What's the oldest Pokémon game cartridge you own?

[Sheep]

For the players who own/have owned physical copies of Pokémon games, what is your oldest? Do you know if it still works? Or were you in an unfortunate situation where your parents tossed or sold off your old games? (cry)

 

[Roni]

An R4 cartridge with DPPt and HGSS in it! Sadly I lost everything years ago. No tragic backstory or anything, it just got misplaced somewhere in the house lol.

 

[ReKoil]

RSE. All three still work too.
Also had RBY, but I for the life of me dont know where those went/if I even still have them at all. 😅

 

[Zed01]

The oldest ones I have are Gen 3 games, I have Sapphire and German Ruby. Both work and I actually did 2 playthroughs on Sapphire this year (I was on a Hoenn/Gen 3 kick this year lol). I also have Leaf Green from Gen 3 but R/S are older since they came out first.

However since I started playing Pokemon games during late Gen 4 and early Gen 5, that means that all of these Gen 3 games were bought in the last 10 or so years (I got german Ruby only a few months ago actually lol) and not back when they were new so they aren't the games I had the longest. The game I had in my possession the longest is White 2. My first games (Soul Silver and Black) were sold after I completed them (RIP my OG teams) but over the years since then I was able to buy Black again and Heart Gold instead of Soul Silver.

 

[XNaut]

Blue, Red, Yellow, and Gold are the oldest cartridges I have. Gold doesn't work anymore and I don't know if Blue and Red still works since whenever I want to play a gen 1 game I play Yellow and that still works.

 

[Elder Trainer]

Red, Blue and Yellow are my oldest. Not sure if they work anymore, but if they do the batteries are most likely dead.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

hmmm idk how to answer lol. I mean, my oldest is pokemon diamond but later i bought pokemon emerald, which is older an older game than diamond lol, but the cartridge isn't at all, because it was used just a bit when i bought it, while i literally spent more than 350 hours on diamond lol. and they both still work. Sometimes, i play my old pokemon diamond save just to have good memories and to check on my beloved Empoleon, who was my first pokemon and it's so so strong. my level 100 Empoleon defeated a level 70 Torterra 4real lol. Amazing. He was the first one to get to level 100 basically just loosing again and again to pokemon league lol. Trial and error. He has also basically almost any ribbon, so it's truly my special one. He's so special that he belongs to my first and favorite game which is Pokémon Diamond. I ll never transfer it from there to any other game and i ll keep my pokémon diamond cartridge safe from EVERYTHING lol

 

[greenxtea]

The oldest cartridge I have on hand is my original Yellow version, which can't even start up properly anymore. She lived a good life. I had a Red Version before then that was sold, or traded, or given away.

... I ll never transfer it from there to any other game and i ll keep my pokémon diamond cartridge safe from EVERYTHING lol

Props to your ability to hold onto that save for so long! I habitually wipe saves but I'm hoping to be more like you and your diamond cartridge.

 

[RadEmpoleon]

Technically my oldest cartridge is Diamond, but I had it on this thing called a TTDS which had 60 other games on it as well. I got it in 2010 probably. I kept mine and my brother's, but I haven't played either for years because it only works on the original DS or DS Lite. I tried it in the DSI and my 2DS but it doesn't work on there. I hope one day I can get a DS Lite off of Ebay or something so I can finally play them again after all these years. (Let's see... the last time I played it was my friend let me borrow their DS Lite when I was in 7th grade, which was in 2015 or 2016. So it's been at least 5 years. Seems like it's been much longer...)

But if we're talking about functioning cartridges, then it would be White 2, which my sister and I got in 2012. We shared it at first, but after defeating the champion, she didn't want to play anymore and let me keep it. I maxed out the play time a few years ago, and I'm so close to completing the national dex. I only need 10 more Pokemon.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

The oldest cartridge I have on hand is my original Yellow version, which can't even start up properly anymore. She lived a good life. I had a Red Version before then that was sold, or traded, or given away.



Props to your ability to hold onto that save for so long! I habitually wipe saves but I'm hoping to be more like you and your diamond cartridge.

i like keeping things but especially ds cartridges have much importance for me. it makes me remember the famous "old good times" and despite i have started the games again and again I ve always checked my Empoleon to be always the same. I mean, as a child everything looked magical and my Empoleon was like that for me lol. And i ve always been like "the pokemon master" among my friends because i knew many things lol, so they still now remember me and my Empoleon as a legendary duo lol. so, i ll prolly never wipe those file saves again because of these good memories. If i want to replay the game, i ll prolly just replay platinum tbh.

 

[mikey]

I still have all my cartridges. My oldest is my Red, which I got shortly after it came out and was my first Pokemon game. Still works!

 

[Devalue]

Held onto Red, which is the oldest cartridge. Does not know whether it still functions properly. (Might rectify that relatively soon.)

Checked Yellow (the second oldest) recently, however. Retained its save data. Is vexed about the save file, though. Appeared to be somewhere early, based on Pokemon levels in the party. Must have restarted it at some point.

 

[virtualpet]

Mew: either pokemon pinball or hey you pikachu, I'm not sure which is older

we've been trying to track down red, blue, or yellow for years but we've given up on that dream with how expensive they are now XD

 

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

Pokemon Blue I guess, but I also have hey you pikachu. was a really cool game for its time.

 

[Bellsprout]

I have a copy of blue, I'm not sure if it works tbh.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I still have Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Red that are over 20-something years old and much to my surprise, they still work!

 

[Fairy]

I still have my original Pokémon Blue but sadly have no ways of testing if it still works, rip.

 

[Devalue]

Reports back to confirm Red still functioning. Revealed no new clues about the past, unfortunately. Bugged the Hall of Fame with the Missingno glitch. Probably transferred all the good Pokemon to Generation 2 or Stadium.

Restarted the game at some point, though. Remembers worrying about something bad happening upon reaching 100 hours. (Draws vague parallels to Y2K, in hindsight.) Only had 58 hours on this file.

 

[d4rk]

I had it all at some point, Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver.
All of them had to go when I moved out. Now I store my parties on a R4. Anyway, I'm doing better with romhacks nowadays.

 

[Ivysaur]

Hard to go any older than this. Found it at a Retro fair a few years ago.

Spoiler:

As per the cartridge I've owned for the longest...

Spoiler: