Special Edition Pokemon Yellow Themed Game Boy Color – Console Showcase + Memorial to My Pokemon Gold Team

I would like to dedicate this post to my regular Pokemon Gold team, who after fighting for more than a decade have finally succumbed to the romance between save data and an internal battery and disappeared into the digital void forever. While my party did occasionally vary, I would like to individually name the six Pokemon who regularly joined me on my quest to be a Pokemon Master:

1. Blastoise – My very first Pokemon in Pokemon Blue that readily fought for my alter ego in Pokemon Gold.

2. Mew – My second ever Pokemon in Pokemon Blue that I obtained through one of those promotional events and not through any of the cheat methods that the original generation of games were prone to. My least fondest memory was when I decided to replace Psychic with Psybeam, and my level 100 Mew failed to wipe out a Level 5 Magikarp.

3. Pidgeot – Believe it or not I pretty much completed Pokemon Gold with a Pidgey…..

4. Flareon – The only one of my Pokemon who ever received a nickname “SAMDEF♀”. I attempted to replace him with an Espeon at one point but I always came back to the trusty Flareon.

5. Typhlosion – While I started out Pokemon Blue with a water Pokemon, given that my brother chose a Chikorita and another mate of mine who bought the game earlier went with a Totodile… a slotted myself in with a Cyndaquil. While he/she may have come second to my Pidgey, they were still a valuable member of my team.

6. Seaking – I honestly have no idea why I added Seaking to my party, but I remember trading it over from Pokemon Yellow moments after defeating Whitney’s Miltank in Goldenrod City.

While making a small memorial for my Pokemon online might have been one purpose of this article, this is also in part because I was going through my cupboards the other day and came across this collectible item which saw hundreds of hours of use back in the day until the Game Boy Advance launched in mid-2001.

For those who may not be familiar with anything earlier than the Nintendo DS line of consoles, Nintendo originally entered the portable entertainment market with the Game Boy in 1989 which was bulky, guzzled batteries (Albeit not as badly as some other games) and came with a monochrome screen that was difficult to view if the light facing it wasn’t just right. After a little less than a decade on the market and several other re-releases (Such as a Game Boy Pocket), Nintendo finally released a colour version of the console around the world – and unlike other consoles today almost simultaneously around the world.

Despite having a pitiful selection of launch titles, it had a promising line-up of future releases such as Pokemon Gold and Silver and was completely backwards compatible with earlier Game Boy games (Although not in colour). One of the titles to be released for the console in 1999/2000 was Pokemon Yellow, an enhanced edition of Pokemon Red/Blue that fixed a number of bugs (*Coff* Missingno *Coff*), allowed you to get all three starter Pokemon and cashed in on the popularity of the Pokemon anime series by including many not so subtle references to it. Some of the references included the inclusion of Jessie and James, Ash / Gary being default name options and most notably there only being one starter Pokemon…. Pikachu! Having Pikachu as a starter Pokemon was an interesting decision, especially for newcomers who would find them up against BROCK using rock Pokemon.

One of the special bundles they had going for Pokemon Yellow (or Pokemon: Special Pikachu Edition) was a set including the game cartridge and a Pokemon themed Game Boy Color. This was a special Yellow/Blue themed console with Pikachu, Meowth and Jigglypuff to the side of the screen and when turned on the battery light appears in the center of a Pokeball.

I have no idea how rare this edition was, however I don’t remember knowing anyone who owned this particular edition (or given my age at the time – whose parents were willing to fork out the extra $$$ for the edition). But hard to find or not I hope this article provided you a look at one of my treasured gems from the early days of the Pokemon series, especially with Generation VI starting with Pokemon X and Y this October.

Do you have any memorable Pokemon party members? Have a memorable experience? Is your Pokemon Gold / Silver cartridge still going strong? Share your comments or musings below in the comment box.