Hello out there, Who's Amazing Life listeners.
How's it going?
This is Nick.
And this is Jack.
And we're the hosts of another awesome, wondering podcast, The Best Idea Yet.
Each week, we tell an amazing story of how some of the most famous treats, games and gadgets were invented.
Okay, we're talking Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Dr Pepper, Super Mario Brothers Skateboards, Super Soakers and, of course, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
But today, we've got something really special for you.
Yeah, we did a whole episode.
Maybe our best one yet.
On one of the most popular games of all time.
Nick, should we say it together?
Let's do it, Jack.
Three, two, one.
Pokemon.
We got the whole story on how Pikachu, Charmander, and Squirtle all came to be.
And we're going to play you a clip of that episode right here, right now.
It's an incredible story about a kid from Japan who was so obsessed with collecting insects that his friends called him Dr Bug.
And how he took that love of little creatures and created one of the most successful video and playing card games of all time.
We think you're going to love it.
And if you do, head on over to our show, The Best Idea Yet, and check out our other episodes too.
Even better, you.
Yeah, you.
Listening in the back seat right there.
You can let us know which episode we should do next.
Yeah, let us know.
If you want to know how your favorite product was invented, we will look into it for you.
Just leave a comment on our show page.
We read them all and then we do them.
All right, Nick, enough chit chat.
Let's play the clip.
Here's how Pokemon became the best idea yet.
We are in the quiet Japanese countryside of Machida, just outside Tokyo, in the early 1970s.
The sun is low in the sky, the cicadas are buzzing and a small kid is crouched in a field next to a fishing pond.
He's holding a magnifying glass, peering into a jar filled with fireflies.
In a tattered school book, he writes notes, like serious, in-depth notes.
How they move, how often they light up.
And he's excited to learn that in America, some people even call these insects lightning bugs.
He starts imagining what it would be like if these insects really could shoot bolts of electricity.
This is Satoshi Tajiri, though his schoolmates affectionately call him Dr. Bug.
That's because Satoshi has built a friendship network around his quirky hobby.
He gets his friends into bug collecting, and if they catch a beetle a buddy really wants, maybe they'll even trade for it.
But as Satoshi gets older, the Machida countryside changes.
The forests and the fields that he loves are replaced with strip malls and pavement.
But Satoshi doesn't spend too much time mourning the end of his bug's life because he quickly replaces his love of creepy crawlies with a brand new obsession video games.
Mornings, evenings, weekends, even during recess, there's one place you can find Satoshi.
In the arcade, cramming yen after yen into space invaders.
Pretty quickly, he earns a new nickname, from Dr. Bug to Game Freak.
Game Freak, a new nickname for a new obsession.
Satoshi doesn't just live to play games.
He studies these video games.
He's taking notes.
He's finding out what makes them tick.
He's the type of kid who, once he gets into something, he becomes obsessed.
As a teenager, he creates a handmade magazine and names it Game Freak.
This magazine is part review, part strategy guide, part obsessive love letter to early arcade games.
His first issue is all about the new game that he's fallen for.
Donkey Kong.
He's putting out issues through high school and college where he studies electronics and computing.
Game Freak grows from a small handcrafted labor of love side hustle into a full-on professional magazine.
And by 1983, Game Freak circulation hits a solid 10,000 copies per month.
And after years of playing and writing about games, Satoshi decides, you know what?
It's finally time to get off the sidelines and make a game himself.
In 1989.
Gamers around the world are humming this distinctive 19th century Russian folk song because Tetris and Nintendo Game Boy have arrived.
The Game Boy, Nintendo's revolutionary handheld console.
It wasn't sleek.
It wasn't sexy.
But in this pre-smartphone, pre-internet heyday of the early 1990s, Nick the Game Boy transformed gaming as we know it, because it was portable.
Well, by this point, Jack Satoshi has evolved Game Freak from a scrappy fanzine to a scrappy video game studio.
And they're now creating games for the monster of the industry, Nintendo.
This is 1989.
The games may be monochrome.
Compared to your TV, the screen is tiny.
But Satoshi sees an expansive blank canvas in the Game Boy, and there's one type of game in particular that inspires him role-playing games, these rpgs.
They've got names like final fantasy and dragon quest.
They're basically the digital offspring of dungeons and dragons, Except instead of rolling in a 20-sided die like the kids in Stranger Things, you're mashing buttons on your Game Boy.
The popularity of these role-playing games makes Satoshi realize you don't need flashy graphics or high-octane action to make a great game.
What you need is thoughtful and fun game mechanics that let the players be part of creating the story.
And Jack, there's also something else about the Game Boy that really inspires Satoshi.
And it hits him one day when he's sitting in the Game Freak break room.
His eyes are glued to his Game Boy.
Across the table from him sits Game Freak's illustrator Ken Sugimori, who's also staring at his own Game Boy.
They're both immersed in an RPG called Dragon Quest.
Suddenly, Satoshi lets his Game Boy drop out of his hands to the table in frustration.
There's a rare in-game item that he wants, but he just can't get it.
It's called the Madcap.
It's a wizard's hat that will give him the power to cast more spells.
Ken casually mentions that he already managed to collect two of these mat caps.
So tough luck, Satoshi.
Them's the breaks in the RPG land.
Satoshi sulks for a few seconds.
Then he sits up, his eyes sparkling.
What if there was a way for Ken to trade his spare wizard's hat, perhaps in exchange for a magic potion, some gold coins or some other mystical items that Satoshi has and Ken wants?
Ken listens to Satoshi's idea, and his interest is piqued.
But then he reminds Satoshi that trading items between different players, between different Game Boys, that is simply not possible.
Remember, we're in the pre-internet era.
Yeah, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, and definitely no AirDrop.
But Satoshi realizes technically it would be possible for a game developer to make a game that lets you trade items, just like that.
Because the Game Boy has a special piece of hardware called the Link Cable.
The Link Cable.
A thick, clunky gray wire that lets you connect two Game Boys for multiplayer action.
You can use the link cable to play Tetris head to head with your bestie.
There is no reason why you couldn't make a game that lets you trade items with the link cable as well.
Suddenly, Satoshi is transported back in time to the idyllic hours he spent as a kid collecting bugs and the fun he and his friends had not just catching the bugs but trading them.
Nick, could this be the basis of a brand new game?
To hear the rest of the episode, check out The Best Idea Yet wherever you get your podcasts.
