17. I got my first Pokémon game; Pokémon Ruby, on Christmas Day of 2003, along with the big surprise of getting a Game Boy Advance SP that I hadn't actually asked for.
The first time I played a Pokémon game was when I was around the age of 10, I played some of Pokémon Red or Blue (can't remember which), but mostly, Pokémon Gold/Silver (borrowed), and enjoyed it very much, got through the entire game.
It's cool that it let's you play through both of the two regions, it looked odd having the amount of badges gotten displayed as 16, G/S is the only Pokémon game that has more than one region accessable in it.