History of Pokemon (Generation 1)

Pokémon Across Japan:

Clefairy, One of the First
Pokemon Created

Pokémon started as an idea that Satoshi Tajiri wanted to base off of his favorite hobby, bug collecting. After coming up with this idea he got the help of his friend Ken Sugimori and they formed Game Freaks and a design studio called Creatures. When Tajiri saw the Game Boy and the Game Boy Link Cable he imagined the bugs traveling across the wire. Satoshi Tajiri created the game Capsule Monsters and pitched it to Nintendo, but was turned down. After other attempts were turned down he got the help of his friend Shigeru Miyamato, the creator of the Super Mario series and the Legend of Zelda series. After that Nintendo decided to fund the project.

For six years Satoshi Tajiri worked on the game and Ken Sugimori worked on the artwork. The first three Pokémon that were created were Rhyhorn, Lapras, and Clefairy. In 1995, sprites of Pikachu, Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Meowth, and Mew appeared in Game Boy Camera. They also decided to change the name of the game from Capsule Monsters to Pocket Monsters.

The first Pokemon games, Pokemon Red and Green, came out on February 27, 1996. This allowed children of all ages to catch and train the 150 different monsters that were available in the game. Shortly after Nintendo released Pokemon Blue with updated sound and graphics. Then the Pokemon Trading Card Game was created by Media Factory. It was released on October 20, 1996 and had 102 cards in its first set.

The popularity of the video game and trading card game led to an anime that came out on April 1, 1997. They named the main character of the anime Satoshi after Pokemon's creator, Satoshi Tajiri. The name was changed to Ash Ketchum in the English dub. Sathoshi's rival was named Shigeru, after Shigeru Miyamoto. In English he was named Gary Oak. Along with the anime, Pokémon also released several manga. The most popular being Pokémon Special, which was first published on August 8, 1997.

On April 25, 1998, Pokémon was able to open its own store in Tokyo. This led to other stores being open and there are now six stores in Japan. There was one in New York City, but it has since been shut down and turned into Nintendo World with a section devoted solely to Pokémon.

Pokémon Comes to America:

The United States got its first taste of Pokemon on September 7, 1998 when the first episode of the anime was dubbed into English and released. They also got Pokemon Red and Blue on September 30, 1998. With these releases they also revealed a new slogan, "Gotta Catch 'Em All!" They also released the Trading Card Game on January 9, 1999. It was created by Wizards of the Coast.

While this was going on Japan tried to release a Pokémon game on the Nintendo 64. This game was called Pokemon Stadium, but it only had 42 of the 151 original Pokémon. It was considered very unsuccessful. While this game was a huge flop, the anime was soaring to a huge success. On July 18, 1988, Pokémon: The First Movie was debuted in Japanese theaters. It was followed up with a United States release on November 10, 1999. It would hold the record shortly for highest-grossing opening for an animated film.

Soon, it was decided that they should release a game that was more closely corresponding with the anime. So, Pokémon Yellow Version was released on September 12, 1998 in Japan and October 25, 1999 in the United States. This was very similar to Red and Green/Blue except for that Pikachu is your starter and follows you around outside of his Pokéball. There were also changes to some of the gym leaders lineups and you were able to get all three original starters in the game.

On December 18, 1998, a Game Boy game based off of the Trading Card Game was created. It arrived in North America on April 10, 2000. A year later, in Japan, it was followed up with a sequel titled Pokémon Trading Card Game 2: Here Comes Team GR!. The creators realized that Pikachu was the brands most popular character and they decided to create their own game based off it called Hey You, Pikachu!. This game involved a microphone and allowed the player to interact with Pikachu through voice commands.

This is a picture of Aree and myself at Pokemon
World in Japan

After the anime finished the game's story, it started a spinoff season in the Orange Archipelago, and this sprung a new movie, Pokemon the Movie 2000. With a new take on the series, a game called Pokemon Snap was created on the Nintendo 64. In this game, the player takes control of Todd Snap, a character from the anime, and they go around and take pictures of different Pokémon. There was also another Pokémon spinoff game called Pokémon Pinball on the Game Boy Color. A sequel to Pokemon Stadium was also released. This time in both Japan and the United States. Unlike its predecessor, it had all 151 Pokemon. The stadium series was the first time that audiences could see the Pokémon characters in 3D. Also on the Nintendo 64, Pokémon Puzzle League was released. This was the first Pokémon game that was created strictly for the United States.