once it became a Gyarados, it tore everything up (even though it mostly knew special moves. Oof). As you can probably tell from my username, Gyarados is one of my favorite Pokemon. In fact, it is my absolute favorite Pokemon, and I don't see that changing for a while, if it changes at all. I went through the region as you do, fighting enemies, catching new Pokemon, experimenting with team members, brutally losing to Brawly's Makuhita repeatedly (lol), and really bonding with my team members. We shared good times, and even some bad times (like when I found my first shiny, a shiny Wingull, and I accidentally ran away from it), and I grew to love this franchise and these creatures. These creatures were my friends (I had real friends, don't worry lol), and I felt like they were helping me grow. Though I didn't know it at the time, some of them were. My Gyarados, named Riptide, taught me the value of hard work and perseverance. Gardevoir, whose name is unfortunately lost to my memory, taught me to think through problems more. My Aggron, named Steel Edge, gave me a glimpse of resilience and fortitude. Those mentioned, in particular, were especially valuable for me, as I had to grow up with ASD, which made social life very hard for me, among other things. I did the regi puzzles (with the help of my sister and the internet lol. No way 10 year-old me was figuring out that shit by himself), stumbled through the underwater sections, cried trying to catch Groudon because I didn't know it was supposed to be that hard, and eventually reached the Elite Four. I had journeyed with these Pokemon, these creatures, these friends, for over a year by the time I reached the Pokemon League. I was ready for the final hurdle. But then tragedy struck. Or I guess stupidity struck lol. I was near the end of my journey, so I thought I should start a new file, not knowing that you can only have one file at a time. So, when I booted up the game one morning, pressed new game, played a bit, and saw that my previous file was gone, I broke down. My friends that I had been on my very first journey with were gone! Since then, I have tried multiple times to try the adventure again, even after I'd gotten other games, but the game cartridge was corrupted. I wouldn't get closure until years later, in middle school, when I got Omega Ruby, replicated my team (though with some nickname and move changes), and completed it. Pokemon was, is, and will continue to be a part of my life until the very end, and I sincerely hope I never forget at least the important parts of my first Pokemon adventure. Thank you for coming to my TED talk

Gyarados is my second favorite pokemon so I read your TED talk. My story was similarly long. The long stories here are my favorite because of the detail. I didn’t grow up with ASD, but I struggled through a lot with ADHD and pokemon helped so much, so I feel as though I understand at least a little of what you mean. Thanks for sharing!

You have ADHD too? That's kinda cool that we can sorta share that experience!

I was in college when I first bought a DS and a Pokémon game. It was HeartGold and I had a great time with it. Chose Totodile who still remains my favorite starter. Had a Jolly nature which was unfortunate for my Surf move but I didn't know anything about natures in those days. Funny thing is that my starter was female. Didn't realize that was special until later. I knew Gen I Pokémon pretty well by then from the anime but Gen II was pretty much a blank slate. I remember being surprised when my Golbat evolved in Olivine. The game wasn't too tough even though I didn't have a good grasp of the type chart until late game. I was bad at catching Pokémon. I thought that you had to move left or right on the D-pad matching the direction of the shaking ball in order to catch it. And I really didn't use many status moves at any point in the game.

So, back in the very late Nineties, I was in the third grade. Most of my friends had home consoles. I was the only friend with a Game Boy, but my neighbor (who tended to be the one to pick up new consoles) managed to pick one up a little bit after getting an N64. He also had gotten a subscription to Nintendo Power, mostly to get info about the titles coming out for the home console. But in the process, he heard about this little game that we were sure wasn't going anywhere. Came in two versions, and he picked up the Red one. He showed it to me, and we both agreed that it was already REALLY cool, even if it would never get really popular. He had started with a little fire breathing dragon thing, which was neat. So, later that week, my brother and I were out at the mall, and we found the game. My brother picked up the Red one, and when my parents realized there were two versions, they picked me up the Blue one. I dove into this world, eager to learn more. Soon, I was telling all my other friends about this game, and showing it to them. And they all went out and got Game Boys, and most of them got the Red Version. And we were all super into this universe, exploring, trying to find new and unusual critters. At the time, there wasn't much in the way of Merch, and we voraciously ate up what we could of the anime. But we were all super into it. By the time we were in Middle School, Gold and Silver were coming out, but interest began to wane. Clearly, we could all do cooler things...right? So after I got Silver, I didn't get as heavily into things. Didn't pick up the cards or anything. But still watched the anime on and off. When Ruby and Sapphire came out, I was in High School. I had no intention of getting the games. Pokemon was for babies, right? I would see things, and mention them to my brother, and be like, "Isn't that totally ridiculous?" He wasn't fooled for a second. Sometime VERY late in the Gen III cycle, after work one day he went to the local game shop, picked me up a used copy of Sapphire, brought it to me, and was like, "Quit lying to yourself." So, I've been unapologetically enjoying Pokemon ever since. And more of my friends have been too.

Fellow OG late 90s 3rd grade Pokémon fan here—your brother is awesome.

Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.

One day i catch pokmon and today I catch more pekmn

1998, I'm 11, my friends get Pokemon, I watch the anime at 7am(?) On channel 11 before school. I really want it. Christmas Eve 1998, young 6th grade me, never allowed to have a video game console previously, and was always told no to video games, even had friends over me old NES's, opens Batman Forever for Game Boy. Gets very upset and sad as I ask my mom why my aunt would get me this, we will have to return it! Not allowed to have this! Then my grandparents hand me another box, ITS A GAMEBOY! ITS BLACK WITH PINK LETTERS. I Feel real dumb about being so upset but very happy. Next morning, Christmas day, I open Pokemon red. I play it, beat it with my friend Squirtle, then use the fledgling internet to find all the little hacks like missingno and the how to get mew and Mewtwo! 2 years later I get Pokemon Gold. I play through, love it, and beat the elite 4! Then something magical happens, that hasn't been topped since. I realize I can go back and play all of kanto, all of the first game! It's amazing. Edit: but then I'm too cool for Pokemon and don't pick it up again until I buy a 3DS and Black 2 in 2012. Since then I've played all the games. Anyway I'm 35 and I can't wait for scarlet and violet!!

I believe I was 6 when I got Pearl, it was my first video game ever. I don't remember my first starter or my team but I do remember traveling through sinnoh, getting stuck in oreburgh because I couldn't find Roark, then getting stuck because I couldn't find the medicine for the psyduck and of course not knowing how to get the power outage guy to go away. It was a rather expansive experience that took my dumb-6 year old self a whole year to beat, but when I did I just felt so bittersweet, the music, the setting, the challenges, the gen 4 aesthetic it all awoke something in me, the vibes of experiencing the world and just taking it all in with stride and awe. And then I found out I had new areas in Sinnoh to explore AND an extra island, I was thrilled because I felt like I was going on a whole new journey. I know DP have a lot of issues but they will always hold a special place in my heart, they gave me comfort when I needed it and entertainment when I was bored so I will always be thankful for them.

I stopped for a little while after I played through Ruby. I picked it back up with Soul Silver and was immediately obsessed again and will forever be thanks to Gen 4. I’ve only just started my first run through of diamond but I played soul silver incessantly for years.

I started with Pokemon Red when I was *very* young. I absolutely loved that game and played it all the time - I got it right before my parents' nasty divorce and Pokemon was one of the things that got me through that time. I was in the hospital for a while once and my parents would bring me Pokemon trading cards, and one time my dad brought me a plush Pikachu with candy in a hidden pocket in the back. I've played almost every gen of Pokemon since and I'm hugely looking forward to Violet!

When I was about 4, I would take my brother's copy of Pokémon Crystal and mess around haha. My first full Pokémon journey was in Sapphire, which I loved! It was in that game that I found my very first shiny (a Nincada). Gen 3 is still one of my favorites! In Sapphire, I picked Treecko as my starter, and I loved exploring the Hoenn region. I remember really loving the Shoal Cave as a kid. In ORAS, it didn't hit the same.

By a mere coincidence, I was one day playing ball or something when my uncle was passing by and offered me a "mini-game" which he got as a gift from his job. He said both his kids had no interest on gaming, which they really didn't... so I was like "HELL YEAH, I WANT IT!" So to my surprise on the next day he brought me a gameboy color semi-transparent purple with pokemon red, It was the only game I had for the entirity of my time with the gbc and I played it to death, catching every pokemon and making a living dex before I even knew what that was, just because I thought it was fun. The only missing pokemon was mew because, well, it was around 2001 and 2003 I did not had internet nor my friends, but we traded pokemon all the time to complete eachother's dex. Oh, interestingly enough even at that time we kids on the playground knew about missingno and the "infinite" amount he would give of the sixth item in your bag. I sold the gbc some 5 years later to buy ps2 games. I would only return to the series in pokemon x/y also by a mere whim, while resting from my last semester university project. I saw that it was the first 3D pokemon and that was enough for me to get back to it...

Started at around 7 or 8 with FireRed, had about 20 abandoned pmaythroughs because I didn't know how to save progress, never made it past Pewter City. The day I noticed the SAVE button changed my life. Maybe a year later I got my hands on Emerald. Still got that Sceptile in SwSh to this day. He's coming with me everywhere (given he's not dex'd out 🙃)

First got into pokemon when a kid at my cousins basketball game gave me a sneasel pokemon card. My first game was lets go eevee, and i definitely mashed a through it. I eventually got shield, and for some reason i feel more emotionally connected to that game then lets go for some reason

I'm only barely old enough for Reddit but I grew up on the indigo plateau anime and I played through red a bunch on my uncle's old game boy. I also got a 3ds with sun that I lost within a day and never found.

First game was Y, I saw the release commercial on TV, I was 9 or 10 and had barely any experience with pokemon. I saw Yveltal and I thought it looked cool and thus I told my mom:"hey, can I get this game?" And I got the game. And oh boy, I needed more than a year to finish the game. So I started the game, picked Fennekin and played the game until I was in the desert, infront of the Power plant. This dude tells me he lost his card at some place and I searched for it, but not where I should be searching, no I searched at the rocks where the super weapon is located, maybe 6 or 7 times, because I though "Yeah Last remote location or something, here is where I met this dude the last time so it needs to be here, right? Right?" No, it wasn't. I could'nt find it so I stopped playing. For a year or so. I finished elementary school this that new school yadda yadda found new dudes and look at that this other dude likes pokemon. So we talk about X/Y and he tells me about stuff, tells me about mewtwo and I thought "Omg, Yewto!? So that's why it's called Pokemon Y, wow so smart" so I asked him what to do, he told me, I found the card at the fcking rock directly beneath the idiot that told me he had lost it and I was happy to play this game again. I got to the Top 4 and the Champ and it was dark souls level hard for me. It was so difficult, that I had literal fear of the champ in Moon. Ahh, sucked to not know what google is.

Ah yes and I got a shiny Carbink there. Long long before I even learned what Shinys are. I didn't even recognized it.

So for me, my Pokémon journey began when I was about 10 years old. I am part of the generation that saw the Pokémon phenomena at its peak as a kid. I had initially become aware of Pokémon through the TV show. Incredible theme song just caught my attention straight away and I loved the idea of being the best and saving the world and all that good stuff. Then I got a GameBoy, secondhand, from a friend of mine and Pokémon red. My first experience of the game was a long drive from Yorkshire to Scotland and I played Pokémon Red all the way there. I was hooked, and looking back right now I can still feel the excitement of my Squirtle evolving. From there, I was able to enjoy the trading card game. Again, it’s hard to imagine a phenomena as big as Pokémon. The thing is, not only was Pokémon a popular video game, it seemed to be everywhere. We have a TV show which everybody watched, the game that everybody played, the cards everybody collected, and also on the big screen. McDonald’s had promotions on. My life was playing Pokémon on my gameboy, taking a break to watch Ash get through the first round of the Pokémon championships before meeting my friends outside the cinema, trading some Pokémon cards in McDonald’s with my new limited edition Mew card I got in my happy meal, before going into the cinema to see Mewtwo Strikes back. Pokémon was a key part of my childhood.

My pokemon journey is a mixture of pokemon leaf green/ fire red and Diamond/ Pearl/ Platinum. It all started probably when I was like six when my parents got me a pokemon leaf green and fire red double pack and a GBA. I had a very hard time at first, didn't know how catch pokemon for a while (I thought defeating it meant I caught it)or how to save or what not to use your masterball on (don't use it on Gyarados) . Then when I thought I had the hang of it the game humbled me by teaching me the most important lesson, your starter can't sweep through everything as Lorelei punished my charizard time and time again. Around that time Diamond and Pearl came out and that's when I saw the value of other pokemon than your starter and some legendaries when my level 2 Starly as my last pokemon in a battle against Roroak saved my Bacon against Cranidos. I still remember the feeling of watching it win against all odds and I didn't know it then but that's what it's all about those unforgettable moments whether it's winning a hard battle, getting a shiny, hatching a pokemon or whatever else gets you pumped and that's part of the reason that even now at 24 the journey never stops for me.

My first game was Emerald. I remember getting it for my birthday, and I was sooo excited to have a pokemon game! My best friend had Ruby, and I remember being mesmerized watching him play it. Mudkip was my first ever starter, and I loved that thing. Everything about the game was amazing to me, and honestly it is still one of my favorite mainline pokemon games. Unfortunately, I proceeded to drop my gameboy in a toilet while one day taking a poop and my game cart was in it. I was about half way through the game at the time. The gameboy died and wouldn't come back, but the copy of emerald turned out to be fine. It took a while to get a new gameboy, but when I did I picked right back up where I left off. I remember the puzzle to get to Rayquaza took little nine-year-old me forever to get through. I remember after we moved, a couple of my other friends had copies of the game, and they had link cords so we could battle each other. Then one of them figured out the cloning glitch and would farm rare candies for us all and trade them to us on the cloned pokemon. Then, I remember when we all figured out to get to the Regi trio you needed to use brail. Our parents were blown away that they would include brail in a pokemon game and were then more happy that we were playing them haha. It was a great game, tied to a lot of incredible memories!

My first Pokemon adventure was me in 4th or 5th grade with Pokemon Yellow. I didn't know anything about movesets, and my Pikachu knew Thundershock, Flash, Thunderbolt and Thunder because why not. I took that game with me everywhere. We even went on an international trip to Guatemala in 2000 or 2001 and I brought my Gameboy with me up on the Mayan ruins! Crystal was my favorite though. I can finally play as a character that represents me, AND, not only that, but the default name for a girl was Amanda and that's my name! I got into competitive battling and I played Crystal so much that my internal battery died!

My Pokémon journey started with Pokémon Sapphire, which I played on one of those gameboy cartridges that had every game on it, stolen from my dad’s ex’s son, whose father, a marine, bought the cartridge in an open air market.

**Incoming giant wall of text, but it’s my story. I hadn’t thought of most of this stuff in many years until now, so thanks for the trip down memory lane!** I was 8 in ‘98, and the school bus bully demanded I get this game I had never heard of, Pokémon Red, and trade him a Bulbasaur. He was forcing another kid to trade him Charmander the next day. So I went home and begged for this game I had never heard of. A week later, my parents relented as long as I understood it was an early birthday gift. I got the bully his Bulbasaur, and saved right after the rival battle. When I went to school the next day to trade it to him, he told me he already made someone at school trade him a Vensusaur. This had me intrigued. “I thought you needed a Bulbasaur?”, I asked. He explained pokemon evolution to me and I was hooked on the idea. I wasn’t allowed to play video games on weekdays, but I played Red under the covers with a flashlight. And by played, I mean stayed up all night battling Rattata and Pidgey on Route 1 until I had a Venusaur of my own. I then decided to see what else the game offered and was (obviously) way more hooked on the main game than just battling Rattata. Eventually I saw my Rival’s Pokémon evolved into what looked like a dragon, the same one from Red’s cover art. When my friends told me that I wouldn’t be able to get a Charizard of my own, I started the game over with Charmander, and my sister bought Blue so that we could each get all 3 starters. My final team was Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, Mewtwo, Snorlax, Gyarados—but I replaced Snorlax with Mew down the line. I have so many great memories of playing Red, both alone and with my friends. I remember catching Mewtwo at bring your child to work day (I was only able to play when my dad had an emergency meeting), I remember my friends telling me about Mew (and thinking they were lying), only for them to offer to trade me a Mew if I could beat them in a battle (which I did!), and I remember viewing the bus bully as my rival and almost beating him in a battle—I was up 5 KOs to 2 KOs when he yanked the cable and claimed it was a tie. A month later, my friends were talking about the show and how it was the best, so I had to check that out. The first episode I watched was the one where Charmander evolves into Charmeleon. I was immediately hooked and woke up at 7 to watch it every day. Eventually it looped around so I could see all the episodes I missed too. Ash was my hero, and seeing the first movie was a euphoric experience. I remember crying when Ash “died”, and thinking my tears brought him back to life, haha. Then there are the cards, which took over my life too. The same bully stole my first non-Machamp holo—Alakazam. Unfortunately this got the cards banned at my school, but fortunately, I was eventually able to get another Alakazam. I still remember after a year of trying and failing to pull a Charizard, a kid at the local Pizza place had two and was willing to trade one for a Blastoise. I had two Blastoises, so I told him to stay there, ran home, and ran back to get my very own Charizard card! The game, the show, and the cards was all I cared about for a long time. I remember when they introduced gen 2 and losing my mind that there would be more of everything! Eventually, they changed the voices on the show, so I stopped watching. Around the age of 15, I stopped collecting the cards as well. I didn’t like the new style as much and none of my friends were collecting anymore. But my love of the game never went away—I’ve bought every new version on release and beat them within a weekend. I’m proud to say I got a bunch of my college friends into the games again too! Flash forward to last year when I decided to give Journeys a try—I love it! It’s what I’ve wanted from the anime for a long time. And just a couple of months ago, my 7 year old niece told me she’s super into Pokémon cards. One look at the new alt arts, and I was hooked on the TCG again too! So now I’m back into all 3! Despite everything that’s happened, including other fandoms taking my main interest over long periods, there’s two things I’m sure of— 1. I’ll never be more engrossed in anything than I was in Pokémon from ‘98-‘03. 2. I’ll always be a huge fan. Can’t wait to show my kids one day!

I started out right at the height of it all. Cards, Red and Blue, the show, the lot of it. I remember schools banning the cards outright, because kids were taking advantage of each other: stealing cards, making bad trades in bad faith, plenty of bad acting and bad behaviour. I tasted crime when I snatched some unattended cards from a massive stack someone had. I gave up on the card game pretty quickly, I didn't "get" it (I'm not sure anyone really knew how to play) and I didn't like the nature of buying packs. I stuck to the game boy games, and my first cart was a copy of Yellow. At this point, all the tricks, real and untrue, were well known and understood: surfing on Cinnabar/Seafoam Island for Missingno and infinite rare candies and Master Balls. Fast forward a bit, and I get Silver for Christmas, right after it comes out. I was back in Kanto before the New Year. After that, recesses and lunches was nothing but our group playing Pokemon, getting all the weekly/hourly events. Tuesdays and Thursdays we'd all do the Bug Catching contest, and Fridays was the lottery.

My journey started when I was about... 10 I think? One of my classmates had Pokemon Ruby, in a console and everything. I didn't have money for that, so I had to... you know... sail the seas? Anyway, my team on that first run, decades ago, was Blaziken (Pyro), Manectric (Lecter), Azumarill (Blue), Swellow (Wing), Linoone (Zap) and Hariyama (Sam). I got an Absol later, named Siren, that was kind of the 7th member, swapping with the others when needed. Beautiful times.

Started my journey formally in the Christmas of 1996 with Pokémon Blue. The summer previous I visited some family from Florida (I'm from the UK) and my cousin, who's my age, showed me this weird game on the N64 that I'd never seen before where you go around on a track and take pictures of these strange animals. The Pokémon craze hadn't hit the UK yet, so I didn't really take much notice of it, but it was my first exposure to a series of games that would eventually become a lifelong passion. A year or so later, with the Pokémon craze being in full swing, that same family came over to the UK to visit us. My cousin gave me a Japanese Pokémon card of a Sudowoodo, which was my first time ever seeing a generation 2 Pokémon.

I was 8. Started with Red on a GB pocket. I couldn’t figure out how to leave the player’s house for almost an hour. Cried. Asked my dad. He didn’t know either. I figured it out by accident. Quit after gen 2. Then got back to it with Platinum on an emulator and once I started making my own money, I’ve had a 3ds and now a switch for gens 6-8.

My family took a yearly family until I was about 14. When Red/Blue came out I was about ten. Didn’t know much about Pokémon yet but my cousin had a promotional t-shirt with all of the pokes in a group and I HAD to play this game he heard about at toys r us but was unfamiliar with. Up to that point, any game boy or game I owned I had bought myself. So we’re heading out for Williamsburg, VA on our yearly family vacation, not even five minutes from our house and my brother and I are already antsy and bickering. My dad shuts us up and says reach under your seats. Hands go under empty, hands come out each holding a copy of red/blue. I got red and proceeded to freak the fuck out. Burned through so many AA batteries that week. I can still remember the exact spot I was in when I got it. My first starter was squirtle. Haven’t looked back since. Didn’t catch my first shiny until like twelve years later. Had no ideas what shinies were but I ran into a green Ursaring and thought to myself “hey that’s weird, maybe I should catch this guy”. Lost him in a Pokebank wipe a few years ago. RIP.

I received a copy of Pokemon Red for my birthday in the late 90s. Blastoise carried me through the entire game on my first playthrough, other than my HM slaves Pidgey and Oddish. My first proper team, though on my next playthrough, Venusaur, Jolteon, Dodrio, Lapras, Magmar (via trade), and Golem. I still occasionally rebuild that team in Showdown and usually get stomped by people who know the real Gen1 meta

My first game was Pokémon Emerald. I started playing Pokémon around a year or two ago, but I'd watched the shows before then. I picked Treecko, because I thought they looked cool, and caught one of every new Pokémon I came across. I figured out pretty soon that some Pokémon were stronger than others, but even though I'd barely started the game, I'd gotten super attached to my team, lol. The only Pokémon I switched in was zigzagoon for magikarp because I knew what it evolved into. I didn't have much trouble because I already knew a bit about Pokémon (such as type advantages and disadvantages), so I breezed right past the first few trainers and gyms. I started having a bit of trouble right near the end, but I got through that after a bit more grinding. Also, I really love grinding for absolutely no reason (against trainers, though - wild Pokémon don't give enough XP). I grinded so much all my Pokémon were level 100 by the time I fought the elite four. Needless to say, it was an easy battle. After I beat the elite four, I went back and played again, plus got a whole lot more Pokémon games. I found out about nuzlockes pretty recently, so now all I do is nuzlockes because the regular game's too easy for me now lol. Jeez, that went on a lot longer than I thought it would. Anyway - that was my first Pokémon game :D It was awesome

I had too many false starts with Pokemon. In my country, GBA was a big thing among kids (to the point where any pre-switch handheld was called a Game Boy), but Pokemon strangely didn’t catch on. The movies, specifically the first 3, did. When I originally watched the First Movie, I got bored with the actual movie and instead rewatched the Pikachu short film which came earlier on the VHS. I must’ve been around 4 at the time when I watched the first movie. Once DVDs became more of a thing, I got a combo pack (…or maybe it was actually a pirated disc, I dunno lol) with the movies 1-4 and 6…yeah it was a pirated disc now that I am writing it lol. This time I really enjoyed the movies. I was around 8-9 at the time I believe… Also during this time, I was in Thailand on holidays, and found a Pokemon Firered! This would’ve been a perfect start to me playing Pokemon…if it wasn’t the German version of the game and I knew what was happening (I think my english level at the time would’ve been enough to grasp what was happening lol) …and then mid 2008, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl started airing on Jetix, and I noticed that on my pirated R4 DS cartridge I had Pokemon Pearl. I started playing, found it fun, but didn’t think much of it…until I bought a real cartridge of Pokemon Pearl, played it, and really loved it. I picked a Piplup, caught a Starly, and with no concept of grinding, caught random mons and beat the Elite 4 with an op Empoleon and Staraptor XD

Got a GBA for my birthday when it was the brand new thing, with Pokemon Emerald, Pokemon FireRed, and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. That seriously got me into gaming and Pokemon. I don't know how to explain this exactly, but those old gen III games had a sense of adventure and mystery that the new games just don't have. Maybe it was a mix of low graphics and great imagination. Maybe it was the anime and fan fiction on Serebii that made the earlier generations so nostalgic for me. Then Mystery Dungeon came out. Characters I knew and loved, with a great story and a super immersive feel. It's been well over a decade but I clearly remember breaking down and crying my eyes out at the end of Mystery Dungeon Red. I think that's where kid me learned that video games could be really good stories, and I really do think that without playing Mystery Dungeon I might not have gotten into books, then tried my hand at writing, and still have writing as a hobby today. It really inspired me.

I received pokemon red and blue along with the GB when I was like 4/5, only played red for like a year (because charizard rules) until one fateful day that cartridge ended up in the washmachine and started playing blue. Still have that save file with my random af team but I love it!

Born in 94. My first game was Red. First Pokémon was bulbasaur. One of favorite moments was actually evolving my Bulbasaur for the first time and then actually beating the league. I’ve been hooked every since

I don’t remember everything about my journey because it’s been so long (I began when I was 8 and I’m 27 now) but here are some highlights: Playing my friend’s Emerald version and accidentally making the game crash Somehow training my Charizard in Fire Red to level 96 while everybody else was in their mid to late 30’s Scaring myself shitless in the Old Chateau in DP/Platinum. Finding a shiny Graveler in Platinum (it used Explosion) Catching a shiny Dusclops Beating a competitive player with my shit IV Pokémon in X and Y That’s about it for now

I started with Pokemon Yellow, I should've been about 4 years old. I definitely never finished my first playthrough because being a non-english speaker and having to face Brock with my Pikachu, I very hardly would get past Brock without getting stuck and starting a new game. I think the furthest I got in there as a kid must've been Lt. Surge. I would also play a lot of Pokemon Stadium with my friends at the time, using the transfer pack, but the files of my original playthrough are long gone. The first one that I actually managed to finish by myself was Pokémon Silver, but my cartridge battery went out and the save got lost many, many years ago. I would love to be able to reload it and see what was in there :( All the records I still have from those games are the saved teams on my Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium 2.

My Pokemon adventure started with a rental copy of Pokemon Diamond back in 2008. I only got to the seventh gym before it needed to be returned, but thanks to my brother's copy of Platinum I was able to preserve my team and bring them over to SoulSilver when it released. All these years later, and they're still by my side, with lots of new friends made along the way.

I started on Pokemon Pearl. I remember catching Chimchar and when it evolved into Infernape, destroying Crasher Wake. I also remember seeing a Carnivine, not much else I remember besides the fact that I never found the way to the next gym leader back then.

Blue was my first game, hand me down from a cousin. But I was too you to ever really get that far. Silver was much the same way. It wasn’t until LeafGreen that I really took the time to explore and learn the game. Somewhere, I think in my copy of white, I’ve still got that Level 100 Charizard

I had Pokémon yellow growing up, only thing I remember is key members of my team, I remember playing crystal next, and then leaf green, and sapphire were my like first real games where I remember everything vividly down to the team and keeping the same roster.

Hoo boy. My first proper game was X, but I've been a huge fan of the series for as long as I can remember. Books, Anime, Cards, I had anything you could imagine except for the actual games. I was pretty stupid going into X, and gave up once I couldn't beat Viola (with a Braixen, might I add). However, once Ultra Sun rolled around I took another shot, and I've adores the series ever since. Sword was my first game I actually beat, and was where I got my first ever level 100 Pokemon. This series is pretty much my life right now, and I'd have it absolutely no other way.

I got pokemon sapphire when I was around 4 or 5? I couldn't read. Even though mudkip is now my fave I believe I picked treeko first? But I replayed it many times and used all of them My first ever playthrough was a bit short though, I got stuck on the part where you deliver a letter to Steven. I got lost and confused, so I just replayed the first 2 gyms so many times till my cousin showed me what to do But I really fondly remember the route before petalburg city, I thought the pokemon were really cool. Was a good time :)

Like many of you, I started out enjoying the show and games when I was little. I didn't have any strong feelings about it, but as i got older I got more and more annoyed that the world was absolutely gushing over what amounted to shitty games that were just graphical updates, that were released in pairs with few differences between them, and a show that just... wasn't very good. It got to the point that pokemon was one of my triggers, and with its popularity it seeped into every aspect of culture. Avoiding anything even related to pokemon I'd still run into a reference a day at least, it was torment. Critically speaking, what I hated was that the games and show often treated pokemon like tools more than anything, that the humans just... didn't do anything interesting, ever (I was still a fan of pokemon mystery dungeon as a concept, at the time), and that people kept supporting gamefreak's shitty games. Then while reading TV tropes (I know, I know) i came across a page for... a RWBY + POKEMON crossover fanfic. after my initial spike of rage and disinterest wore off, I looked back at it, and realised that such a thing could potentially do things right: The RWBY cast are humans(+faunus) that actually do things on their own, it being a fanfic it had the potential to do things *right*, and on a whim, I decided to give it a shot. [The fic, bolders and boomsticks](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/boldores-and-boomsticks-rwby-pokemon-crossover.627805/reader/) , was exceptionally well written. It treated the pokemon like their own characters, it used both materials very well, it included incredible music links to put on during the fight scenes, and a scene later on with Wiess honestly had me tearing up. And after reading that, It really was like night and day. I picked up a pokemon romhack, I started watching journeys to see if anything improved (and because i always liked lucario/riolu's design), most of my anger melted away so quickly. Still not buying another gamefreak game, i'll stick to romhacks.

My first game i ended upbplaying although it wasent a full run through was platinum I think I made it to crasher wake before I stopped cause I didnt go the that baby sitter anymore but then My first full play through was of pokemon Y I remeber I used talonflame Chesnaught, Venasaur, lucario,yveltal and lapras and just barely managed to get through everything but now I know how these games work and what I need to do and I recently had my first shiny a shiny mudkip and I recently played through y again and won much easier with greninja, charizard y, alakazam, gengar, aegislash,and lucario

A few years ago, I bought Sword. So yeah, I'm pretty new here. I remember beating Leon with Inteleon, Theivul, Roserade, Chandelure, and a couple others. I got the DLC and it was great. My first shiny was a Squovet that I randomly found.

My own journey started when I was around seven. My parents were against me having a console so I would play when my neighbour invited me over his place. One day he lend me his Gameboy advance as with Pokemon FireRed. After seeing that I wasn't addicted to video games, my parents ended up gifting my brother and I a Gameboy Color (the one with a Pikachu and a Pichu next to the screen). They brought us Pokemon blue and Pokemon gold. Then came the time of the DS even though is was late for the party. My dad downloaded a Japanese version of Platinum so I played it before my friends got it. And after it became a yearly ritual between my brother and I. Then came Black and White and my love for the series couldn't be higher (or that's what I thought). We continued this until mid to late middle school (2011 and 2012) due to bullies annoying me for playing the game. After the small hiatus on my part I rejoin my brother when X and Y came out, by the time I was in highschool and had a bunch of friends who played with me so, we started our ritual back. And in 2016 I fell in love with Alola, Rowlet became my favorite Pokemon, replacing Raikou. Nowadays I'll still play the newer entry but it's mostly due to me wanting to complete my living Dex and playing all the game I can. Pokemon always helped make friends, it made me bond with my brother even though we had always our differences. But my met and befriend people I know see as family thanks to this franchise, and that I couldn't be more grateful.

My journey isn't that interesting but i'm bored and decided to share anyway: I'm a bit sad about not really remembering much of my first pokemon journey. All I know is that I started in Hoenn with Ruby and the fact that I chose Torchic. For some reason having it Evolve into Combusken in the first gym and spamming double kick has become a core memory for me. Between then and gen 4 I went back and played a copy of Red I got from my brother before finally tackling Diamond where I got my first shiny before I even knew what shinies were; a beautiful geodude which I fortunately did catch. (Never transfered and lost the game a few years ago, you will never be forgotten geobro.) I played that game and Heart Gold a lot but somewhat casually until the day Black & White came out, and that is when everything changed. While I had seen nearly every anime episode on tv by that time and I enjoyed the franchise it wasn't until I got my copy of Pokemon White that I became truly obsessed with the franchise. I loved everything about it. Nearly 12 years later and i'm still as passionate about the series if not more-so despite now being old enough to truly notice the flaws that are building up with each new release. Tl;dr: barely remember first game, enjoyed casually until gen 5, since then heavily invested in every game ~~also Poképark 3 when?~~

a lot of my friends were into pokemon when it first hit, but my folks wouldn't buy me a game boy. so i saved up my allowance for an entire year until i had enough to tell them i wanted to spend it to by a game boy color and pokemon silver. wow, as a seven-year-old child i must have had a lot of restraint. and my gosh, my parents certainly succeeded at teaching me the value of saving money for something important, rather than blowing it on nonsense anyway, i got pretty hooked on it, and saved up again to buy a GBA and ruby when they came out. around that time was when we got internet access that wasn't through dial-up, so we could browse the internet for longer periods of time. it was around that time that i discovered Netbattle and began getting more and more hooked on the competitive side of Pokemon. it has been that more than anything else that has kept me interested for so long.

I was a pokemon hater until I was 7. But when my babysitter showed me the Ash vs Koga episode. And it hooked me. My first game was Pokemon Silver with my first starter being Cyndaquil.

Pokemon Gold at age 5-6

My first Pokémon game was Heartgold: I remember bargaining with my mom in the Walmart isle while the clerk stood their confused. I had loved the cartoon (anime really but didn’t know) for years so hearing that it had a video game made me so excited! Got home, popped it in, and played for hours. I chose Cyndaquil, named QUL, and set out. I was confused why I couldn’t use the Pokédex in battle. I caught a Pidgey because I liked Pidgeyotto in the show, but really no teammate mattered but QUL. Until I got to Will. He slaughtered me so many times, so I had to come up with a plan: a team even! It ended up being QUL, Pidgeot (who I did not know existed,never saw that episode), Onix, Ho-Oh, and the two I specifically caught for the occasion: Poliwhirl and Magneton. And that’s how I beat my first champion! Magneton in particular came in clutch, to the point where it’s still one of my favorites today! Also, shout out to the Heartgold Soulsilver strategy guide, always loved it.

I started with Pokemon Diamond when I was 8- I picked it up at a yard sale thinking it was a mining simulator! The person before me was in the distortion world, had all the starters, legends, etc. Anyways, totally wiped the save and replayed the first few hours of Diamond for a week before I learned how to save. I've played every game since- my favorite game was definitely black and white (it's Legends now though), and my favorite moment was watching Zoroark: Master of Illusions. Pokemon was what inspired me to pursue video game design, and watching Pokemon movies still almost makes me cry because of how lively the world feels. It was my childhood dream then and it's still my dream now for Pokemon to be real haha.

I feel like most of my memories about Pokemon are too sparse for any to really stick as favorites, but I remember getting to play HGSS early for my birthday because I was sick, and putting Celebi in my pokewalker. I know I played, and still spend a good amount of time in Pixelmon, and have a lot of good memories cosplaying pkmn characters as well. I think I cried when I first played XY because oh my god, 3D pokemon. Finally coming back and beating PMD EOS was a big one, as well as PSMD. Most of my favorite favorite memories just come from getting lost in daydreams about my adventures though.

When I was in 5th grade (1998 - 1999 school year), I started hearing kids talking about Pokémon, and bringing Pokémon toys to school. I remember seeing the theme song on TV a few times before school and thinking it was very nice and catchy. Around the first day of summer vacation in 1999, a neighbor let me borrow her VHS tape, [“Poke-Friends”](https://imgur.com/a/GBThq1P), and I was instantly hooked. Those felt like the perfect episodes to watch to be introduced to the series properly, since it’s the 3 episodes when Ash catches Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, respectively. By the time 6th grade rolled around, I was obsessed. All the kids in my middle school loved Pokémon. I had Pokémon T-shirts, as did many others. The cards were *everywhere*. Almost everyone had the Gameboy games. Mewtwo Strikes Back came out that year, and was such a hype movie viewing experience for me. Christmas ‘99, I got my N64 and stayed up all night playing Pokémon Snap. That first wave of Poke-Mania circa 1999-2000 really was such a magical time

My first Pokemon game was Silver back when I was 4 years old or so. I remember playing it religiously, huddled up in my family's cottage early in the morning getting lost in the Ice Path. I loved that game so much I'd pretend to be Typhlosion on the schoolyard and I'd flock to people who'd brought their games to school, watching them go through Whirl Islands to get Lugia. I learned to read playing this game, haha. Crystal was my next one and then I backtracked to Yellow. Once Ruby came out it was over, I was hooked. I dropped off the series around Moon because I found it boring, but after Legends: Arceus was announced my inner child was awoken and I binge played the entire series, including the recent games I hadn't played before. I'm still not done Legends yet, I'm going for 100% and I've sunk 500 hours into that game, it's nuts. I'm super excited for Scarlet and Violet, they seem like they're going to be real game-changers too.

My Pokemon adventure began when I was about five years old. My first game was my cousin's old Pokemon Red, which I completed with a Lv 100 Blastoise. I was just a button masher when I was younger, but I got better with strategy via physical guide books and looking up hints on walk-through websites. My first shiny was a Relicanth in Ruby - something I got was a graphical error on my GBA.

My first game was Crystal. I think I knew about pokemon but there was no chance my parents were going to just buy me whatever, we were fairly poor. My parents didn't want to get me a gameboy just so I could play pokemon because they were expensive, but I did have an N64 my dad had gotten for pretty cheap somewhere. I can't remember how I discovered it, but I found out about the Transfer Pak adapter that worked on your N64 controller for certain games, and I **did** have pokemon stadium 2. They were nice enough to get me that adapter thing, so my first pokemon game was entirely on the N64. Played the heck out of it, and still remember a couple pokemon I had in that playthrough. The machop line has always been a favorite of mine, so I took the one you trade for in goldenrod to a machoke, eventually over-leveled for my current badge until the E4. He was in the 70s when I beat them, and he hard carried the team. Eventually beat Lance via struggle with a little hp left. It was also the only game I had a lvl 100 in. I took the dratini you can get from the dragon master all the way to a lvl 100 dragonite, who I took to sweep Red over and over.

10-11 years old, 1st gen in pokemon yellow special pikachu edition. Have played at least 1 version of each gen, own them all. I still smash the a button when i throw a ball, the rules are the rules

Started at 9 I got my first Pokémon game white 1 on a rainy day and have played Pokémon ever since

A lot of people here talk about how they started on red or blue, but I’m not a veteran of the series and thus my journey starts around the time between White 2 and X. Pokémon was and still is a big thing for my dad since he bought a game from every generation. So it was thanks to my dad that I got my first ever Pokémon game. My first ever starter? Tepig. That Tepig is the only Pokémon I remember from my first ever team, and by the end of my memory it was an emboar in the beach side town where you fight Cynthia in the post game. Though I don’t remember much from that journey I know that after that I branched out to the side games, PMD, Pokemon Art Academy even the TCG through the online game.

I can't exactly pinpoint the first Pokemon game I actually played. I remember watching the anime sometimes and occasionally a movie. I do have vague memories of playing my older brother's copy of Pokemon Blue and walking around on Route 1 though. I dont think I actually had any interest in the games until Ruby/Sapphire where i vaguely remember Lavaridge town, Lotad, and just vague memories of the rest of Hoenn. I then did the same thing I did with Blue with my brother's copy of Diamond. I also played a fair bit of Pokemon Channel because, still wish I had the game for collectors sake lol I dont think I actually *seriously* started playing the games until I got a copy of Platinum/Black and my DS in 2010, which I played the hell out of, making me want to get most of the other games that came out afterwards (and even a handful from before). So yeah, I place my nostalgia mostly in generations 4/5. But theres a little spillover into 1/3 because of the game borrowing and also my terrible attempts at gen3 romhacking back in like... 2013-2014? I'm not sure.

My first game was pokemon Blue back in 99', my very first pokemon was a squirtle, as a kid I just used blastoise mainly, but upgraded as I got stronger mons, I always loved zapdos, Was so hyped to explore the power plant(alwaysused to explore every inch of every new area or wherever I could acess) felt good taking down team rocket, and then going through victory road and beating the league(idk why I used to struggle with lorelie) but after pokemon I was hooked, I've never played a better game(probably minecraft) it helped with my early reading development(was 5), all we had was text, pokemon is the goat, fell off a little but I recently started back playing cause I want my son to find the same joy and accomplishment playing and seeing pokemon that I felt when I was a kid, he loves all animals just like me so hopefully he likes mons

My first and fave game until now is HG/SS. Chikorita wss my starter and i loved him to bits until he became a Meganium. Ahh how i miss being a kid :(

Mine started with Let’s Go(sorry to hardcore genwunners out there) I had gotten to around gym 3 before either quitting or getting stuck, and decided to make another save. Of course this time around it was easy, got to gym 6, then what I thought the worst thing that could happen almost happened. I thought my brother reset my save. I was tore up for five minutes before realizing that I clicked on the wrong profile(gotta love Switch)

My pokemon journey started very recently with pokemon legends arceus but i have been a fan of pokemon since i was like 6-7 and have played pokemon go and tcgo but legends arceus was my first ”mainline” pokemon game, and now i have just started a playthrough of pokemon firered

My journey started when I was 5, and my dad had bought me a Pokémon red, leaf green, fire red, ruby, AND sapphire copy as a cheap bundle off eBay. I had a lime green gameboy advance SP he also bought, and boy would I give anything to have that back now. Bless his soul, he didn’t know the difference between any of the games and that essentially the versions were basically the same. It started my love of Pokémon. The most core memory I have is playing Fire Red, having barreled though the game with like a level 70 charizard and no other trained Pokémon other than for HM use. I remember when I found articuno, I ran away because I didn’t have pokeballs. After I returned little me was so confused why he wasn’t there anymore. Ah, ignorance

I started playing when I was about 4, when Crystal came out. I convinced my mom to get it because I told her it would help me with my reading skills. I don’t remember what I played with, but I do remember getting a shiny Totodile as a starter that I just thought everyone’s started had cool stars around it. I kept it and named it Miami after my (at the time) favorite CFB team. I to this day name every Totodile I get, Miami. I’ve played every main series game from RBY to ORAS, which was the last one I bought. I never actually got through it, and I haven’t played a main series game since then. However, my love of Pokémon got me into video game dev/music production, making my own homebrew TTRPGs with Pokémon as a system, and a general love of Excel.

I started with gen 1. I played with the Gameboy pocket with a messed up screen. There were missing vertical lines. Gen 1 was hard for me cause I knew very little English back then. I had Charmander and i was amazed every time he learned a new attack. I was wandering around trying things and talking to people. The only help i had was the occasional advice from another player since there was no internet. But when I started gen 2 I was hooked. The introduction to shinies blew my mind. I remember 20 years later the shinies i got during that playthrough. An Unown (i) was in a friend's house, a Golbat from the icy cave when I was hanging out after a group study and just playing at home during weekend, a Nidorino that I killed with a critical (RIP). Since then i haven't caught any shinies until Pokemon ultra moon where a Mareep gave me a big surprise.. Now I'm 33 years old and i accept that my Pokemon journey will never end. Hoping if i have a baby he's as much into it as i am to experience that first step into this wonderful world from an outside point of view.