Pokemon Yellow Version (1998-2000)

In wake of the recent flourishing of the Pokemon francaise in the mid 90's which started with two games intially concived by Satoshi Tajiri, (and his love of bug catching), called Pokemon Red and Green (Later changed to Blue for its European and US realease) and then the expansion pack, Yellow.

It was the first game to use the link cable adapter, other than in a competitive sence, and is infact one of the most basic, yet complex versions of future online and social playing services like X-Box Live. It also utilised the 4 sound channels in the Game Boy which was unusal for a potable game to go into such depth.

Nintendo were sceptical at first as they did not fully understand the concept of the game, however, after ential reactions Shurugu Myamoto surggested that they hype the series by producing different versions of the games, (and then a dominate one, eg Yellow, a couple of years later), to make use of the link feature, (also to make shed loads of cash). The games were developed by Gamefreak, (and they still develope the series), and published by Nintendo.

In terms of marketing stratagy, Nintendo shamelessly hit the world's youth with everything possible. After the success of the early games the cartoon series began showing, cards began to be printed at extortionate rates, films, t-shirts, cuddley toys, watches and other such merchandise. Of the most influencial on Yellow's success was the cartoon series of which the game was based upon, indeed featuring a simulair plot, (if there ever was one), in which a sprite of the series' mascot, an interactable Pikachu, followed the character around. Also, all 3 of the origanial starters in Blue and Red were availible. This made children, (and questionable adults), who had bought the originals, buy the new version which was pretty much the same minus about 6 characters.

The advertising wasn't very modest either as Japanese tornaments with the imfamously rare, Mew, for the winners, tv advertising, magazines (in particulair the Pokemon Cartoon strip) and the Cartoon series, which in itself was the advertisement and as most children were watching it every week on The Pokemon Channel in Japan, Fox kids in the US and Citv and SMTV with Ant and Dec for the UK, (9:25 every Saterday).

In a sense they took conventional methods and hit the diffcult Western Market with a tsunami on merchantdise to create "Pokemonfever" before releasing Yellow, offering a special edition Pikachu Game Boy. As a result Nintendo sold over 600,000 copies in its first week and over a million within the first fortnight. Also, Nintendo knew Yellow was going to be successful and made the ential copies on a fairly low stock bases to cause a panic and more desparte parents willing to pay full price to have the "must have" game. (Incidently, did anybody notice a lack of Wiis in 2006? I did).
They also spred the word of the new rare "Mew glitch" being availible within this particulair version of the game, which caused more fanbase eruptance and made the game have a secret, "Mystical" touch. (It was a flying pink mouse that was apparently featured in the same glitch in Blue and Red). Most importantly was the fact that it came out around the same time as the Stadium games, which ment that the game could be played on the N64 with upto 3x the speed. (This blew my 8 year old brain).

In terms of distribution, Nintendo made Yellow a prize at the end of a promotion heavy tornement in Japan and the USA. For those where quick enough, (or sad enough, you decide), they could buy the game at any game retailer or even super market with cash.

In terms of consuption, the new Yellow version featured an updated story, differnt pokemon in different locations, no "Misingo glitch", improved sound, improved visuals, animations and colour schemes as well as the "Mew glitch" rumor. You could also use a mini game involving Pikachu surfing and Pikachu itself could learn different moves than it would in the original.