you've just unwrapped pokemon red version

[Fishy]

or at least, that's how i received my first pokemon game ever.

this isn't supposed to be sad, just thought-provoking!

i saw this on facebook, and then sat for a moment. i opened up Pokemon Red version christmas of 1998, an eight year old child like a good chunk of you guys here at smogon! i'm not sure if at the time i knew what pokemon was about, but i saw this awesome red dragon on the cover and decided that this would be a game i would highly enjoy, and surely wasted no time popping it into my gameboy

fat

oh, to be young again and haul that thing to 2nd grade and whip it out at recess with a few other young pokemon trainers just like myself, although the only joe in my class did NOT go by joey. bummer. :happybrain:

it's always fun to talk about everyone's first starter, but playing your first pokemon game undoubtedly held much more suspense and wonderment than JUST selecting one of the pokemon from oak's briefcase.

unfortunately, it's impossible to say that everyone's first game of pokemon came from the first generation, and yet:

how did you feel then, young, aspiring champion, when you took your first steps out of Pallet Town?

 

[Phadunk]

Oh Hyper Beam Snorlax.. how I miss you.

 

[Tolan]

My first game was Sapphire. This still relates to me so much though.
I remember getting it at Walmart. My sister got Ruby. We cracked them open on the way home and started playing. We had such a hard time figuring it out. We couldn't find how to get to Dewford. I eventually found it out. We then had trouble finding surf, which she eventually found.
Then, on my first communion/confirmation (a Christian thing), I got Emerald. I loved it. I logged 700+ hours on both of them.
When I moved I lost them both. RIP </3

 

[Shiny Mew2]

I can't be the only one who remembered a Christmas long ago opening up a pokemon game (emerald for me) and then wasting the following weeks just playing it day and night. Looking back, I would do anything for that moment again.

That though kinda made me sad that I would never experience anything like it again. But also made me go "FUCK YEA" after.

This guy could totally kick chizards ass

 

[Mr.Fuji]

I got my first pokemon game, Gold version, christmas of 2000. I was living in puerto rico at the time on a CG base, the family got stationed there due to my fathers work.

At the time i didn't have many friends, but i knew after seeing kids at school play red/blue that i wanted in on this pokemon thing. Ho-oH looked like the coolest fuckin thing i've ever seen and when i got gold on my cyan gameboy color i was so fucking happy.

Not long after, i started bringing it to school and almost immediately i made friends just over our mutual love of the world of pokemon.

It was great, everything we did involved pokemon there, we played the TCG (went to to the leaugue at toys r' us every saturday), we played the video games, we even played some weird game that came out that involved cardboard circles with various pokemon on them, and you have to strike them with other cardboard circles to flip your opponents' face down. I think they came in cereal boxes.. anyways, i acquired so many memories there.

At the beginning i hated moving to PR, i didn't know anybody, didn't speak the language, it was hell

After discovering pokemon, it all became so great. out of all the places i've lived in, PR is still my favorite just because of all the memories i have there of playing/talking about pokemon with my friends.

Of course we're all in college now, and i dont talk to any of the people i knew down there anymore, but still, i remember all the good times. I miss it :(, i miss putting 3 fire moves on my typhlosion and other nooby stuff, all the unknown adventure of a pokemon game. siigh.

 

[xKYSx]

I still have my first pokemon game ever my red version lol. I'm amaze to see I still have after reading this topic; for 12 years it's been collecting dust lol.

 

[GARCHOMPZILLA]

I remember mine as silver. I played it to death then lost it on a plane. :(
Then emerald, rayquaza's still my favorite pokemon.
Later I lost my soul silver, do I just have bad luck with silver?

 

[Mulligan]

Hmmm...

I was actually in High School when the Pokémon phenomena hit. I decided to get Pokémon Red. My younger brother got Blue and the youngest also picked Red(and later got Yellow as well). Good times. "New" concept of battling each other through Game Link. It was awesome, even if the majority of High School saw it as just another kids game, save for the true gamers/nerds/geeks/etc(and even some of the gamers scoffed at it).

We all played Red/Blue to the max time limit, with my brother utilizing the cheats along the way(infinite TM's, items, Missingno, etc). We did everything together: we each chose which Eeveelutions we'd use, which of the legendary birds we would mainly use(even though we'd catch all of them). It was great and Gold/Silver only made things better. I remember when my brother first started using Tyranitar. I scoffed at it....until we battled one day and he crushed me with it, so I decided I needed to catch a Larvitar and train it too lol

 

[Tolan]

Pokemon has been such a major influence in my life. All summer me, my sister, and my sister's friend would trade card, pretend we were Pokemon trainers and go on adventures in the woods near my house, go swimming and pretend we were Pokemon, and pretty much everything. As I started to grow up I started to drift away from Pokemon as it started to be "not cool". I got back into it in 7th grade. Now I'm in 9th grade and a closet Pokemon addict. None of my friends play, my girlfriend doesn't play, pretty much no one plays in my town and it kinda sucks. I miss the old days when it was okay to love Pokemon, when me and my sister got along, and I was just an innocent little kid with know knowledge of IVs, natures, or anything like that.

 

[Zenotwapal]

I remember getting Red around Christmas time. I was 6 or 7 at the time, so I couldn't quite grasp the concept of gaming. I couldn't get very far into the game being so young so I made my dad help me lol.
By him doing that it kept my interest for the game alive. I have been playing for about 8 or so years and I still love this damned game. I'll probably be telling my kids about it I'm sure.

 

[nightwolf]

My first game was Pokemon Blue unfortunately I lost it when going to see the first pokemon movie and as a kid it was devastating to lose all that hardwork. Thankfully for me my parents were kind enough to get me a new blue which I kept until it got lost in the 5th grade and honestly don't know where it is in the 20+ boxes in my parents garage. It was really awesome since me, my older brother, and my sister all collected the cards and watched the anime like it was a religion. Got Yellow which again is lost in a box somewhere in my parents garage :I. I sometimes play my silver but the internal battery is dead so I can't really keep a save file anymore and if i want to do a run through i have to leave my gba on and charging when not in use.

 

[idiotfrommars]

My first game was Pokemon Blue unfortunately I lost it when going to see the first pokemon movie and as a kid it was devastating to lose all that hardwork. Thankfully for me my parents were kind enough to get me a new blue which I kept until it got lost in the 5th grade and honestly don't know where it is in the 20+ boxes in my parents garage. It was really awesome since me, my older brother, and my sister all collected the cards and watched the anime like it was a religion. Got Yellow which again is lost in a box somewhere in my parents garage :I. I sometimes play my silver but the internal battery is dead so I can't really keep a save file anymore and if i want to do a run through i have to leave my gba on and charging when not in use.

Its not hard to replace the internal battery. You just unskrew the back with something like tweezers and remove the battery. You should be able to get a replacement at some place that sells watches for a few bucks. Then you just put it in skrew it back together and your golden.

My first game was red which I got when I barely knew how to read. The first play through was magical. FUCK YEAH CHARIZARD

 

[Shii]

I think I was around 8 or 9 when my dad gifted me with Blue version. It was kinda hard for me to understand at first, but after my Brother started playing it, I learned about the types and how they correspond with each other and stuff. Although I really got addicted to Crystal when it came out. I remembered being so surprised by the girl sprite. xD
(I still think the Crystal girl sprite looks way better than the fathead HGSS chick)

It was really easy for me to get addicted to them because my family had a shitload of problems going on at the time, and since I understood nearly nothing about it, I found it easier to play video games. My brother's the same way. :p

Since then, I still get that thrilled feeling every time I open up a fresh new Pokemon game. No other franchise (except for maybe Zelda) has ever invoked a feeling like that in me. Maybe I'm just too desensitized. ;_;

 

[Bluecaptain]

All of this nostalgia is almost making me cry.

Even though my first video game ever was Sapphire, I can relate to all of the other guys who had red/blue because I watched the show and collected the cards. I feel like I missed something though because I didn't get Red or Blue, it's just not the same...

 

[FinalPokesy]

I remember getting Red and Yellow at the same time, I could not wait to play, started Red and when I got up to Celadon I decided to start Yellow, I remember finding Yellow really hard at the time, not being able to even get passed Brock, so I left Yellow until I had beat the Elite Four on Red, then had another crack at it, I loved on Yellow that you could get every starter pokémon. Wish they made a remake of Yellow like FireRed and LeafGreen.

 

[133tSneasel]

I still have my blue game. I love it. I always bust out nestolgia

 

[zero2exe]

I must have been around 9 or 10 years old when I first got my blue version. Despite knowing absolutely nothing about english language or pokemon at all (bar the anime) back then I managed to get to the elite 4 thanks to my randomnly assembled team including sandslash and articuno as my main sweepers. Later I got silver version from my uncle and got introduced to the jotho region... simply amazing, probably the best game ever afer finding out you could go into future kanto *_*
Sadly I lost both games on cuestionable circumstances but managed to get gold version instead... which I ended up losing as well lol
In the end I bought a Yellow version from a friend at school which I still keep to this date (under REALLY close sight), being the oldest pokemon game I still keep with me T_T

 

[Danmire]

When I received Pokemon Gold at 3 years old, the month right after I came from Cuba to the US...I'll never forget that moment. The music in Azalea town...Violet City...The Burned Tower...Lake of Rage. The excitement of finding a Scyther in the Bug Catching Contest...and beating my Rival once and for all before the Kanto journey started..

I still have the Gold cartridge. Of course, the sticker doesn't exist anymore, as years of it being ripped and other stuff. But I'll never throw away that cartridge, even though the battery doesn't work anymore.

Heart Gold will never fill the void in my heart that Gold gave me :(

 

[Haku16]

i remember opening pokemon blue on christmas day! quickly playing it, not so much reading the text and soon getting mad cause i cant catch any pokemon.lol thankfully my dad does read it and i give the paracel to oak. Squirtle being my first pokemon by the way. then my long, long, long adventure starts to be a pokemon master.

 

[Mustard]

Haha, I got it on xmas... pokemon blue.
I remember my friends telling my bulbasaur was the best so I took him and restarting after like the second gym because I really loved blastoise haha.
I was SO happy when I unwrapped it, it came with a players guide that was AWESOME.

I caught like 5 ratata's just because catching pokemon was so awesome!

Just one/two of my friends had it though... because our pokemon would be way different levels before we found out about the missingo cheat haha.

My team was Mewtwo, Charizard, Venusaur, Blastoise, Zapdos and Articuno.

I never learned them attacks like sword attack/amnesia or w/e anyway because I figured they didn't do much haha.

 

[Dozz]

I remember it like it was yesterday. My dad took me and my brother out, and bought one copy of Red, and one copy of Blue. I took blue, he took red, no arguments to be had there. I remember playing everything early on at basically the same time as him, even selecting starters secretly, and we both took our version mascots (Well, the prevolution). We both sank hours in to that game, and we had loads to talk about with it.

We had some similar magic for Gold and Silver, where we both got one each, and played together, and that was almost as magical as the first time, but only because I got to share it. My brothers older than me, and I don't see him often, being a half brother, so those two games meant quite a lot, in bringing us together over something. I don't usually get at all emotional about shit like that, but meh.

The only game that's come close to such a thrill, was HG, as I had all the happy childhood memories, in a format that really appealed to my older self. Still not quite the same, as my brother wasn't playing it with me, bad times.

 

[Mustard]

I remember it like it was yesterday. My dad took me and my brother out, and bought one copy of Red, and one copy of Blue. I took blue, he took red, no arguments to be had there. I remember playing everything early on at basically the same time as him, even selecting starters secretly, and we both took our version mascots (Well, the prevolution). We both sank hours in to that game, and we had loads to talk about with it.

We had some similar magic for Gold and Silver, where we both got one each, and played together, and that was almost as magical as the first time, but only because I got to share it. My brothers older than me, and I don't see him often, being a half brother, so those two games meant quite a lot, in bringing us together over something. I don't usually get at all emotional about shit like that, but meh.

The only game that's come close to such a thrill, was HG, as I had all the happy childhood memories, in a format that really appealed to my older self. Still not quite the same, as my brother wasn't playing it with me, bad times.

Haha man, I know how you mean.
Me and 2 really close friends used to play a game called fantasy star online for the gamecube LOADS. We didn't even have online mode, but just offline pulling all nighters and the only worry in the world being what sword you have.

I can honestly say those where some of the best times I've ever had... sounds sad because It was in my room in the dark with 2 friends, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

It's exactly like that pics says, the first time playing legend of zelda as a kid, pokemon, all that stuff... those moments had a certain intensity I feel like I'll never have again.

 

[MeetTheBob]

I'm 20 and still playing blue XD
just love it

[edit]: and it is the same cartridge as I was a little kid!

 

[A Fhaol Bhig]

I got it the day it came out having a gameboy with only tetris really sucked, and then their were these cool looking monsters? heck yeah!

Well, I've had pokemon blue for 16 years now, and last time I used it about 3 years ago it still worked. I have no way of playing it now, but I'll get a GBA one day again...

I've become less addicted to pokemon over time simply because I've evolved as a gamer. But with every new game, no matter how much more of the same I'll be in that lineup, day one buying the game.

I proudly play battlefield 3, and games like Mass Effect, Borderlands, etc, but when people ask me my to tell them a few of my favorites I always tell them different games, but one of them is Pokemon, I'll never hide what I love.

Black/White really re-kindled the love for pokemon for me. What I did was I didn't pay any attention to the new pokemon, I didn't know where they were or if they were good.

I knew nothing about the game, except things like water beats fire, and fire fang is a physical fire attack.

It was just like Blue. starting off, not knowing the best compettitive ones, not striving for the perfect nature or whatever. For once I was just a kid playing a game.

 

[ShortsTheory]

Oh, boy what a thread. My first leap into the pokemon world was when I was around 8 years old (2005). Pokemon ruby was my first adventure, though it was hard to come by real carts, so it never saved; and I kept restarting to get to slateport.

Around the same year, I got an original pokemon Firered. That day was incredible, just being able to play a game that saved made me happy. I got emerald too, and clocked a total of 600 hrs. before losing both games. :(

I only came back to pokemon in 2011, and then took to competitive battling where your pokemon were just random numbers generated by the game. Though I love the competitive experience, I lost the in-game fun. Now, after a lapse of 3 years of playing pokemon, I play black on my 3DS, with the occasional RNG on my friend's DSlite.