Okay, so when I was a kid, when Pokémon Gold and Silver first came out, I made it my mission to catch them all in Pokémon Gold. I traded from my recently completed pokedex in Yellow (I had 150 Pokémon, but no knowledge of the Mew glitch yet), and even traded a bit from Silver, and I worked long and hard to see to it that I caught 249 Pokémon and aside from Mew and Celebi, complete the Pokedex. Now, the Pokémon movies were pretty much how I eventually learned what Pokémon I was actually missing in my Pokedex. Because I had no access to any strategy guides and the internet was still in its infancy, I was pretty much on my own when it came to completing the Pokedex. I have no idea how I learned how to specifically evolve my Kingler, Steelix, Scizor, etc., but I assume I asked some of the fellow kids. I had over 230 Pokémon registered as caught--I was still looking for Smoochum (never thought to ***** out Ditto nor considered Jynx as strictly female-only), Raikou, Entei, and a few other stragglers, and just like that.....
The save battery had died. I played the game so much for so long that I lost everything! Man did that bum me out from 2nd generation for a while. Thank goodness for emulation because my GSC cartridges are all pretty much dead at this point, and I have lost not only my link cable but also my other Gameboys. But man what an epic run that was. And I had a ton of fun dealing with my own financial bankruptcy in Yellow in order to grind out my 150 Pokémon the hard way. I had put in over a hundred hours before defeating the Elite 4 for the first time in Yellow, and I traded extensively with my Pokémon Red version as well (and eventually Blue because I was still missing Magmar and Meowth). But I didn't just get some of these Pokémon from trading myself, but also from trading with other kids in my elementary school--where I lost my original Gameboy pocket (I had eventually got my hands on another, as well as a Gameboy Color that I nearly lost as well). But man, was that such euphoria when I first completed the Pokedex in Yellow version, and such disappointment when I came so close to doing so in Gold only to lose everything in a blink of an eye.
And now, as a grown man, I have caught 719 Pokémon out of a total of 721 Pokémon. I need to catch Meloetta (which I have yet to see) and Genesect, and I will finally have at least one copy of each and every Pokémon in the 6th Gen national Pokedex. Specifically in Omega Ruby version! Guess some things don't really change, but what can I say?
