A Love Letter to Old School Pokémon

Log written: August 9, 2026

I planned to make this a video around 4-5 years ago after my Love Letter to RuneScape Classic video, but it just never worked out. I made the intro which I still like, so I’ll share it below.

Whispers

Everything that can be said about Pokémon has been said 1000 times. I won’t bore you with the same facts about the series, just my own experiences.

It was 1999 and whispers of something really cool called Pokémon were beginning to take over the playground. The idea of capturing monsters and taking them with you was something I’d never heard of before. It sounded really fun. Over here, it started off with the anime which premiered on Sky One. The show really caught my attention and I couldn’t stop watching it. I recall being a bit confused because most people only started talking about it after a few episodes, so most people came in 4-5 episodes in, but it didn’t matter too much, it was easy to understand what was going on after a couple of shows. It wasn’t long before you started seeing Pikachus and other merch in the shops, in fact it didn’t take long for it to EVERYWHERE.

Trading Cards Appear

By the time I entered Year 5 (5th Grade) in September, everything had changed over the summer holidays (July – August). Everyone, and I mean, everyone, had these trading cards with Pokémon on them. Until then, I’d never seen a trading card, apart from some of those small vintage cigar/matchbox cards my Dad once shown me. This because the school currency immediately and if you didn’t have any cards, it was as if you didn’t exist.

Getting these for £1 each was such a rush as a kid.

Under absolutely no circumstances would anyone actually play the game as it was intended, it was far too confusing and not worth the effort learning it. The real fun was in trading them with your friends and seeing what hits you’d get. I still remember going to the corner shop down the street from my school on a regular basis and purchasing a pack for £1. The absolute best hit I got was a Venusaur “shiny” (The old name for holos), which blew everyone’s minds because nobody had gotten him yet. It was really exciting watching friends open packs, and usually they’d get nothing but once in a blue moon they’d pull an absolute monster card and cause a frenzy. Back then, you’d never get a guaranteed shiny/holo.

One funny thing I do remember were how we treated people trying to trade fake cards. Suddenly, everyone was a pro detective and if you were caught trying to trade fakes, you’d have a REALLY bad time and get essentially blackballed from trading 🤣 brutal.

Red and Blue

September was intense, it was all about the card game, but then out of nowhere a month later… it arrived.

People suddenly had Game Boys, and were playing Pokémon Red and Blue. Nobody really understood the difference between them, and in my experience most people tended to have the Red version. One of my next door neighbours Nick suddenly had it, and I was in awe watching him play it. He said he’d lend me it to try. So, I did what any normal kid would do, I clicked New Game (Uh oh) and explored Pallet Town for the first time. It was amazing, it hooked me immediately. I saved my progress and told my parents I needed Pokémon Red. Luckily I had a Game Boy already, because I played a lot of Mario Deluxe and James Bond. For whatever reason, likely because Pokémon was putting a black hole in their bank account, they didn’t get me it. I gave the game back to Nick who was horrified to see that I had erased all his progress and replaced it with new save and a poorly levelled Charmander. I had never seen Nick angry before, but he was PISSED at me for a long time.

I went a little while without the game, until a boy in the year below me called Oliver said he’d trade me for it. Now… looking back, this was a great deal at the time but a terrible deal for the future. I traded his Pokémon Red for £4 and I’m pretty sure my only Charizard card, which is worth a small fortune now no doubt. I booted it up and continued the save, having too much PTSD from erasing past saves. To my amazement, he hadn’t even left Pallet Town but he had chosen a Squirtle which he named “OLIVER!”. To say I was hooked would be an understatement, I went through batteries like they were hot dinners. I took my Game Boy everywhere with me, I recall going to the doctors with my Dad and getting OLIVER! to LVL 100, which I grinded for weeks.

While walking around an indoor market/car boot sale sort of stand, I noticed Pokémon Blue which was just a cartridge and very cheap. I convinced my Dad to get it, and when we got home, it worked perfectly. Sadly, I later found out that I had the NTSC version which caused it to erase my save files. While doing a bit of research for this log, I found out that NTSC games should work perfectly fine on PAL Game Boys? So I probably have a dodgy bootleg version 😱

Rumours

Back then, nobody really knew about hidden secrets in the game, but there were rumours. The infamous Mew under a truck one made it to our school because of me. I saw the rumour online on Outlook Express 5 Newsgroups in 2000 😂 I only spread it to look “cool”. I remember one day in particular where Chris K shouted everyone over telling us he’s found a Pokémon that he’s never seen before. Nobody believed him, until they saw Moltres for the first time. This was like breaking news in the school and everyone gathered around watching him throw endless pokéballs at him with no luck. In the end, he caught him to the cheer of the group, but this set everyone off in searches of other rare Pokémon in the game.

A newsgroup post I made in 2000 to spread the Mew under a truck rumour 😀

No Longer a Fad

Because people played Red/Blue to death, Yellow wasn’t that popular but people still played it. During that time, a new wave of trading cards came out. I still remember it very vividly when the first kids had Fossil and Jungle cards suddenly, they said they got them while on holiday and people were swarming them. They were trading ANYTHING, their rarest cards, for even basic Jungle/Rocket cards. Looking back, this had such a stock exchange vibe.

As soon as people got wind that abroad had newer cards, and that kids wanted them, you’d see the most random shops sell them. My Nan, who was a secretary to a private detective even sold them in their shop after her boss bought a ton while on holiday (How random is that?!). It was such a craze, even Japanese cards started making their way onto the market. I brought my cards with me everywhere, and even started trading them with random kids while out for meals with my parents. I still have my Japanese Togetic from trading it in the Four Topped Oak!

Traded this in the carpark of a pub like some sort of dodgy interaction.

In the anime, Ash was now in the Indigo Plateu and people were basically cheering him on in school. I decided to make a webpage for people so I could share what I saw online as “sports commentary” I guess? 🤣 I still have the page, you can see it here.

Gold and Silver

As things began to settle, things rebounded almost immediately. I remember being the first one in school to find a Japanese website which shown new Pokémon such as Hoothoot and “Pikablu” (Marill). Everyone went apeshit, and then we got word that Gold and Silver were coming. Team Rocket cards started appearing around this time too, and the merch machine was at its maximum.

Other than Togepi and Ho-Oh, these were the first glimpses for quite some time into Gen 2 and everyone went nuts when they saw them.

The rumours were true, and Gold/Silver came out just after I went to secondary school.

Uncool

To say there was a seismic shift between primary and secondary would be a massive understatement. It was brutal, people loved it but it was “uncool” to show your love for Pokémon. I remember trying to trade with some other kids and a couple of older kids grabbed my deck of cards and tried to steal them. I don’t think I’ve ever had more strength in my grip than that moment, and thankfully I kept hold of them and walked away. Other than my friend Adrian (Who came over with me from primary school), I didn’t really have many people to share my love of Pokémon with anymore. It was a lot of fun playing Gold/Silver, and me/Adrian traded, borrowed games and he even gave me a promotional Ancient Mew which I’ve still got to this day. I still think it’s the coolest looking card.

I think my younger self might’ve overpowered this Mew?

As the years went by and my friend group dwindled, I just played Pokémon Gold myself and trained my entire team up to LVL 100 which was so much fun. I think I got about 15-20 to LVL 100, mostly training in Mt Silver and the League. Unfortunately, all my games died at the exact same time because the batteries in the cartridges had died. This killed my love for Pokémon overnight for quite some time. I basically shelved it and distanced myself from it entirely.

I can’t express how sad I was to see this screen after spending thousands of hours getting all my Pokémon from my childhood to LVL 100. Now I know how Nick felt.

I still have a lot of love for old school Pokémon, I love it. I can now appreciate Gen 3 as opposed to back then in my secondary school years. No later games have captured the same feelings as I had back then, but that’s expected right? As a kid I obsessed over the games, cards and shows, but it wasn’t just me, it was a totally new thing to me and all my friends which made it extra special.