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Overview
You thought you knew everything there was to know about the world's favorite game of Pocket Monsters, right? Think again! Because in your very hands is the ULTIMATE Pokemon guide, jam-packed with more fun facts and cool information than you ever thought possible! Now, expert gaming author Hank Schlesinger brings you very the latest on:
--Everything you ever wanted to know about the Yellow, Red and Blue versions of Pokemon
--Pokemon trading cards, the Pokemon TV show, and the new Pokemon movie
--Hints, tips, tricks, winning combinations and super trading advice from kids just like you, who have become Pokemon masters
--All the newest Pokemon offshoots, including Pokemon Snap, Super Smash Bros., Pokemon Pinball, and more
--Listings of hundreds of awesome Pokemon websites
--Plus: tons of cool info, hilarious jokes, fabulous lists (including "How to Tell If You're a Pokemon Fanatic"), interesting Poke trivia, and much more!
Special bonus! Exclusive profile of the actor who plays the voice of James, Brock, and many other of your favorite Pokemon on the "Pokemon" animated series!
Pokemon Fever has not been authorized or endorsed by Nintendo or anyone else involved in the creation, manufacture or distribution of Pokemon games, the preparation or broadcast of the "Pokemon" television show, or the creation or production of the Pokemon movie.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250115881 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 03/15/2016 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 254 KB |
About the Author
Hank Schlesinger is the author of many books, including Digimon Power, How to Become a Pokemon Master, and How to Win at Nintendo 64 Games, Vol. 2.
Read an Excerpt
Pokémon Fever
The Unauthorized Guide
By Hank Schlesinger
St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 1999 Hank SchlesingerAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-250-11588-1
CHAPTER 1
A (Really Short) History Of Pokémon
"I heard that Pokémon came from the moon. My brother said that his friends told him that. I don't know where they got the story."
— Zaro
"In 1998, I started liking Pokémon. Halloween came. I wanted a Pikachu costume, but there were none. So I made a homemade Pikachu costume. This year, there's an official costume. That shows how many Pokémon products have been made in the last year."
— Tim
Pokémon, as everyone knows, means "Pocket Monsters," in Japanese. The game was first introduced in Japan in 1996. Kids in Japan loved the game. Kids got a great game to play on their Game Boys. Remember, the Game Boy system had been out for years before Pokémon was around.
Then in 1997 Pokémon became a cartoon show. Kids in Japan watch the same show on TV, only they watch it in Japanese. There's only one character in the cartoon show that has the same voice in both Japan and America. Know what character that is? It's Pikachu.
Then Pokémon came to America in September of 1998. Nintendo of America introduced the game to American kids in Topeka, Kansas, which was renamed ToPikachu for the day. Get it, Topekachu?
And it didn't take kids in the U.S. long to find out that the game was fun. Now it's as popular in the U.S. as it is in Japan. At the Mall of America — a giant shopping mall in Minneapolis, Minnesota — 44,000 kids and their parents showed up for the Pokémon League Summer Training Tour. Now that's a lot of people.
How popular is Pokémon? Real, real popular! In the U.S. there are almost a hundred companies making Pokémon stuff.
But in Japan, Pokémon may even be more popular. All Nippon Airways — Japan's biggest airline — painted Pokémon characters on its planes! Look out! It's a flying Pikachu! Flight attendants wore special Pokémon uniforms and people could buy Pokémon toys on the plane! Even adults are paying attention to Pokémon!
And in Japan, there're also two other versions of the game: the Gold and Silver versions that feature 250 Pokémon! Plus, those games keep time, so you can catch some Pokémon that only come out at night and others that can only be found during the day. Pretty cool, huh? Well, it's only a matter of time before they come to the U.S., too.
What Happened and When with Nintendo and Pokémon and Video Games
1889 — Nintendo starts in Japan. The company that would become a world leader in video games begins by making playing cards, first for Japanese card games and later for U.S. card games.
1951 — Nintendo becomes Nintendo with a name change from Marufuku Co., Ltd. to Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. They even made cards that had pictures of Disney characters on them!
1961 — A computer company called Digital Equipment Corporation gives their most powerful computer to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Students use it for science, but also start making video games on it. One of the first games is called Spacewar and students love it, but computers back then are HUGE and it's not possible to sell it to arcades or home systems.
1963 — Nintendo changes its company name to Nintendo Co., Ltd. and begins making other games in addition to playing cards. Video games still need really big computers to make them work.
1971–1972 — The first coin-operated arcade video games are created. A company called Atari has a game called Pong — which is like tennis — and is a huge hit. Another company, called Magnavox, introduces a home video game, but it doesn't do as well. If you saw those games today, they would seem easy and simple. In fact, your Game Boy is lots more powerful than the computing systems that ran the first super-duper video games.
1977 — Nintendo releases its first home video game system.
1978 — Nintendo starts selling coin-operated video games for arcades.
1981 — Nintendo introduces Donkey Kong, a huge mega-hit in the U.S.
1982–1983 — Game Freak magazine started by Satoshi Tajiri.
1985 — Nintendo introduces the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in America.
1987 — The first Legend of Zelda is introduced for the NES, and it's a smash hit!
1988 — Nintendo Power magazine goes on sale for the first time!
1989 — Game Freak goes into the video game business. It had earlier introduced the video game Quinty in Japan.
1989 — Nintendo introduces Game Boy in the U.S.! It's the first hand-held video game and a huge hit. More than 80 million Game Boys have been sold worldwide since its introduction.
1990 — Mr. Tajiri begins working on what will become Pokémon. It takes six entire years to finish the game.
1990 — Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Pokémon cards, is started by Peter D. Adkison, who once worked for Boeing, a company that makes airplanes. Wizards has a huge smash hit with a card game called Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, which become popular among teenagers.
1991 — The Super NES is released in the U.S.! And so is the Super Mario World game.
1996 — The Red and Green versions of Pokémon go on sale in Japan. It's immediately a huge hit with Japanese kids.
1996 — Pokémon cards go on sale in Japan and Japanese kids love them!
1996 — Nintendo's Nintendo 64 system is introduced and sells more than 500,000 consoles the first day! Soon N64 becomes one of the top-selling video game units in the world!
1998 — Game Boy Color is introduced to U.S.
1998 — Weeks before the release of the actual game, the television series goes on TV in the U.S.
1998 — Nintendo puts Red and Blue versions of Pokémon on sale in the U.S. Kids in America love the game as much as Japanese kids.
1998 — Viz Comics publishes first Pokémon comic called: Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu #1 in November. The comic is an immediate hit and sells out almost instantly.
1999 — Wizards of the Coast introduces Pokémon cards — the trading and playing craze begins.
1999 — Pokémon Pinball is introduced. It's the first Game Boy game with a built-in rumble pack in the cartridge.
1999 — Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Yellow go on sale in stores in the U.S.
1999 — Pokémon: The First Movie, originally titled Mewtwo Strikes Back in Japan, starts playing in U.S. movie theaters.
1999 — Gold and Silver Pokémon go on sale in Japan!
2000 — Pokémon Stadium and the Gold and Silver versions go on sale in the U.S.
Who Is Satoshi Tajiri?
If one person is responsible for Pokémon, that person is Satoshi Tajiri. According to video game legend, he always liked — no, that's loved — video games. Even when he was still in college, he started a magazine called Game Freak, which was about arcade games.
Does the name Game Freak sound familiar? It should. Look on the back of your Pokémon cartridges or instruction manuals and just about anything else related to Pokémon and you'll see the Game Freak name.
Mr. Tajiri became known all over Japan as a video game expert. He went on television and radio to talk about video games. Soon, he was making his own games. Way back in 1987 he designed Quinty for the Nintendo Entertainment System (called the NES). Then he and his team at Game Freak designed a bunch of other games, some only sold in Japan. One of them was called Mario & Wario for the Nintendo system. Another one, called Yoshi's Egg, was sold in the United States for the Game Boy system.
Then, back in 1990, he began working on Pokémon along with another company called Creatures, Inc. It took a long time to make Pokémon — six years! But it was worth it.
Who knew that Pokémon would be so popular? Well, I think I did. A year or so before Pokémon came out there was a toy called Tamagotchi. And it was a big hit in Japan and America. "Tamagotchi" means "loveable egg" in Japanese. If you're not old enough to remember, the toy looked like a pocket watch and there was a little screen, kind of like the one on the Game Boy. There was a little digital pet in there that you had to feed, put to bed, and take care of when he or she got sick. If you didn't take care of your Tamagotchi, it got sick and died — then you had to press the re-set button.
Every time your Tamagotchi needed something, like food, it would "beep." Okay, I admit it, I bought one and soon I felt like an idiot. The darned thing kept beeping. It beeped in movie theaters. It beeped in elevators. It beeped when I was in the bathroom! Finally, I said, "That's it! This Tamagotchi is toast!" I put it in the drawer. Did I feel guilty? Yeah, but the thing was annoying me.
Then one day I noticed a couple of kids playing with their Tamagotchis. They were having a contest to see who could kill their digital pet first. They liked their digital pets, but wanted them to do more. Pokémon was made for kids like that.
Bugs and Pokémon!
According to Pokémon legend, Mr. Tajiri liked to collect insects as a kid. This is still a popular hobby in Japan for kids and adults. The most popular insect to collect is called the stag beetle. Those who collect the stag beetle in Japan don't pin them on boards, like you sometimes see with butterfly collections in museums. They collect the bugs live — and raise them as pets. They have stores that sell nothing but bugs for collectors.
I know, I know, some of you are saying, "Yuck!" But the stag beetle isn't just any bug. It's really very beautiful and mean-looking. It has pinchers on its head and its gleaming black. It's pretty cool. It even kind of looks like a Pokémon.
As a matter of fact, one very large stag beetle in Japan that was over three inches long was sold for more than $90,000!
CHAPTER 2Is Pokémon The Same In Japan As It Is In The United States?
That's a good question, I'm glad I asked it. The answer is yes and no. The basic game is pretty much the same. You still have to catch the Pokémon and train and evolve them. You still have to battle gym trainers.
However, most of the names are different. Just as the English version of the names sorta sounds like a character — Snorlax, for instance — the Japanese names also mean something. And your character is not called Ash Ketchum in Japan, he's called Satoshi!
Here are some other names that have been changed in the game and television show when Pokémon came to America.
Professor Oak
Professor Okido
Meowth
Nyase
Gary
Shigeru
Misty
Kasumi
Brock
Takeshi
Jessie
Musashi
James
Kojiro
Officer Jenny
Officer Junsa
One name that hasn't changed is — Pikachu! When we think of Pika we think of a cute little yellow guy. The name in Japanese — pika — means spark or flash. And that pretty much describes him, doesn't it?
Also, there are different-colored games in Japan. In America, Pokémon comes in Red and Blue — and, yes, Yellow! When it was first introduced in the U.S., you could either get Red or Blue. However, when it was first introduced in Japan back in 1996, the two colors were Red and Green. Later, they added a Blue version for Japanese kids.
So are they different? Well, sort of different. The Red versions in the U.S. and Japan are pretty much the same. The Blue version in the U.S. is similar to the Green version in Japan. There are some small differences, such as the names of the Pokémon and some of the situations, but the basic Pokémon characters — the pictures — are pretty much the same.
By the time you read this, Japanese kids will have two new Pokémon colors — Gold and Silver. These games won't be released in the U.S. for months and months. There are a lot of rumors flying around about the Gold and Silver versions. I don't like printing rumors, but I do know this for a fact: the new versions are in color and there are a lot more Pokémon characters. There is also a clock that you have to set when you start playing and the time of day changes. So there are daytime Pokémon and nighttime Pokémon. Pretty cool, huh?
The Japanese Game You Will Probably Never Play
Last year Japanese kids got a real video game treat. It was called Pikachu Genki Dechu. That means, "Pikachu is feeling good" in Japanese. The game was designed for the Nintendo 64 (N64) system and it features a headset with a microphone as well as a standard N64 controller.
The game works like this: you go looking for Pikachu in the woods. Once you find him you talk to him by using the headset microphone and he responds to your commands. You can make him happy or sad, depending on what you say. And you can play some simple mini-games with him.
It sounds like a lot of fun, but even if you managed to get a game, it would be very difficult to play. Why? Because it is programmed so that Pikachu only responds to Japanese words.
What Do All Those Weird Names Mean, Anyway?
Okay, maybe you don't care what any of the names mean and you just like playing the game. But it's fun to see how things are named in a video game. When Pokémon was brought over from Japan to be sold in the U.S., they renamed a lot of things. That's because a lot of the Japanese names just wouldn't make sense to American kids. Plus, they would be really hard to remember.
For instance, Koffing (#109) does sound a lot like coughing. And Krabby (#98) does look like a crab. And then there's Horsea (#116) and his name fits him perfectly, because he does look like a sea horse! And Hypno's (#97) name fits him, because he can hypnotize during his attacks. And Arcanine (#59) does look like a dog, otherwise known as a canine!
And if you reverse the letters in Ekans, look what it spells! Same thing with its evolved form, Arbok — backwards it's KOBRA ( — though the correct spelling of the snake is "Cobra"). Cool, huh?
So the names do mean something. They either describe what the Pokémon looks like or the kinds of powers it has. Personally, I think this is pretty cool. This is also a great idea because it helps players to remember attributes about their Pokémon without having to go back to a book or the Pokédex every two minutes.
Even the people have pretty cool names, like Ash Ketchum — well, yes, the last name is Ketchum, as in "catch them," but his first name, Ash, is a type of tree that is very strong. Professor Oak is also named after a strong tree.
Some of the names are not quite as simple. For instance, Jesse and James. Well, Jesse James was an outlaw back in the Old West and not such a nice guy.
Now, unless you have really been doing your Poké-homework, I bet you don't quite realize what a colorful place the Poké-world is. Here's a little dictionary of what the place names mean in the game.
The Colorful World of Pokémon
Pallet Town: There're a lot of different meanings for the word "pallet." Usually it is a tool, like for making pottery. It helps to round out the clay as it goes around and around. But it can also be a wooden platform to hold things. If you have ever seen a warehouse and the wooden things on which boxes are stacked, they are called pallets.
Viridian City: Viridian is a kind of paint color that artists use. It's mostly used to describe a color that is blue and green.
Pewter City: Pewter is a kind of metal that has tin, lead, and brass in it. When you see it, pewter is usually silver in color.
Cerulean City: Cerulean, yep, a dye that is usually skyblue.
Vermillion City: Vermillion, like viridian, is a kind of paint dye that artists use, but it's bright red, so the color of that kind of bright scarlet red is often just called vermillion.
Lavender Town: Lavender — yes, it's another color, kind of a pale or faded purple color.
Celadon City: Celadon, yep, it's another color — this one is sea-green.
Fuchsia City: Well, fuchsia is a type of flower — but guess what? — yes, it's also used to describe a color: purplish-reddish.
Safari Zone: Everyone knows that safari is a hunting trip in Africa, but the word is really a Swahili word — that's a language and a people in Africa — and it means a journey or trip.
Cinnabar Island: Cinnabar is a bright red color, and as a matter of fact, many people use Vermillion and Cinnabar to describe the same color.
Indigo Plateau: Indigo is another type of dye or pigment used by artists. It is kind of a deep blue.
Are You a Poké Fanatic?
Here are 10 Ways to Tell If You Play Too Much Pokémon
1) There's over $5 billion worth of Pokémon stuff sold in the world. You made your parents buy $4 billion of it for you.
2) You keep asking your parents when your baby brother or sister will "evolve."
3) You keep asking your parents when your teenaged brother or sister will "evolve." (Don't worry about this: your parents are probably asking themselves the same question.)
4) You traded the family dog for a Jigglypuff.
5) You can name every single Pokémon, but can't find Texas on a map and think Weepinbell could have once been the president of the U.S.
6) You think your teacher might be a secret member of Team Rocket.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Pokémon Fever by Hank Schlesinger. Copyright © 1999 Hank Schlesinger. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Copyright Notice,
Get the Lowdown On ...,
Dedication,
I'M WRITING ANOTHER POKÉMON BOOK!,
A (REALY SHORT) HISTORY OF POKÉMON,
IS POKÉMON THE SAME IN JAPAN AS IT IS IN THE UNITED STATES?,
ARE YOU A POKÉ FANATIC? (Here are 10 Ways To Tell If You Play Too Much Pokémon),
POKÉMON STUFF (and there's a lot of it!),
POKÉMON CARDS,
POKÉMON PINBALL,
SUPER SMASH BROS.,
POKÉMON SPECIAL PIKACHU EDITION: YELLOW VERSION,
POKÉ TV STARS,
THE MANY VOICES OF POKÉMON!,
POKÉ MOVIE STARS!,
POKÉMON SNAP,
NEW UPDATED POKÉMON GLOSSARY,
POKÉMON ON THE INTERNET,
THE END?,
St. Martin's Paperbacks titles by Hank Schlesinger,
About the Author,
Copyright,