Best word to describe it is "magical". Every person experienced it differently and then there was the general experience, so I'll tell my own.
>born in Portugal, 1993>6 years old>cartoons were on TV every day morning up to a certain time on public channels and then a bit in the afternoon>watch them religiously>Pokémon starts airing, so hardly miss an episode>grandpa buys me 2 coloring books>enter primary school at 7yo>mom gets me pokémon stickers and stationary>eventually VHSs too up to beginning of Johto, but ending of Kanto missing>get an allowance for doing my bed, dusting, hoovering and homework>save enough for a solid purple GBC and mom gives me Red>still remember being sat in the couch in the middle of the living room, the show that was on TV and the smell of the cleaning product my mom was using while I found Pikachu in Viridian Forest after spending tons of time trying to find out how to get past the old men due to not speaking English>whenever we went to the café I would get a packet of crisps that had a pokémon tazo in them >>52448231 and you could ask for a book to put them in for free and a little recipient too>when we went to the cinema we would get a big packet of crisps, so there was a chance of getting 2 tazos, and once I got 3>other times I'd get pokémon bubblegum in a roll or fizzy lollipop that came with pokémon sticker cards or anime cards>morning snack I took to school was a chocolate pastry that came with pokémon temporary tattoos, so I would put them all in my room's wardrobe, desk, etc>took gameboy to school a few times, every time I'd have tons of people watch me play>kid told me the Mew trick under the truck>go to library computer with friend and look up "cheats" on gamewinners.com>mom got me the very first starter deck that had a holo Machamp as premium card 