What is your earliest memory of Pokémon?
Mine was being in an after school program in 98 when I was 6 and seeing some kid play Pokémon blue on a game boy and I asked him who that was. I asked if it was Mario and he said no it was Ash. Then I think the mania hit and the rest was histo
You have a token coming your way for most threads started in a month time span
What do you mean? Sorry if I’m spamming lol. I just like to talk Pokémon 
Honestly, I don’t even remember a time before pokemon. It’s just always been in my life.
Heard about it from some kids in third grade. Then I remember putting on the anime one morning and it was the episode where Ash takes on Sabrina and Haunter comes in.
A few days later, I was the proud owner of Pokemon Red (initially wanted Blue but The Wiz was out of it).
Yeah blue was sold out everywhere for some reason. Red was the less popular version
To this day, Blue has sold more copies. Pretty crazy considering Red is obviously the more valuable version sealed because of Charizard.
Just goes to show that back then, the gap between most popular Pokemon was MUCH smaller than it is today. Kids just wanted to play the game.
I am a bit too young to be apart of the late 90s mania so it’s kind of always been around for me.
That being said my earliest Pokémon memory would likely have been going to blockbuster on a Friday night with the family (circa 2002) and renting Pokémon the first movie.
Didn’t get into the cards and games until ex era/gen 3
Kid in the after school program showed me the cards he got from his starter deck, saw this and I’ve been hooked ever since:
My earliest memory of Pokemon was in the third grade. One of my best friends was getting into it and had gotten a starter deck of cards. He wanted me to get into it too and gave me a shadowless charmander and charmeleon to hang on to. Then he took me to go hang out with the other kids that were into it already and they told me that I couldn’t hang out with them unless I actually owned cards. My friend stepped in and said I was cool because he had given me two cards and they immediately eased up. I really had no idea what was going on with Pokemon but I eventually started watching the anime and the rest is history.
Your friend had your back
I remember getting the Pokémon VHS tape that came included with Nintendo Power. I remember watching that tape thinking “What in the heck is this??” But it convinced me enough to ask for Pokémon Red for Christmas.
Love the username lol
I know I had to have watched some of the anime before I play Ruby/Sapphire. But honestly I can’t remember much besides an occasional orange island episode. Or that could’ve been after I played the games. Not sure. I apparently didn’t watch that much tv as a kid. So my earliest memory will have to be playing gen 3 when I was gifted a gameboy by a friend.
The next topic will be: Earliest memory of taking a dump whilst on your Game Boy?
I’ve shared these pictures before. When I was doing one of my first professional shows, as a kid, the dance captain gave all the kids JP city gym decks. I still have that deck. the box, and the cards, and well, the rest just went from there. She gave me my first few packs, 2 rocket boosters, a neo gen, and a gym heroes pack. I didn’t even really care about english cards until later, as JP was actually easier for me to get. Fewer people wanted them, so stores were never sold out of JP Rocket or Neo gen. 
The first 2 decks I got. The first 3 holos/rares I pulled from packs (Erika’s Venu was #4, but IDK where it is…) Also why I have a fondness for Erika and Sabrina cards. They’re not my waifus. 
edit: Additionally, some of my strongest early memories include asking my friend to translate the cards she’d given us, arguing over whether Blaine’s Arcanine would kill charizard, and innocently naming my first cubone in the game “Boner”. SOLID nickname. 
4 yrs old me jumping on my parents’ bed screaming BULBASAUR BULBASAUR every morning. Lol probably was anime fault, I really can’t remember
hurting eyes under the blanket with a lamp that burned more than once the skin but GB had no light.
My older sister is an artist and she was into anime/manga at a young age and we eventually started watching the Pokemon anime on YTV in 1999. We watched it every night and usually DBZ was on after it. From there, we had a neighbor who somehow managed to get Pokemon Red & Blue onto a floppy disk. It would boot up on a PC just by inserting it. It worked flawlessly and we played it all summer pretty much. Squirtle was my starter, while my sister like Charmander. We took turns progressing through each game and played it for hours and hours.
Going back to school in the Fall, everyone had Pokemon cards on the playground. I went to a English/French school (probably 80% French) and it was kind of hard to engage in the hobby for that reason. I’d say within a couple weeks of September 1999 they started to “ban” the cards and told people to stop bringing them to the school.
That Christmas I got an N64 and that sort of took over my life. I got my first Pokemon cards in Spring of 2000 (my sister had a small collection we shared prior) and I didn’t actually get a Gameboy until late 2000 when I got a GBC with Pokemon Gold for my birthday. That was my first time actually playing a Pokemon game on a handheld. I absolutely loved it because it was such a great sequel to Red/Blue at the time.
I guess this is more of a story than a single memory, but these are my earliest memories.
