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Pokémon

Pokémon is one of the most important game franchises to me. I started playing Pokémon Blue on the original Game Boy as a kid, and as an adult I created Pokémon Type Calculator in 2013.

Pokémon Type Calculator

The Pokémon Type Calculator (pkmn.help) is easily my magnum opus. It receives over 250 thousand visits per month, and visitors usually spend around 4 minutes per session.

What began as a personal project in 2013 when I was frustrated loading the ad-riddled Bulbapedia on my budget Android smartphone is now considered a pillar of the Pokémon community. And I never spent a red cent on advertising it. It grew purely through search engine results and word of mouth.

The 2025 version of Pokémon Type Calculator (light theme)
The 2025 version of Pokémon Type Calculator (dark theme)
The 2025 version of Pokémon Type Calculator (night theme)
The original 2013 version of Pokémon Type Calculator

Pokémon Blue

The first Pokémon game I ever played: Pokémon Blue. I played it on the original Game Boy (DMG-01) unit. It took 4 AA batteries and the screen was barely visible unless under direct sunlight, but I was enamored. I definitely spent hundreds of hours playing the game.

After beating the Elite Four countless times, catching most of the Pokédex, and getting my core party nearly to level 100, disaster struck. It had been so long since I had seen the beginning of the game, I decided to start a new game just to mess around. And in a brief moment of pure muscle memory, I saved my game, overwriting all of my hard earned progress. I was devastated. The whole ordeal left me bitter and uninterested in starting the next Pokémon game (Gold/Silver).

I didn't own and finish a new Pokémon game until Pokémon Platinum (2008) for the Nintendo DS. I have owned and played every main line Pokémon game since then. At some point I went back and played Pokémon Leaf Green, the Game Boy Advance remake of Pokémon Red/Blue.

Pokémon Blue Version for Game Boy

Pokémon Crystal

I ordered the Analogue Pocket in 2020, shortly after I had a surging interest in playing Game Boy games. I had just finished playing Dragon Quest I+II and Dragon Quest Monsters for the Game Boy Color, and I was thrilled to get my fancy new backlight USB-C GB/GBC/GBA compatible device. But it mostly sat in a drawer for a while.

At some point my partner unearthed their old Game Boy cartridges. The save batteries had died, but knowing how to solder, it's not a tough fix. I stepped in and soldered new save batteries into the cartridges. Then a couple years later I got the urge to play their copy of Crystal. Despite not playing Gold/Silver/Crystal in their era, I was a huge Game Boy kid, so I'm enamored with the graphics so far.

I haven't found many good sources of lossless screenshots of pixel art video games online, so I wanted to create a gallery of fun images from my playthrough.

You can hover the images to temporarily turn off the effect.
Pokémon Crystal Version for Game Boy Color
Pokémon Crystal was the first Pokémon game where you could play as a girl.
It's me, Sage. I think it's interesting that the text "ID No." has anti-aliasing, unlike all other text on screen.
I love the tile floor in this little outpost... whatever you call the areas that section off the routes in the game.
The shop is so well designed.
The rival (Silver) is so gender.
This house with a tatami mat floor is so detailed and colorful!
I love the retro cell phone interface for calling people.
Falkner's gym
Falkner's portrait
Between Pidgey and Quilava, Bugsy was a complete pushover.
Some kind of glitch...
I'm so jealous! Raichu is my favorite Pokémon, but you can't get one (unless you get extremely lucky from the egg) until well after you beat the Elite Four :(
Hyuck-hyuck-hyuck!
Feeling this a lot lately.
Gastly using Curse
The Game Corner (gambling)
Hehehe
OMG it's Raichu! My favorite Pokémon.
Vaporeon
Jolteon
Flareon
Espeon
Umbreon
My least favorite thing in Pokémon: catching legendary/mythical Pokémon. Having a 1% chance per ball and just save scumming a fight is not even remotely fun.
Some of the attack animations are really impressive for the Game Boy Color.
I was pretty underleveled for the Elite Four, but by using strong Pokémon instead of my favorites, I was able to win without grinding. Sorry Karen, but I'm an adult with a job, I don't have time to win with my favorites.
That's me! It took about 50 hours including some grinding I didn't really need to do. Plus I left the game idle a bit while playing in docked mode with my Analogue Pocket.
I didn't really want to take any legendary/mythical Pokémon to the Elite Four, but I didn't feel like grinding and Suicune was already at a good level. So they were my backup Ice attack user for Alakazam, and I may have used a Water attack once?
Golem has historically been fantastic on my team, but the Elite Four was better at hitting his weaknesses. He did help out, though.
Alakazam is absurdly good in this game. Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, and Psychic made him an absolute monster.
Gyarados! I feel like he was such a monster in some of the games I played, but I didn't have as much luck with him here. Loading him up first with Surf then with the inferior Waterfall, combined with his lackluster Special Attack, made him mediocre at using his STAB for Water attacks. He mostly just uses Strength and hits hard. But hey, cool free shiny Gyarados, right?
Dragonair! I got the free Dratini from the dragon master guy and then gave him the Exp. Share. I haven't actually used him in combat yet, but I'm excited to eventually get a Dragonite, I guess. But the slow growth rate is brutal.
My starter, Typhlosion. Not as good as I hoped, honestly. He takes way too long to get any decent Fire moves. Putting Rollout on him was pretty great though, since he avoids the array of Rock type weaknesses and has the HP to stay alive long enough for Rollout to become a real threat.
Whew! I did it. I beat the Elite Four. I've heard Kanto is mostly a cake walk after Johto, so I think I'll take the time to go through it.