Atomic Purple

One thing I’d love to watch is a multi-part documentary on the development of the original Pokémon games and Pokémania.

Of course, it should definitely be more than just a straightforward “Satoshi Tajiri liked bugs, they made Red and Green, they made an anime, and then it came to America”. If there’s one thing I’ve learned during the past year or so, is that the development of Pokémon was not straightforward like media coverage circa 2000 would have you believe. Like how Japanese Yellow version, and the entire American half of Gen 1 happened well after Gold and Silver was already in development, and how ideas cross-pollinated between the games, the anime, and the TCG.

So personally I think that in order to tell the whole story of Pokémon’s early days, you’d have to talk about both the first and the second generation, since they’re so closely tied to each other. (Probably the release of Crystal version would be a good cutoff.) And of course, lest we forget, the 4Kids dub. Where would we be without it?

So I recently realized that it’s been approximately 20 years since I first became a Pokémon fan.

I first encountered Pokémon seeing a commercial for “Who Gets to Keep Togepi?”, which must have been in the spring of 1999. I probably saw ads for the Game Boy games too- I vaguely remember not really getting what it was about. (You guys remember the one with the creepy bus driver, right? How was any kid supposed to understand the game watching that??)

But it must have been sometime in the summer when I really got to know the franchise. There were a bunch of kids at day camp playing it, and I remember looking at Wigglytuff and wondering how something so cute could be called “wild”, and if Kadabra was supposed to scoop at you with its spoon. (Come to think of it, I guess that kid must have been in Unknown Dungeon, huh?)

The first episode I ever saw was a rerun of “Primeape Goes Bananas” (wish I knew what day that was...), and the first new episode was “Riddle Me This”. Eventually I got Pokémon Yellow soon after it came out (no doubt for Christmas).

It’s so weird to think that something from your childhood was that that long ago, especially something so important.

In case you didn’t know already, Wario was in a Starfy game.

What I didn’t know was that they used Wario Land 3 music.

Not sure why Nintendo went to the trouble of making an arrangement album for this game, but it does kinda show that it has a pretty good soundtrack.

Honestly I think this version is creepier than the original.

It’s like it’s saying “We’re so HAPPY here we got rid of all the dead bodies and now we have radio KEEP SMILING 8D”.

Another thing I want that I can’t afford hooray

A not-so-reasonable facsimile

I found what seems to be a minor bug in Oracle of Seasons. If you pull off an Iron Mask’s mask with the Magnetic Glove just so that it drops into this pit in Unicorn’s Cave, it will count as being killed and the door on the left will open.

Dunno if that’s new or anything, but thought I’d share it anyway.

Say “dodongos”!

That weird, mysterious period between gen 1 and 2 of Pokémon in the US was kind of both stupid and somehow nostalgic...

A little YouTube playlist of music from Pokémon GSC, focusing on Kanto.

Think of it as a sort of alternate version of RBY...

Team Rocket finally gets Pikachu! Sort of.

Even though I’ll forever be a Kanto kid, Johto still means a lot me. (See here for more on that...)

This captures that spirit perfectly.