1st Gen Playground Theories

[Charlie Brown]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was a little kid when RBY were popular! I remember a lot of playground theories being passed around when I was a kid - obviously back then internet cheat sites were less prevalent (and little kids didn't really surf the web that much! haha) so the playground was one of the primary ways of sharing information around.

Do you remember any playground theories/secrets being passed around when you were a kid?

I never heard about the Mew and the truck theory, but I do remember one kid spouting on and on about all these different ways you can get Lv 200 Mewtwo by going through a complicated series of steps.

 

[curiousnathan]

I wish the Pokemon games were more popular when I was in school but they weren't! At least for my generation. I grew up with GSC, so there wasn't many if at all any people who played it at my school. Usually it was ravaged by tazos, downball and Yugioh cards (maaaaan, the memories).

 

[Electricbluewolf]

Weird steps to get Mew, such as defeat the whole game with just your starter. Or a team of very weak Pokemon.
Getting further than the league, so after you completed the game you could go through secret tunnels to another region.
Or getting more gym badges.

Most involved defeating the game with stupidly weak Pokemon so it was impossible

 

[illumine]

There weren't that many where we were, which was mostly concerned about the playing of them, although there was a certain interest in the various additions of invisible, etc., Pokémon in R/S/E, although it seems strange that although the Gen. I glitches were known fairly well they're supposed to have not come up when people were discussing these things frequently, while we were mostly interested in the games from Gen. II to Gen. III. It seems weird, though, but interest in the games was seemingly far more pronounced in an Indian context than a more Westernised context, where people often pretended that no such interest had ever existed, perhaps as some form of image thing.

Anyway, though, I think there was a certain consensus that Mew wasn't that 'cool,' in our area in India, so in that sense there wasn't that much of a focus on the 'mythical' Pokémon and so on so much as what might be of interest in the games and what was at issue, etc. Content wasn't taken into account just because it was additional. In addition, the whole anime thing wasn't really taken into account as much, as quite soon in its run the anime became a bit out of touch with why most of us would be interested in Pokémon. Because of that, we were mostly beginning from the games, rather than trying to find things from the anime in the games, and such. You also treated Pokémon as a bit of a free-form thing (but this was for a while) which could be changed or used for one's own purposes, as they end up, and not just a series of things shown to you by some games, which you should be interested in - as an idea or possibility for development, rather than a collection - and as such that was of interest.

\Most involved defeating the game with stupidly weak Pokemon so it was impossible

As much as this seems in keeping with the second gen's logic, mostly this would seem plausible, unless you mean under-levelled or gimmick Pokémon?

 

[Electricbluewolf]

As much as this seems in keeping with the second gen's logic, mostly this would seem plausible, unless you mean under-levelled or gimmick Pokémon?

Yes, there was a rumour around our school that was if you got all the badges, got to the elite four and then caught all the Pokemon on Route 1 and beat the Elite Four you'd get Mew

 

[Minun172]

When I was a kid, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire was popular at school and was the newest Pokemon.
One rumor was that Minun and Plusle would evolve into a divide and multiply evolution.... Nobody fell for it except me....

 

[Gone Airbourne]

When I was younger we would just battle each other and trade and what not... I vaguely remember reading about the missingno glitch from magazine during that time 98-99.

One awesome memory I was traveling to Puerto Rico by plane and at the time I flew by myself. I remember a girl sitting next to me realized that I liked Pokemon. She then showed me she had caught Mew and I was dumbfounded by that.

I can't remember that we'll what she said but she was around college age or so at the time. Nostalgic memories ^-^

 

[Imperator161]

Mew under the truck, Pikablu, the Mist Stone, the Pokegods, etc., were also common at my school (pretty much in the same way Mateo described above). Another rumor I recall hearing is that if you took a level 99 Dragonite to the spot where Mewtwo used to be and used a Fire Stone on it (perhaps after beating the Elite Four some number of times), it would evolve into Yoshi. And then there was also the rumor that your Pokemon would die upon reaching level 100 (although I was one of the few kids with the perseverance to train my starter that high, especially pre-Missingno glitch).

There are a lot of websites from the late '90s/early '00s describing various glitches and rumors, some more far-fetched than others. I recall spending many hours reading them on Friday afternoons after school (on my slow dial-up connection). I haven't looked for them recently, but they may still be out there.

 

[Guest123_x1]

I never really heard that many playground theories regarding Pokémon (and couldn't have eventually since I was in middle school by the time I started playing-they were more like classroom or lunchroom theories), but I do remember asking somebody in my sixth grade language arts class when Pikachu evolved. The answer was level 25, I think. Then later, I found out by looking in a Pokémon book that Pikachu actually evolved with a Thunder Stone, and that I couldn't evolve the starter Pikachu in Yellow at all (which actually tied in with the anime, as I found out when I watched the episode when Ash's Pikachu was badly defeated by Lt. Surge's Raichu).