Your first day playing Pokemon

It seems like I see a fair number of topics about people's first Pokemon games, and what led them to start playing. But for all of you who have played a Pokemon game (which I'm assuming is almost everyone on a Pokemon gaming subforum), what memories do you have of your first day of playing? Anything that stands out from that first time you switched on the power on your Game Boy/GBC/GBA/DS/3DS/etc. and entered the world of Pokemon?

I tried out the game on a family friend's system several months before picking it up on my own. I picked Squirtle (as Blastoise, one of the few Pokemon I knew about, was already my favorite), and dived into my first rival battle. For whatever reason, I thought Tail Whip sounded more powerful than Tackle, so I kept using it, even when failed to do any damage. I'm not sure why I didn't switch gears (I was a strong reader for a 7-year-old, so I'm sure I followed the text, but I guess I didn't know what the different stats were, and I think I might have thought that a dark HP bar was better than a light [depleted] one or something). Incidentally, my rival eventually defeated me.

When I bought the game for myself several months later, I had no problem figuring out the controls or battling properly, even though no one explained anything else to me about the game in the meantime. I'm not sure what changed in my outlook, but my Pokemon career has fortunately been a lot more successful than that first day.

What about you? What stands out to you from your first day of playing Pokemon?

I was like 6 or 7 playing LeafGreen as I recall. Got pretty hooked right off the bat; I picked Squirtle too and started exploring Kanto. My parents were not a fan of me spending the whole day playing video games, so they tried to tell me to turn it off after like 30 minutes. I snuck the gameboy up to my bed and kept playing into the night.

I was probably 8 at the time and was really getting into Pokemon, but didn't have a game of my own until a friend of mine at the time sold me his Fire Red game for 5$ or something (what a steal!). My mom freaked out about this for some reason and it became a big thing, but eventually the game was truly mine and I switched on my Game Boy Advance. Naturally I chose Charmander because Boomerang Cartoon Network was showing reruns of the Indigo League, and I loved Ash's Charizard (even if it was kinda a butt). I was bad at it and ended up finishing the game with an overleveled Charizard and a team of HM slaves. At the time I had no idea you were supposed to have a WHOLE TEAM of Pokemon other than your starter (or that you could completely ditch your starter to begin with). But let me tell you, Blue's Blastoise was a NIGHTMARE to defeat. I ended up getting lucky and it missing Hydro Pump like twice in a row or something like that. So inadvertently, my first Pokemon experience ended up being a mono-Charizard run.

Pfft, my cousin handing me over a Gameboy Colour with Silver in it. I don't remember if I started a new game then, but I do remember being at the beginning. It was more of a try-out, but look at how that turned out. I was 6 then so I've been a fan for over 13 years now.

My little brother had Yellow Version and he was struggling to defeat Brock. When he wasn't looking I swiped it and started a new game. Since I had to play as a boy I decided to call him Tobias...unfortunately I clicked the A button too early and selected the letter to the right of T, which was U. Not knowing how to backspace, I kept going until I had started my very first Pokémon journey as "UTOBIAS". ^_^

I played the game right up to the Pewter gym battle, where I quickly realized that Pikachu wasn't going to get anything done with his Thundershocks(which was likely the same problem my brother had). I then came up with the genius idea of spamming Pidgey's Sand-Attack before hitting Geodude and Onix with all the "not-very-effective" moves I could muster. And...it worked!

My brother was so impressed that he replaced his own save file with mine(as I had never saved since starting the game haha). So we took turns playing from there and watching as we and UTOBIAS explored Kanto for the very first time.

I don't remember all that much about the very first time I played a Pokémon game, but I do remember my first game was Yellow, which I got for Christmas 1999 from my aunt. After I got home from my grandmother's house (where my aforementioned aunt lived), perhaps the following morning, I loaded the game cartridge in my Game Boy Color (which I had gotten from my mom on Christmas morning), and I got hooked almost instantly. I really enjoyed walking around in the game, even if I was stopped by Professor Oak (which led to Oak catching the starter Pikachu for that game). Those first several days, perhaps weeks, of playing Yellow were quite a time for me, even if I did make a bunch of crucial mistakes early on in that experience (including ignorantly trying to use Thundershock on the Pewter Gym's Pokémon as so many others have done).

I remember watching my dad play Blue, completing the game and using my brother's Yellow copy to complete his dex, and using Missingno. When I was four, Silver had just came out, and there was a special edition GBC, with a Silver and Gold Sheen, with Pichu and Pikachu depicted. My dad bought me Silver along with that GBC, then we went home and played together for hours. I chose Chikorita as my starter, and I also caught a Wooper and a Mareep, and they stayed with me till the end of the game <3

My first game was Y, and oh wow, I remember being so excited about having a game of my own and catching them all! *squee*

First game you played?

Mine was from gen 3. (I don't remember which one) I only played for about 5 minutes though, as it was a friends game. The first game I really played was Yellow.

I played Pokemon Y. I had discovered Pokemon before, on a fan game. I had really loved it, but the actual games are much better.

I remember my first day playing FireRed, of course I tried to go towards the Elite Four and was kinda confused as to why I was being stopped, then I got stuck at Brock for ages haha.

First game was FireRed, I have seriously strong memories of the first time I played that game and still have my original copy today.

Honestly, i don't know which one i got first: Gold, Sapphire or Yellow.

But my first time memories playing those three were: "I can't beat Brock", "How do i get out of *Insert Gen II Dungeon*", "Treecko i choose you". But then eventually those changed into "I can't save", "I can't save" and "Time to make my secret bases."

This is why i say Gen III is my whole damn childhood.