Back in the Day

[RaikaCastillo]

While it was kind of cool for there to be all this pokemon paraphenalia, the trendiness was one of the things that made some people think it was kiddy and if you were in high school like I was, it was risky to let on that you liked it due to the fact that they marketed towards younger kids. I for one was already picked on at school and didn't need another reason to be targeted, especially when the idiots ridiculed Pokemon despite the fact that they had probably never even played the games.

So yeah, while it was cool that a Pokemon mousepad was readily available outside of e-bay, the fact that Pokemon was so trendy was a double-edged sword that has left a mark to this very day. Fortunately I'm in college now where people are less inclined to cut someone down just because they have been caught looking at something related to Pokemon. Heck, I have even seen other students surf Serebii.net and nobody says a word about it.

 

[The Ebon Blade]

yeah i remember... in fact i remember the first time I evr layed eyes on pokemon... back when the card game was fun and the games were evn funner...

 

[Artemis]

Things have changed quite a bit...I basically miss the good days when EV training didn't exist having battles with others knowing it doesn't matter about ur stats make things ton more exciting and it tests a true trainer and their skills...but I'm not mad that things were added, upgraded, and changed either...

it brings the world into one now...

 

[Bibliophibian]

Oh wow.
I remember when R/B first came out.
They were the entire reason I bought a GBC. I finally evolved my Squirtle in Blue (my very first evolution in my very first game) and then the batteries died, so I had to level it all over again. x3

Stadium was the reason I decided to buy an N64 as well. It took me a few months to save up the money for it, but I finally did. Being able to play around with my R/B Pokemon in 3-D for the first time was completely crazy.

Man I miss those days. ;-;

 

[Crimson Arcanine]

Back in the old days, training and battling was easier. I was the best in my circle of friends, I basically destroyed everyone I faced...I have great memories of the battles I fought. 3-0 wins were the norm(1 vs. 1, 6 pokes each)

Nowadays I'm below average in battling abilities, and now my biggest nemesis in gaming has reared its ugly head, my lack of prediction skills and my overall predictable actions (its not so bad when it comes to Pokemon but its a major problem on games like Civilization 4), combined with only basic knowledge overall in comparison to most battlers and a decline of me playing my handhelds, has left me a "has-been" and a bit of an eccentric when it comes to battling.

 

[FastTonyDeNiro]

I remember the first time I ever played Blue, my friend let me take his team through the elite 4. I think I lost when I tried using his Nidoking against one of Lorelei's pokemon. Bad idea.

And the original anime series. I bawled when Ash tried to free Pikachu :(

 

[Mitchman]

Ah the days where i was 5 obsessing over creatures. Too bad i only got the anime and cards. I actually started playing from gs when the obsession was dying down. But man i loved those days where i could be cool cause i had the holo charizard card complete with 120HP. Who wasnt cool cause3 of that card?

 

[Haza]

Man. This is when I actually collected the cards and had to lean may GBC to see the screen and I believed in Charclizard and Pikablue and never had a Mew. I miss these days. Missingno was just the norm too.

 

[Sparkle]

I remember when Pokemon cards had to be banned at my primary school becuase people were stealing them of each other. I even think there was an incident where someone was beat up for their cards :/

 

[Mooshykris]

Oh yeah. Pokémon was "English names win" back then.

^ Yeah, I miss those days :(


Back in the day, people didn't question why Nurse Joy said "we hope to see you again" :P

Back in the day, the fun of battling others was the "unfair" factor.

Back in the day, using "ubers" was considered aweseome.


~Mooshykris

 

[jasonresno]

I remember when the original Stadium for N64 came out, and everybody said "ZOMG 3D POKEMON." I can't remember when I got the game, but I remember plugging in my game paks into the transfer pak and inviting friends over for epic battles with the Pokemon I raised on my game pak. Then we all raved about how we could play all three first generation games in full color on our TVs. That was always great.

Anybody remember the first Pokemon Pinball? I remember being jealous of a kid who rode my bus in elementary school because he had the game, but he was still nice enough to let us play a couple of rounds. Then I got it for Christmas. I still have that game to this day.

I missed out a lot on the Pokemon GameCube games mostly because our family opted for a PS2 (which was a better idea overall anyway), but having a few friends who still have those games say that I didn't miss out on much, except for XD, which I plan on getting sometime soon.

My friends and I were incredibly religious in terms of watching anime at that age. It was mostly Pokemon, but DBZ (anybody remember the July 4th marathon of season 1?) and Gundam Wing were also treasured favorites. Anyway, I got most of the first season on VHS cassette tape, and I've had it for what seems like forever, until the entire collection disappeared recently... I suspect Goodwill shenanigans from my mom again... I'll just grab digital copies.

Yeah, those were truly days to treasure.

This post is full of win. I remember back in the "glory days" a few key friends and myself would always get together for the big four: Pokemon, Gundam Wing, DBZ, and Digimon. We'd have all of the toys and spend hours just making up our own games with them. That or we'd haul our huge binders of cards down to the park and all day kids would come and go at random that also played the game and we'd trade and such.

I remember meeting behind my garage with a friend and our brick Gameboys, he with Blue and myself with Red, and we would start our games over completely at the same time and than have a challenge to become the better trainer the fastest. It was so fun. There was so much flat out love and passion we had for the Pokemon fandom and, in a way, it was a kind of lifestyle. It didn't really matter who you were/how you looked/how popular you were because two kids could come together and discuss Pokemon, the TCG, or the games irregardless of all of that extra stuff. Heck, at 10 and 11 years old I remember just sitting on the swings talking about Pokemon with my friends. Can you imagine a couple of hyper 10 year olds that are simply content to shoot the breeze and discuss their favorite hobby/passion/games? It's crazy and it won't ever happen again. We won't ever have such a widespread era as the Pokemon one back a few years ago. I promise you that and it saddens me. Everything now has to be super sleek, super graphical, super expensive. It has to be new and hip and in the end it will only appeal to a select audience (see the Wii or PSP). Our society is losing the young and imaginative passion that we as true children had.

I think the one thing I do miss--isn't how huge the fandom was--but how accepted the fandom was. I hate having to be sort of select to who I show my Pokemon games to. I hate that I have to keep it to myself almost completely unless I'm online on this forum. People would rather let you know they have Porn than Pokemon. It's so sad and what I miss most is just the freeness the fandom used to have.

I love reminiscing about the glory days but man does it hurt.

 

[Kazukii]

^ Yeah, I miss those days :(


Back in the day, people didn't question why Nurse Joy said "we hope to see you again" :P

Back in the day, the fun of battling others was the "unfair" factor.

Back in the day, using "ubers" was considered aweseome.


~Mooshykris

Yeah, Pokemon is more competitive now however. Ubers are a bit of an advantage that yeah used to be awesome but now are Big No's. Ubers are pretty pointless nowadays, you have them but you can't use them.

 

[Mooshykris]

Yeah, Pokemon is more competitive now however. Ubers are a bit of an advantage that yeah used to be awesome but now are Big No's. Ubers are pretty pointless nowadays, you have them but you can't use them.

Yeah, I know, you can't have fun pwning everyone with them anymore, sad isn't it :(

~Mooshykris

 

[Kazukii]

Just a little :'( Luckily Ubers is either the smallest or one of the smallest groups of pokemon =)

 

[joehat]

I miss those days. I remember how awesome it was in Yellow to have Pikachu following you. And you could turn around and see how it was feeling. Pokemon cards were absolutely huge when I was younger. Everyone, and I mean everyone had Pokemon cards. Even my dad had a Pokemon card. Charizard. A holo Charizard. Who forgets the first time they got that card? That was like, the ultimate. Everyone in school had Trapper Keepers full of Pokemon cards. We'd all be like, screw energy cards, let's just battle. The hallways at school would be filled with kids (and even some teachers) playing Red and Blue on their huge original gameboys, which took like six(?) batteries. We all would battle with our link cables and trade our Rattata named Mew for our friends' Dragonite XD

Those were the days. The days that are most likely long gone for Pokemon. I remember waking up at 6 am for school, and Pokemon would come on tv at 6:30. I was late all the time because I'd wait until the last second of the show, in case I missed anything. For some reason, I only watched up to the episode "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon." I recall being amazed at seeing Charizard in the anime. Of course, I called it "the show," back then. Everyone knew what "the show" was.

Being older now, I see Pokemon in a new light. I enjoy Pokemon more now than I ever did when I was younger. There's so much more now. When I watch the episodes (I'm almost done the Master Quest season) I see and understand things that I didn't back in the day. In the games, I don't EV or IV train my Pokemon. I don't battle competitively or anything. Just as I did as a kid, I just train my favorites.

There's so much more to say, but I'll save it for another time. I don't want this to turn into a wall of text. Pokemon, FTW!

 

[lilninjapig]

Man, I loved the days when kids would flock from all over the street to sit on a garden wall and play Pokemon. :D I remember it was the G/S/C games that kept us entertained. Obtaining a copy of Red, Blue or Yellow made you cool, and beating the Elite Four deserved a celebration because we were all trying our best to beat them, despite neglecting five Pokemon and training our Totodile/Cyndaquil/Chikorita to the max. :D Pokemon cards were also fun and the more you had, the better. Trading cards was fun, especially when you had a rare card that everyone else wanted. I think the trend died out shortly after Crystal was released. It's ashame that nowadays Pokemon is taboo amongst kids everywhere. It seems only a few of us remain Pokemon fans since the days of the original and G/S/C games.

 

[Sparkle]

Can anyone remember the Trading Card Game for the Game Boy? I loved that game xD I thought it was brilliant, since I never gort into the real TCG xD

 

[Kazukii]

I remember when Pokemon cards had to be banned at my primary school becuase people were stealing them of each other. I even think there was an incident where someone was beat up for their cards :/

Same for me haha xD It was annoying but meh we all got over it =P

 

[jasonresno]

Can anyone remember the Trading Card Game for the Game Boy? I loved that game xD I thought it was brilliant, since I never gort into the real TCG xD

I remember the day I got that game and I played the crap out of it. I enjoyed it at times almost as much as the other GB games. Man such good times. I love reading all of this old stuff :)

 

[Vernikova]

Can anyone remember the Trading Card Game for the Game Boy? I loved that game xD I thought it was brilliant, since I never gort into the real TCG xD

I think it was called Pokémon: The Trading Card Game. I remember getting my butt handed to me everytime. I never won a match no matter how close I was.