First Pokemon Encounter

[Raviel the Phantom]

When was the first time you ever had encounter with the Pokemon franchise, be it the game, show, or other things?

Mine was way back in time to when I could barely count all the way up to one hundred and fifty. It was the eve of the school play, and I was in the music room waiting to go on stage with the rest of my classmates. My cousin had managed to sneak into the room with his Gameboy, and was playing a game I had never heard of called Pokemon. He was using this strange Pokemon called Abra as he trained his way up the levels. The little guy struggled to fight and I sat next to my cousin, rooting for the strange squirrel looking thing.

Eventually I asked my parents to get me the game for my birthday. And the rest was history.

[Jiggle]

[Masquerain]

Back when I was around 10-11, I encountered the johto seasons of Pokemon on a german channel called RTL2. All I knew of Pokemon then were johto/kanto pokemon in German. Soon after, my country started kind of getting into the pokemon hype by introducing the kanto season on tv every saturday and sunday, along with putting out some pokemon franchise like pikachu plushes, sticker albums and spheric badge thingies in chips/snacks. It wasn't really widespread but it's how it started for me, with Johto. Eventually my parents bought me a gameboy color for christmas with a pokemon crystal (bootleg, pirated version cuz my country sucked that way) cartridge. And thus, I learned about the existence of pokemon games as well. It was the first ever rpg I played and had no clue how to even leave my room for half an hour, but yeah, all in all, my Pokemon fandom started with Johto and THAT is my nostalgia gen rather than kanto.. Never liked kanto and never will but aye

[Strider]

I first learned about pokemon in second grade in Germany through the tcg, It was popular to collect the cards, but none of us really knew the rules (this was on an American military base,so I don't know the German pokemon names). When I came back from Germany, I was stuck in a hotel for two months, and during that time, I was introduced to the anime. It was only three or so years ago that I was introduced to the game, my first of which was Soul Silver. I have never finished it sadly, because I don't own it, and it hasn't had a decent (read cheap) price.

[Sieg12]

I first encountered the franchise via the anime when I was what 8 or something. Most of my class watched the anime so it was a big deal and stuff and like all boys my age I truly believed that charizard was the strongest Pokemon and could only be bested by mewtwo... Heck me and my classmates even had imaginary Pokemon battles as stupid as that sounds but that's where it began from. I didn't play the games until a few years or so since I didn't knew they existed but once my dad bought me Sapphire I never looked back.

[Strider]

even had imaginary Pokemon battles as stupid as that sounds

I don't think this is stupid. I sometimes still this do for with my brother (9 years old) for his entertainment.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Strider

[Lugruf]

The first time I discovered pokemon it was through a classmate, who was playing fire red. At first I didn't like much the game. I was a huge platformer fan, after having played some amazing games as Kirby and the amazing mirror and Super Mario World 2. Pokemon looked too slow and boring, with no action and a turn based combat system. However, I ended up giving it a try and that year I got Pokemon Emerald for christmas. That was the beginning of everything. I realized the complexity and the strategy that laid behind that apparently boring turn based system, and once started I couldn't stop. I'll only say that I have more than 500 hours in that game. The fact that a friend had a link wire helped a lot, since trading and fighting my friends was one of the best things the game could offer.

[Another Felix]

No idea. I just remember having Pokemon Yellow and Crystal for the Gameboy Color. I think my first time seeing a Pokemon was on my cousin's gameboy?

[Ironbound]

Probably the anime, many years ago. I dropped out of it for a while only to have a friend shoe me Shadows of Almia a long time later. That was the first game I played, and Diamond was the first main series game I played. I consequently played Sapphire, Leaf green and White/White2, and followed the DPPt anime for a while. Then I got interested in Smogon and competitive Pokémon, and there I stayed since.

And as for mock Pokemon moves, I used to do that with friends as well, as a child in fifth or sixth grade. I remember I kept using 'Body Slam', while my best friend insisted on 'Dragon Rush', and we'd just end up hurling ourselves at each other, without a single punch or kick!

[Chase]

My first encounter with Pokemon ever? I don't know if I remember -that- much. But I'll offer three possible correct answers.

1. The first time I remember talking about Pokemon with other people was either at Pre-school or Kindergarten. I remember my friends pretending to be their favorite Pokemon and having pantamime "battles" with each other. I wasn't allowed to play because I had no idea what in the world they were doing - but I remember being remotely interested.
2. The first time I watched the Pokemon anime came fairly soon after that - if I recall correctly. I owned the entire first season of the anime on the TRULY ancient media format of VHS tapes. You know, those things you had to physically rewind if you wanted to watch them a second time.
3. I remember picking up Pokemon Red for my 4th birthday. (It was spent at the local exhibition center, and it was during the time we had a local hockey team stationed there every Wednesday. (For those that know me, yes, there was minor league hockey in Texas...) The interesting thing about the acquisition however, is that I had to wait until Christmas for a Gameboy Color - so I ended up getting the game first.

I think this was also the era of Burger King toys centered around the franchise.

[SilverJakler]

I believe it was the anime when I was only like 3 years old. I always wanted to get the games because I knew they were out there, but never knew what they were called... beside Pokemon of course :L

My first official game was Ruby right after it came out, when I was 7 I think. My mom had gotten it for me because she knew I loved Pokemon, and it just so happened to be the newest one. The rest is history.

[Ojama Yellow]

a pokemon card that had a seedot on it that only knew surprise attack

ah

the good ol times

me becoming a nuzlocker was destiny it seems

[Vinny]

The first time I encountered an actual pokémon in the forum was when I saw Bibs posting in a topic and he was called Bibar...

oh wait that's not what this about

I'm not sure when was my first contact with the Pokémon franchise, but my brother was a huge fan of the 1st season of the anime, so that's probably where I first saw it. I do remember watching episodes of it with him, in fact.

[DiLimiter]

Yeesh, it's been a long time since then (about thirteen or fourteen years or so), but my first experience with Pokemon was playing the original Blue version on my Gameboy when I was about four or so. To top it all off, I even had one of those specially designed Gameboys that had a Pokemon design on it. It had a Pokeball where the power light was and the center of the Pokeball would turn red whenever you turned it on. I still have the damn thing too and I'm pretty sure it still works.

Not my picture, but it looks like this:

Edited June 20, 2016 by DiLimiter

[Deleted User]

5 years old, some kid was going around the neighborhood on his bike selling cards, I bought a Cubone card for like a quarter because I liked it.

[Honchy]

I learned about Pokemon through my big brother, who gave me a pokemon ranger game. It was magical!

Eventually, I fell in love with Pokemon, and branched into different games, where then I got Pokemon HG, and encountered my first partner, Cyndaquil

[YoshiofRedemption]

I don't remember which came first for me-getting Pokemon Silver for the Game Boy Color and seeing Lugia on the cartridge, or getting a Pikachu plush from a lady who ran my elementary school's after school care program. Either way, I was hooked from then.

[guy who doesn't post]

I don't even remember. I think by parents bought me a copy of Pokemon Sapphire when I was much younger. Or maybe it was one of the N64 games. I'm not even sure where I started.

[YinYang9705]

Honestly, I don't remember the 1st time I've encountered pokemon, however if I had to guess I'd say it was ether the anime or my old summer camp.

[ZEL]

When I was still a little kid, kindergarten age, Pokémon was very popular here, and even though I didn't have either of the games, and didn't get to watch the anime, I knew several 'mons by their names, and even owned a few cards that I got from other kids through various trades or as gifts.

I don't remember all this stuff very clearly any more because I was what, 4? must have been 4 or 5, considering release dates

But I loved birds so much and thought that Pidgeotto was the coolest ever! Funny, how I knew barely anything about Pokémon, but I obsessively kept every Pidgeotto-related things I got. The TCG card, a birthday invitation from a friend that had a picture of Pidgeotto printed on it, one of these sets of "tattoos" that you put on yourself with a bit of water... I also had figurines of Pidgey and Pidgeot. Just not Pidgeotto.

I dunno, I just really really liked this pretty bird.

I also remember having a holo card of Zapdos, and I loved that one, too. My mom gave my cards away at some point, but I bought another Zapdos one off a flea market at one point, just because I wanted to have one again.

Edited June 21, 2016 by Ama