Retro Bits: Pokémon

(Published on August 8th 2016)

Pokémon means “pocket monster” Japan.

The concept of Pokémon came from the creator’s childhood fascination of collecting bugs.

The Pokémon Koffing and Weezing were originally supposed to be names Ny and La because of the smog that New York and Los Angeles are known for.

When the Pokémon cartoon was first being planned, Ash was going to be given a Clefairy instead of a Pikachu. If this had happened it would have made a Clefairy the official Pokémon mascot.

Speaking of the Pokémon cartoon, Ash never actually caught them all.

There were only 151 Pokémon in the original Game Boy games. Today there are over 700.

The Pokémon Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee are named after Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.

Due to a programing error in the original Pokémon games, it is possible for the player to trigger a Pokémon named MissingNo, which stands for Missing Number. This glitch occurs when the game tries to pull non-existent data.

Satoshi Tajiri is the creator of the Pokémon franchise, and responsible for one of the most popular video games series in the last 20 years. He is a billionaire five times over. Satoshi is also autistic. Moral of the story? Don’t let anything stand in your way, ever.