S.A.C.’s Pokémon Nostalgia

[S.A.C. Martin]

A few years back I dug out my old N64, booted it up and discovered to my delight that there was evidence in the hall of fame of one of the two event Mews my sister and I had been given at a Pokemon Event in the UK.

This event took place - I think - in 1999 or 2000 at Bluewater shopping centre, and the OT was UK and the numbers were 10503 and 10504 for the trainer ID.

The one recorded in the Hall of Fame was my Mew, 10504, but it was nowhere to be found on any of our cartridges. So I put everything away and thought, never mind.

Then today, whilst searching out for some Pokemon on Stadium to put into my current run through of Pokemon Blue, I found this and had to put it into my game to get the Pokédex entry.

It’s my sisters original Mew from that event!

So to my delight, one of the two event Mews has survived to the present day. I’ve taken a backup on the Analogue pockets “memory” function and put it back into Pokemon Stadium for safe keeping.

Is there anyone else out there who still has their UK event Mew?

I remember the day well, I had not long been out of hospital, I wasn’t feeling well in the queue, and my mum quietly went round to the staff and asked them if they sort it for us quick so they could get me home. They put a Mew each on our Pokemon cartridges and passed on a Mew TCG card too, which I still have.

Nintendo/TPC/GF in that era had some really kind employees (I’m sure they still have).

This set off a whole load of nostalgia today and just wanted to share a bit of happiness I got from seeing our Mew again.

 

[Mova]

nice taste in the analogue pocket! i have the same color as well. it is a good modern way to connect gba to a gamecube or wii.

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

nice taste in the analogue pocket! i have the same color as well. it is a good modern way to connect gba to a gamecube or wii.

Oh will the GBA to GameCube connector cable work with the Pocket then?

I just missed out on an Analogue 3D to match the Pocket - so annoyed! I will get a white one at the next batch for sure.

The analogue pocket has been the best purchase by far in gaming the last few years for me - I can actually see Pokemon Red and blue and the rest in all their glorious pixels instead of the issues with the original screens.

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

Update: I have made a living dex on Pokemon Stadium, something I never managed first time around. Both Red and Blue have 151 each! Time to start Pokemon Yellow version…

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

Oh dear. I had a change of mind. We’re going for a living Gen 2 Dex now.

Should probably retitle the thread!

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

YOU CAN CATCH PHANPY REALLY EARLY ON IN CRYSTAL.

11 year old me would have liked to know this twenty odd years ago!

Gave him mud slap, he’s been monstrous. Defeated Whitney single handed.

Currently running Snubbell, Phanpy, Eevee and Bayleaf - have three badges, trying to train up and catch some Gen II mons towards the living dex. Going to try and get Wooper shortly so I can get one of my favourites, Quagsire.

I should explain the choice of Chikorita as starter. Cyndaquil is always my first choice - but I’ve already played Silver late last year and I picked him as I did way back in 2000 for that game.

I also got myself a copy of Gold - and for that I picked Totodile, my second choice.

I never picked Chikorita first time around when I bought my copy of Crystal - instead opting to pick Cyndaquil again!

Since changing the battery on the cartridge and wanting to do a run through again this year, I thought I’d try Chikorita.

So far, obviously at a disadvantage against Falkner and Bugsy, but not going to be great against Morty either as a straight grass type.

Hence, Phanpy. The plucky little elephant is going to be my ringer for that fight!

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

The age old question. Is my Wooper better than Sailor Harry’s Wooper?

Nope!

One slam and done.

Dammit Wooper!

 

[Basedwell]

Crystal rules!! When I’m up financially I’m gonna cop a system to play my copy on. I’ve only played it on the 3ds port so far.

 

[Basedwell]

Crystal rules!! When I’m up financially I’m gonna cop a system to play my copy on. I’ve only played it on the 3ds port so far.

I’m not an elephant guy so I have never used Phanpy, but i love the design sm I will put it on my team. Wooper has its own spot guaranteed as well.

Plz keep posting pics because seeing the sprites brings me sm joy :D

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

Four badges in Crystal, and I’ve made it to Olivine. Team of five, and I reckon four of these are likely to stay with me to the end of the game.

Obviously Donphan is staying put. Just evolved from Phanpy at level 25.

Like where was the advice when this game came out that you could catch a Phanpy next to New Bark Town town? Phanpy is an absolute monster in the early game and if you look at the gyms coming up, the plucky elephant on my team is currently four for four on gym badges, no other Pokemon has been quite so potent.

Mud slap is an awful move and a bit cheap but in the hands of Phanpy it turns all of the first four gyms into a breeze, particularly Morty where he OHKO’d all the Gastlys and Haunters and 2HKO’d Gengar.

Eevee has stellar IVs in defence and special defence so he’s going to be become an Umbreon, most likely.

Granbull is unlikely to remain on the team long term as there’s a few other Gen II Pokemon I’d like to try out, but he was instrumental in beating Whitney and Morty and is sitting there dutifully.

The hapless Wooper of a few days ago is now a Quagsire and with surf at his disposal is OHKO’ing the wild pokemon around Olivine quite easily. I’m anticipating she will be useful for Jasmine.

Which leaves us with our starter, now a Bayleaf. Used for poison powder and occasionally razor leafs water types, I’m just not seeing where it fits in right now. Maybe I’ll keep it there, who knows?

The lighthouse beckons now - let’s see how we do in a few days.

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

So I made an error when I went to Cianwood. I forgot to pick up the strength HM.

So for the first time, I played this part of the game out of order and fought Jasmine first, by way of taking the medicine to Ampharos and then going straight to her gym.

So steelix gets beaten by using Granbull as a charm spammer, after using Donphan as a mud slap spammer. Granbull uses fire punch to knock out the Steelix. Donphan OHKOs both magnemites with mud slap. We have five badges!

Chuck next after a hasty rush back over the sea.

Chuck was easy. Donphan sets up mud slap accuracy drops, Granbull reduces the attack and speed, then Bayleaf poisons the poliwrath and lets Granbull finish it off.

And with that we have six badges and an under levelled five Pokemon team.

Oh, six. I caught a shuckle to use strength. No he’s not being used for battling. Back into the box you go, HM user…

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

So playing Pokémon Crystal as an adult is very different to playing it as a 12 year old.

The big change is strategy and research. I’m actively thinking about each upcoming battle, knowing mostly what’s coming and trying to catch all the different Pokes I can that will help me get towards the overall goal of completion.

But by far the biggest change is my choice of Pokemon. I’d have never in a million years considered Donphan in Crystal - because I had no idea you could get Phanpy that early.

The closest I would have come was catching Sandshrew, and I have a vague memory of having Sandslash on virtually all of my Gen 1 and 2 teams during the game (but not in my stadium teams).

By the same token, Quagsire is a top choice that I would never have picked due to his speed. His tanky stats and type matchups though make him such a good Pokemon. Why didn’t I realise that first time around? Because I would have gone straight for red gyrados.

Granbull is one that shouldn’t work and yet seems to - fire punch was so useful against Jasmine, and even though he’s a bit frail the use of charm and similar to reduce stats makes him far more useful.

Which brings me to Bayleaf. I just don’t see a future for the starter, but I don’t have a replacement in mind right now.

I really want something like a fire type or electric type - but I’ve already used Ampharos in Gold and Silver. Hondour is one I really want to get but I suspect he’s post game now.

Overall my in built rules of “only new generation” pokemon is starting to strain because there’s just so few viable Gen II pokemon you can capture pre elite four.

Please send me suggestions if you have any!

 

[QuentinQuonce]

So playing Pokémon Crystal as an adult is very different to playing it as a 12 year old.

The big change is strategy and research. I’m actively thinking about each upcoming battle, knowing mostly what’s coming and trying to catch all the different Pokes I can that will help me get towards the overall goal of completion.

But by far the biggest change is my choice of Pokemon. I’d have never in a million years considered Donphan in Crystal - because I had no idea you could get Phanpy that early.

The closest I would have come was catching Sandshrew, and I have a vague memory of having Sandslash on virtually all of my Gen 1 and 2 teams during the game (but not in my stadium teams).

By the same token, Quagsire is a top choice that I would never have picked due to his speed. His tanky stats and type matchups though make him such a good Pokemon. Why didn’t I realise that first time around? Because I would have gone straight for red gyrados.

Granbull is one that shouldn’t work and yet seems to - fire punch was so useful against Jasmine, and even though he’s a bit frail the use of charm and similar to reduce stats makes him far more useful.

Which brings me to Bayleaf. I just don’t see a future for the starter, but I don’t have a replacement in mind right now.

I really want something like a fire type or electric type - but I’ve already used Ampharos in Gold and Silver. Hondour is one I really want to get but I suspect he’s post game now.

Overall my in built rules of “only new generation” pokemon is starting to strain because there’s just so few viable Gen II pokemon you can capture pre elite four.

Please send me suggestions if you have any!

Chinchou is a fun choice for an Electric type, you can fish one up in Olivine City. Learns a ton of great moves and is hella bulky once it evolves, which it doesn't have to wait too long for. I've used it a couple of times and enjoyed it a lot.

Other viable and underrated Gen II Pokemon: Girafarig (immense versatility, I used one the first time I played Silver and gave it Shadow Ball, Hyper Beam, and Zap Cannon), Corsola (again, fun choice for a playthrough), and Hitmontop (if you get a Tyrogue from the Odd Egg - might be a bit too late to wait for the Mt Mortar one).

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

So Natu is at the ruins of Alph! I don’t remember this from my childhood. So I promptly went out and caught one, and evolved it to Xatu. It’s not an ideal Pokemon for battling in my view but it can learn fly.

Eevee is taking an absolute age to become Umbreon. Most frustrating. I am now up to the Lake of Rage. Pictures later!

 

[DaRotomMachine]

So Natu is at the ruins of Alph! I don’t remember this from my childhood. So I promptly went out and caught one, and evolved it to Xatu. It’s not an ideal Pokemon for battling in my view but it can learn fly.

Eevee is taking an absolute age to become Umbreon. Most frustrating. I am now up to the Lake of Rage. Pictures later!

Is there not a soothe bell in Gen 2
Probably not right

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

Is there not a soothe bell in Gen 2
Probably not right

Good question. I’ll have to look it up. I have got Xatu now too - only one extra level needed to evolve from Natu.

In the meantime…we have made it to the lake of rage! Red Gyrados time! What an iconic moment in the series. Truly, one of the best memories I have from Gen 2.

So much time spent here trying to get a good DV one, not realising that they were more or less fixed by being shiny in the first place…!

 

[Basedwell]

So Natu is at the ruins of Alph! I don’t remember this from my childhood. So I promptly went out and caught one, and evolved it to Xatu. It’s not an ideal Pokemon for battling in my view but it can learn fly.

Eevee is taking an absolute age to become Umbreon. Most frustrating. I am now up to the Lake of Rage. Pictures later!

You can always grab a bunch of x items in a battle and spam them. In Crystal I also hatched a new Eevee so that it started with higher base happiness lol

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

At a game show today and couldn’t resist! That Pokemon Crystal Japanese PCB is a piece of art!

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

So I took a bit of a break from playing Pokémon games around the middle of January, when we had a sad family bereavement. It knocked me a bit for six and it has taken a while to get back into the groove.

However when out at the game show again, I’ve managed to get out of the funk a bit and have a play around with the games I bought today.



The one that stands out for me is Pokemon Crystal. The original Japanese game cartridge was really a love letter to the fans in so many ways, with the first time we saw animations for the Pokemon, a girl character to introduce some equality in the play through, and some additional features like the Japan only mobile GB adapter function using a phone, making Pokemon Crystal one of the first games to connect to a form of internet for battling and trading in a meaningful way.

For me, though, it’s the experience of original hardware, seeing the development, and the subtle changes from Japan release to European that fascinates. The original two generations of Pokemon on the Game Boy went through many iterations and as we now know, housed at one point nearly 300 species, most of which were cut, including pre evos and evolutions of popular Pokemon.

Crystal is the end of that development, the bookshelf of that early era of hand held games and the start of the franchise. It’s flawed, of course, and we have had better games, but for me the Suicune themed edition, including the additional story elements and the battle tower, make this the definitive Gen 1 and 2 game.

Pokemon Red and Blue I will always point to as the games I will repeat play and love and enjoy, but Crystal is the game where the franchise…crystallised, in all the best ways.

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

So I have a full set of the Japanese Gen 1 and Gen 2 cartridges now. Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver and Crystal.

And you may be wondering - why bother?

Well, mostly because I’ve always been fascinated with the differences between the original Japanese releases and the versions we got in the west - mostly based on the original Japanese Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Gold builds.

All of my Japanese cartridges need the battery changing, so that’ll happen in due course before I do a play through. I might even set up a channel for this on YouTube later in the year, I’ve always wanted to talk waffle about Pokemon…

In the meantime, just enjoy two of the most iconic title screens in the history of the brand. Just look at them - you can almost hear the music…

I mean I could, I had the volume up, but you get what I mean…!

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

I want to talk about boxart.

Gen I and II boxart is iconic for so many reasons, but the Japanese boxart - that we never saw in the West - fascinates me.

The first four games from Gen I all shared this “The Pocket Monster Trainer” roundel, with “Pocket Monsters” in Japanese and English below it. In the centre, the motif Pokemon for each game, Charizard, Venusaur, Blastoise and Pikachu.

Red and Green with their two tone boxes are very different to what we got in the west with Red and Blue. The Sugimori artwork is just iconic - these two Pokemon in particular really benefit from this style of art.

Blastoise though, wow! This game was a limited edition for CoroCoro readers and is the rarer game. What I love about this is how Blastoise is so aggressive in posture, really emphasises the “pocket monster” aspect.

The pikachu boxart is a bit off though, the Western version is far superior in my view.

The Gold and Silver copies really shimmer, the choice to reinforce the gold and silver through the use of metallic colours adds to the premium feel of the box.

Crystals box is just superb though. Suicune’s artwork is, IMO, the best of them. Love it.

In short: I’m nostalgic for when Pokemon box art was more…arty.

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

The day Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness was announced for switch 2, I bought a copy of the Gamecube edition!

I do not regret this one bit. In fairness it still looks good on the HDTV despite the poor signal quality from the GameCube (using a cheap adapter - mental note, buy a proper HDMI converter).

Still, fabulous graphics!

Can’t wait to get stuck into this over the weekend!

 

[S.A.C. Martin]

I went to my parents house today, and was reunited with a lot - and I really do mean A LOT - of Pokemon stuff.

But there’s one item which really hits the spot.

Picture this.

It’s Christmas.

1997.

You’ve watched all the kids at school, much richer kids than you, playing on their new Game Boy Colours and trading these almost mythical new monsters.

Pocket Monsters.

Pokemon.

Your mother pulls from under the tree four small boxes. She beams as you and your sister realise you have new game boy colours too. Less happy as you swap your bright yellow game boy for her teal one, as you both prefer the other colours!

Then the moment of truth. What game did mum and dad buy us?

I open the wrapping…and I find Pokémon Blue.

Claire looks up at me and says, eyes shining, on verge of tears, “but I like the turtle”.

So in the second act of kindness to each other, my sister and I swap our Pokemon games and I become the proud owner of a copy of Pokemon Red, and Charizard becomes one of my favourite Pokemon, instantly.

And here, is the box, and manual, of that very game. My exact copy, 30 years later.

It’s going to go into a UV resistant plastic case and go up on display as a reminder of one of those wonderful memories of playing Pokémon with my sister and friends (and on occasion, colleagues!) throughout the last 30 years of my life.

It’s not an understatement to say that Pokemon actually helped - not just me I think - but so many of us throughout the years.

Thanks Game Freak.