I watched the show before the games even came out, so I already had the fair basics. Type advantage, Catching and training, etc. I also knew, because a friend of mine bought his Blue version first, that you'd have to trade to get all of them.
After I got my brand-old Gameboy brick (lol) I instantly got red, saw that it was RPG based, and came up with a training Regime I (usually) keep today.
I would choose a starter, train it, along with 2 Pokemon that would evolve twice and have balanced types. For example, If I chose the Fire type Charmander, I would then catch 2 Pokemon right off the bat. Then, When I would find, say, and Oddish (or was it Belsprout?) I would catch it, and exchange it with one of the others. Again, repeating when I came across, say, Poliwag.
Then, to train the Pokemon, I would fight every trainer, and step on every piece of grass at least once. By the Time I got to the E4, I would have 3 balanced Pokemon with levels about 60-70 each...
Oh, and I learned real fast what an HM slave was.