While I loved many classic games, I normally could only play games like Genesis, Super Nintendo, NES, or N64, though emulators and roms. This also meant that I came across a few hacks in my time. I'm not much of a modern gamer, and due to the lack of consoles, I consider myself a PC gamer. But then comes the issue of money, where I don't have much, I'm kind of a pirate when it comes to games. Well, to the point, a few years ago, my Dad had got an N64 for me and my brother. The first games we had for it, were Toy Story 2, Aidyn's Chronicles, Pokemon Stadium 2, and Star Wars Rouge Squadron. Now he said the only reason that he got the system, is because Star Wars Rouge Squadron, was the only game you couldn't play correctly on an emulator. It took about 2 years, until I got Super Mario 64 and some kind of racing Star Wars game...you can tell me and my Dad were Star Wars fans pretty much, so what? Anyways, to the point. That's just the start of everything. Back to Pokemon Stadium 2, this game wasn't the best, but all it really was, was a game that allowed you to battle. Sure there were the mini-games, but whatever. A few weeks later, my Dad got Pokemon Silver, and that thing that allows you to plug Gameboy Cartridges into the Save Card slot. I loved this game on an emulator, but I never finished it due to me never getting surf in the game. Whatever, well my Dad tried it out, and it worked! But the thing is, the game didn't start where you would expect it to. Ash, I think the character's name was in the profile, was apparently going to Union Cave in the game. My Dad questioned the fact that the last owner got by the first gym leader, with a Cyndaquil that didn't evolve. He just erased the file, played the game, then I came into the picture. Now, we will find out about my experience.
My Dad hadn't finished the game yet, and I came in, fought the 8th Gym Leader, Clair, then she told me to go behind the gym into the Dragon's Den. I didn't really care, and did as she said. I don't know why I felt strange about beating Clair though, maybe it's because I was using my Dad's file? Still, I wasn't sure for some reason. I went into the Dragon's Den, and this is when it seemed to go wrong. All the color disappeared from the game...it looked like I was playing this on a normal gameboy, I didn't know what to do, and it's just shocking to see this. I looked in my items, they were all gone. So were my Pokemon. I even looked at my profile, and it seemed as if I didn't have any badges. I was stunned, I wasn't sure what had happened, and knew this wasn't normal, even without playing the game all the way without my Dad's help, this was insane! I decided to keep going, walked around, and found myself walking on water. All Jesus jokes aside, this was serious! I wasn't sure how this happened, but as I kept walking, I saw a man. I walked up to him, and he told me that I wasn't ready to fight the Elite Four. He just knew, or he noticed that I had no badges or Pokemon, but he just knew something. He didn't say anything, the screen flashed, and everything seemed normal again. I was in a Poke`Center, and I checked everything again. I had my badges back, all of my items, but the only thing I was missing, was my Pokemon. I walked over to the PC, looked at Bill's PC, and checked to see my Pokemon, they were all there, seemingly safe. I tried to select them, but all I got was a message stating,"They won't come near you. They want to stay in the PC." Once again shocked, I decided to just sit there, thinking. "Maybe if I reset the N64, and check my game, everything will go back to normal...", yeah, and after all the stories I've read, I thought that was a good idea. I took it into thought that just in case, I should probably save before reseting, hoping that it doesn't save my lack of Pokemon. That was kind of dumb on my part...
I saved, reset, and then...nothing. I turned the console off, got the cartridges, both Pokemon Stadium 2 and Pokemon Silver, and blew into them. I put them back into there respective slots, started to play again, and to my suprise, everything was normal...if you count a giant creepy Pikachu dancing on the screen normal. Nothing else appeared, and I even tried to press every button, even move the D-Pad around. I don't know what was going on, and I just turned around to see my Dad walking by the room and looking at the screen, "What the fuck happened?", he asks, as I give him the appropriate answer of, "I don't know!" He sat down on my bed, next to me, and looked at the screen with me. Then the music from Pallet Town played, and it seemed kind of happy again, but still pretty screwed up. As the music played, the dancing Pikachu faded, and turned into me at the Poke`center again. My Dad, not knowing what was going on, just leaves in confusion. I finally find the time to look at my surroundings. While the Pallet Town music is still playing, I see no other NPC character in sight. I walk out of the Poke`Center, and find myself in Goldenrod City, with the Pallet Town music now fading. I look at my menu to see if my Pokemon are there, and they were, amazingly. Once again, no other NPC in sight, so I just used a flying Pokemon, not even caring which, to get out of Goldenrod. I flew to New Bark, and I realize that I can swim in the water now! I walked over to swim, not thinking about the lack of NPCs in New Bark, which I didn't care about, and I swam to Kanto. This was the first time that I knew of this, or at least I think so. This actually was the most normal thing that has happened so far, and this is the first NPC I saw in a while, so I guess it would make sense. I walk around, go to Pallet Town, and I hear the Lavender Town theme. How did I know this would happen...
As I walked around, I kept going up, seeing the lack of NPCs again, and I walked constantly, until I reached the first gym leader of Kanto, Brock. No trainers were in the Gym, and all I saw was Brock. I walked up to Brock, and the closer I got to Brock, the more color seemed to be lost in the area. Once I reached him, he disappeared, and my character seemed to fly by himself. He flied to an area I had never been too, the Indigo Plateu, he walked up to the entrance, and I smiled strangely. I don't know why, but I did...
As he walked up the plateu, once again lacking in NPCs, he just didn't stop. He kept going, screen still black and white. He reached water, and for some reason, disappeared, as the screen moved. In the trail of where he was going, the water seemed to be tracing a grey line. The screen got to the other side, and the character appeared again. Was he swimming in the water himself? He kept walking until he finally reached a sprite after walking through another door. I was finally in control again, and walked over to the NPC, as the screen grew dark. That NPC disappeared again. The Lavender Town music still playing, now fading. I kept moving, and went into the next three rooms, as the screen got darker and darker, and the music got quiter and quiter...by the final room, it had gotten so dark, I couldn't see anything. No matter where I went, I heard the character walking into a wall, I stopped moving, thinking of turning the console off, when I heard the sound of what seemed like a knife cutting into something. The screen filled brightens again, as the colors are back. The character is supposedly on the ground, near the water again, as I see the true color of what was originally completely grey traces in the water. Instead, now that everything was colored again, the traces became crimson, and as if the color itself were solid, the character crawled by itself. The 8-bit sprite had a depressing feeling to it's looks, as if it were crying, as if it were alive, and crying. As the character crawled, it's crawling began to slow down even further. Music began playing lightly in the background, as if a slower form of the Pallet Town theme was playing. It began to lower in pitch as the game began to lag, seeing the water animation slow down even more. The water began to change to multiple colors, as the character was once tile away from getting off the crimson platform. It soon disappeared beneath the character, as he falls under the water, somehow not thinking of grabbing the ledge.
The water acted like a whirl pool, as he was pulled in to the middle, spinning. The screen moved up, as the text message appeared, telling me, "I told you, that you weren't ready!" The water began to change completely crimson, as the screen fades to darkness. My character is in a room, facing up...or face on the floor, I don't know. My Dad walked by the room again, and we read the text together, as it appeared, "Daniel, are you there? Did you leave me?", my father just shook his head. I tried walking out of the bedroom, handing my controller to my father, he told me to stop. Another textbox appeared saying,"Forget your son! Play with me.", my Dad put down the controller, looked at me, and I felt like he wanted me to walk forward, for some reason. I picked up the controller, and another message appeared,"You are not Daniel! You do not deserve to play the game! You took his file! You tried to beat the Elite Four, on his file! You must die!" I put down the controller. I looked at Dad, and he walked up, and talked to the screen,"Whoever you are, show yourself!", he picked up the controller, and the screen showed another message,"No. If I am to show myself, Josh must be destroyed.", I looked at my Dad, as he stares at me. We both hear the backdoor open slowly, and hear a voice from the kitchen, as the text box states something as well. The voice was a horrible, scratchy, sickly sounding voice, speeking in a dark and depressing tone, "Come out, come out, where ever you are!" Dad told me to hide in my brothers bed, as he goes out to check. He walks forward, and I don't see him, while I hear my brother scream, and the sound of liquid dropping on the soft carpet. My Dad comes back to the bedroom, opens up the window, and tells me to jump out and save myself, I do so, and run. Not wanting to go back, I only look back to where I'm leaving, as I see a man with a crystal mask, silver robes, and gold hands running after me. He trips over his strange clothing, as he falls, and shatters his masks, crystals going everywhere. Now a greedy, insane person would go back after it, and pick the crystals up, but I was running for my life. I only see a glimpse of him, as he gets up, and see his grey eyes, and the charred skin of his face. I kept running, but tired quickly, after running for so long, and trying my best to run, my body wasn't up to it, and I fell down, and tired out.
I woke up, not sure what had happened. I looked around, and the TV was on, my Dad was there, I was back at the house. I heard my brother scream again, but it wasn't as blood curdling as before, and I realized that on the screen, the character got up, and looked around on his own. Another text box appeared stating that Dan, the character, had fainted. The character himself, fainted. Yet the sprite looked as good as before the problem started. I got the character to move, as the screen began to brighten. The area the character in, resembles my house. Where my brother is in real-life, sitting near a computer, is where a sprite is, sitting near a PC. The sprite for him, looked like a kid in the game, as if to say he was a mere child. My father looked like a normal character sprite resembling a man, and behind my brother's sprite, was the rival character's sprite for Silver. In my place, was Dan. I couldn't move him, but it looked like he was on a bed like I was, facing the screen, with the sprite of a game console and TV in front of him. I got up, and so did Dan get off the bed. I moved to the dresser, he moved toward his shelf. I walked over to my Dad and asked a question, and I had realized text appeared on screen,"What's going on? Where am I?" My Dad in both the game, and in real-life did not answer, and I walked passed him, and looked at my brother. The creepy man just stared at me, until he said something,"You are now in your own world of Pokemon...just like you are the playable character, you have no brother anymore, soon your father will be gone, and all you will be left with is your mother. This is your own personal hell...to live the events in the game, and I mean exactly!", he tells me, as he jumped toward me, grabs onto me, and cuts my tounge. "And now...let the games begin!"
Everything fades, as all I can see is a clock, and all I can hear is a voice asking me if the time is right. I try and say yes. The area flashes white, as I see an old man. He tells me of the world of Pokemon, and asks for my name. I write it down for him, Josh. I am now in a room, I walk downstairs to find my mother, who gets me ready for my big day. I walk over to a giant building, and find what looks like a girl, looking at the building on the other side. I go to try and at least interact with her. I knew who she was...but I did it anyway.