The first exposure I had to Pokémon was when I was really young, around 6 or 7 years old. At that time I had no idea what this giant franchise was, however I did know that the game I was playing was interesting. Most people’s first contact with Pokémon was from either the game, tv show, or trading cards. I was first exposed to Pokémon from my brother through Pokerom. Each CD featured math puzzles, print programs to print out your own Pokémon, build a desktop Pokémon collection, observe Pokémon and much more. After the game he introduced me to the cards. At first I tried to collect as many cards as I could by trading. You can see the Pokerom I had down below
Around age 8-9, I was over at my cousins’ house playing games, they and my brother are significantly older than me and when they saw the Pokémon cards I was playing with, they gave me their Gameboy Color with Pokémon Red. They had Pokémon Blue as well but they lost it, however Red version still had Gengar and a couple of other Pokémon at level 100. Though I didn’t know it at the time, this was hard to accomplish, so without thinking I started a new game. A couple weeks after we returned. I also got Pokémon Gold.
A couple years later, I received both games I returned to play some more of Pokémon Red. The only problem was that while I was playing the game, I knocked the cartridge by accident which reset all of my progress. I however also did play Pokémon crystal because I had borrowed it from a friend. I also managed to borrow both his Gameboy Advanced and Pokémon Sapphire, since he got a Game Boy Advance SP some time before.
During my birthday, about 6 months after I got the Game Boy from my friend I got the DS Lite. During that christmas I also got Pokémon diamond as well as Super Mario 64 DS. Thus continued my successful playing of the Pokémon series in order. A couple months after I got that DS Lite we went back to my cousins and since my cousins just discovered some Pokémon cards while cleaning their house, and since they knew I was a Pokémon fanatic he gave me all his cards. Most of the cards were first edition cards and were the cards from only about the first 3 generations of the cards, I was overjoyed to say the least.
Some time after Christmas, I had saved up some money and bought Pokémon Platinum. A couple months after beating the game, I decided to buy an action replay to be able to have more fun while playing. In between action replay and getting Platinum, I purchased Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team. I have purchased every major Pokémon game to come out for handheld since that time. In fact, when the 3DS first released the game I bought so I could have something new to play was Pokémon white. I forgot to mention that during this entire time, Pokémon ended just before my school bus arrived in the morning, which on many occasions almost made me miss school.
Since I was very little, I have been a loyal Pokémon fan and have played the games in the correct order and well as watched the TV show and Movies in the correct order as well. Pokémon is intertwined to my love of video games, as it is the first game I played. During my life, I have spent a large portion of it playing Pokémon at night when I shouldn’t have, and on school trips. Pokémon does and will always hold a special place in my heart, for it is my childhood.
