Before item sprites were introduced what did you think they looked like?

[DXrobots]

Growing up playing red and blue they never really show you what any of the items look like you kinda had to use your imagination. I used to think the EXP. share was like a jacket, and that the Masterball was gold.

 

[mondays suck]

I expected Potions to be actually bottled magical (or whatever adjective is more fitting here) drinks, like this:

Seriously, who had the stupid idea to make them sprays?
Can't think of anything else now, I never thought about the difference between, let's say, normal Pokeballs and Great Balls.

 

[-Jared-]

I always thought the Potions and what not were sprays, due to the TCG. I also thought that revives were sprays. I also thought that TMs and HMs were mystical orb things or something. I was pretty much flabbergasted to find out that they were discs...

 

[Niprop]

I knew what the pokeballs and potions looked like from the show/concept art, but assumed that TMs/HMs looked the way the did in the TCG.

 

[Myzou]

I personally still want to know how TMs are used. "Insert Disc into Pokemon Slot here." XD

I really didn't think about this stuff though, XD

 

[ChrisTom]

Well, I thought Potions were more like...

Well you know the purple bottle sprites they show in later games? I thought of those, but with a small needle that you injected your Pokemon with*.

Ragecandybars were depicted in my mind as a reddish-brown candy bar that was over filled with little candy beads.

I thought of Exp.Share as a tiny machine that had cogs poking out all over,

I saw all "Heals" as little bottles of yellow liquid that had a similar syringe that came out of them at a 90 degree angle*.

TMs and HMs were seen as the Discs we're always shown, (even in Gen II it shows a sillhouette of a Disc) but I used to think you put them in a special machine that would dispense a drink that the Pokemon would drink, allowing it to learn the move. You just never saw that part.

*It didn't hurt them of course. You simply poked it into their side, and to them it felt like nothing more than a soft pinch.

Interesting question!

 

[The Corrupt Plague]

When I was little, I actually thought that potions were syringes because that's how it was actually depicted in the Pokemon Red manual.