I picked up Pokemon Fire Red. The clock is at 43:26. Oh dear.

I remember when I was about nine or ten, when Pokemon Red and Blue had just come out here in Ireland. These games were the talk of the school yard, and I begged my mom to buy me one. It was coming up to the end of November, my birthday and because of the Xmas rush, these games were nowhere to be found (Ireland tends to get the raw end of the stick when it comes to stock). An epic search was launched, from Dublin to Cork, Limerick to Galway and none could be found. I was resigned to my fate of being the last kid in the world to play this game when a miracle occurred.



My Aunt, who seems to have connections in just about every industry and sector in the country, told us that she could get us a copy of "that Pocketmon game". This was too good to be true, so I waited about two weeks and then a Parcel game to my door and of course I knew what it was. I ripped open the packaging to find a box not Red, not Blue but... "Yellow?! What the fuck?! Yellow hasn't even been released here yet!". Yes, in fact, not only did I get Pokemon Yellow before just about anyone else in the country, I got it almost a full year before anyone else (because of shitty European release dates.) Needless to say I was the most popular guy in school for those brief ten months, where I was the only one who had a Pikachu following me, the only one who could battle the "real" team Rocket, from the anime.

My love for Pokemon continued to a lesser extent when I picked up Gold, but soon after I finished it, I forgot about Pokemon. There were new things in my life: Girls, Secondary School (High School to you americans) and of course Final Fantasy (of course thats another story altogether.

Anyway, back to my story, I hadn't played Pokemon in about seven or eight years since then but last week I saw Pokemon Fire Red in the bargain bin at my local game store and picked it up. I'm hooked again, trying to fill my Pokedex (which I never will, having nobody to trade with). Anyway, I just thought I'd share my tale of Pokemon addiction.