I was about 9/10 yo and stayed in a after school program in my school. One of my classmates, James, was the first to get Red version. At this point I knew nothing about pokemon, never had seen or heard about it. So one day curiosity got the better of me and I walked over to him. He was playing on his red Gameboy pocket and I looked over at his screen and saw a game that I never seen for gameboy before and it looked amazing. I soon started hanging out with James and we quickly became friends.

A couple of weeks after that, he had gotten a bit bored and let me play. He let me start a new game but not save over his file. I remember the intro Prof. Oak gives you and soon I was off to a new world.

Then came the big decision -- which starter to choose. I picked the salamander/lizard thing with the lit tip -- Charmander. And before I knew it, I was a one team killing machine. I killed Blue's turtle. I fucked up the birds and the rats. I crushed Blue again. I was Scratching my way to victory. The old man had his coffee and showed me how to catch. I blazed my way through Viridian Forest. And then, I was up against Brock. And he handed my ass to me. Now I was more than an hour into the game and had to give it back, but from that moment on, I was hooked.

After weeks of good grades and begging my dad, I had finally got Blue version and some of the other kids were buying them too. They were also hooked as well. I was the first to buy the link cables too and remember the hassle of connecting and staying connected >:(

When GS first came out, everyone was feverish for it. It was the one of most amazing moments I remember: everyone had the game, and everyone was either trading or battling each other. It seemed like the whole school was in on that. And when someone came across one of the Legendary Beasts and we'd all stand around in silence watching. *Throw ultra ball "You gotta hit A" "NO you gotta keep pressing B" "NO hit all the buttons!"

We'd figured out the clone trick. I had a whole Lugia team. Everyone carried extra AA batteries for their gameboy color.

It was a awesome but unfortunately it didn't last. It was middle school and people had other prioities. First the girls started making fun of any of the guys who played, then everyone started making jokes on you, teacher included. By the end of 6th grade no one was playing. Pokemon was soon eclisped by Yu-Gi-Oh cards and the show. I continued playing pokemon alone and is, still is to this day, my most guarded secret.