30 YEARS OF POKEMON

It's been three decades of throwing Poké Balls, but have you caught them all yet?

- SCOTT DUTFIELD

The worldwide phenomenon that is Pokémon first emerged from a Japanese gaming magazine called Game Freak.

The magazine was created by friends Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori and started out as a way to discuss video games and industry news. However, several years after its first issue was released in 1983, Tajiri turned Game Freak from a magazine publisher into a games company. The first game the company produced was an action puzzle game called Quinty, also known as Mendel Palace in the US, for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1989.

In February 1996, Game Freak released a new role-playing game (RPG) called Pocket Monsters, which came in two colour variations, Red and Green, with Blue version released in October that same year. The game allowed 'trainers' to capture and battle curious creatures called Pokémon, a shortened name for Pocket Monsters.

The fictional world of Pocket Monsters took inspiration from real life. With a fondness for nature as a child, Tajiri was asked by Time magazine in 1999 if the idea for Pokémon came from insects.

"Yes. Places to catch insects are rare because of urbanisation. Kids play inside their homes now, and a lot had forgotten about catching insects. So had I.

When I was making games, something clicked, and I decided to make a game with that concept. Everything I did as a kid is kind of rolled into one - that's what Pokémon is.

Playing video games, watching TV, Ultraman with his capsule monsters... they all became ingredients for the game."