>>57415353Here's the thing, most people who claim to have been into it since "1996" are bullshitters. They Google the date it was released and misremember when Pokémania was a thing, and conflate the JP release date with the western one.
I'm saying this as someone that remembers a littie paragraph about Gold and Silver being delayed in early 98 in the British Official Nintendo Magazine, before RBY was released in America, and similarly had to import a copy from America, so I could play it almost a year before anyone in the UK had it.
The Internet was not that widespread back then, and we didn't have centralised Pokémon websites until the late 90s and early 00s. For example, Serebii, Bulbagarden didn't really gain traction till after like 2002, and the ones before that like Pokehelp, Pokemasters, UPN, and PokeAdobe having more prominence till then, were still extremely niche because you had to find the websites, forums, or scroll through those Geocities "Top 100 ranked sites" lists.
Even magazines like Nintendo Power were sparse on news until the anime had been dubbed
