I was a young boy when this happened. Probably somewhere around five or six years old when it happened. I was a weird kid. I didn't have any friends, except for them. They always were by my side. They always managed to cheer me up if something happened. Who were 'they', you ask? Well, my Pokémon, of course! I still remember getting that red colored cartridge. I was so happy when my parents came home with that little box, adorned with that amazing red dragon. I could swear that I cried tears of joy! I gave my mom and dad a big hug, thanked them, and ran upstairs to my room. I was so excited! I picked up my Gameboy, which I hadn't touched for a while, opened the box, put the cartridge inside the Gameboy, and turned it on.
POKÉMON
RED VERSION
"Oh, boy!" I said to myself. "This looks exciting already!" I pressed the A-button, and the screen changed.
NEW GAME
OPTION
I, obviously, chose the NEW GAME option, since I really wanted to start playing. I skipped through most of Oak's dialogue, until the screen changed again.
YOUR NAME?
I decided to be unoriginal, and named him RED. Back then, I didn't actually know this was his name, and I named him that because the game was called RED version. I skipped some dialogue, and a box appeared on the side of the screen.
NAME
NEW NAME
GARY
BLUE
JOHN
I chose BLUE, because I had already named my character RED. There was more dialogue that I didn't bother to read, and then my character shrank down in size. I appeared in the middle of a room, with a bed, a tv, a game console, and some other things. Truth to be told, I don't think I need to explain all this. I went downstairs, I walked out of the house, I went into the lab, came back out, and then I tried leaving. Then, Oak stopped me and told me to follow him. The dialogue said this was the part where I get to pick my first Pokémon. Neat! I checked them all out. Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander. I chose Charmander, and my rival picked Squirtle. Then, as I was about to leave, he challenged me to a battle! "My first battle!" I thought. I beat him, and then went out of the lab. My adventure was finally starting!
I played the game all day for an entire week, getting better at battles every day, and I finally managed to beat the Champion. At first, I didn't expect the Champion to be my rival, because I was expecting the Champion to be someone way cooler, but he managed to put up quite a fight. When I beat him, I cried tears of joy. I had finally beaten the game! I went to the hall of fame, and looked at the Pokémon that I had used.
CHARIZARD, GYARADOS, HAUNTER, PIDGEOT, BEEDRILL, and DUGTRIO.
I was proud of myself. Really proud. I stopped playing the game for a while, because I got some more games from my parents. I put the POKÉMON RED cartridge in the box, and left it there for a few days.
Three days had passed since I last played the game. I found out that some kids at my school loved Pokémon, too. They said that you could trade Pokémon with friends, which I didn't know. I said that maybe I could bring the game to school, and we could trade.
Tha night, I looked around my room, trying to find the box that contained the cartridge. Under the bed? No. Closet? No. Drawers? No. Anywhere? No. I looked around the entire house, and I didn't find the box. It was just then that I realized.