***- I would never turn that game back on either. ._.'
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About a week ago, I finished Pokemon HeartGold Version, and I mean finished. I beat the Johto League, The Elite Four, the Kanto League, Red, you guys know the rest. Anyway, it really made me want to relive Pokemon Gold, since I haven’t played it since I was six. I downloaded emulators, but I really wanted to play the real thing.
So I decided I was going to buy Pokemon Gold off the internet, since they don’t sell them at GameStop any more. I bought it from a user named AeBgC244 on eBay. He wasn’t highly rated. Actually, he wasn’t rated at all, but he was selling it cheap. I thought maybe the internal battery died, but it was only $2.50 so I just said what the hell.
It came in fast, the next day in fact. The seller must have been close because the shipping was fast and free. It came in the Pokemon Red box, but he probably just lost the Gold box so I didn’t suspect anything; I barely have any of my Game Boy boxes left. Like any good story I’d read on the internet, the label was peeled off of the cartridge as well, but I didn’t care for two reasons: Those stories are just plain fake, that’s obvious. My Pokemon Red is in the same condition.
I always check the previous owner’s save file. Who wouldn’t, maybe they used a GameShark or something and made the save enjoyable to play for a little while. I was abnormally hopeful that I’d have level 110 Ho-Oh or something. The main menu screen was normal, the music was a little off-key, but it was probably just my imagination.
I pressed the Continue button. I immediately opened up the menu and his name was just “GOLD.” I guess that’s original. I looked at his trainer card and he had all eight Johto badges, but he was currently on Mt Silver, so one could only guess he beat all the Kanto trainers too.
I checked his Pokemon. He had Pikachu, Snorlax, Blastoise, Venusaur, Charizard, and Lapras. I knew he cheated because they were all pretty high leveled and as far as I remember, it’s extremely hard to get all three Kanto starters.
I was hasty to get to the menu, and didn’t realize where I was standing. I was currently right where Red would be if the previous owner hadn’t beat him. This is when I figured out it was a bootleg, though. My overworld sprite was well, Red.
All of a sudden, I heard the sound you hear when a trainer is about to battle you. The GOLD trainer sprite walked up to me and challenged me to a battle. He said what Red usually would, “……… ………” He didn’t have very high leveled Pokemon, it was as if he was a player who just unlocked Mt. Silver and challenged Red too early.

“GOLD would like to battle!” It was weird because it didn’t say “Pokemon Trainer GOLD” or anything like that. Anyway, he sent out Typhlosion, and my Pikachu took care of it easily. The cycle went on, and I beat him.
Back on the overworld map, he disappeared. He didn’t run away, he just disappeared. I tried to leave the cave before another battle happened, but I literally couldn’t move. I was just stuck on that platform. I wasn’t bored for long though, because Professor Elm’s sprite came up to me.
By then I was kind of scared. I knew it was a bootleg, but it seems pretty straightforward. Battle after battle, and I couldn’t move. I went into another battle with “Elm.”
“PkMn Professor GOLD wants to battle!” I knew I just beat Gold, so why am I fighting him again, and why is he a Professor? His trainer sprite was that of Prof. Oak’s, because Elm had no sprite for some reason.
He had every legendary in the book. His Pokemon were Mew, Mewtwo, Entei, Raikou, Suicune, and Ho-oh. They were all within the levels 95-100 range. He wiped me out. The end of the battle said “RED is out of usable Pokemon. RED blacked out!” Which was weird because the trainer’s name was GOLD.
There I was, in the bedroom at Red’s house. I knew it was his because of the NES in his room. The overworld sprite was still Red, but I had no Pokemon left. I went on to the PC, but it said “Red could not use the broken PC.” Okaaaay. I checked and Red only had Pikachu left, and it was level 5.
I went downstairs and his mom wasn’t there. Actually, nobody was there. There wasn’t any music either. “The TV doesn’t work.” Nothing worked. The PkMnGear radio was broken too. The phone still worked though, but nobody answered it.
I walked outside of his house and the scene was shocking. There was a weird Game Boy sounding wind outside, still no music. The buildings were covered in lines, which I presumed were vines. Nobody was outside and the small body of water at the bottom of the town was dried up. I checked the trainer card, and my name was now RED, though he had Prof. Oak’s sprite as well.
When I walked through the grass, there were no wild Pokemon. There was almost no life. I walked up to Viridian City, but it was just covered with bits and pieces of building tilesets, kind of like a sloppy Romhacking job. I ws walking toward the gym when it said “Pikachu died.” It didn’t faint, it died. The screen turned black and then I appeared in front of the Pokemon Tower in Lavendar.
I went inside and I could actually read the graves. It had actual names, like Oak, Elm, Blue, Green, Joey, etc. In the back of the room, there was a staircase. I tried to go up but a dialog box said “The building is decrepit. You can’t go up any further.” I couldn’t leave either. I was stuck.
I could have just made my own save now, but I was interested in this. I examined every grave until one said “It’s an empty grave. RED placed Pikachu in the grave.” After that happened, it went into a wild pokemon battle. “GOLD GHOST appeared!” It didn’t say wild before it, just that.
I didn’t have any Pokemon, so I tried running. “RED is paralyzed by fear.” It was as if in Heart Gold when a trainer comes in and talks to you mid-battle, except it was presumably the ghost. “You played as Red and you beat the game. You ever wonder what happens once you turn it off?” After that, it said “GOLD GHOST used PERISH SONG.”
The battle went away, and all of the sudden, a high pitched squeal, like a Pokemon cry, looped over and over. The screen gradually faded to Red. This scared me, and as it was happening, I turned it off. I assume Red died or something.
It wasn’t extremely scary to read, I’m sure. It’s not a horror story though, it wasn’t made to be scary. And I promise, it’s more scary when you experience it.
I’m never turning that game back on.