No one would have thought that a boy who nearly didn’t graduate school would grow up to be the man who created a game series as involved as Pokemon. As a young boy, Satoshi Tajiri was obsessed with insect collecting to the point that other children called him “Dr. Bug.” He wanted to go on to become an entomologist. However, as Japan was increasingly becoming urbanized, he felt that others would never have the opportunity to chase bugs as he did. The character of Ash Ketchum is based on Tajiri’s childhood; in fact, he is called Satoshi in Japan.

Having become obsessed with video games, his parents actually believed he was a delinquent. Tajiri eventually disassembled his Famicom to see how it worked. The Famicom is known in the west as the NES. He also won a contest sponsored by Sega for video game ideas.

Through all of this, he nearly didn’t graduate after cutting classes. Though his father wanted him to work at the Tokyo Electric Power Company, Tajiri ended up studying electronics at the Tokyo National College of Technology. When he was still a teenager, he had been writing a fanzine called Game Freak. Ken Sugimori, who fans might know as the gentleman who drew the original 151 Pokemon, found it in a doujinshi shop. Game Freak, in association with Nintendo, would later be the name for the game studio that produced the Pokemon video games.

By 1990, Tajiri had thought up the first Pokemon game concepts. After seeing the Game Boy link cable, he figured that one could do much more with it than simply play a game against a friend. Pokemon Red and Green, which would eventually be called Red and Blue in the west, took six years to develop. They nearly drove Game Freak into bankruptcy.

It got so bad that it was actually difficult for Game Freak to pay their employees at the time. Creatures Inc., a subsidiary of Nintendo, provided the funding to finish the games. Though some believed that the Game Boy platform was dieing, the stories of the shady Pokemon Mew were more than enough to provide publicity for the game. In fact, Nintendo wasn’t even aware of Mew’s existence at first.

Of course, the original games also became quite famous for a few glitches. Perhaps foremost among these was MissingNo., which had the famous ability to duplicate the sixth item in one’s inventory. While Nintendo technically encouraged people not to search it out, it was this sort of thing that has helped Pokemon to maintain it’s legendary status.

The latest instalment of the Pokemon series – Pokemon Black and White is out in March 2011.

About the Author

John writes articles about video games and gaming. Buy the new Pokemon Black and White game of find out more about the history of Pokemon.