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30 years ago, a young game critic imagined Pokémon (Patreon)

Published:
2025-12-08 07:19:15
Edited:
2025-12-20 06:51:02
Imported:
2025-12

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Content

Before Game Freak created Pokémon, it was a hand-stapled video game zine written by a crew of arcade-loving teenagers.

Welcome to the debut episode of Past Games, the new Patreon-exclusive series dedicated to revisiting the stories behind classic games and gaming moments. Over the next few months, we'll be flipping through dusty periodicals and dog-eared history books to learn more about 2026's big gaming anniversaries.

For this episode, I invited my buddy Brendon Bigley (Wavelengths, Into the Aether) to talk pocket monsters. I share the history of the biggest children's entertainment icon since Mickey Mouse, and Brendon shares his experience of growing up alongside the rise of Pokémania.

Stories discussed:

Beware of the Pokemania - 1999 (Time/Archive.org)

The Ultimate Game Freak (Time/Archive.org)

Windom Vs Alien Cools HD (Ultraseven Series First Battle) (TokuMax)

1998 KFC promotional Pokémon toys (Bulbapedia)

Pokémon: Little. Yellow. Different. Better. (Slate)

COVER STORY: Masters of the Universe, Youth Division (NYTimes)

Pokémon Is One Powerful Drawing Card (LATimes)

Pokémon mania sweeps the United States (CNN)

Are Your Children Nuts About Little Cartoon Creatures From Japan? Don't Know Why? The Diagnosis Is Simple: -- Pokemon Fever (Seattle Times)

Pokemon history

Pikachu's global adventure: the rise and fall of Pokémon (Archive.org)

Pokémon Red review (IGN)

Magician ends 20-year battle with Nintendo over Pokémon card (Polygon)

Translation: Satoshi Tajiri Cuts Loose (1997 Interview) (lavacutcontent)

Is the Hottest Investment Pokémon Cards? (WSJ)

Files

Comments

kaputt

Loved this episode! Love the deep dive into video game history with a fun co-host

Cinna_The_Poet

Hearing my classmates in 3rd grade refer to Marill in the movie as "Pikablue" is such a deeply ingrained memory in my psyche. Such a good episode, would love more of these types of deep dives into franchise histories.

Eric Leslie

I literally hopped from another Brendon Bigley podcast (Any%, one of the Into the Aether patreon bonus pods) to this, so hearing him again without knowing I was going to was very surreal. 😂 Worlds colliding. Good guest get!

Robert Secundus

Concerning "I thought the objection would be witches, or something," I can confirm that pokemon *was* part of the 90s Satanic Panic. If you want to look at one single artifact that sums everything up, check out Phil Arms' book "Pokemon and Harry Potter: A Fatal Attraction: An Expose of the Secret War Against the Youth in America," a book that my grandparents purchased for my parents to convince them that they were inviting Satan into our home via pokemon. It was a deeply weird experience, my parents so joyfully participating in Pokemania with us one month, and then acting like it was all obviously satanic the next. I, personally, managed to secure my Gen 1 stuff-- those KFC beanie babies, Red Blue, and Yellow, a bunch of original cards-- by hiding all of them in the crawl space of my bedroom, choosing a few sacrificial cards, filling up a garbage bag with newspaper and toilet paper, leaving the sacrificial cards poking out of the top, and announcing to my parents that I had thrown away my pokemon-related objects because I knew that I was called to by The Lord.

EtherEli

Pretty sure my school banned everything from Pogs to Crazy Bones but I don’t remember if they banned Pokemon Cards I do remember my mom getting me to get the phone number of the parents of my friend’s older brother’s friend because I gave him a $20 US bill for a shiny Yu-Gi-Oh card, so yeah it could happen with anything I was so into the show and it might even have been all the way up until this episode that I thought that the show came first Also, I think I still have the CD of the soundtrack for the first movie. Brother, My Brother lives rent free in my head Man, this episode went straight into my veins

Goositrous

Great episode, really interesting subject. I think it’s safe to say that Pokémon was the first game I loved. I had an N64 before, but the N64 needed the TV which needed my parents letting me USE the TV and they were weird about video games so it was a whole negotiation…but I just HAD Pokémon on my little gameboy color that my grandma got me because the kids at the hair salon she worked at convinced her that Pokémon was IT now and I needed it to fit in to my generation. Honestly, yupp good call

apers

I am a children’s librarian who runs a monthly pokemon club and when I gotta admit… card trading is not allowed (it’s rule 1 AND 5) for exactly the reasons you posited. I get some 10 year olds and I get some 6 year olds and I super don’t want the 6 year old to get a shitty deal and then somehow I gotta deal with it, and I’m less responsible for the kids than I was as a teacher. I also don’t think the game is as for kids as adults who are gamers realize. I’d say I get 10-20 kids per pokemon club (probably 30-40 in the summer… it’s a zoo) and maybe a handful of the older kids have ever played the game. The younger kids are mostly in it for the cards and the toys and the clothes and the merch, honestly. They don’t even know how to play the TCG they just make up their own games every time and as long as they aren’t arguing over the rules, I’m not gonna stop ‘em. And, the final thing I finally remember I meant to comment, if you want a pokemon-alike, check out Beastieball. It’s currently in EA but the entire storyline is fully playable, they’re just still working on the assets and balance. It’s like if pokemon was Haikyuu. It’s great.

Bobbles114

My brothers and i had those KFC plushies and thats how Vulpix became my fave pokemon. never knew that was before the english versions released

Scopri

This episode brought me so much joy, Chris! I’ve fallen off Pokemon the last 4 or so years but this history lesson took me right back to the glory days. All the research is much appreciated and would love to hear more in this series. I enjoyed the Digimon shoutout, one of my favourite gaming memories was playing the Digimon Tamagochi on New Year’s Eve, 1999.

Bryan

Damn, this episode was so good. ❤️💙

Michael Wilson

I think this was my favorite podcast episode of the whole year, for all my podcasts.

Marty Day

Without digging too much into my day job, but I’ve had to recently dig into the world of Pokémon. Though I was around for the initial hype of the series (and had Blue for my GB), like Chris, I was SLIGHTLY too old for the series. This was a great deep dive into the history, and one episode deep into my support, completely made the Patreon worthwhile. Great job, Chris and Brendan!