2003

• sapphire: (2003, gba) op sceptile + 5 randos
  • where it all began! various scattered memories include:
    • fighting winona over and over until my lv. 60-something sceptile could break through her final 2 mons that quad-resist leaf blade
    • getting lost on the water routes and thinking that was just how the game goes
    • ko'ing kyogre in the parking lot of tj's because i thought it was evil
    • not finding the master ball in the aqua hideout and then losing it forever
    • being in the basement of my grandparents' while deciphering the regi braille, asking my mom if i could have one try to catch registeel at full health before bed, and promptly catching it in the first ultra ball. this was literally jaw-droppingly astonishing to me but not quite the same to her but she smiled along with me :)
    • regice on the other hand took like 8 billion tries
    • once again getting stuck on drake bc of his mons that resisted leaf blade from a lv 80-something (if not 90-something...) sceptile
    • memories of the berry glitch but not knowing what it was, just that sometimes trainers that used to give items / lilycove lottery / other daily events didn't happen anymore
    • sitting in a hair cuttery (getting my haircut?) while evolving a lairon into aggron
    • navigating my way through granite cave during hurricane isabel
    • ok i swear i have this memory of finding and catching a seedot in sapphire in like my first week of playing except i didn't save and then my mom came and turned the power off on my gameboy. i would later learn that seedot was a ruby exclusive. after learning about cosmic bit flips as an adult and seeing that it was possible for a wurmple to bit-flip into a seedot i had that as my "sure i guess that's what happened" explanation but idk. more likely a false memory but it's what my brain tells me so
    • "I guess you're off to deliver that letter to, who was it now, STEVEN!" and thinking that my delivery target was something i should have remembered and he was just addressing me at the end of the sentence

2004

• crystal: (2003/2004, gbc) op feraligatr + 5 randos
• ruby: (2004?, gba) op swampert + 5 randos
• leafgreen: (2004, gba) venusaur, nidoqueen, snorlax, lapras, flareon, chansey
  • i definitely did not beat leafgreen as a kid bc i only raised my venusaur, and got stuck on the rival battle before victory road bc i kept losing to his charizard and never used the vs seeker to get more money. i fought him again in high school (~2011) and my snorlax got a lucky metronome into leech seed, which combined with thick fat meant i finally could beat him. i caught zapdos before fighting the e4 for an actual second pokemon above like level 40. then finally played through the rest of the sevii islands about 7 years late, oopth. i remember being ok with this game as a kid but it didn't grip me the same way that the hoenn games did.

2005

• silver: (2005, gbc) bayleef + ? (owned this game but lost it while moving houses or something)
• emerald: (2005, gba) op sceptile + 5 randos

2006

2007

• red: (2007?, gb) (owned this game but barely played it. gave it to a younger kid at church when i was in high school)
• diamond: (2007, ds) op torterra + 5 randos

2008

• pearl: (2008, ds) empoleon + ? (i don't think i actually beat it on my first playthrough, just stopped)

2009

• platinum: (2009, ds) infernape, ?

2010

• soulsilver: (2010, ds) meganium, lugia, ?

2011

• ruby(2): (2011?, gba) sceptile, groudon, flygon, aggron, zangoose, sharpedo (nuzlocke)
• white: (2011, ds) serperior, mienshao, krookodile, stoutland, carracosta, lilligant

2012

• emerald(2): (2012?, emu) sceptile, camerupt, gardevoir, swellow, manectric, crawdaunt
• black2: (2012, ds) samurott, magmortar, lucario, gigalith, ampharos, golurk

2013

• firered: (2013, emu) blastoise, raichu, graveler, pidgeot, primeape, dragonite
• x: (2013, 3ds, 89h) chesnaught, doublade, gardevoir, raichu, talonflame, blastoise

2014

• alpha sapphire: (2014, 3ds, 126h) sceptile, aggron, ninetales, xatu, manectric, crawdaunt

2015

• pearl(2): (2015, ds, 36h) empoleon, luxray, staraptor, mismagius, hippowdon, bibarel

2016

• yellow: (2016, 3ds vc, 24h) pikachu, venusaur, blastoise, charizard, snorlax, primeape
  • my first real romp through gen 1 kanto, which i didn't do much as a kid despite owning red. was fun looking up glitches to do (e.g. mew) as well. this team feels pretty standard for yellow, primeape is probably the only "surprise" pick. but i remember enjoying it while i played -- though the lack of postgame means i didn't spend a ton of time in the game afterward.
• soulsilver(2): (2016, ds) feraligatr, alakazam, ampharos, ninetales, ursaring, lugia
• sun: (2016, 3ds, 60h) decidueye, ribombee, salazzle, oricorio, mudsdale, araquanid

2017

• gold: (2017, 3ds vc, 33h) feraligatr, typhlosion, meganium, ampharos, togetic, espeon
• ultra sun: (2017, 3ds, 62h) primarina, raichu-a, noivern, krookodile, ninetales-a, arcanine

2018

• prism: (2018, emu) scyther, tyranitar, froslass, typhlosion, cacturne, metagross
• emerald(3): (2018, emu) blaziken, exploud, altaria, breloom, milotic, claydol
• let's go pikachu: (2018, sw) pikachu, dugtrio, alakazam, dewgong, dodrio, rapidash

2019

• shield: (2019, sw) inteleon, corviknight, toxtricity, appletun, thievul, frosmoth
• crystal clear: (2019, emu) feraligatr, ampharos, moltres, donphan, scizor, kingdra

2020

2021

• crystal(2): (2021, 3ds emu) typhlosion, ampharos, quagsire, donphan, noctowl, weepinbell
• alpha sapphire(2): (2021, 3ds emu) flygon, lanturn, roserade, heracross, metagross, torkoal
• brilliant diamond: (2021, sw) torterra, luxray, gastrodon, togekiss, drapion, toxicroak

2022

• legends arceus: (2022, sw) dewott, luxray, staraptor, rapidash, tangrowth, scizor
• crystal (3): (2022, gbc) feraligatr, typhlosion, meganium, ursaring, crobat, lanturn
• violet: (2022, sw) quaquaval, dachsbun, ceruledge, arboliva, mabostiff, pawmot

2023

• firered(2): (2023, gba) blastoise, primeape, fearow, hypno, arcanine, nidoqueen

2024

• colosseum: (2024, wii emu) altaria, miltank, absol, raikou, entei, suicune
• y(2): (2024, gb, 18h) pikachu (jules), nidoqueen (reggie), dragonair (drake), dugtrio (tristan), ninetales (reynard), starmie (stella)
  • traded a dratini in from crystal knowing ice beam so i could actually use him before fuchsia
  • used the stadium 2 color case to send in a lemonade for the guards right after cerulean, skipped rock tunnel in the process
  • used the pokedoll skip, but got the silph scope after the fact
  • first time not using a pokemon that could learn fly in a while; had one in reserve but largely just walked everywhere.
  • usually i try to do playthroughs with more pokemon i haven't used in the region before, but this time around i prioritized getting my 3 favorite kanto mons on the same team (nidoqueen, dragonair, ninetales).
  • took on the e4 before i had a single level 40 on my team!
• ss(2): (2016-25, ds) feraligatr, alakazam, ampharos, ninetales, ursaring, lugia
  • got a pokewalker, which finally spurred me to take on some postgame content. i've been pretty on and off with this particular save for months to years at a time, but the pokewalker has been a nice augmentation to my daily life (still carrying it around in late 2025! though the larvitar i've been walking with hasn't been back to his cartridge in a few months as i've been playing through black. oops!)

2025

• b: (2025, ds emu, 27h) emboar (scratchins), stoutland (archer), zebstrika (flapjax), seismitoad (andrea), scrafty (scrabigail), swoobat (echo)
  • i'd been having the urge to play through a unova game again since i hadn't touched them since my initial playthroughs.
  • played as the girl protagonist bc i've come to realize over the years that the guys in unova are kind of sauceless, comparatively.
  • spent a bit of time setting up a mock dream world server on my laptop / wireless hotspot. gotta have my victini themed c-gear and a bunch of my fave guys roaming around my dream forest
  • used the entralink for possibly the first time ever. despite having friends in high school who i would play these games with, i don't think we ever figured out the weird connectivity deal with "oh obviously one person needs to be in the center ring of cities and routes while the other player goes to the entralink." it was... fine. leveled up my entree or whatever a couple times.
• plza
  • the 2 hour long tutorial was so agonizing but then it became so fun! still ongoing, more details tbd