My complete history with the Pokemon franchise

I was first introduced to Pokémon in 1999 when I was seven years old. I remember collecting the trading cards and swapping them with my friends. I also remember the fights that broke out over these trades. These were often caused by a bad deal or someone refusing to trade that one monster you needed. While I never had a Gameboy, I remember classmates playing these games nonstop, trading their little pocket monsters with the link cable. Then deciding the trade was unfair causing the whole thing to escalate into a fight that teachers would have to break up. This led to an inevitable schoolwide ban on everything Pokémon. This ban never really worked, as Pokémon became a red-hot underground commodity. Kids would hide under the playground equipment to trade cards or in-game pokemon without being spotted by the teachers.

I played my first Pokémon game as a teenager. I saved money from my paper route and brought myself a preowned Nintendo DS system with Pokémon Pearl. My love for Piplup, whom I choose to be my first-ever starter, remains to this day. I then played every game after Pearl up to Black and White. Between mainline releases, I also brought myself a Gameboy colour which I used to play Pokémon Yellow and Silver. At 19, I sold my entire collection to raise money and used that money to move out of my hometown. I’ll be honest I didn’t touch the Pokémon games again until I got my Switch for Christmas in 2018. I was underwhelmed with Let’s Go and again didn’t touch the franchise until this year (2022). I played Sword and Shield and fell back in love with the series. Since then, I’ve played Red, Silver, Ruby, Go, Let’s Go Eevee, New Snap, Brilliant Diamond and Legends Aercus. Scarlet and Violet are brand new, but I’m playing through my copy of Violet alongside my wife, who’s playing Scarlet. I’ve also started watching the anime again; as of now (November 2022), I’m still on the Indigo league.

So yeah, that’s my complete history with the Pokémon franchise. I wanted to write this to complement an upcoming essay I'm writing