What was it like being a Pokemon fan in the late 90's- early 2000s?

[Zerxen]

In other words, what was the first few generations of the series like for a fan? The competitive aspect of it?

[Ansem]

i remember pokemon gsc being kinda big when i was in elementary school. we'd talk about it all the time and share fake rumors. i still remember my friend telling me that the rivals name was flower, and that i started a new game just so my rival had the "correct name". 

never really cared much for the competitive aspect of things under diamond/pearl came out. my friend had a dragonite with higher speed than my dragonite and would one shot mine with outrage and continue to murder all of my other pokemon. so i tried my hand at iv training(i think thats what you call it) so i could have a dragon type faster than his. 

[Captain Karnage]

Eben to this day I've never cared about competitive battling. I've always just enjoyed these games by trying to collect 1 of each pokemon, nothing much else.

 

I don't even take competitive battling seriously, I don't see why people try to make it out as an example sport.

[King Marth 64]

Unfortunately, Pokemon Platium was my first Pokemon game that I played. I know that game was released in 2009, I can't count that as early 2000s since 2009 is part of the late 2000s.

[Rezzy]

Oh, you want to know about the olden times?  I was already almost a teenager by the time Pokemon came out.  Competitive battling wasn't really a big thing, since there was no online, and you could only play against your friends with a link cable.  Psychic types, and especially Mewtwo dominated the Meta, if you could call it that.

[Acacia Sgt]

I can't say I ever really got into the competitive stuff.

Back then I didn't knew people to trade/battle with, only until Gen III. So the first two Gens was simply just playing on my own. And to be honest, back in the first generation I had more interest in just watching the anime than playing the games.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Ha! Two words, Pokemon Stadium. Playing Pokemon on the TV screen so we can watch each other fight the Elite Four or Red. Importing our team into the game was fun, but level restrictions were very limiting. And the minigames entertained for hours. Most of our time playing the actual pokemon games were in solitude. Nobody had a link cable, and the one kid I knew that did only had a GBA one, and I still had my blue-green GBC. I remember a few battles, but with no level or legendary restrictions we had significant difficulty making up fair fights. Most direct multiplayer came from Pokemon Stadium battles with Rentals, or occasional trades with link cables. We wanted to complete the pokedex, but I never met anybody that had at the time.

Regarding the TCG, we all collected but had no idea how to play. The TCG video game was really cool though and a lot of my friends borrowed my copy. I highly recommend downloading that on the 3DS VC. The pokemon cartoon was really good. As grade schoolers, there wasn't a dry eye on the monday morning after Bye Bye Butterfree. And when the Indigo Cup episodes hit VHS, we were all trying to rent them out to watch again. A lot of us stopped watching during Orange Islands and Johto. 3rd Gen I skipped due to lack of GBA and most of my friends growing out of pokemon, but I did get a taste of it and double battling with Colosseum and Gale of Darkness on the gamecube. 4th Gen I skipped as well, Battle Revolution for Wii was a monumental disappointment, as I was expecting key features from Stadium like handheld game on the TV, minigames, etc. When Black and White hit all of us in high school were suddenly back in, and we never really left since.

 

 

[Jedi]

I'd get up every morning before school to watch the anime, we'd link battle at recess, there wasn't a super hardcore meta among those of us still like 6/7/8 at the time, but it was fun to just fight with our favorite pokemon. Persian was funny back then because of how crits were calculated, but I didn't know why. I just knew it crit alot, but yeah back in Gen 1, Psychic & Normal type were the kings.

Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Stadium were always a fun time, asking your parents to go to the Pokemon movies in theaters. 

My parents even got into Pokemon for a bit, because they had gotten me into so many games, it was my turn to return the favor finally :P. 

Pokemon Gen 2 was a new adventure, it was so exciting to see a new region, new pokemon. I still remember the day my parents got me Silver for my Birthday and the tune of Cherrygrove City as well. 

Oh yes also collecting the Trading Cards, everyone, and their grandmother wanted a Charizard card, it was the "You're awesome if you have this".

Edited March 4, 2017 by Jedi

[Shin]

Competitive battling consisted of the same dozen or so pokemon, Tauros actually used to be good. I still remember catching all 151 Pokemon about a month before Gold and Silver came out, finding out there were another 100 to go was rather demotivating!

[Trymer]

To me prior to Gen III nobody even did competetive battling in our neighbourhood.

everyone did all the collecting and trading was a big thing, but not so much battling.
In gen III that changed with the battle tower after the game had ended, grinding your pokemon to level 100 now actually meant something more than just bragging rights.

and with the GBA Advance wireless link thingy it became less of a hassle to link up and trade or fight, so it happened more often at school.

 

as for the TCG, everyone collected the cards, every kid would have them and several kinds of games with cards would be played on the schoolyard to "win" more cards of off other kids, like with marbles. Throwing a card closest to the wall without touching the wall and having bets and all that stuff. but not the actual card game. energy cards were deemed as waste and were more often than not the cards that were used for throwing, tricks and other games involving betting cards.

 

and then there was me, That one kid who had them all neatly arranged in a binder with the mentality of "look and flip only, but don't pull them out, ever, unless it's an up-trade".
Same rules apply to me to this day, all my TCG cards (Pokemon, MTG, FE Cipher) are neatly in binders to sit and look pretty. although I do have an actual playing deck for MTG and Pokemon now, which I do occasionally use as well ;)

 

edit: oh and every morning getting up at 6 am to watch Pokemon off course. #Worth

Edited March 4, 2017 by Trymer

[Rezzy]

1 hour ago, Trymer said:

To me prior to Gen III nobody even did competetive battling in our neighbourhood.

everyone did all the collecting and trading was a big thing, but not so much battling.
In gen III that changed with the battle tower after the game had ended, grinding your pokemon to level 100 now actually meant something more than just bragging rights.

and with the GBA Advance wireless link thingy it became less of a hassle to link up and trade or fight, so it happened more often at school.

 

as for the TCG, everyone collected the cards, every kid would have them and several kinds of games with cards would be played on the schoolyard to "win" more cards of off other kids, like with marbles. Throwing a card closest to the wall without touching the wall and having bets and all that stuff. but not the actual card game. energy cards were deemed as waste and were more often than not the cards that were used for throwing, tricks and other games involving betting cards.

 

and then there was me, That one kid who had them all neatly arranged in a binder with the mentality of "look and flip only, but don't pull them out, ever, unless it's an up-trade".
Same rules apply to me to this day, all my TCG cards (Pokemon, MTG, FE Cipher) are neatly in binders to sit and look pretty. although I do have an actual playing deck for MTG and Pokemon now, which I do occasionally use as well ;)

 

edit: oh and every morning getting up at 6 am to watch Pokemon off course. #Worth

I collected the cards, but hardly ever played.  I played with my sister a few times, but we mostly just collected them, sort of like Beanie Babies.

Everyone collected Beanie Babies in the 90s, but hardly anybody battled them competitively.  Beanie Babies had a hard life.  That's why they retired them so soon.

[Trymer]

1 minute ago, Rezzy said:

I collected the cards, but hardly ever played.  I played with my sister a few times, but we mostly just collected them, sort of like Beanie Babies.

Everyone collected Beanie Babies in the 90s, but hardly anybody battled them competitively.  Beanie Babies had a hard life.  That's why they retired them so soon.

we didn't even have beanie babies in Europe, we were all on that Tamagotchi hype train late 90's though.
but sadly I'm not old enough to recall memories of early 90's, being born in 1993 myself.

[Punished Dayni]

5 hours ago, Rezzy said:

we mostly just collected them, sort of like Beanie Babies

Jeez, my sister did collect those (I know we still have some lying around in the house, like the skunk).

Yeah no, no big competitive memories from me either. Even with how sketchy my childhood memories are, I wouldn't have been interacting much with other kids and competing against them for a variety of reasons. Would have played the games a good bit early on, both first and second gen (though I'm certain I overwrote at least one of my brother's playthroughs for Red (Then again, he actually finished the Dex barring Celebi in G2))

I still remember where I watched the first episode of the anime, and managing to get until Jhoto around the time Charizard left.

Honestly, you're more likely to get an answer on the competitive side of things back then from a pokemon community.

[Captain Karnage]

9 hours ago, Rezzy said:

I collected the cards, but hardly ever played.  I played with my sister a few times, but we mostly just collected them, sort of like Beanie Babies.

Everyone collected Beanie Babies in the 90s, but hardly anybody battled them competitively.  Beanie Babies had a hard life.  That's why they retired them so soon.

don't they still make beanie babies, I remember being able to buy them back in the early 2000's

[Rezzy]

6 hours ago, Captain Karnage said:

don't they still make beanie babies, I remember being able to buy them back in the early 2000's

I think so, but they aren't ad ubiquitous as they used to be.

[Anacybele]

Even though I was turning...7, I think? When Pokemon first came out in the US, I never got one of the games, sadly. My brothers did though, and I remember them playing together a lot and occasionally letting me try a battle. We all collected Pokemon cards and watched the anime though, and played Stadium 2 (we never had the first Stadium game). Snap was my favorite to play though, I loved taking pictures of Pokemon. :P

My brothers got Gold and Silver as well, and again, I didn't get a game, even though I wanted one. I think my parents couldn't afford it at the time though. They were raising four kids, one being an infant/toddler at the time, so...

So most of my memories of Pokemon back then involve the anime or card game... I remember how awesome it was to pull a rare holographic card! Though the only one I ever got was Scyther. xP But I was still super happy when I pulled a Rapidash one day! It was just an uncommon card, not a rare, but Rapidash was my favorite Pokemon back then and still is a top favorite now. :)

Edited March 5, 2017 by Anacybele

[Cute Chao]

17 hours ago, Trymer said:

we didn't even have beanie babies in Europe, we were all on that Tamagotchi hype train late 90's though.
but sadly I'm not old enough to recall memories of early 90's, being born in 1993 myself.

Europe might not have had them but the UK did. Still got 100s of them myself xD 

I don't remember what the scene was like when it came out... Some kids played pokemon but the main focus was on the cards... and then it was on the collection. I remember a girl got a Charizard card at school and gave away the rest of them. Kids were chasing her around for free cards - madness. Other than that... I don't really remember there being much going on at my school ^.^''

[Spoiler Alert]

*old person voice*  "The first days of Pokemon.  Ah, that takes me back."  *lol*

This post is long so I'm going to spoiler tag it so it's not such an eyesore.

Spoiler

I was 7 around the time it came out.  Pokemon was a breakout hit in the early days.  You couldn’t really go anywhere without being hit in the face with Pokemon advertising.  Some news stations had broadcasts discussing it’s explosive popularity with kids.  It got big enough that some schools banned Pokemon themed merchandise because it was a distraction to kids.  I went to one of those schools and just about everyone knew about it, but some kids tried to be little snots about it and claimed it was for "babies”.  

I remember being so proud of my Pokemon t-shirt and begging my Mom to take me to see Mewtwo Strikes Back.  (She utterly hated that movie and won’t let me forget about her 90 minutes of suffering to this present day.)  I still have a “Kids WB” Dragonite from that movie.  Also Burger King had a promotion at some point as well where they handed out movie-themed cards.  Then there were these things called “Pokeroms”, which were Pokemon-themed educational games on computer.  I don’t remember how those were sold but for some reason I have one.  

Oh yeah, there was also Pokemon Snap and “Hey you, Pikachu”.  I never really cared for Pokemon Stadium.  Pokemon Yellow related more with the anime because you had a Pikachu that could follow you around like it did Ash.

I don’t really remember things "calming down" until about after the release of Gold and Silver, later Crystal.  Although, Crystal was pretty cool because it was the first Pokemon game where you could choose your gender.

You had new Pokemon, which was exciting, but I don’t really remember the hype being the same as it was after Pokemon’s initial premiere.  I think the movie, The Power of One, had limited theater showings because I remember someone talking about the Ancient Mew card at work yesterday.  However, I only remember the home release.  Of course my classmates and myself were also excited for the “Lugia movie” back then.

The only big thing I remember about gen 3 were the commercials for it.  There was also the release of Pokemon Colosseum, which I thought was a big deal because it was the first Pokemon game where you technically stole Pokemon. *gasp*  It was okay because you were the good guy trying to save them, for what that was worth.  Pokemon Colosseum pre-order release included a bonus disc with Jirachi on it and a trailer for Jirachi the Wish Maker movie.

The cards were as popular as one would expect.  I remember some kids going crazy over seeing someone else’s holographic card collection, and the oh-so sought after holo Charizard.

I don’t know much about competitive Pokemon either.  I stayed away from it ever since one of my friends stomped me during a link battle.  With natures, IV, and EV stats joining the mix at Gen 3-4, there’s no way I’d stand a chance.  I decided I just play for fun and not min-maxing.

 

That's all I can think of to keep things brief.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Spoiler Alert
Format

[Nobody]

I got into pokemon in 99 with yellow. Pokemon was everywhere. There was pokemon merchandise in everything, and all the kids would watch the cartoon, with a lot of them also having the games. I was quite young, though (only 5 year old in 99), so I wouldn't take my GBC to school, neither would the other kids. I mostly traded and battled with my neighbors. Link Cables were a pain in the ass, I definitely don't miss them.

As far as I know, competitive pokemon was basically non-existent back then. You'd just battle other kids with your ingame team or something. I think that competitive pokemon only really got stronger in gen III, even if gen II also had a competitive scene. Gen I was just too broken lol.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Nobody

[Reality]

Competitive pokemon did not take off until 3rd gen, and even then I think Netbattle's role in developing the meta is kind of overstated by most people- netbatle era GSC for example, had stuff like SD tentacruel and growth sweepers didn't exist- Netbattle did achieve a semi-modern version of the advance metagame though- 

The "RBY and GSC" metas were created retroactively in general, just like  competitive smash n64 only developed after Melee attained popularity, few gave them the attention until the main competitive force of gen4 (and shoddy battle) arrived, which was when the past gens room and later ruins of alph subroom led to sinifigant development. I don't know where all these people claiming "I knew about no recharge hyper beam as a kid" are coming from. As for GSC, it requires pokemon stadium 2 or trading between 2 cartridges over multiple file restarts to get around the one time use tms for rest and sleeptalk. For this reason, I seriously doubt people's claims to have played GSC competitively pre-simulator.  Of course even the casual early players could recognize the best mons, but not stuff like the importance of thunderwave(for RBY) or hazard control.

2007 mostly changed that.

https://pokemonlab.com/history

As for me, I treated pokemon as a casual game until 4th gen, when I entered the wifi tower on a whim. In the first, and only match Some japanese guy came at with choice scarf togekiss which flinched my team to death. In retribution I looked up everything I could find and started playing on shoddy battle. I have remained with simulator play ever since. 

As far as the 90s and 2000s - Where I grew up Yu Gi OH seemed to have more of a following than pokemon tbh- I do remember a kid with a gameshark who got surf onto one of my pokemon in red when I was visiting Churchill Downs of all places. I could play with family members, but most of them didn't even train their pokemon to level 100 or used any non attacking moves.... We got some kicks out of rental matches in pokemon stadium but I overwhelmingly won them, so we switched to the minigames, and then to mario party outright. I did watch tons of the season 1 anime via VHS, but not actually on the network that much. I would not meet many people in my area in the years after, and the ones I did make me wince (saying stuff like steel is immune t0 electric or bragging abbout a "pro strategy" that is easy to wall, or worst of all playing without held items. UGH. 

[Espinosa]

I used to play competitive GSC with the help of irc bots as a kid. I couldn't play well at all. 

[Nobody]

21 hours ago, Reality said:

I don't know where all these people claiming "I knew about no recharge hyper beam as a kid" are coming from.

I mean, that's not something you need to play competively to pick up. You just needed to use that move relatively often. Actually, i think i realized that due to lance killing my pokemon and moving again.

also, it's not like kids wouldn't spread that sort of thing to their friends.

[Water Mage]

Ah, the old Pokemon days. During that time, the entire world talked about Pokemon. Parents and teachers didn't know how to deal with this new obsession the kids had. Everyone stopped everything to watch a new episode. Kids cried when lost the league. And there the lines to buy new games.

And of course, there was the rumors! Pikablu, Bill's secret garden, Mew being under the truck, Missigno and who can forget holding down B and the down on the control pad when throwing a Pokeball?

The internet didn't quite have the amount of information we have today, so there were a lot of rumors.

[JJ48]

Bah!  You kids today with your Wi-fis and your Global Trade Systemses!  It's made you soft!

Why, back in my day, if we wanted to trade or battle, we'd have to walk fifteen miles through six feet of snow -- uphill -- to our friend's house!  And when we got there, his parents would tell us he was sick and couldn't play that day, so we'd have to walk even further to our next friend's house!  But did we complain?  Not unless we wanted a whoopin'!  And of course, there was none of this mamby pamby wireless you kids today have.  We had to use real, physical cables!  And just when we'd gotten all set up to trade, we'd discover that the cable didn't work because the dog had chewed on it, so we and our friend would have to walk all the way back to our own house (uphill again, because we didn't brook no mollycoddling in those days!) to get our own cable.

And just as we'd gotten all set up again, the battery would start to die in one Game Boy or the other, and we'd start looking for some new AA batteries (none of this "rechargeable" nonsense in those days; no sir!).  About that time Dad would come in and start yelling about how we were using up all the batteries all the time to play a game about wandering outdoors instead of actually going outdoors, and if we were really that interested in fighting evil organizations as 10-year-olds, there were plenty of real-life ones that could be taken down, and we should take the dog with us because it really needed a walk and hadn't we promised to take care of it when he got it for us?

So, we'd put the dog on a leash and head out (because you didn't talk back to Dad in those days) and began searching for evil organizations.  Of course, we had no idea where to even begin looking and we never found any anyway, so we'd usually just wander around until we collapsed from exhaustion and exposure!  We were really lucky if it happened on a Friday afternoon, so we could at least spend the weekend in the hospital.  If it happened during the week, we were just, plain out of luck because there was no way we were getting time off from school just for a little hypothermia or frostbite.  And we liked it that way!  It built character!

[Skynstein]

One of the most awesomest periods in the history of mankind, Pokémon was everywhere, it was the coolest thing and I loved it, I ran through batteries in my GBC faster than anyone due to how much I played.

You ask of competitive, well here was GSbot, which was a mIRC-based thingie where all the pros were, and there was Netbattle, the precursor to Showdown, a much more refined app but also more n00b-friendly so you'd often see people using Mewtwos and Lugias and whatnot. Netbattle had its own forum.

But really, the scene was cooler than today in its own way, Pokémon websites were numerous and each specialized in its own thing, the odd one still exists today but most have vanished. I used to be a lurker at Gengar and Haunter's Pokémon Dungeon, which had the (self-proclaimed) best online Pokédex, nowadays all those websites are unnecessary since Bulbapedia exists as the main source of information and Smogon has its own calculator.

There were no (official) tiers, and people simply weren't ban happy, otherwise Snorlax would've been banned in GSC as it was the main offensive force and it was very difficult to take down. Generally, bans were agreed on a match to match basis, as you could put a message in your Netbattle profile so others would know you didn't want to play Ubers, for example. However, Netbattle did have plenty of settings that would make their way into Showdown, such as OHKO bans (which were created by the community, not by Nintendo) and the standardization of sleep/freeze clause in 6vs6 (the rule was originally intended for 3vs3 only). Matches took longer and were more "chess-like" because there weren't things like Choice Bands so it was much more difficult to punch through walls and stuff. People tried all sorts of things, like Baton Passing boosts to Tyranitar and Marowak, but ultimately the defensive Pokémon were the best ones.

The metagame certainly wasn't very developed, but how could it be? There was no central "authority" on it and the game simply wasn't very complex. The reason competitive took off after 3rd gen was only because Gamefreak made the game more suited to it, with the advent of EVs and new items.

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by Cerberus87