The first set of cards was released on October 20, 1996, containing 102 cards, and became very popular. Due to high sales, Pokémon Red and Green were swiftly followed up with Pokémon Blue, which had improved graphics and sounds.Īfter the games, a Pokémon Trading Card Game was developed by Media Factory with its own set of rules. The contest received 78,000 entrants, and the sales of the Pokémon games quickly increased. However, after players discovered Mew in the games, the magazine CoroCoro announced a 'Legendary Pokémon Offer' to distribute Mew to twenty entrants. Initially, the Pokémon games had modest sales. The first Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Green Versions, came to the Nintendo Game Boy system in Japan on February 27, 1996, which was the fulfillment of Satoshi Tajiri's dream and allowed people of all ages to catch, train and trade 151 creatures and become a Pokémon Master. Five employees quit due to the financial conditions, and Tajiri worked many unpaid hours. The project nearly drove Game Freak to bankruptcy. However, Game Freak planned to keep the 151st Pokémon hidden from the public unless it was needed for a post-launch event.

The original artwork for the games was drawn by Tajiri's friend, artist Ken Sugimori, while the music and sound effects were composed by Junichi Masuda.Īfter debugging was completed, Shigeki Morimoto programmed Mew into the game. Due to trademarking issues, the name 'Capsule Monsters' was changed to 'Pocket Monsters'. After several failed attempts at pitching this idea to Nintendo, Tajiri's new friend Shigeru Miyamoto pitched it to the company, and Nintendo began to fund the project, spending six years developing the games that would become a worldwide sensation. Together, these two sources gave him the idea for a new game called Capsule Monsters. Tajiri was also heavily influenced by the Ultraman fantasy television show, Ultra Seven, in which the protagonist used giant monsters contained within small capsules to help him fight. When Tajiri discovered the Game Boy and the Game Boy Game Link Cable, it gave him the image of insects traveling along the wire. With the help of Ken Sugimori and other friends, Tajiri formed Game Freak and much later the design studio known as Creatures.

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