How long have you been into Pokemon?

KomodoZero

Title says everything I need to say about this thread, how long do you reckon you've been into the series, how did it happen, and which part of the series was it that lit the flame?

For me, I can actually give you an exact date. While I certainly had some exposure to the series thanks to the Pokemania of the late 90's, the exact day I first truly held a Pokemon in my very hands was September 11th 2000, my 9th birthday. I had begged for Pokemon on Game Boy in the build-up to it, I'd never had a Game Boy before this and also never had a game system of my own. I was lucky enough for my parents to get a Yellow themed Game Boy Color bundle, with the GBC, a carry case, several other accessories and the Yellow version game. They were all yellow coloured too, if that wasn't obvious enough. Wild to think it's been 25 years and I'm still an avid Pokemon fan and gamer to the core.

Darren

I don't have an exact date, but it must have been towards the end of 1999 or so, overhearing my classmates talk about it in an IT lesson. I also recall hearing about the first Pokémon movie from a friend who gave me the URL on a scrap of paper. I wish I had the exact dates because that would have been great to know.

First thing I had was a poster, then Pokémon stickers. Lots of anime, then eventually the cards and then video games.

Sheep

Somewhere around late 1997 or 1998. It's hard to remember at this point. Classmates were all into the anime and games, so I naturally picked up on it - it helped me learn English as an immigrant to the US! I became obsessed with the anime, games, comics, cards, and even getting my hands on whatever merchandise my parents would let me buy. It was a really good time, especially since so many of my classmates loved it too, and we could all chat about it!

KomodoZero

Sheep Given Red and Blue came out in the US in 1998, I'd wager that was the year. It was sure infectious though, every kid loved it, or was a contrarian and liked Digimon instead (even though the two franchises have completely different premises).

tkarispe

It's so fun to hear about everybody's first experiences with Pokémon!

I remember when Pokémon first came out in the US, and at first I actually wasn't very impressed. I wasn't one to jump on fads just because everyone else was doing it, and TV and magazine ads didn't really do much to make it look appealing to me--they were kinda just like "wow you can collect monsters!!!!!". That said, two boys in my science class who I sat behind were tremendous nerds and brought the Red/Blue Nintendo Power strategy guide to school, and I remember looking at the guide over their shoulders and being interested in the monster designs.

A little while later, I was randomly over at a neighbor kid's house, and she had a copy of Blue. I asked her if I could play it so I could see what all the fuss was about... and I was pretty much instantly hooked. My experience with video games up to that point had mostly been the Pac-Man arcade cabinet at the local car wash, freeware PC platformers my dad downloaded onto our computer (which usually only contained the first few levels and you had to purchase the full version, which we never did), and watching my cousin play Mega Man on his NES. For me video games were sort of a technological novelty more than something you could really sink your teeth into--and I was also never particularly good at them.

But Pokémon Blue changed that. It was a game that seemed to place emphasis on being immersive and inviting you to explore a charming, quirky, and comparatively deep world. And it was a game where you could succeed with grinding, knowledge, and strategy, instead of lightning reflexes and being willing to game over a million times before you figured out the perfect timing for a jump (cough Super Mario Bros.). In short, it was right up my alley, and I fell in love. I begged my parents to get me a Game Boy Color and my own copy of Blue, and the rest is history.

I'm trying to pin down a rough date of when I got interested in Pokémon. I thought I got Blue for my birthday, but Red and Blue actually came out after my birthday that year. I may have gotten them as an early Christmas present (I certainly couldn't wait until it was actually Christmas, I needed that game in my life ASAP). The first episode of the anime I saw was A Chansey Operation, which first aired in the US on March 6, 1999, and I learned about the anime a little while after I got into the games, so it was at least some time between September 1998 and March 1999. At any rate, it was great fun to be part of a craze that I felt was actually justified.

KomodoZero I was one of those hipster kids who liked (and still like) both Pokémon and Digimon. The Digimon V-pet keychains came out the year before Pokémon did, so I was actually into Digimon before I got into Pokémon. Digimon is definitely much more than "store-brand Pokémon" like my brother-in-law claims.

BlueMoonFalls I have such fond memories of playing the Stadium minigames with my sisters! I was way better at the minigames than the actual battling, haha. I recently played the Switch port of Stadium, got a few battles in, it started getting ridiculously hard, and I just went and played the minigames for a while instead because I am actually decent at those.

ICanSnake

Very hard to say. I know that my first Pokemon game was Pokemon Snap, which released in 1999 but I don't know when my family got that game. I know that I watched the first episodes of the anime and have VHS tapes for the first handful of episodes, which released in 1998 but I don't have a clue when my family got the VHS or when I watched the anime. And according to my cards, I opened 1 pack of the Shadowless Base Set. So it has to be somewhere around the area of 1998/1999ish. And I was really young at the time.

KomodoZero

ICanSnake I believe trying to look up the exact dates of the various releases of things you know you experienced is a fun endeavor, you may even unearth some lost memories in the process.

BlueMoonFalls I don't feel age has any impact on how "big of a fan" anyone is, so don't feel that being younger makes you any different from the rest of us. What matters is you still found the same enjoyment.

BlueMoonFalls

I definitely seem to be on the younger end in this forum haha. I already told the story of how I got into Pokémon on here recently so I won’t rehash it all right now but TLDR; I was introduced to it in 2004 and got my first game, LeafGreen, on my 5th birthday in the same year. Funnily enough, my brother who is much older than me played Pokémon during the original surge in the 90s, but he outgrew it before even Gold and Silver came out, so all his stuff was just collecting dust in our basement and I had never noticed any of it before. After I got into Pokémon, my mom dug all his stuff out of the basement and while I didn’t play much of Red or Blue (I thought LeafGreen was just a strict upgrade, funny how the times change) I did adore the original Stadium and got a lot of hours of using rentals and doing the minigames with my younger sister. So thank you to my brother for that lol

BlueMoonFalls

KomodoZero I don't feel age has any impact on how "big of a fan" anyone is, so don't feel that being younger makes you any different from the rest of us. What matters is you still found the same enjoyment.

Oh don't worry, I didn't mean to imply anything like that! I just thought it was kind of funny. There are not a ton of people my age who are super into the original Game Boy games.

khosea

Gosh... I got a Gameboy with Pokemon Blue from my grandmother back when, and the rest was history lol. I was obsessed and played every chance I could, collected cards, watched the anime. Never truly quit the series, even when it became unpopular at school. XD

Dragonfree

I first heard about Pokémon in probably 1999 as a news report on the radio talking about this fad cropping up in Iceland; I was completely unfamiliar with what it was talking about and don't remember any details. In late 1999 or 2000, when I was in fifth grade, a kid in my class was interviewed about Pokémon for a newspaper, so our teacher cut out the article and hung it up in the classroom, and I read it. It described the gameplay (a bit confusingly; I remember picturing a sidescroller, and in explaining that the monsters faint rather than dying, it translated it as "falling asleep" so I imagined they literally fell asleep randomly) and had a few pictures of Pokémon with brief captions accompanying them - I believe the Pokémon were Pikachu, Drowzee, Magnemite and Mewtwo, which I decided was a mix between a kangaroo and a pitcher. I thought the whole thing sounded stupid, and was a very contrarian child who reflexively hated anything that was supposed to be super popular, so I dismissed it.

Then at some point in mid-to-late 2000 I visited my cousins, who had gotten very into it, and while I resisted, they handed me a copy of Pokémon Yellow and made me try it by starting a new game. Unfortunately for my contrarian impulses, I fell in love very quickly - with the monsters themselves (Yellow in particular has well-drawn and appealing sprites; I think I would not have been nearly as enamoured if they'd happened to hand me Red or Blue), and with the battle system, which was a lot more interesting than whatever I'd been imagining. I liked the variety of moves, the turn-based nature, the way that if you fought a cool monster that used some cool moves you'd be able to catch it and use that monster and those cool moves yourself. All in all, I was thoroughly converted and needed this in my life. This culminated in me asking for a Game Boy Color and Yellow for that Christmas, which I got. So the date I got to start my own game of Pokémon Yellow was December 24th, 2000 (in Iceland we open our presents on Christmas Eve). 25th anniversary of that coming up!

KomodoZero

Dragonfree We both have our 25th anniversary of experiencing the series this year, small world huh. As mentioned before, mine just passed with my birthday a few weeks back. Having memorable dates like a birthday or Christmas certainly helps keep a track of things.

KomodoZero

tkarispe Glad you like hearing all the experiences. It's been very interesting for me to hear these stories too, certainly helps paint a picture of people's history with the series, and even beyond that considering Pokemon is how many of us got into playing games too.

pokejungle

I became a fan during elementary school when the craze hit the US. I remember trading cards with other kids from the neighborhood and wishing that I had a Game Boy so I could play. Really enjoyed playing Pokémon Stadium at friends' houses.

Soaker87

Late 90’s, though I’m not sure exactly. I recall my first exposure to Pokemon was seeing an ad for the Game Boy games in a Disney Adventure magazine. And I didn’t own a Game Boy so didn’t really care, but I noticed Pikachu in the ad (it actually showed a lot of Pokemon and didn’t really highlight Pikachu) but I remember finding it super cute.

Then one day, my Beast Wars obsessed self who tuned in to watch every morning was kinda shocked and disappointed that Beast Wars wasn’t on (they suddenly bumped it back a half hour), but Pokemon was on instead. It was the episode where Ash battled Erika. But I ended up watching it and got addicted. It left me a little confused though because I thought Ash was actually a girl and that it was a nickname for Ashley. Quickly got that cleared up, though. I’d just never known anyone with the name “Ash” before, while I knew a lot of Ashleys.

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that Pikachu was the franchise mascot. Usually I never like the most important characters, so I lucked out for once.

MissingnoMaster

2000, I remember that well. Pokémon had become the latest craze at my school, and I didn't think much of it at first, figuring it'd just be another short-lived fad. Until it stuck around, anyway. I started to get curious about it when I realized everyone was still into it, and one day after school, I decided to sit down and watch an episode for myself. Half an hour later, I'm watching Ash catch his Muk, and the rest is history. That summer, I got my very first video game system and video games for my 10th birthday- a Game Boy Color and Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, and you could not pry me away from them.

Juno

Oh, I've dug into this, so I have very exact dates actually haha.

It was the spring of 2000, I was 9 years old. The anime started airing on Swedish TV4 on Saturday March 4, but it was on at 8:35 and just I wasn't a morning person so I never really watched the morning cartoons.

Instead it was the cards that got me into it. They must have become really popular after people got into the tv series. I remember Team Rocket being the "new and cool" set, and that was released April 24 in Europe. My mother always kept very precise records of the family's expenses, and on May 6 her notes says "Pokémon 28" - which is what a booster pack cost here at the time. I don't know if that was my very first cards, but certainly some of the earliest. I remember I got a Pikachu in my first pack and I was so happy!

The Pokémon craze must have receded a bit in autumn, but in early 2001 I got to try my best friend's Blue and was hooked. I got a purple GBC and Pokémon Red on January 13 (again, my mother's economy notebooks - it was 1098 SEK btw) and the rest is history ...

KomodoZero

Juno I love how granular this story is, particularly with how you've kept a track thanks to financial records, that's a first that I've heard!

swiftyshq

i'll give an abridged version here since i posted it more fully in the intro thread.

i first got into it when i was a puppy, at six years old! i got my first game (pokemon blue) when i was 8 or 9. i got firered and ruby when they were current, and was fully keeping tabs on new releases via serebii.net by the time diamond and pearl were about to hit japan. i remember memorizing piplup's design so i could draw it without a reference.

you'd think that i'd have more of a tendency to like pokemon rgby since it was my first, and while it does have some novelty, i honestly am not quite as fond of it in comparison to the johto games, be they gen 2 or gen 4. i'm a johto thing at heart!

tkarispe

swiftyshq I'm the same; I was a Gen I kid, and I really enjoy those games, but Gen II is my all-time favorite. It just did so much right and it was amazing how much they were able to fit onto a single Game Boy cartridge. I really want a GSC re-remake in the vein of Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. I just want more Johto in my life.

MissingnoMaster

tkarispe I would absolutely love another Let's Go game set in Johto. I absolutely adored Let's Go Pikachu. I might think Pikachu gets overhyped a lot, but I can't deny that it's cute, and seeing my character sending it into battle off his shoulder just made me smile so much.

Granted, I somehow doubt we'd get the exact ones I'd love to see for a Johto Let's Go pair- Let's Go Dunsparce and Let's Go Qwilfish don't exactly come off as what they'd see as particularly marketable- but I'd still love them to do something there. Maybe Let's Go Pichu and Let's Go Togepi.