Ardent gamers share memories of first Pokémon video game on its 28th anniversary

Long before video games had people wondering ldquoAre these visuals from a video game or real liferdquo early gamers in the 1990s were dealing with a bigger dilemma mdash choosing between Charmander Bulbasaur and Squirtle the three starter Pokeacutemon that first featured in Pokeacutemon Red and Green video games in 1996 Twentyeight years later memories of the eightbit adventures remain fresh in the minds of fans and ardent gamersEmulating memoriesDhruv Shah 26 businessmanIt was the summer of 2006 and as an eightyearold I was fascinated with the translucent cartridges of the games Little did I realise this would be a lifechanging moment I picked up Pokeacutemon Sapphire and went on to play it for hours from cycling through the Safari Zone to solving clues at the Trick House every moment is etched in my memory Growing up it became tougher to keep up with the games It wasnrsquot until much later that I realised I could play these games on my PC using Visual Boy Advance a Nintendo Game Boy emulator The discovery led me down memory lane and I started playing old releases like Fire Red Soul Silver and Black I purchased a Nintendo Switch recently and picked up the newer games but nothing matches the feeling of meeting your friends in the building in the evening and progressing through together competing to be the very best Call it nostalgia bias but Sapphire remains my favourite titleThe first Game Boy console and Pokeacutemon cartridges Pic CourtesyWikimedia CommonsGame changerJason Patel 25 business analystAt the time when they were launched the Pokeacutemon games had revolutionised handheld gaming It became so popular that children would compare their Pokeacutemon collections and parents would share the same joy and amusement I remember pestering my parents to get me a Game Boy with Pokeacutemon Red so I could complete the pokeacutedex a log of collectible Pokeacutemon with my brother who had Pokeacutemon Yellow I believe that the games that followed while great in themselves saw success on the back of the nostalgia factor from the firstgeneration players I still play the new releases on my friendrsquos Switch My favourite memory is completing the pokeacutedex with Pokeacutemon Red and Yellow The runnerup would be Pokeacutemon Go where my friends and I walked over 70 km searching for Pokeacutemon in the first week of its release Those were some crazy and exciting timesAlive and catchingAayush Thakore 25 software engineerI didnrsquot own a Game Boy growing up and so Irsquod cycle to my friendrsquos house a couple of blocks down the road daily and we would spend hours looking at the tiny screen In 2016 the launch of Pokeacutemon GO took me back to 2006 and I established a Pokeacutemon GO fan club in the city consisting of old and new players The game is not dead at least not in Mumbai The community aspect of the game has now become the centre of it and it reflects in the new members who join us with every passing day In 2022 I bought my first Nintendo console the Switch to play the newly released Generation 9 games At 24 it brought the same wide smile to my face from the early 2000s when I played my personal favourite Pokeacutemon EmeraldResume gameRevisit retro Pokeacutemon titles on your devices GBA4iOS This optimized Game Boy Colour emulator comes with onscreen controls for Apple devicesLOG ON TO GBA4ios on App Store ClassicBoyPro A Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance emulator with support for hardware controllers for the complete retro experienceLOG ON TO ClassicBoy on Google Play Store Visual Boy Advance Therersquos room for everyone in this communitybuilt multiplatform Game Boy Advance emulator with multiplayer capabilitiesLOG ON TO visualboyadvanceorg