Pokémon GO and the other representatives of the franchise are hardly thinkable nowadays. A detail in the documentation of the Game Boy sparked the idea that led to the birth of the franchise.
Satoshi Tajiri is the creator of the Pokémon franchise. From a young age, Tajiri had a great interest in insects and wanted to become an insect researcher. In his class, he was aptly nicknamed Dr. Bug.
Most people know that this interest was one of the key factors that inspired him in the later development of Pokémon. However, the actual spark of inspiration came to him only after he read the documentation of the Game Boy.
The Origins of Game Freak
From magazine to video game studio: After Tajiri and Ken Sugimori founded the magazine Game Freak, they later decided to take a different path. Thus, the magazine Game Freak became a studio for video game development.
The first development of the studio was the game Mendel Palace, which was released in 1989 for the NES. This game was the studio’s first notable success and generated €300,000 in profit.
Subsequently, the studio decided to acquire a developer kit from Nintendo for the Game Boy, which was also released in Japan in 1989, in order to develop games for it. And in doing so, Tajiri discovered a detail that would ultimately lead to the creation of Pokémon.
A Cable, Many Possibilities
What detail is it? In the documentation for the Game Boy, Tajiri read about the link cable. When this cable was connected to 2 Game Boys, it was possible to exchange data between the games of the Game Boys. This fact sparked a moment of inspiration for Tajiri.
In the past, he had played the game Dragon Quest on the NES with Ken Sugimori. The final boss in the game had a very low probability of dropping an item.
While Sugimori had already received the item twice after just a few attempts, Tajiri simply could not get it to drop after many tries. There was no way to trade the item between save files. And this is precisely the problem that the link cable could solve.
The idea of collecting monsters, similar to how he collected insects in his childhood, and then being able to trade them with friends using a link cable excited Tajiri. The thought solidified in Tajiri’s mind so much that he pitched the idea to Nintendo.
Nintendo believes in the idea: Nintendo saw the potential in the idea and gave Tajiri the green light to start development. The development would take a full 6 years until, on February 27, 1996, the first generation of Pokémon was released in Japan and, in the following years, in other parts of the world.
While Tajiri increasingly withdrew from the public eye and interviews with him became rarer over time, the success story of Pokémon took its course.
With over 70 video games, more than 20 movies, and an anime that has over 1,100 episodes, the Pokémon franchise is one of the most successful of all time today.
And even today, new content is still being released for the franchise. For the year 2025, Pokémon Legends Z-A has already been announced.
What do you think about this detail in the story of Pokémon? Did you already know about it, or was it new to you? Do you have a part or a generation in the long history of Pokémon that particularly stands out in your memory? Feel free to let us know in the comments. If you are also out in Pokémon GO, check out the events in June 2024 in Pokémon GO.
