Summary
- Game Freak's first generation of Pokemon games for the Game Boy gained popularity outside of Japan as Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow.
- Retro stores still sell the first Pokemon games, and many players still have copies in their game collections.
- Pokemon is now one of the biggest media franchises in the world, generating substantial revenue and spanning multiple forms of entertainment.
A gamer stumbled across their old Pokemon Game Boy cartridges over the holidays and shared the nostalgic discovery online. They also found their childhood Game Boy Color in great condition.
Legendary Japanese video game developer Game Freak released the first generation of Pokemon games for Nintendo's original Game Boy locally back in 1996. These games would be brought over to North America and the rest of the world a couple of years later as Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, winning the hearts of foreign audiences and marking the start of the franchise's rise to fame outside of Japan. The first Pokemon games can still be found in retro stores, and countless copies are probably just buried in their owners' game collections.
One gamer, a 32-year-old Reddit user named Toiletpapermerc, found their Pokemon Blue cartridge while visiting family over the holidays. Toiletpapermerc also found their childhood Game Boy Color and a copy of the second generation game, Pokemon Silver, and uploaded a photo of their nostalgic discovery online via a recent post on the r/gaming subreddit. This Pokemon Game Boy collection still worked even after all these years, but community members pointed out that the cartridges may no longer have any saves, in-game clocks, and time-based events due to their age.
Like Toiletpapermerc, another Reddit user named Rubmifer found their old Game Boy Color at their family's home and shared the discovery online. A copy of Pokemon Red that surprisingly still had Rubmifer's 20-year-old save file was even inserted in the handheld system.
The early Pokemon releases are still considered to be some of the best first-party Game Boy system titles due to the solid gameplay and memorable roster of monsters that they offer. Pokemon has only continued to grow since those first games, and the series is now one of the biggest media franchises in the world in terms of revenue generated, alongside juggernauts like Disney’s Star Wars and Mickey Mouse & Friends.
Currently, Pokemon is on its ninth generation of games, with the most recent mainline releases being 2022's Pokemon Scarlet and Violet for the Nintendo Switch. While they received their fair share of criticism, some consider Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to be the most revolutionary mainline games in the series for deviating from the established formula set by their predecessors. The Generation 9 titles, for example, removed Pokemon encounters in tall grass, a mechanic that has always been part of the core games.
- Created by
- Satoshi Tajiri
Pokemon is a franchise that needs no introduction. One of the most successful media empires in history, Pokemon spans games, television, films, manga, merchandise, music, and more.