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THOSE OF A CERTAIN generation will fondly remember the original Game Boy.
It may have been bulky and was less powerful than other rival handhelds but what it had was longer battery life and a number of great games including Tetris, Super Mario Land 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening to help it out.
Yet this day 20 years ago saw one of Nintendo’s most important franchises released and is still going strong to this day.
During the late 90s and early 00s, it was almost impossible to escape the influence Pokémon had on both gaming and wider culture. While it became a cultural phenomenon thanks to the TV series, trading cards game and merchandise, it also became the best-selling RPG of all time.
The seventh generation games, titled Sun and Moon, are now on their way, but the originals are still to this day fondly remembered.
Note: Pokémon Red and Blue were released in Europe on 5 October 1999. This date relates to when it was first released in Japan.
Inspiration
Before Pokémon, Game Freak was a small development team born from conversations about bad games and what could be done to improve them.
It worked on games that were only released in Japan like Quinty, an action-puzzle game which involved flipping tiles, and Pulseman, a solid Mega Drive platformer which was eventually released in Western territories on Wii Virtual Console.
None of them set the world alight but they did show how Game Freak was willing to take existing genres and introduce its own twists.
But for Pokémon, its designer Satoshi Tajiri took inspiration from something more mundane: collecting insects.
In an interview with Time Asia back in 1999, he talked about his childhood and how his hobby of finding and catching insects influenced the game.
They fascinated me. For one thing, they kind of moved funny. They were odd. Every time I found a new insect, it was mysterious to me. And the more I searched for insects, the more I found .. As I gathered more and more, I’d learn about them, like how some would feed on one another. So I stopped bringing them home.
But I liked coming up with new ideas. Like how to catch beetles. In Japan, a lot of kids like to go out and catch beetles by putting honey on a piece of tree bark. My idea was to put a stone under a tree, because they slept during the day and like sleeping under stones. So in the morning I’d go pick up the stone and find them. Tiny discoveries like that made me excited.
What was perhaps interesting was the choice of platform. The Game Boy had been around since 1989 and while it was a success, its popularity was declining as years went on but being able to facilitate both quick games and longer playthroughs meant it was a perfect fit.
Its release could not have come at a better time as it revitalised the handheld range just when the smaller and lighter Pocket Game Boy was released.
Game Freak started working on the game in 1990 and it took six years for it to be released. Originally, it was planned there would be 50 monsters, but as the technology improved, they ended up with 150 by the end of the fourth year, according to its art director Ken Sugimori in an interview with GamesTM:
“It took about six years from the start of the concept to execution. We started the project right after Quinty was released and initially, we were aiming to have about fifty Pokémon. But every year, the technology improved so while it started at 50, by the end of about the fourth year we realised that we could do about 150 Pokémon. In that sense, I suppose we didn’t really have a set target number – it just depended on the technology we had at the time.”
While the variation of monsters was one factor for its success, the other, releasing two versions of the same game wasn’t a Game Freak idea. Instead it came from the creator of Super Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, when the game was shown to Nintendo.
It’s funny that one of the game’s most noticeable features was unheard of at the time with the Game Boy link cable only being used for two player matches.
Pokémon was already envisioned as a game where you could trade monsters so two versions made a lot of sense. In the same interview with Time Asia, Tajiri said the focus was on communication.
“The idea I had was for information to go back and forth,” he said. “It wasn’t about competition. Even before Game Boy, there was a communication capability at game arcades – like two race car drivers sitting next to each other to compete. That’s all anyone was doing, using it to compete”.
I liked competition too. But I wanted to design a game that involved interactive communication. Remember, there was no internet then.
Relying on two versions of the same game meant you needed friends to trade you monsters not found on your version so you could complete the Pokédex, your encyclopedia you were tasked with filling.
Adding to that certain Pokémon that would only evolve when traded and completing it was impossible on your own.
When Pokemon Red and Green were first released in Japan, their unexpected success meant two updated versions, Red and Blue, were released shortly after. Those versions were later released internationally.
Laying the foundations
But what about the game itself? Looking back on it, it hasn’t aged as well as it would have hoped – navigating the world and menus is rigid and the battle system was somewhat imbalanced – but the world it created still holds up well.
Usually RPGs split up exploration into two parts: the world map, which allowed you to quickly move from one place of interest to another, and towns/areas of interest which could be explored in greater detail. While such an approach gives a sense of scale, it creates a sense of disconnect for the player.
Pokémon ignored that and used one main map that you never left. There were no loading screens as you left town or entered a cave or building, everything was seamless giving it more things in common with Zelda than Final Fantasy.
While it seems like a simple idea now, it really gave you the feeling you were in this greater ecosystem. You walked everywhere and finding monsters and people along each route made you feel like you in this vast world just waiting to be explored.
And Kanto, the game’s setting, was populated with people and trainers. As is the case with every RPG, every person has something to day, but every trainer had a personality of some kind, be it a hiker, sailor or bug collector.
In a way, this was to give you hints as to the type of monsters your opponent would use but it made the world that bit more engrossing as you weren’t facing off against cookie-cutter enemies.
The other major aspect was progression. In a way, your original aim is to complete your Pokédex, but breaking that up was becoming a world champion.
Alongside dealing with your rival and Team Rocket every now and again (and the lack of any real story), you had to face eight Gym leaders, the game’s bosses, which kept progress focused and gave you an immediate aim.
More importantly, they all dealt with a specific type that encouraged you to strategise. To give one example, the first Gym leader you face uses rock-type Pokémon.
At the very start, you can brute-force your way through battles using normal-type moves and rely on only one monster but the same method won’t get you far here since rock types aren’t hurt by standard attacks
But even before that, you must cross Viridian Forest first, which is full of bug Pokémon. Some of them can only harden which increases their defence, meaning you either took ages beating them with normal moves or use your head and start taking advantage of the rock-paper-scissors battle system the game uses.
Yet describing the battle system like that undersells it as despite its fun and cutesy exterior, it offers a serious amount of strategic planning. Since there are 150 monsters and only six slots in your team, each monster only knowing four moves, it meant there were a vast number of approaches you could take.
Yet if you delved into the stats further, you could calculate the max potential for each Pokémon – for example, you could catch three Pidgeys and each of them would have slightly different stats – giving you the best possible chance for competitive play.
Granted there were some issues which meant the battle system was somewhat imbalanced – the dominance of psychic types was later resolved with the release of Gold and Silver – but some forward thinking ensured you stayed a step ahead of your opponents.
“Argh! Almost had it!”
Yet most of the excitement and tension came from searching and catching monsters. While catching the likes of a Pidgey or Rattata was pretty easy because of how common they were, rarer Pokémon upped the stakes as you would normally spend ages looking for them.
Once you found them, weakening them without knocking them out, and watching your pokéball shake as you try to catch it is still as tense a moment now as it was 20 years ago.
And if you were dealing with a legendary with only one chance to catch it, making sure your game was saved before approaching it was the only way to avoid heartache.
Yet the best part of the series is how they never distracted you with exposition or long cut-scenes. Instead, they leave you to your own devices and let you wander around Kanto, taking things at your own pace, and facilitating individual strategies as you crafted the ultimate team. The game caters to the player rather than the other way around, something it still does to this day.
Future editions refined the series further and with it still going strong, who knows what the series will take us in another 20 years.
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Dole should have been halved
@patw5675@gmail.com: around 28.8 k people on it long term costing around €6.6 million A WEEK!!!!
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: That’s money well spent on the less well of in our country, and come from me a person who has worked for over 52 years and never looked for anything from the state.
@patw5675@gmail.com: Did you buy that phone especially for the journal??
@Vince Cable: The Galaxy A02s
@patw5675@gmail.com: universal basic income would decline aschame as child’s powerty in rich country….
@Jimmy Kiely:any farmers milking dole too…
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: what about all frends helping frends zilionis…
@Jimmy Kiely: it’s called job SEEKERS allowance!!!
@patw5675@gmail.com: Jasus
@patw5675@gmail.com: i find myself on the dole now for the first time in 43yrs, and you blatantly want it halved, very cavalier.
@patw5675@gmail.com: Why?
No excuse not to have a job if you’re able bodied in Ireland. Any amount of work available. Whole system needs to be restructured.
@CODE 29: any decent living on jobs….
@CODE 29: should be but this is a handout Ireland
@CODE 29: in 46, lost my job after 20 years… I’m struggling to find a job that will support my 2 kids. I’m able bodied and willing. It’s not so simple out there. I’ve to go back to collage at 46 or take a job stacking shelves again
Harris is not for me.. They are trying to buy votes without any shadow of a doubt, and hopefully the good people of Ireland will not fall for it!
And as for the send me an email remark… he’s too busy shaking hands to have anytime whatsoever for reading and replying to emails.
@Neil Harvey: silly comment
@Neil Harvey: Who are you for? The party that promises a house for everyone in the audience. There are always a lot of posts complaining that the Journal is biased in favour of the government parties. Comments not open on the latest scandal besetting SF. Not even a comment on her “ lessons to be learned “ comment.
@Vincent Alexander: same thing Fine Fail and Fine Gael said when one of their councillors sexually assaulted a woman and the latter for sexually assaulting an 8 year old child. All wires from the same brush
@John Doe: Same thing Fine Gael & Fianna Fáil said when the Catholic church were raping their way through our young and murdering babies with wild abandon, sure let them move the pedo’s around that will solve the problem, those two parties were in cahoots with the bishops.
@Mr Inbetween: FF and FG don’t make a career of taking the high moral stand in the Dáil like Ms Donald and Mr Doherty.
@Mr Inbetween: What the Catholic Church did was horrendous, but what has to do with SF giving references to a sex offender?
Typical ohh, look over there, and Mary, lou trying to deflect in the Dail today. I presume you are delighted that the references were given and that nobody informed the BHF of the accusations?
There is more to this to come out so I wouldn’t be so sure that certain people didn’t know what actually went on.
@Vincent Alexander: did the ceann comhairle have anything to say?
@Neil Harvey: the cost of living crisis is a myth, all airports have increased passenger traffic. Etc
@Sheila McNulty: that was a great comment
@Vincent Alexander:
Shin Fein shooting themselfs in the foot more times then a 1950s border compane.
@Vincent Alexander: I’m for the best person for the job. I dont give a hoot about the colour of the rosette.
I think its OK to say that Harris is not my cup of tea!
@Vincent Alexander: Give over, they’re worse by far. Their principles and values, if you could call them such, change with the wind. Condemning Israel out of one side of their mouths and refusing to sign the occupied territories bill with the other. Not a shred of integrity between FFFG
It’s definitely an attempt at bribery to swing an election, because if as Simon Harris claims his actions are prompted by listening to what people want, he would have started building social housing across the country on week one of his role as Taoiseach.
Affordable housing and the lack thereof, is without doubt the number one concern across the entire country and it’s also the thing that the government as a whole and Simon Harris in particular as Taoiseach is blatantly ignoring.
@Dvsespaña: Exactly if he listened to the people USC would be gone having been originally told it was temporary. This government and the previous government have done nothing about social housing knowing the damage it was doing to thousands of people and put vulture funds ahead of families. Have they listened to the people in regards to the children’s hospital of the cost and location? This budget is like sticking a plaster over an open wound. It will come back to haunt them.
Just emailed him asking for more.
@Vince Cable: time for him to go
@Alan Moloney: They call that nonsense “leadership”. School yard kids wouldn’t behave like them. No wonder everything is broken. When you have wasters in suits believing they are doing the right thing when in fact they haven’t a bloody clue what they are doing, then the country will go nowhere. They actually pay advisors to tell them they are doing a great job. The lowest form of human on the planet.
@David Corrigan: Go for it, make it better.
No dole after 12 months for anyone able to work, simple as that. Can’t believe this is still allowed to continue
An obnoxious individual
There’s work everywhere now. Look who’s working as cleaners, garbage collectors, construction workers, security guards, hospitality sectors? Mostly immigrants. Why would dole collectors consider this job if they get 100, 200 quid less or the same or more for doing nothing?
@Bomber: immigrants live on simple staple foods and no luxuries so they have competitive advantage.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: ciggies ans alcohol.
Its easy to see why Harris would give out his email. some lackey or civil servant opens that account – not Harris. You will get a long winded insincere answer, and the smirking and two faced answers will continue.
@Thomas O’Donnell: exactly
What ever happened to the butter vouchers?
The little perick and his FFG/g mates did bribe the electorate then took any gains back due to the greens and their obsession with carbon taxes and the ESB PSO charge increase. The electorate, judging by the polls, are too foolish to see this.
@Gerry Lamont: every single party would do the same.
Did you see SF’s alternative budget?
They’re all the same.
Simon Harris is a poindexter
@Argus Romsworth: what’s that?
@James Leahy:
A boring , inept person( had to look it up)
That money will mostly be spent in the pubs
I tell you what he’s not going to do he’s not going to ask. Any member of the gang to not take the double child allowance cause they earn enough money . They should be exempt from the child allowance payments
So the opposeverythingition want Christmas moved or cancelled until they can get power.
@thomas molloy:
Communist losers do not believe in Christmas.
@thomas molloy: Those rotten scoundrels! I can’t believe they want to cancel Christmas but you just said it AND wrote it down, so it must be true. You hardly just pulled it out of your backside in a mindless, Trumpian, fox news type of sound bite with absolutely no rationale behind it. Hardly
@H Woo: What about Communist winners? Do they believe in an invented holiday? What happens in the event of a draw?
Fair play to him giving the long term unemployed “some of their money back”
Now, as a self employed person,how do I claim some of my money back?
Well said Taoiseach what a joke these lads are, spend all their time moaning about the people not getting anything and then when they do they say it’s a bad move. Opposition is so weak in this country.
@Hotirish: get a life
@Hotirish: he’s not spending it wisely. Like the 9million on phone pouches spend it on poor kids on long surgery waiting lists. On more teachers sna s secondary schools and get that fecking children’s hospital up and running
Where did all go wrong Anthony?
Will it is better to get a few Bob now and be sure of it than to waste a vote on false promises that will never be fulfilled.
Vote for sale.
@Finbarr Spain: all the same do this do that do nothing as usual Ireland is living in the passed
It’s really unfair on SF – they shouldn’t be allowed to call an election when the economy is doing well and there are plenty of jobs.
@Derick R M: SF too busy. No time for governing. Other fish to fry
Typical Social Democratic Attack, stones in a tin can rattling around and making noise without substance. It is obviously an acquired part of being a member of this middle stream “Wannabe” in power Party . . Unfortunately not realistic for the people, all in all just another group of Complainers in the Dáil.
Long grass whispering.
Harris is such a weak leader. Another sound bite machine with no action.
Decisions have been made We can argue anyway but which way Good luck to those who benefit The rest of us [yes me included] suck it up butter cup!
I’ll get them in the long grass!
that make me laugh because the people that will touch all these payments do not vote or if they do, not for them !!!
have your say