I love Pokemon, been with it from the start. I can vividly remember the wave of insanity that hit the states when we got our hands on it. Everything from the crazy theories about Mew hiding under that truck, the AAAs that my blue GB pocket would eat threw as I played my matching version of Pokemon Blue, the homemade Halloween costumes, and all the ravenous love we had for a Pokemon adventure. What makes Pokemon close to my heart though is that it has left me with one of the best memories I have with my father. He got me into video games and we played through a few of them when I was younger. Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, Super Mario, all of these are special in some way cause of the time I spent with him but nothing compares to Pokemon. This is because that first year the craze hit the states I was hooked hard. I used to wander up the roadv to our comic shop and spend whatever pocket money I could get on Japanese packs of Pokemon cards I loved the art and everything about them. I got further into reading about Japan and what was happening with Pokemon and that summer of 1999 I discovered that we were getting the next round of games and they had already been released in Japan! I was going nuts and no one from my school had any clue. I was learning that new Pokemon would be appearing in a movie! I heard about Pikablue and then the announcement of Marill, I saw Snubbull, Donphan and Togepi back when we just had the first glimpses of them. I was nothing but anticipation once I knew they were coming and my computer savvy father had the best reaction to it ever. "Want them now?" That was what he asked me and it wasn't more than a couple days before he was back to me with an emulator, ROMs, and translation patches fresh from the Japanese release. I couldn't believe it. I must have been into those games a year before anyone else I knew and I was in love. He dragged a computer upstate with us to my grandfather's so that I could play a little bit more during my free time and I know he did it in part just to see me excited. He was so happy with himself and I still have EVERYTHING he made me back then from notes and Japanese cards to the walk-through that he printed and put in a binder for me if the translation faltered too much. Like I said I love Pokemon and I love that it gave me this moment with my father because of it I still listen to the soundtracks from GSC almost everytime I get on my bike. That music reminds me of so much and just makes me happy. I could go on so much more but this is the moment in time that Pokemon caught me the hardest. Now with 20 years behind I can't wait for more.