Gen I VC Discussion Thread

[pokeslob]

Beating the E4 was an absolute nightmare. I was badly underleveled. I barely 3 or 4HKOed the enemies but they OHKO'ed me back. I had to buy tons and tons of revives/potions. Lance was a piece of cake because of Ice beam freezing his Dragonite, though.[/SPOILER]

i blew through the E4 with mostly lv. 42-45 pokemon, it's a matter of getting the right move types in advance, as well as making sure you buff every pokemon with whatever stat boosting items you find throughout the game

It has been fun playing through the original Red again. The games definitely show their age and there are a lot of features from the current games that I miss here, but it has been full of nostalgic fun. I never thought that I'd get a chance to play these games again. It would be interesting to hear how people who weren't fans when these games were originally release feel about them. They are more playable than I thought they would be, but I'm sure a good chuck of that comes from nostalgia and I don't know how fans who got into the games from one of the later generations would feel about them.

these games are some of the very few I can play over and over again. People can say whatever they want, but the replayability is outstanding for me. My gameboy advanced SP recently took a dump so they announced the VC games at just the right time for me, otherwise I'd have had to hunt for a GBA that wasn't in junk condition...

 

[CynthiaLover]

I finally beat the E4 with this team

Spoiler

Pikachu lv 52
Venusaur lv 51
Blastoise lv 49
Charizard lv 49
Mew lv 50
Sanslash lv 46

Beating the E4 was an absolute nightmare. I was badly underleveled. I barely 3 or 4HKOed the enemies but they OHKO'ed me back. I had to buy tons and tons of revives/potions. Lance was a piece of cake because of Ice beam freezing his Dragonite, though.

I can't say I enjoyed this. I wasn't even going to buy this game, but the connectivity with SunMoon was too good to pass. There are some crazy movesets like No Guard Fissure Machamp, Self-Destruct/Explosion Snorlax etc etc I only got this so I can transfer these mons to the newest games. Other than that, I hated the terrible movesets, broken dynamics, awful speed, OP gargabe (seriously, I can't get over how OP Pidgey and Ratatta are in this). I never want to play Gen I games again.

I have to agree with you. Once the feeling of early excitement expired, the games themselves just became a chore to play. Way too bare bones for me. I've actually stopped playing my Yellow due to how frustrating and time-consuming the Gen I games are. I can beat a classic RPG like Breath of Fire or Golden Sun and still have a good time, no matter how tedious it got, even when I need to explore and grind for hours. Here, I just can't enjoy myself. I often wonder now, after all these years, how I managed to get anywhere in these games way back when. Guess I was just a persistent 10 year-old or something like that. I mean, how can a RATATTA be that seriously OP!? Raticate gave me hell in Cinnabar, which seriously chewed away at my patience. Some may say I'm spoiled by the newer gens, and they may be right, but at least I could have a good time with the newer stuff, even if the difficulty level is lower than in the past. And people wonder why I've grown very tired of hearing anything about Kanto and Gen I. Glad I just bought one game and not the whole set. What a letdown.

 

[GhostLucario]

What are these "etc etc" that you mention? I'm curious cause I like collecting all sorts of pokemon and if there are "crazy movesets" then I want them. ^o__o^;; ALL OF THEM.

well the ones I've been thinking about are

Spoiler

Fissure No Guard Machamp (obvs)
Bubblebeam Articuno (for lols)
Body Slam Kanga/Tauros
Explosion Snorlax
Reflect Eevee for a Reflect Vaporeon/Umbreon (do want) or a tanky Venusaur/Blastoise
Aeriliate Double-Edge Pinsir
Fissure Poliwrath (Mind Reader anyone?)
Mimic and Seismic Toss are moves that can go to many pokemon
Tri-attack serene grace Blissey

really someone should make a thread about this. It's fun.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

Current team all at level 46 (in order of catching/obtaining them):

Charizard (Francie)
Gyarados (J.C.)
Rhydon (Don)
Electabuzz (Bronx)
Aerodactyl (Terra)

Have yet to get the Marsh Badge, though I don't know why I keep putting it off. Then it's Volcano Badge time then the Earth Badge then Elite Four. Then... off to Mewtwo. You know, people complain about Gen VI having a bad postgame, but if you want to see the game with the worst postgame, look no further than Gen I.

These games are fun and if I really hated them I wouldn't even have bothered to continue. As far as these games go for players who have been there since 1998 (or the few of you who actually played these games in 1996), they're great for the purposes of nostalgia and they certainly achieved that, but man, it's just a reminder of why nostalgia shouldn't dictate the greatness of a game. I want to run! I want to see when my Pokemon is going to level up with a level up bar instead of having to check the menu! I want my Pokemon to hold items! I want to be able to move my Pokemon's moves around! I want to run! I don't want limited space in my backpack! I don't want limited TMs! I want an individual icon for each Pokemon in the menu as they all seem to share the same bipedal Charizard-esque sprite! I want the Move Deleter! I want to have rematches with past trainers! Most importantly, I want to run!

Not all has been negative; I do enjoy getting to pick the genders of my Pokemon instead of that being dictated for me, and going into these games again, they are not as difficult as I remembered them. I also don't have to worry about stupid crap like natures. As far as EVs and IVs are concerned, hey, you can't breed so you take what you get. That's pretty neat.

I guess I am spoiled by the mechanics of later generations that made things so much more involved and convenient. Of course, in all fairness, I am glad they released these games for younger generations to enjoy. That element of surprise will be there for them and they get to see how the entire world of Pokemon started.

Now if only they can release Pokemon Stadium for the VC on the Wii U and allow us to use these games for maximum enjoyment.

 

[Poke Trey]

I finally beat yellow with Venusaur, Arcanine, Dewgong, Vilepume, Rapidash, and Golem thanks to VC trading with my bro!

 

[GhostLucario]

I'm almost done completing the Pokedex (thank you Ditto glitch!)
I'm only missing Porygon which is proving VERY difficult, since it is very, very expensive in the game corner, and finding the right stat to trigger it through the ditto glitch is proving hard.

 

[Meowth That's Right!]

I have had so much fun tonight reading through everyone's adventures through Kanto! I'm reliving my childhood through Red version (my original game) with the following friends in my party:

Mew the Mew (still trying to decide on a good nickname for this cutie!)
BB-Eight the Ivysaur
PoeDameron the Pidgeotto
Lightsaber the Pikachu
Finn the Vaporeon
Artoo the Growlithe

My husband challenged me to use only Star Wars-related names for this journey; my trainer name is Rey and my rival is KyloRen. We're currently fighting our way to the 11th floor of Silph Co. to rescue the employees from the clutches of Team Rocket. We look forward to challenging KyloRen and Giovanni once again!

I did have a question for those of you who caught a Mew using the glitch: did your Mew learn Transform? When I raised mine to level 10, it did not learn Transform, so I am curious if this has happened to others.

 

[Blazing Charmander]

Now if only they can release Pokemon Stadium for the VC on the Wii U and allow us to use these games for maximum enjoyment.

That would be the dream. In fact I haven't finished my N64 copy - should really plug it back in and plow through Round 2. I've still got a number of my old Pokemon stored in the N64 Boxes at Oak's Lab, including my treasured first ever Pokemon - a Level 100 Charizard that I received as a Charmander for clearing Gym Leader/Elite 4 Castle.

It's good to see so many people enjoying Gen 1 on the 3DS. I've covered a lot of ground on Yellow in the last fortnight despite starting a new job in that time. After last saving in Saffron City, I scoured every floor of Silph Co, taking care of every Rocket in my path until I found the Card Key. I eventually happened across GARY, whose team outleveled my own but I still managed to defeat him. I then received Lapras from the nearby Silph employee before taking Jessie, James and Giovanni to the cleaners. The grateful President rewarded me with a Master Ball.

With Silph Co liberated I traveled west once more in order to make the trip to Fuchsia City via the Cycling Road. I stocked up on healing items and Poke Balls before challenging Koga, who overwhelmed my team with his Venonat army. We regrouped after a visit to the Safari Zone and barely scraped victory on the second occasion. Afterwards I returned to Saffron City via Silence Bridge, and I triumphed over every trainer in the Fighting Dojo (choosing a Hitmonlee) and Gym before defeating Sabrina for my Marsh Badge.

I am now back in Fuchsia City in preparation for the voyage to Seafoam Islands. Before leaving I really, really want to catch a Tauros but broken Safari Zone mechanics are broken.

Team rotation:

 

[GeekyGamerZack]

I've only made a little more progress in Yellow, though I can't blame myself as I've been really busy enjoying my trip interstate. Here are some highlights:

•I completed the Nugget Bridge challenge, then subsequently caught VENO the Venonat and received CHAR the Charmander

•I visited the Sea Cottage where I helped restore Bill and his Pokémon to normal, earning myself the S.S. Ticket

•I skipped Cerulean Gym (for now) and thrashed a Team Rocket Grunt who robbed a man of his TM28, which I then received as a "reward" for retrieving it

•I received an Old Rod in Vermilion City from the Fishing Guru, which I immediately put to use and caught my very own Magikarp

•I visited Diglett's Cave and caught a Diglett, which I gave an appropriate - and punny - nickname

•I withdrew my Caterpie from Bill's PC...then I immediately realised that I didn't give it a nickname

•I raised my Caterpie to Lv. 10, evolving it into Metapod and again into Butterfree...hm...I think the name "FREE" would be appropriate, since the alternative would be "BUTT", and that's just silly.

Here's my current party rotation:

PIKA (Pikachu) Lv. 18
SAUR (Bulbasaur) Lv. 18
CLEF (Clefairy) Lv. 18
GYARA (Magikarp) Lv. 10
"FREE" (Butterfree) Lv. 10
VENO (Venonat) Lv. 18
DIG-DUG (Diglett) Lv. 19

 

[Tuoko]

Been distracted with other things to actually finish playing through Red...

Here are some things I've done:

• Defeated Lt. Surge
• Got HM Flash
• Captured a Voltorb
• Reached Rock Tunnel's entrance

I had to backtrack to get HM Flash after realizing I forgot about it.

My team right now is...

• Level 41 Charizard
• Level 40 Arbok

I'm planning to hunt down Growlithe after getting to Lavender Town.

I'm thinking of getting a trade-evolution, but I'm not sure if I really want any of them... I was thinking of getting Machamp though.

 

[GeekyGamerZack]

Well, in my play session of Yellow Version last night, I beat Misty and earned the Cascade Badge. My Pokémon have also increased in level, with each party member being at least Lv. 15. Currently, I'm making my way through the S.S. Anne, battling as many Trainers as possible.

I've also begun adding "reserve" members to my parties in each game, as a way of covering alternative strategies and types I'd like to try. In Blue Version, for example, I've added PARA the Paras to my party as a reserve member, in order to take advantage of the most OP sleep-inducing move in the game.

Similarly, I intend to add a Raticate to my party in Red Version, in order to take advantage of the annoyingly-annoying Hyper Fang. And in Yellow Version, I traded LOLA the Jynx from my Blue save file for various reasons, with the main one being to have a party member with Jynx's colour palette (there are ten possible colour palettes for Pokémon in Gen I, and I made sure my party in Yellow would include one of each colour).

My parties in Blue and Yellow are currently as follows (my party in Red is pretty much unchanged from last time):

Blue Version
ZENI (Wartortle) Lv. 30
NIDO-SAN (Nidoqueen) Lv. 30
ROKO (Vulpix) Lv. 29
NYAR (Meowth) Lv. 29
TAMA (Exeggutor) Lv. 30
HARA (Hitmonchan) Lv. 30
GOSU (Gengar) Lv. 30
-
PARA (Paras) Lv. 23

Yellow Version
PIKA (Pikachu) Lv. 19
SAUR (Bulbasaur) Lv. 20
GYARA (Magikarp) Lv. 16
CLEF (Clefairy) Lv. 19
"FREE" (Butterfree) Lv. 15
VENO (Venonat) Lv. 18
DIG-DUG (Diglett) Lv. 19
-
LOLA (Jynx) Lv. 23

 

[Blazing Charmander]

So the Easter break gave me plenty of time to dedicate towards my Yellow playthrough. Having left off previously in Fuchsia City, I am now at the Pokemon League but lost to Lance and his Dragonite on the first attempt. I have a strong core in my team rotation, but I can't decide on which Pokemon would be best to mount another assault with.

Lapras has been a valuable addition to the party and has played an even bigger part than I first anticipated despite playing catch up in levels. I decided to teach it Surf while letting Blastoise keep Water Gun until it later learns Hydro Pump. The idea is that eventually Blastoise will know the Hydro Pump & Ice Beam combo, while Lapras will know Surf and Blizzard (it also knows Thunderbolt which helps greatly).

My team that tackled Victory Road should ring familiar with y'all:

Spoiler

Apart from using Primeape instead of Snorlax, this was also the team that I entered the Pokemon League with.

Also...

Spoiler

My persistence finally paid off. No luck with Chansey, Scyther et al yet though. Another bonus was catching Articuno with one Ultra Ball after sending it asleep and into red health.

 

[Arcalargo]

Ok, I have tried a couple of times but just cannot seem to get it to work. How do I take screen shots from my new 3DS? I've tried "Y" + ^ and it does nothing.

 

[GeekyGamerZack]

After defeating every Trainer aboard the S.S. Anne (including that smug so-and-so GARY) and receiving HM01 from the Captain after helping him with his seasickness, the levels of my Pokémon party in Yellow are finally evening-out.

I'm also considering my options for my party. I'm seriously thinking about switching out GYARA for a Poliwrath (one of my favourite Water-types), and I may opt for Lapras or Squirtle instead of my currently-unnamed Butterfree.

I'm leaning towards either Rapidash or Charmander as my Fire-type Pokémon, and I may also choose to have Dragonite and Golem, which would make having DIG-DUG in my party redundant. Anyway, here's my current party build:

PIKA (Pikachu) Lv. 20
SAUR (Bulbasaur) Lv. 20
GYARA (Gyarados) Lv. 20
CLEF (Clefairy) Lv. 20
"FREE" (Butterfree) Lv. 19
VENO (Venomoth) Lv. 19
DIG-DUG (Diglett) Lv. 20
-
LOLA (Jynx) Lv. 23

Next stop: Rock Tunnel!

 

[dragon_nataku]

Z's Blue Extravaganza pt 4~

Picking up from last time, we headed into the Underground Path south of Cerulean. I talked to a little girl there who instead of a Nidoran or a Machoke she actually had a Poliwag for trade and all she wanted was... a Rattata?! Are you kidding me. ^=__=^;; So we backtracked a bit, caught a stupid rat, and traded it for a Poliwag whose nickname I can't help but translate as "Mista Waggles." Mista Waggles needed some levels so back to grinding for a bit, then headed back into the Underground Path and made our way to Vermilion City (which I've apparently been spelling wrong (with two L's) since the dawn of time, gg Z).

After all that grinding we decided to be stupid tourists again and wandered around trespassing in peoples' homes and talking to everyone in sight. One guy decided to give us a really crappy fishing rod, and another guy who was waaaaaaaay too into his pokemon gave us a bike ticket after fanboying over his pokemon for five hours. A girl wanted some sort of bird (IIRC she wanted a Pidgey instead of a Spearow) for her Farfetch'd so I acquired that, then decided to do the typical stupid tourist thing and hop onboard a cruise ship.

Once inside we found that it was full of trainers! After beating them all up Pancake showed up again, being a snotty brat as usual. Also as usual we beat him up, and then moved on with our lives. We found the captain puking his life away in the cabin. We wondered if perhaps he had chosen the wrong career for himself, and rubbed his back in condolence. Apparently I've got the magic touch, cause he instantly felt better, and gave us our first HM as thanks. We then left, used the HM to get to the gym, and Teeny the Sandshrew completely wrecked Surge's pokemon and those of his lackeys. Surge gave us Thunderbolt after the battle, which I taught to RaiRai the Pikachu. We then ventured into Diglett's Cave and caught some new friends (Nobi the Diglett and Sa the Dugtrio (in my original playing of Blue I caught a Dugtrio here after a very hard-fought battle where it murdered 5/6 of my severely-underlevelled team, and when I went to name it after victoriously catching it I accidentally ended naming it after only putting in "Sa" and can't for the life of me remember what in the name of cheesecakes and misery the rest of the name was going to be but now they are just all "Sa") while levelling a bit, then found ourselves back on Route 2 just outside Pewter when we finally exited.

We grabbed some items, found a guy who wanted a Jigglypuff in exchange for a Mr. Mime so we did that, did a little backtracking to acquire Flash, the Old Amber, DreamEater, and then went back to Cerulean to trade in our bike ticket and headed out onto Route 9. We caught Trap the Voltorb and Bomb the future Electrode, healed at the PokeSen and ventured into Rock Mountain Tunnel. Once inside I tried to catch an Onyx but the game was like "you can't catch this thing!" I wasn't really reading what it said, so for some reason I was like "I guess in this game you can't use pokeballs if you're Wrapped?" since I was wrapped at the time. Accidentally killed the thing, found a Machop, and then actually read the thing when it wouldn't let me catch this one either. Oh. I see. My box is full. *sigh* Fortunately Teeny has Dig, so we dug our way back outside, switched boxes, and then went back to try again. We caught Rokulebra (basically "rock snake") the Onyx, and Zoah and Zangief the Machops. I'll figure out later who to evolve and come back later to get a third one, once I figure out an appropriate name for a third. After this we made our way through the tunnel and ended up in Lavender Town where apparently some old guy has gone missing. Me being a terrible person using out-of-character knowledge I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything inside Pokemon Tower without the Sylph Scope so we headed south to try to get a better fishing rod but found a giant Pokemon sleeping in the middle of the road. We backtracked back to Lavender and headed west into Route 8 and tried to find a Growlithe but as usual these episodes end with my battery going red.

 

[Blazing Charmander]

Ok, I have tried a couple of times but just cannot seem to get it to work. How do I take screen shots from my new 3DS? I've tried "Y" + ^ and it does nothing.

While playing the game, press the Home button on your 3DS and (without closing down the game) open the Miiverse app. This lets you post a screenshot of your game in its current state to your Play Journal or Screenshot Album. After doing that, you can copy and paste the screenshot from a browser version of Miiverse to here or wherever if you so choose.

EDIT - 03/04/2016:

Today I finally conquered the Elite 4 and Champion to induct myself in the Indigo League Hall of Fame. The quickest way I could figure out in terms of levelling my Pokemon to a high enough level was to keep challenging the Elite 4 - the only downside of course being that each time I lost i'd lose money and run out of healing items.

I decided to bench Primeape in favour of Snorlax, who in all honesty ended up playing a bit-part role in my challenge. This meant that once again I was running with Red's team from HG/SS.

Venusaur was very useful thanks to what I can only imagine is one of Gen 1's many notorious glitches. By running Leech Seed and Toxic at the same time, the health replenished through the former move would take into account the extra damage inflicted by Toxic each turn. As you can imagine this was useful if I switched Venusaur out for a teammate, who would then be the beneficiary of the health boost.

After returning to Pallet Town in the aftermath of the Champion battle, I promptly flew on Charizard to Cerulean City and entered the Unknown Dungeon. Here I trained Pikachu to Level 50 and saved the game.

Later I might update this post or make a new one showing some highlights of my journey through a small montage of screenshots.

 

[Azureth]

So like so many I was a gen Ier in that RBY were my first Pokemon games I played (with Blue being the first one I had), and loved everything about it and been a fan ever since. Anyway, with the release of RBY on the eShop it reminded me of how when I played it again a year or so ago (I would get them on my 3DS but need to send it in for repair) it wasn't long before I realized just how limiting the item bag was.

While of course the newer gen games have spoiled us to a lot of new and much appreciated features I have to say after playing the newer games so much the ability to hold SO much more as well as having various pockets for certain types of items is such a god send but naturally back then I at least don't remember it being such an issue, probably was but for my 10 year old self (I just turned 30 as of February, boy do I feel OLLLLLLD!) it wasn't really one. But playing it recently it quickly frustrated me having such limited inventory space and scrolling through trying to find my items.

Two other much appreciated improvements were when using an HM being able to just go up to whatever it was and pressing A rather than needing to go up to it, open your Pokemon menu, scroll to your character and then activate it.

Also how in the newer games if your box was full and you captured a Pokemon it would be sent to the next box without having to switch it over whenever it's full.

Of course RBY will always have a special place in my heart and I will always have nostalgia overload but damn it is amazing to go back and see the things that have been vastly improved!

 

[Arcalargo]

I had forgot how big of a pain it was to change boxes in gen1. Goodness that was a huuuuuge pain.

 

[Juliko]

I had forgot how big of a pain it was to change boxes in gen1. Goodness that was a huuuuuge pain.

Yep. Gen 3 may be polarizing as a whole, but you can't deny they MASSIVELY improved the boxing system to what it is today, and THANK GOD for that! (And why do so many people claim the first games were flawless again?) And yes, later generations fixed the item bag limit to make it unlimited, thank goodness for that.

 

[Like_Fahrenheit]

Spoiler: Part 1

I started Yellow earlier this week. I'm at Cerulean and got Bulbasaur and Charmander, but I'm not placing Bulbasaur on my main team. I've also planned out the rest of my team which I will reveal in future posts. Their names will be based on scientists/researchers on their respective types (eg Mathias Bose for Piakchu)

Mathias - 21 Kelvin - 10

Spoiler: Part 2

I've gotten two more Pokemon on my team, and I've acquired a few more badges. My Pokemon leveled up quicker than I thought they would: 3 of them are in their early 30s, and I just beat Erika. I still have some trainers to beat in Rock Tunnel, not to mention every one on route 8, 10 and whoever's left in Pokemon Tower.

On my way to get the Super Rod to fish me up my next team member.

Mathias - 30 Kelvin - 32 Rhine - 33
Vasily - 25

Spoiler: Part3

I went and caught a Kingler, and taught it Water Gun, which seems to be a waste because Stomp is a much better attack. Glad it's on my team though because it is strong. I finished up beating trainers and managed to get the Soul and Marsh badges. My team is all around 40, and I've reached Cinnabar. I caught my final team mate there, too.

Mathias - 40 Kelvin - 43 Rhine - 41
Vasily - 41 Horton - 41 Rene - 38

I beat the game! Blaine and Giovanni were difficult as was the E4 with my team. I came close to losing a few times battling Lance and my rival. It's been a while since Lance proved challenging.

After that I caught the Legendary birds and Mewtwo. And now, like Red and Blue I just need to complete the Pokedex.

I enjoyed going back to these 3 games, very much. I can't wait to bring my teams over to Gen 7 to battle some more.

Mathias - 49 Kelvin - 47 Rhine - 48
Vasily - 49 Horton - 49 Rene - 47