Most people at school played the games and collected the cards. The latter led to fights and theft so would usually be banned.
Can't recall if I ever played the games during recess, other than helping this one kid beat Silph Co. He had a Drowzee.
Did play Pokemon at an after school program with a few other kids, but this was Gen 2 and 3.
There were magazines devoted to the Pokemon TCG. Pokemon was basically slapped on anything to try and make a buck. Off the top of my head I can recall there being a Pokemon cereal, Pokemon shaped Kraft macaroni, Pokemon Pop-tarts, and Smuckers jars with Pokemon on them.
Burger King did a promotion for the first movie where they had toys and sold gold plated cards of Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Poliwhirl, Togepi, Charizard, and Mewtwo. They came in nice Pokeball stands.
Pokemon was a major part of KidsWB.
There were lots of rumors about the games that couldn't be easily disproved within a couple minutes. If you wanted any information about Pokemon you had to rely on strategy guides or magazines.
>>29185252This
The original Pokemon craze was better because the people swept up in it actually knew stuff for the most part and it was a new thing.
>>29185474I think Pokemania was over by the time Gold and Silver came out, though it was still a popular franchise. May have simmered down a bit more with the release of Ruby and Sapphire.
>>29185650Because they had some neat designs, came in all different colors in a random assortment, and the game involved lining them up and flicking them to try and knock down your opponent's figures.
