>>38197377This
I do remember the day I got hooked though. Not the exact date. I was 4 years old, it was like 1999, G/S hype was on the horizon, and I got a godamn Ekans card in the treasure box and I was the coolest fucking kid for like 3 days. Everyone else acted really good and constantly asked to go to the treasure box, hoping to find a Pokemon card, but I had the only one.
Pic related. I still have it.
And while from then on I started watching the anime and buying merch and shit, I didn’t actually play a Pokemon game until I got Sapphire version, several months after its release.