Pokemon Break Down: The Evolution of Gaming (ft Alex from The Dex)

Satoshi Tajiri was born in August 1965 in the small Tokyo town of Sedaya. He grew up in Mach Tokyo during its rural period and spent his youth collecting insects as a hobby, earning the nickname 'Mr Bug' from other children.

Tajiri had aspirations of becoming an entomologist and immensely enjoyed collecting insects as a child pastime.

As urbanization crept into Mach Tokyo, the fields and forests were paved over with buildings and parking lots, causing the insect population to dwindle and the other children to stay indoors.

As a teenager, Tajiri discovered a new passion: video games in the early 1980s.

In the early 1980s, Tajiri and artist Ken Sugimori self-published a fan magazine called Game Freak. In 1989, the company evolved into a game developer.

Game Freak experienced modest success with games like Yoshi and Pulse Man in the coming years.

Tajiri often thought back to his youthful fondness of insects and wished to recapture the awe he felt collecting these creatures that was lost as the city spread. He began funneling these feelings into concepts for a new game.

• Nintendo's Game Boy console caught Tajiri's attention • He felt the system would be perfect for his idea, allowing each player to have their own world to explore and creatures to call their own • The Link cable adapter would allow players to trade or battle with friends

Tajiri wanted the strong bonds formed within the universe of the game to cross over into the real world. He wanted children to relate to these beasts and be able to control them in situations that might represent fear or anger they needed to overcome in their real lives.

Originally, players would have an owner-pet relationship with creatures, but this changed into more of a friendship as development continued.

• Developers believed the ability to name every individual companion would be essential • Multiple save files had to be removed to ensure enough space for names • Monsters were never to die or bleed, only faint, as Tajiri didn't want to add pointless violence

Shiro Mamoto, one of Nintendo's creative masterminds, kept an eye on Tajiri and his project. He took the young developer under his wing and helped convince Nintendo to publish the game.

• Early in development, Game Freak wished to call their game Capsule Monster • The name later changed to Kuman Kuman and then Pocket Monsters • After trademark difficulties, it was shortened to the iconic title Pokemon • The default name of the main character's rival, Shiru, was chosen in honor of Shiro Mamoto

Ken Sugimori headed the development drawings and design team, leading fewer than 10 people who conceived of hundreds of monsters. They settled on 151 monsters for the first game, with Sugimori finalizing designs in his trademark watercolor style art that became iconic for an entire generation.

• Music was composed by Junichi Masuda • Despite having only four audio channels, Masuda crafted identifiable sound effects and unique battle cries for all 151 Pokémon • Several tracks became ingrained in gaming's popular culture, including the Lavender Town theme which inspired creepy pastas

The game's mechanics and story pulled heavily from Japanese role-playing games but introduced concepts in a way digestible for newer or younger players, featuring hundreds of party members in complex random encounters with physical attacks, magical attacks, status effects, buffs, and debuffs.

Pocket Monsters Red and Green were released in Japan on February 27, 1996. The game was split into two versions to facilitate community and incentivize interaction between players, though this also caused many consumers to buy both versions.

Despite coming late in the Game Boy's lifespan, the game was a remarkable success, generating enough profit for Game Freak to completely rework the textures and art assets in an upgraded version titled Pocket Monsters Blue.

• Blue version was used as the base for translation outside Japan • The source code was fragile due to its unusually lengthy development cycle • It had to be completely reprogrammed when jumping from Japanese to English • Nintendo gave the titles a massive marketing push in the Western World, spending upwards of 50 million dollars

Despite some at Nintendo believing Western consumers wanted beefier monsters, Tajiri and Game Freak refused to change the designs. The game was released in North America on September 28, 1998, earning nearly universal critical acclaim with sales numbering in the tens of millions.

The impact Pokémon had on an entire generation of kids worldwide is almost unspeakable. It's difficult to come across a child born in the late 1980s or 1990s that doesn't have some sort of relationship with the franchise, with some relationships continuing to this very day.

At face value, the world of Pokémon may seem small with only a few real buildings in towns and villages, but this represented a childhood just as Tajiri originally intended.

Each city was a friend's home or local establishment, and the routes connecting them were the streets that ran between them. This subtle connection, hidden in plain sight, created a rose-tinted interpretation of life.

The rose-tinted interpretation of life in Pokémon Red and Blue might just have been what made the world of Pokémon so special and memorable for generations.