General How Did You Get Interested In Pokemon?

My cousin had a gameboy with a pokemon red when I was real little, he was a younger than I was and I would hide his red version so he wouldn't restart my game.

It would save the game maybe 20% of the time, otherwise if it turned off I would have to start all over.

Spent every day i was baby sat over summer vacation there playing pokemon over and over. Picked squirtle like 60% of the time cause turtles were my favorite anmimal.

Never get past lavendertown because of the save issue.

Fast forward to being a freshman in high school. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl out in a few days.

My cousin (different one) wants someone to get Pearl cause he is getting Diamond.

Figure why not, and remember all the times I played that one summer.

Been hooked ever since.

Play competitive, learn RNG, EV's, IV's, all of that.

Waiting for gen 4 remake with mega Infernape.

A few months ago decide to start collecting cards.

Do that now.

Considering playing the card games

Only collecting from Generations and Evolutions set for now.

My wallet cries now, but I got awsome cards so it's all good.

I usually go to Serebii.net and Smogon forums, but my work blocks those sites.

I am on a computer all day and find out Pokebeah does not get blocks so here I am.
 
the first wave, man... back then i was only into the toys but after i got the cartridge, that's it
 
I think it was 1996 when I was in the 1st grade, my best friend came over to my house and showed me his small pokemon collection before we walked to school. The card game combined with the tv show got me hooked on the pokemon crave ever since. I play it to this day because it reminds me of my childhood and how awesome the 90s were.
 
I remember that one fateful day in 2014, I was traveling through a Gamestop in search of a new exiting game that wouldn't suck, and found a copy of Pokemon X. Yes I know it isn't the best game in the franchise, but it is what got me hooked. 'nuff said
 
I had Blue (and later Yellow) on GB when I was young, although I can't recall what the incentive for getting them was - I just remember them being there (although, thinking about it, my brother may have gotten it and then passed it on to me). I didn't get G/S when they were initially released (I have Silver now though); indeed I don't recall actually knowing about them until later on. I got Sapphire as a gift after it was released. I then remember my real love for it began shortly after a friend introduced me to the TCG (I'd very casually collected cards beforehand, but hadn't actually played the TCG) - I remember the first theme deck I got was the Empoleon one from Diamond/Pearl. I then started collecting more and more cards, shortly after that I got Platinum and it was kind of like playing the video games with new eyes (truly understanding type matchups, moves, storyline etc). I've been a fan ever since.
 
One year for Christmas, don't remember the year, I got a DS Lite with Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. a year or two later, I saw a Commercial for Pokemon Platinum and saw you could walk on walls, and I instantly wanted it. That might be why Gen 4 is my Favorite Generation.
 
Oh, well, growing up in the 90s, I was already a big Game Boy player (Kirby, Zelda, Wario, etc.). I even had the crazy accessories, such as the magnifying lens, the attachable light, a neck strap, etc.

So then in the late 90s, a new title hit the shelves called Pokemon Red & Blue, and Poke-mania swept the world. Anyone that was anyone played it. I have fond memories of being in school, and me and other kids would duck out of class to go trade Pokemon and cards in the bathrooms.

However, I grew out of Pokemon by the time Gen 2 came out (I was into "big boy things" like Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing), and I didn't get back into Pokemon until 2012. That year, I got my first smartphone, and my friend showed me how to get a Game Boy emulator on it. I then downloaded a bunch of games, one being Pokemon Red, which gave me the most incredible surge of nostalgia I've ever experienced.

After replaying Red, I then went on to play Crystal, and then I became obsessed with Pokemon again. I've since played every main title (in Generational order), along with a few spinoffs.

I later joined a Pokemon forum to discuss my newfound love with other fans. I've made some strong friendships through Pokemon that are now 5 years running, and we talk with one another almost daily.

I'll never abandon this franchise again. :)
 
Well, it was my good friend's birthday, and the party favors were packs of Pokémon cards. Legendary Treasures, to be specific. So I opened mine up, and my first two good Pokémon cards were a Holo Lucario and Gallade. Since then, Pokémon has been an increasingly great deal of desks littered with Pokémon cards.
 
I think I got hooked when i was really young. I remember when my parents bought my brother and I (older brother) the original brick grey gameboy so that we could play games. I remember it being christmas and my parents bought us one copy of Pokemon Red. At the time, I remember watching my brother play it and I was always so fascinated with the game! When I was older and finally got my own game boy, I bought Pokemon Gold version the day it came out and I have been playing ever since. I just moved to PTCG and I am loving it!
 
I watched some of the series in German when it was first aired in Europe (that was around '97-98 I believe) and as a kid I already had a soft spot for nerdy things like video games and choose-your-own-adventure books, so of course a show about kids travelling around in a fictional world collecting and battling with monsters immediately appealed to me. Plus the first intro song in German was sooo great with all that flashy and modern (for that time) japanese animation for my 11 year old self that I was immediately hooked the moment I saw it. (And back then I couldn't even understand the lyrics as I did not yet speak German at the time.) About 2 years later I got into some of the VGCs and the TGC, (this time in English) both of which I dropped after GEN2, (high school, too cool for kid's stuff, blah blah etc.) and I got back into the whole thing during the transition from GEN6 to GEN7 due to chilhood nostalgia. I actually like the changes that were made to the franchise since then - or at least most of them, so this time I might stick around for a while.

Not into the show though - even though I don't think I am that judgemental about such things, but if I was honest the series does come across as somewhat dumb to me now. But I still find the games fun. (Except Pokemon Go.)
 
1998 for me, when I was in Kindergarten, one of the boys brought in a clear bouncy ball with a Pikachu inside it and told us about Pokemon. When I went home that evening and sat down to watch tv I noticed Pokemon was on. The rest was history.

The first episode I watched was Pikachu's Goodbye. Lord help me.

I still watch the anime, but I am a bit behind on Sun and Moon.
 
My brother had Blue and his friend had Red. I played their games a bit before Yellow came out and I got that one. Then I got one of my friends into Pokemon, and she got Red. We also used to get the cards with our allowance, the original set. I don't have those anymore, though.
 
My parent's gave me some cards they had when they where teens (they never played, just got a couple cards) including a base set Charizard. Of course I was like 5 and totally messed up the cards. Anyway, for some reason I was really insistent on not playing for several years, just collecting the cards. A friend finally got me to play the game, but taught me the rules all wonky (you don't need energy to attack, you can play stage 1 and 2's onto your bench, you can draw as many cards as you want, etc). Anyway, It took me forever to actually find my league and start learning to play. So I didn't officially start playing with the official rules until I was 9.

That's my story!
 
My cousin introduced me to Pokémon around 2000 or 2001. She traded Pokémon cards with another girl who lived in the same neighborhood while I was watching. I also wanted to have some of these cards and that's how everything started. When I was six or seven years old my father gave me Pokémon Silver. I already had played another Pokémon game on the Game Boy of some other kid but I couldn't read back then and didn't understand the game. When I played Silver for the first time I was able to read a little bit and I loved that game so much. It's still my favorite.
 
My next door neighbor had several trading cards and I liked the designs of them, so I got into it more.
 
It's been a while so I don't quite remember what it was that originally drew me to Pokemon but it was probably the fact that everyone was playing it around the same time. I grew up around the launch of red and Blue and it was the must have game out there.

As far as the card game, I got into it because I wanted to keep playing a TCG but I had previously played Magic the Gathering and I didn't want to spend so much money. The head judge at my local shop and good friend recommended Pokemon as he was trying to grow the scene, knew I played other TCGs and the price point seemed relatively inexpensive compared to MtG. Been playing since!
 
I'll keep mine short.

I ended up getting Red when it first came out at a Toys R Us that was near my old house. I wanted Blue, but they were sold out. My parents noticed that I loved the game and one day, my father ended up bringing home a Pokemon Starter Deck (the reeeeeally old one). I haven't been out of card games since and my love for Pokemon as a whole keeps growing.

-Asmer

p.s.: That "How to Play" vhs for PTCG still makes me laugh to this day.
 
I joined the craze during the 1999 boom when the first movie was released in US theaters. My aunt had just introduced me to "Japanese cartoons," so I was attracted to virtually anything with anime-style graphics. I wasn't able to watch the movie in theaters since my family was struggling financially at the time, but I did get to go to Burger King a few times to get some of the toys and cards. We didn't have WB (the only channel Pokémon came on back then), but we occasionally got to watch episodes on VHS in class and I rented some at the library as well. Before my 4th grade year ended, we also got to watch first movie (which I believe is what ultimately got me started taking drawing seriously... or at least more seriously than I had).

Rumors of "new Pokémon" were beginning to spread at school and I remember getting some Beckett magazines with rather poor drawings of these new monsters -- and I loved them! I just found the concept of adding to the original 151 fascinating.

Financial troubles were starting to clear-up by Spring 2000 and I got a lime-green Game Boy Color and my first Pokémon game (Silver Version) for my 10th birthday. I think this was also around the time I started collecting the TCG cards (which I called "battle cards" back then to distinguish them from Burger King and Topps trading cards) and had my first theatrical Pokémon experience with the second movie (scoring a really cool Ancient Mew card). I've been obsessed since, although I haven't been actively collecting merchandise outside the main games since DPPt.
 
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