I've come to the conclusion that there was something special about the original Pokemon games (RBY) alink to a psychic dimension, transcending code and hardware, where every original cart (even ROMs) provided an individualized experience for children. Something speaking directly to our souls and provides a gateway - or at least did at one time - to that magic lost.

What exactly made this at one time obscure game about pocket monsters have such a defining impact? What was it about this franchise that so widely and deeply connected with generations of children's hearts? It's to a point where when I was growing up (after seeing the first movie - with my first grade class - they actually took us to see it), and for us the feeling was almost akin to religion.

Ask yourselves: when you were playing it back then, did it *feel* like a video game - or like you were on a journey? did you never have any sense that the Pokemon world was real? Well I did then, and as a grown man I still do.

Consider:

-Why did so many children across different backgrounds, walks of life, parts of the world, etc. have dreams about Pokemon before playing or watching it?

-Why were there unexplained sightings of Pokemon throughout the 1990s / 2000s (was the gateway closed with 9/11)?

-Why in the 1990s were kids reporting phenomena in game such as secret areas / cities, Pokemon that weren't part of the original 150 (the so-called "Pokegods"), and other strange phenomenon now uniformly denied as a kind of mass hysteria?

-Why do players report better luck when they believe in themselves, their Pokemon, etc.? Do our Pokemon know we're there?

Today, Pokemon (or at least our connection to it) is quite dead. The goy are offered soulless, commercial slop mass produced at industrial scale by a corporation gone mad, same as the "source code" passed off on the masses.

Some of us however are still willing to search far and wide, for the power that's inside.