Certainly it is doubtful that Pokémon creator Satoshi Tjiri knew when he started up his hand-written and stapled video game fanzine, Game Freak, that his creation would cause such a fuss! The avid insect collector and video game hobbyist became enthralled with Nintendo’s Game Boy. He recognized its data sharing link cable as a possible outlet for trading fictional bug-like characters, illustrated by his partner and friend Ken Sugimori. Six years later, after many struggles, the Pokémon video game became a reality when Nintendo published Pocket Monsters Aka (Pokémon Red) and Pocket Monsters Midori (Pokémon Green) in February of 1996.
The original Pokémon video game series gave birth to a multimedia empire that has infiltrated just about every nook and cranny of modern civilization. As with any great success, this monster hit has wreaked much havoc over the years!The massive success of the Pokémon Game Boy games inspired Media Factory to create a Pokémon trading card game in Japan near the end of 1996. In turn, the video game and trading cards fostered a popular animated Pokémon cartoon. This is where the Pokémon curse begins…
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Michael Thomasson is one of the most widely respected videogame historians in the field today. He currently teaches college level videogame history, design, and graphics courses. For television, Michael conducted research for MTV's videogame related program Video MODS. In print, he authored Downright Bizarre Games, and has contributed to nearly a dozen gaming texts. Michael’s historical columns have been distributed in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has written business plans for several vendors and managed a dozen game-related retail stores spanning three decades. Michael consults for multiple video game and computer museums and has worked on nearly a hundred game titles on Atari, Coleco, Sega and other console platforms. In 2014, The Guinness Book of World Records declared that Thomasson had “The Largest Videogame Collection” in the world. His businesses sponsor gaming tradeshows and expos across the US and Canada. Visit www.GoodDealGames.com.
