Clover's Pokémon Shrine

muki welcome james
Clover's Pokémon Shrine

MY HISTORY WITH POKEMON
I had a close friend in elementary school who was Japanese. He often told me about the shows and games that were available for Japanese audiences but not for the US. He told our friend group about Pokémon before any of us had even seen one. I remember him describing a "water turtle" and a "lizard with a flame on its tail" and an "electric mouse." Later, I remember a day when another friend called me and said I needed to switch over to a certain channel (WB maybe?) and wait until a commercial for something called "Pokémon" appeared. I did...and OMG when I saw the commercial, I was blown away. There were so many colorful and cute characters, (plus that hype catch line GOTTA CATCH EM ALL) and it was unlike any western cartoon I had seen before...

I remember a time when there really wasn't much Pokémon merchandise as well. You would go to stores, and at most, they would have a few Japanese imports of cards or toys, but it was few and far between. You actually couldn't buy the TCG cards for a while in most stores much less a single plushei. To counter this shortage, I made Pokémon figures out of clay and sold them at my school for $0.25 and $0.50 cents XD. People were pretty desperate to get anything Pokémon-related at that time. Sure enough, the popularity of the show exploded and merchandise was everywhere. It was so common they even released freebie toys at fast-food places. I was never great at playing the card game, but I loved to collect and trade them.

I also remember when the games came out. I wanted to play them so badly. My parents first bought me a strategy guide, which I looked at over and over. I copied and practiced drawing the OG Ken Sugimori art from the book all (but apparently I didn't read the actual strategy much) because when I first got the game, I literally got stuck just trying to get past the "drunken/sleeping man" after Palette Town XD!! I didn't realize the screen could move right and left or something??? I was a true nooblet gamer.

Later on, I recall being on a business trip with my mom. We had some time to shop at a little outdoor market near our hotel, and a street vendor had a Japanese copy of Pokemon Gold! As far as I knew, this game was NOT out yet. I thought even if this was fake, I have to have this. She bought me the game and I immediately started playing in the hotel. I want to say at this time I may have had access to a hiragana/kata kana chart, because I vaguely remember trying to read some words.

All around this time, we didn't have things like youtube to share our experiences. We just had people making websites. And much like today, you can really put anything you want online. This lead to the era of "Pokémon Secrets". So many were completely bogus and wastes of time, but every once in a while a series of steps would actually result in a rare pokemon or glitch appearing...and it always left you wanting more! There also weren't that many Pokémon images (nor did we really have a handle on photoshop or rendering software at the time) so we made due with the pixels and animations we had. Let me tell you, the good ones got used on EVERY web page. In fact, I've saved some of the classic ones from my past here!

FAVORITE GAMES
Pokémon Stadium (N64) - This was such a treat to have my pixelated Pokémon in full 3d
Pokémon Pinball - THIS GAME is honestly so fun and difficult. The graphics are precious as well.
Pokémon Snap - Both old and new versions alike! It's such a fun game that doesn't focus on battling. Just observing Pokémon in their natural habitats while looking for secrets.
Pokémon Red / Pokemon Gold - My OG fav games, how can I not list them even if they are held together by strings in regards to coding XD
Black and White - I did the most IV training, breeding, and shiny hunting on this game while I was active on the Pokémon forum I ran! Lots of memories.
Legends: Arceus - This was such a unique game, I loved that it was set in the past and that you could free roam in a way that you never really could before.
Pokémon Violet - 10/10 Best game, no issues or errors at all in the gameplay or coding XwX!!! It's hilarious and I honestly had a lot of fun with this one. I do hope the quality control gets better, no matter how many laughs I had.
Pocket Pikachu - This is really a spin-off pedometer pet, but I loved it. So many cute animations!

MY BULBASAUR COLLECTION
You can probably guess who my very first starter Pokémon was ^_^ I collect Bulbasaurs...check out my collection so far! I want to keep adding to it, but I also don't want to just buy every Bulbasaur thing I see. Each piece is very special. Also I don't really have cash to burn right now....being in school is rough lol