Welcome to Viridian Forties!

This web site has been created as a love letter to the Pokémon video game franchise as well as a potential resource for players who want help navigating the games, moving their Pokémon between generations, or learning about hardware options. This site is an expansion of the original blog that I produced when I started my journey through Pokémon gaming after reaching forty years of age in 2023.

The bulk of the site content can be found in the generations pages that appear in the navigation above. On those pages I discuss the hardware and connectivity of the games and consoles, and I also recount my journey as I pass through each generation multiple times. While I generally stick to using OEM (original equipment manufacturer) hardware and cartridges, I did in the beginning try using things like flashcarts and emulators since I was not ready for the investment that Pokémon can be. I therefore do have a separate page where I discuss third-party hardware and software and how to transition to a more authentic experience. The rest of the site treats gameplay with the assumption that the reader wants to stick to OEM hardware and software.

About Me

I am a doctoral-level social scientist and university instructor based in the American South, but I grew up and spent the first two decades of my life in Southern California. My father, who unfortunately passed away young in his forties, was really into computers and video games as a hobby, so I have been around them all my life. We had an Intellivision console and a Laser Turbo XT growing up in the 1980s, and I was given the first two Nintendo consoles during Christmas seasons in the early 1990s. My first handheld system was a green Game Boy Pocket, which I received for Christmas in 1997.

My favorite games from an early age were JRPGs (Japanese role-playing games). Most of what was available in North America at that time were games produced by Squaresoft, so when the company jumped from Nintendo to Sony PlayStation in the later 1990s, I did the same. I did, however, still purchase and own all of the Nintendo consoles, with the exception of the Wii U console. I have also owned many of the handheld systems including Game Boy Advance SP, the original DS, and a Nintendo 3DS XL. I have two adult children, and I luckily salvaged both of their Nintendo DS Lite systems, and along the way I also purchased a Japanese New Nintendo 3DS XL so that I could play Japanese exclusive games legitimately.

Ironically, it took me a very long time to come around to Pokémon. When it became popular here in North America in the late 1990s, I was already in high school, and I felt like it was too childish for me. In the early to middle 2000s, while I was working as a retail store manager, a copy of Pokémon LeafGreen found its way into the lost and found cabinet and eventually into my personal collection. I played probably a third of the game and did appreciate it as an RPG, but it still took until I reached my forties in the 2020s before I gave the games a real shot, as discussed on my blog.

A Xennial Pokémon Adventure

I will leave the details of my adventure for the generational pages linked in the navigation above, but I will say that the original thing that attracted me to playing these games in my forties is the fact that there is so much connectivity between them. I love that I can capture and collect Pokémon from a particular game and trade them to other games where they retain a record of where they came from. It is very satisfying to tick boxes and checklists, and the games have had features like this built in from the very beginning. Here is a list of some of the general goals I am pursung as part of this adventure:

1. Maintaining a "Living Origin Dex" in Pokémon Home
   
   A living dex refers to the presence of living versions of each Pokémon available in a particular game or generation. A living origin dex refers to having living versions of every Pokémon that is transferable to Pokémon Home that each come from the earliest released game conceivable. This includes each evolution stage for a particular species line. For me, this means that the base form of an evolved Pokémon must come from the earliest game it was available. For example, Annihilape should be evolved from a Mankey or Primeape that was captured in one of the original generation one games where it first appeared. For me it also means having functioning OEM devices and cartridges since I prefer not to use third-party devices and software. The final caveat is that my Living Origin Dex Pokémon should all have my trainer name and not be traded from other players.


2. Developing a "Ribbon Master" that originated as a Shadow Pokémon
   
   A ribbon master is a player-created challenge where a particular Pokémon is selected to earn every ribbon available in the game where it was captured as well as each subsequent game where it can be transferred as it continues up to new generations. Since generation one and two Pokémon cannot be transferred up to generation three, the ultimate ribbon master begins in generation three as a Shadow Pokémon purified in either Pokémon Colosseum or Pokémon XD.


3. Completing "Nuzlocke" challenges in each generation
   
   Nuzlocke refers to another type of player-created challenge where the player enforces extra rules that limit the Pokémon that can be captured and treat fainted Pokémon as if they have really died. It also mandates that all Pokémon be given nicknames when they are captured, so it provides for a more careful approach to the games. After I completed my main goal of simply completing one game from each generation, I decided to complete Nuzlocke challenges of other versions in each generation as I build my Living Origin Dex.


4. Maintaining a "Living GO Dex" in Pokémon Home
   
   Around the time I started playing Pokémon games, I also started playing Pokémon GO, which I still currently play daily. I keep a living dex of GO-stamped Pokémon in Pokémon Home with my singular trainer name and ID. These are useful in more recent Pokémon games on the Nintendo Switch, since I can use some of them to breed exclusives that are not normally available in the version of the game I have chosen to play.


5. Maintaining a "Living Shiny Dex" in Pokémon Home
   
   While I have not spent any time farming shiny Pokémon, I have captured hundreds while playing Pokémon GO, so I also move those to Pokémon Home and use the extra ones I catch to trade with other trainers on Reddit. For this task, I do not consider the origin, the trainer name, or the trainer ID. However, I do not include any obviously hacked Pokémon that I have gotten through the wonder box in Pokémon Home. I also include my rare shiny encounters from the main line games, which in some ways are extra special since they were not farmed. In the future, once I make good headway on some of the other tasks above, I will probably start to farm shiny Pokémon I am missing.

Site Credits

I have built and maintained this site myself, but I have been influenced by other retro-internet Pokémon fan sites like The Cave of Dragonflies and especially Blue Moon Falls. In addition to this being a place where I can document my journey, it is also an homage to my hobby of web site building using platforms like GeoCities in the middle to late 1990s. I used W3Schools Online Web Tutorials to refresh my knowledge of coding, and I used the Wave Accessibility Evaluation Tool to check and improve accessibility. I used Adobe Express to create the main header logo as well as the seamless floral background that appears behind it (using the Adobe Express generative AI feature for the latter). I borrowed code and inspiration from Dannarchy to create my site's visitor counter. All of the photos and screen captures are my own, but any sprites that appear (including the Metapod in the header logo) are borrowed from Bulbapedia, Pokémon Database, and Project Pokémon.

I encourage you to be old school and sign the guestbook if you would like to comment on the site. You may also send me private feedback using the contact form. I may be willing to trade or play with people who reach out to me. My typical gamer tag is "matrograde," but I use the trainer name "Erinys" (ErinysFury in Pokémon GO). My favorite type is grass, and my favorite gym leader is Erika. I run Linux Mint on my personal computer at home, and I connect older consoles that pre-date HDMI technology to a Sony FT Trinitron/WEGA CRT (cathode ray tube television).

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