donphan.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
This generalist Mastodon server welcomes enthusiasts of the Pokémon franchise, to talk about it or anything else. Join the federation!

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On October 1st 2004, twenty years ago, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen were released in the UK. On that day, my friend and I went to our local GAME store, and purchased them together. They were £29.99 each, but you could get them for £50 if both were purchased at the same time. We both wanted a different version, but I insisted on FireRed, because Charizard.

Once we got them, we went over to the local shopping center, and we played through the first part of the game enough so we could test the Wireless Adapter which came with it.

We tested the range of the Adapter, my friend on the other side of the shopping center, waving to me to show it was still connected. He went up the elevator to the next floor, but it couldn't quite handle that. I can't emphasise enough how big of a jump this technology was from simple link cables. We were blown away.

In the weeks ahead me and my friend traded version exclusives, and battled often. I loved playing FireRed, I can't believe two decades have passed. Happy anniversary!