Creepy pokemon

mustard-bloodedmiracle:

my mom found out about what i do on the computer (which is mostly Roleplaying on MSPARP & Tumblr)

and she wants to take my computer away

i feel like like you guys accept me and love me and i really don’t want that taken away.

does anyone have any way for me to prove to her that

none of you are bad people?

not sure for how long. I just simply don’t have any interest in this blog at the time.

Defying my belief that this should be kept confidential, I will share this in the sole interest of two individuals. My name is Ruben. I have always been interested in subliminal techniques, regardless of the media or way in which they are 

conveyed. However, I did not go looking for this particular example. No, it found its way to me. It’s certainly no coincidence that the move ‘Curse’ was introduced in Generation II with the release of Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions.

Often heard that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover? A sound should not be judged by the way you hear it. There can be so much more, that of which the single sense of hearing can not handle by itself. Sounds are visual as well, despite what some may say. Any piece of music can alter your state of mind and emotions. What else can sounds do? Maybe a certain group of individuals set out to answer just that.

New concepts were realized with version 1.0 of the Lavender Town music released in early Pokemon Green and Red cartridges in Japan. There’s no doubt that there was interest from the sound team to create an eerie effect from special inflictions in the music, most notably the high pitched frequencies which could only be heard by those with especially acute hearing. Version 1.1 of the Lavender Town music soon replaced its older counterpart in newer cartridges in order to avoid suspicions. Perhaps enough data had been collected anyway.

The person who posted the previous video was surprised to find that his friend, Anthony, had developed a special way to retrieve the frequencies that were lost when the developed music was redesigned in order to fit within the limitations of the Game Boy. According to him, certain hints were left in the music which encouraged him to develop a way to analyze the sound and insert special tones which mimicked the original intentions of the music.

Although Anthony may have never realized this, the tones which he added constructed unusual images within the sound when combined with the original Pokemon music. These images had been embedded into the music through certain methods of steganography. In Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, these images were waiting for their key to be unlocked.

Likewise, two sound files from the Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal soundtrack fit together in an interesting way. One you are most likely familiar with; the other you would have only heard if you had listened to your radio while within the Ruins of Alph. These files can never be played concurrently while playing the game. However, they can be while using a computer.

I am not the one who posted the previous video. I will refer to him as Edwin from this point on. When he looked through Anthony’s laptop, he copied more than an audio file and just a few pictures. Edwin found an entire algorithm which Anthony had written which was able to reconstruct the lost images within particular Pokemon sound files. Anthony had created the sound file featured in the last video from this algorithm and a generic binaural beat, which he had downloaded from the internet, and many viewers/listeners have recognized. Subsequently after discovering Anthony’s creation (lavender.wav) and his homemade algorithm, Edwin himself became obsessed with the oddness of Lavender Town. Despite what he wrote in the previous video, he did not lose interest. Edwin spent his time up until posting the last video testing Anthony’s algorithm. He became quite familiar with it and tried it on numerous sounds from the early Pokemon games. Eventually, he tried combining the Ruins of Alph music with the erratic sounds that play on the radio. After running this through Anthony’s algorithm, results even more astounding than Anthony’s original discovery were found. The outcome is this video.

To my dismay, I am the “sound enthusiast” which Edwin mentioned in the description of the last video. This is why I know so much of this ordeal and have felt the need to write this description as well as post this video. Edwin contacted me through the internet requesting help with the lavender audio file, so I sent him a spectrogram program. He began to send me more and more details about the problems he was facing as time went on, and I grew to know him pretty well. Eventually, he sent me the password to this account along with a terrifying note.

“Even after researching the sounds which caused Anthony’s death for so long, I still don’t feel better about it. It was my fault he died. If I had just played through my Blue version with him, he wouldn’t have become so interested in the Lavender Town stuff, we would have just kept playing.He was my best friend, but I let him down. I wasn’t a true friend. It’s like I hardly knew him anymore after we went our separate ways. I can’t stand living with this burden.”

He attached the audio file playing in the video above as well as a password so I could access this account. To say the least, I was baffled at the time. The day after the previous video was posted, Edwin was found dead in his room, astonishingly with no flesh wounds to be found. Had he figured out the exact cause for Anthony’s seizure? Was it suicide? Both?

Never did he mention any specific details about this audio file, other than what has already been mentioned in this description. I didn’t want to have to get involved further in this incident, but as I have already stated, I feel like it is my obligation. I don’t, however, feel the need to describe the occurrences that take place in this video. I will let you decide for your own about that.

Keep in mind, though, that in the game the scientists in the ruins claim that Unown communicate with radio waves. What was constructed in place of the Pokemon Tower in Lavender? The Kanto Radio Tower. I must let you know that this sound file was created with Anthony’s algorithm with a binaural beat added in the background. Do the Lavender Town theme and the Ruins of Alph music have something in common? An accident? Something that could… drive someone insane?

I’m what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokémongames. Pokémon Diamond & Jade, Chaos Black, etc. It’s amazing the frequency with which you can find them at pawnshops, Goodwill, flea markets, and such.

They’re generally fun; even if they are unplayable (which they often are), the mistranslations and poor quality make them unintentionally humorous.

I’ve been able to find most of the ones that I’ve played online, but there’s one that I haven’t seen any mention of. I bought it at a flea market about five years ago.

Here’s a picture of the cartridge, in case anyone recognizes it. Unfortunately, when I moved two years ago, I lost the game, so I can’t provide you with screencaps. Sorry.

The game started with the familiar Nidorino and Gengar intro of Red and Blue version. However, the “press start” screen had been altered. Red was there, but the Pokémon did not cycle through. It also said “Black Version” under the Pokémon logo.

Upon selecting “New Game”, the game started the Professor Oak speech, and it quickly became evident that the game was essentially Pokémon Red Version.

After selecting your starter, if you looked at your Pokémon, you had in addition to Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle another Pokémon — “GHOST”.

The Pokémon was level 1. It had the sprite of the Ghosts that are encountered in Lavender Tower before obtaining the Sliph Scope. It had one attack — “Curse”. I know that there is a real move named curse, but the attack did not exist in Generation 1, so it appears it was hacked in.

Defending Pokémon were unable to attack Ghost — it would only say they were too scared to move. When the move “Curse” was used in battle, the screen would cut to black. The cry of the defending Pokémon would be heard, but it was distorted, played at a much lower pitch than normal. The battle screen would then reappear, and the defending Pokémon would be gone. If used in a battle against a trainer, when the Pokéballs representing their Pokemon would appear in the corner, they would have one fewer Pokéball.

The implication was that the Pokémon died.

What’s even stranger is that after defeating a trainer and seeing “Red received $200 for winning!”, the battle commands would appear again. If you selected “Run”, the battle would end as it normally does. You could also select Curse. If you did, upon returning to the overworld, the trainer’s sprite would be gone. After leaving and reentering the area, the spot [where] the trainer had been would be replaced with a tombstone like the ones at Lavender Tower.

The move “Curse” was not usable in all instances. It would fail against Ghost Pokémon. It would also fail if it was used against trainers that you would have to face again, such as your Rival or Giovanni. It was usable in your final battle against them, however.

I figured this was the gimmick of the game, allowing you to use the previously uncapturable Ghosts. And because Curse made the game so easy, I essentially used it throughout the whole adventure.

The game changed quite a bit after defeating the Elite Four. After viewing the Hall of Fame, which consisted of Ghost and a couple of very under leveled Pokémon, the screen cut to black. A box appeared with the words “Many years later…” It then cut to Lavender Tower. An old man was standing, looking at tombstones. You then realized this man was your character.

The man moved at only half of your normal walking speed. You no longer had any Pokémon with you, not even Ghost, who up to this point had been impossible to remove from your party through depositing in the PC. The overworld was entirely empty — there were no people at all. There were still the tombstones of the trainers that you used Curse on, however.

You could go pretty much anywhere in the overworld at this point, though your movement was limited by the fact that you had no Pokémon to use HMs. And regardless of where you went, the music of Lavender Town continued on an infinite loop. After wandering for a while, I found that if you go through Diglett’s Cave, one of the cuttable bushes that normally blocks the path on the other side is no longer there, allowing you to advance and return to Pallet Town.

Upon entering your house and going to the exact tile where you start the game, the screen would cut to black.

Then a sprite of a Caterpie appeared. It was the replaced by a Weedle, and then a Pidgey. I soon realized, as the Pokémon progressed from Rattata to Blastoise, that these were all of the Pokémon that I had used Curse on.

After the end of my Rival’s team, a Youngster appeared, and then a Bug Catcher. These were the trainers I had Cursed.

Throughout the sequence, the Lavender Town music was playing, but it was slowly decreasing in pitch. By the time your Rival appeared on screen, it was little more than a demonic rumble.

Another cut to black. A few moments later, the battle screen suddenly appeared — your trainer sprite was now that of an old man, the same one as the one who teaches you how to catch Pokémon in Viridian City.

Ghost appeared on the other side, along with the words “GHOST wants to fight!”.

You couldn’t use items, and you had no Pokémon. If you tried to run, you couldn’t escape. The only option was “FIGHT”.

Using fight would immediately cause you to use Struggle, which didn’t affect Ghost but did chip off a bit of your own HP. When it was Ghost’s turn to attack, it would simply say “…” Eventually, when your HP reached a critical point, Ghost would finally use Curse.

The screen cut to black a final time.

Regardless of the buttons you pressed, you were permanently stuck in this black screen. At this point, the only thing you could do was turn the Game Boy off. When you played again, “NEW GAME” was the only option — the game had erased the file.

I played through this hacked game many, many times, and every time the game ended with this sequence. Several times I didn’t use Ghost at all, though he was impossible to remove from the party. In these cases, it did not show any Pokémon or trainers and simply cut to the climactic “battle with Ghost.

I’m not sure what the motives were behind the creator of this hack. It wasn’t widely distributed, so it was presumably not for monetary gain. It was very well done for a bootleg.

It seems he was trying to convey a message; though it seems I am the sole receiver of this message. I’m not entirely sure what it was — the inevitability of death? The pointlessness of it? Perhaps he was simply trying to morbidly inject death and darkness into a children’s game. Regardless, this children’s game has made me think, and it has made me cry.

It’s been while since I’ve seen a Lavender Town creepypasta. All of them now involve N talking about their past Pokemon or Cheren becoming a murderer. If you ask me, the best creepypastas are the ones involving the classics, Red and Blue versions.

It was September 28th, 1998. The day Pokemon Red was released in North America. After receiving my advertisement tape, I had been going crazy wanting this game. I was in sixth grade at the time. My mom handed me a little box with a picture of Charizard on it. Pokemon Red! I finally had it! I played through the whole game in week. I begged my mom to buy me Blue, and she eventually did. Once I’d beaten both I ignored Pokemon for a while, still watching the show of course. On October 31st, Halloween, a friend of mine, Alicia, stayed the night after trick or treating. My parents had gone to a Halloween party and trusted us to be good while they were gone. I had no siblings. Of course we did stuff wrong! We used the computer, watched TV for two hours (I was only supposed to be watching for half an hour), called boys we liked, and ate all of our Halloween candy. Around 1 am I pulled out my Gameboy, remembering something.

“Hey Alicia, wanna hear a creepy song?”

“Uh, sure! It’s Halloween, why don’t we get in the mood!” She laughed a little and took the headphones I handed her.

“One sec…” I said as I selected Fly from my Charizard’s moveset. Of course I was heading to Lavender town. I had gotten one of the original cartridges with the first Lavender Town music. I didn’t know it at the time, I just thought the music was cool and creepy. “Okay,” I said, “Plug them in.”

Alicia plugged the headphones and sat incredibly still for a second. Her pupils dilated so they were black marbles outlined with a tiny bit of blue. Her hands tightened. She dropped the Gameboy, collapsed, and began foaming at the mouth. My best friend was going to die! All because of me! She shook violently as foam trickled down her face, then she went still, her eyes wide open. I screamed for help before I realized my parents weren’t home. Tears flooded down my face. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Wake up Alicia! Wake up!” What had that music done to her? I stared at the Gameboy on the floor. I put the headphones on and it sounded the same as always. I threw the game down again and sprinted to the kitchen. I got a huge glass of water and dumped it all over Alicia. “Wake up! Wake up! I didn’t mean it!” I attempted CPR from what our school nurse had told us, but nothing worked. I put her on the bed and hugger her tightly. “I’m so sorry Alicia! I didn’t mean to kill you! I don’t know what happened!” I was sobbing more loudly than I ever had.

I grabbed the phone off my desk and dialed 9-1-1.

“911 what is your emergency?”

“My friend just had a seizure! She was listening to a creepy song and all the sudden she collapsed! It was my fault, I made her listen to it! My parents aren’t home and I don’t know what to do! I think she’s dead!” I was sobbing loudly into the phone.

“All right, sweetie, calm down. Can you tell me if she has a pulse?” I put the phone down and checked.

“Yeah, kinda! But it’s really faint! My name is Marissa Shepperd and my friend is Alicia McKnight!”

“Can you tell me your address? We need to send an ambulance.”

I told her my address and the ambulance arrived minutes later. They put Alicia on a cot and loaded her in. “Can I get in the back with her?”

“Yes, get in, we need to go. And get that game she was listening to, I want to take a look at it.” I grabbed my Gameboy and got in the ambulance.

They used a defibrillator on Alicia to try to wake her up. “I think she’s in a coma,” the EMT said. I wanted to kill myself, this was all my fault!

When we got to the hospital they raced Alicia in and we called my parents. They arrived a few minutes later. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! I would never-“

“It’s okay, Marissa. We believe you.”

An hour later a doctor came into the waiting room holding my Gameboy. “Your friend isn’t doing well, I’m afraid. I had a sound specialist listen to this and he said it was unlike anything he’s ever heard. He said there’s a possibility there are frequencies in here that she heard that caused her to seize.”

We went home and the first thing I did was throw my Gameboy in the trash. I never wanted to see it again. We received a call the next morning that Alicia had died. We visited her parents and they told me they would never blame me for what happened. Alicia’s services were held in November at the spot where her parents got married.

Of course, my school life went downhill. Kids ridiculed me for killing her and my grades went down because of the intense amount of stress I was under. The school gave me two weeks off after the incident, but they didn’t help. The day the trash went out I raced outside and dug the Gameboy out of the garbage. I wiped it off and sat on my bed with it. I began listening to the song. It still sounded the same, but a little… eerier. It had caused my best friend’s death. I threw the game down and went to the kitchen. I found the sharpest knife there and started cutting my wrist. Blood flowed down my hand and dripped off the ends of my fingers. It hurt, a lot. I knew I deserved it. I killed my best friend. I kept cutting deeper and deeper until I felt like I was about to pass out. Then I thought, “What am I doing?” I rinsed the cut out, washed the knife, cleaned the blood up off the floor, and wrapped the wound in gauze. I would explain to my mom what happened. I couldn’t go back in my room after thinking about Alicia having her seizure. I laid down on the bed in the guest room and cried. I was a mess. I slowly walked to the kitchen and grabbed the phone. I dialed the number of the counselor the school had given me.

“This is Kelly Christiansen, how can I help you?”

“Hi Kelly. This is Marissa.”

“Oh, Marissa! How are you doing? There are so many rumors floating around at school… That you tried to kill Alicia. It’s horrible.”

I burst into tears. “I’m not doing good at all! I was thinking about Alicia and then I listened to the song and then… I cut myself.”

“Oh my… Listen, Marissa. I’m coming over there. Stay put, tie yourself to a chair or something.”

When Kelly got to my house I was standing at the sink with a glass of water and a painkiller.

“Oh my God! You aren’t taking those to get high, are you?”

“Of course not. My wrist just hurts.”

“Let me see it.” I unwrapped the wound and she cringed. “Marissa! You could have killed yourself!”

“That’s what I was trying to do.”

“Oh, Marissa.” She sat me down on the couch, got me a Dr. Pepper, and said, “Killing yourself isn’t going to help, at all.” She turned on the TV to Pokemon, my favorite show. We watched it for hours. I watched Ash battle Brock and then I watched him run into Team Rocket. I watched Misty yell at Ash for ruining her bike. It was all so great, it made me feel insanely better. I smiled and looked at Kelly, “Thank you.” She smiled back, stood up, and walked out the door. I sat on the couch for a while longer and went to my room. I crawled under the covers and went to sleep. I woke up crying, as I’d had a nightmare about Alicia dying.

I can’t really say any more. My school life went downhill incredibly fast, I started drinking and smoking, but never did drugs because I knew how those could fuck you up. Once I got into high school I got a little better. Kelly helped me along and eventually I dug myself out of the pit, but I couldn’t get over Alicia. I didn’t make any new friends because they all thought I was a murderer. I am now 25 years old and this is the first time I’ve talked about this to anyone except my parents. I majored in sound science, as I wish to study the Lavender Town conspiracy, and hopefully find out what killed my dearest friend, Alicia McKnight.

Do you remember when you first discovered glitches in Pokémon?

I remember when I did. Summer, 1999, at Kingswood Summer Club. Pokémon Red and Blue had been released the previous year, which I guess would make me 8 or 9. The Pokémon craze was in full swing over here in the UK - every day I packed up my Pikachu-yellow Gameboy Colour, Pokémon Red permanently slotted into the top. Me and my friends would gather together with our Link Cables for epic trading and battling sessions that lasted the whole day, or just until parents came to pick us up at home time.

Around mid-summer, our ‘group’ was starting to feel like we’d seen it all and done it all. Sure, I don’t think we’d ever caught ‘em all - back then it seemed like an impossibility. We had grinded to level 100, eliminated the Elite 4 more times than we could remember. The game was starting to lose it’s draw, and there were still 4 long weeks of summer left. Then, we saw Missingno.

I remember the first kid I knew to have him - he told us his brother showed him how to catch this super rare, super awesome Pokémon. We gathered round as he revealed that Pokémon to us - that magical, distorted, reverse ‘L’ shape that held the key to infinite Rare Candies. We were all instantly in love and dying to get one of these rare Pokémon for ourselves - so he passed on the secret and showed us how.

Within the next few days, our little group was hooked on glitches. We scoured magazines for the latest bugs and tricks - we visited Glitch City, battled all kinds of high level Pokémon off the coast of Cinnabar - we even caught Mew.

But there was one glitch which I’ve never been able to find record of since. Funnily enough, I can’t remember the details of how to pull it off, but I remember the outcome - Glitchlett. The technique for finding this little guy followed the pattern of a lot of the tedious Pokémon encounter bugs in Red and Blue - talk to this dude, fly to this place - it might have had something to do with Celadon, I’m not sure really.

Glitchlett was just as you’d expect - a glitched-up Diglett. The sprite was mostly intact, but the face was distorted, Missingno.-style. There were a few distorted lines through it, like scan lines, and the cry was a little weird too, although I can’t put my finger on what it was. His level was never visible, but we guessed it must have been over 100, as we could hardly put a mark on him while trying to catch him. Most of us resorted to one of out many cloned Masterballs.

The next day we all met up to compare results - by this point we all considered ourselves Pokémon glitch experts. Experiences with Glitchlett were varied - one guy claimed it messed up his game so bad he couldn’t play anymore and had had to reset. Others said they tried to battle with Glitchlett only to find the game crashed every time they tried. I had the most luck in battles with the new glitch Pokémon. His only move was DIG, and he couldn’t learn any HMs or TMs, even those you’d expect a Diglett to be able to learn. Against Wild Pokémon, Glitchlett was a powerhouse - he never lost PP, and together we’d OHKO’d every Pokémon we came across.

But the attack it’s self was… odd. It took two turns as usual, but after the first turn he’d be hit with some kind of self-damaging recoil. There was no explanation other than “Diglett was hurt!”, and that strange cry, but it never made much of a mark on him. Glitchlett’s HP was higher than anything I’d ever seen, and because it took only one DIG to destroy any wild Pokémon it was never much of a problem. I laid waste to my friend’s teams during linked battles, and he soloed the Elite 4.

I remember when things got even stranger. I was levelling a team using the Exp. All - destroying wild Pokémon with Glitchlett seemed the obvious choice and I’d maxed many Pokémon this way in the past. I’d woken up early that morning to level especially, and had spent all day KOing wild Pokémon. At that moment I was under my bed covers with my trusty Gameboy Colour light - Mum would go mad if she knew I wasn‘t asleep at this time. Everything was going to plan and my new team was levelling up beautifully. I must have been concentrating pretty hard, because it was too late when I noticed how low Glitchlett’s health had become. I selected DIG for the final time and watched him begin to descend into the ground… as expected, I received the message “Diglett was hurt!”. I heard that piercing cry, louder then before, and my stomach turned as I watched his health bar slide towards zero. The bar doubled back on it’s self, and seemed to empty four or five times before Glitchlett repeated his dying cry - now a horrible noise.
“Digglet was killed! Do you want to use the next Pokémon?”

I know it’s cliché in these kinds of stories, but I remembered that vividly. I selected “NO” - my other team members wouldn’t have made a mark on this enemy Pokémon anyway. I was warped to the over world and found myself back in the Unknown Dungeon. Opening my Pokémon menu confirmed what I’d seen before - by beloved Glitchlett at the top of the party, health reduced to zero. I selected him, I’m not sure what good I thought it might have done… and noticed that something was different. Maybe it was there before, but I think I would have noticed that DIG was now selectable outside of battle.

I thought for a moment. Maybe it was the atmosphere, but this move was suddenly chilling me. Glitchlett had never been damaged by any Wild Pokémon, only by this move. It wasn’t even as though he’s hurt himself in confusion or with recoil… whatever had hurt and ultimately ‘killed’ him had been underground all along, waiting, sapping Glitchlett’s life each time I sent him to attack. His death-cry echoed in my ears as I realised what I’d done. My thumb hovered over the A button, my brain willing myself to DIG and get out of the cave, but my stomach felt sick. What was down there anyway?

I was stuck with no choice. The exit was too far away, my remaining Pokémon would be destroyed if I tried to get there. With a lump in my throat, I dug, and my sprite began spinning into the earth and the screen went black.

I wasn’t surprised when I realised where I was. Not the entrance to the cave, or even the nearest Pokémon Center, but a glitched-out cave that I now realise was some kind of bugged version of Diglett‘s Cave. I checked my Pokémon, and saw Glitchlett’s health had been restored. He was now my only Pokémon, the other 5 members of my team missing entirely. I chose DIG again. Oak scolded me - apparently this wasn’t the time to use that.
With no means of escape I set off looking for the exit. My sprite moved slowly, more of a crawl than a walk, as I moved the cave’s walls bugged out, turning red, flexing and swelling in and out like the lungs if a monster. Slowly, music began to play - high-pitched and distorted and horrible, it was quiet at first but grew louder with every step. As it played something became familiar - a familiar tune beneath the whirring, bugged notes. Without thinking I began to mouth the words to the music.
“Diglett-dig, Diglett-dig, Trio Trio Trio… Diglett-dig, Diglett-dig, Trio Trio Trio…“

Then, I encountered a Pokémon.

“A Wild Dugtrio Appeared!”
As distorted battle music began, the level 225 Dugtrio appeared before my eyes. The cry was awful, warped scream that seemed to become a gnashing crunch before stopping entirely. Dugtrio’s sprite, like Glitchlett, was deformed - Dugtrio’s three faces with hollow eyes, twisted into pixelated howls that looked somehow painful. The bottom of the sprite was unrecognisable - it looked as though six deformed, clawed arms were rising from the dirt around Dugtrio’s body. My only Pokémon was released and Glitchlett’s back sprite appeared before me. His cry played again, quiet and seemingly a lot weaker.

I was just a bystander now as the game took control - selecting an attack from the menu. Of course, DIG was the only option. My hands were sweaty as I gripped the Gameboy tight - my breath was hot on the screen. Dugtrio went first.

“Dugtrio used Scratch!”

It hit six times, each tear triggering the pitiful cry from my glitch Pokémon. Glitchlett was left with a sliver of health as he retaliated with an attack of his own.

“Diglett used Struggle!” It hardly made a mark, as expected, but it was strange how DIG had never lost PP before.

As previous, the game selected the next move. As ATTACK was chosen, I noticed that Glitchlett suddenly had no moves. Two words appeared where the first two attacks should have been.

NO HOPE.

Dugtrio’s cry echo’d again as it launched an assault of scratches with it’s deadly, horrible arms. Glitchlett was killed after the first strike.

“Diglett is Dead. Do you want to continue?”

I didn’t really understand the question, but that didn’t matter. NO was selected for me, and the battle faded away. Back on the over world, the walls swelled and glitched before my eyes and the maddening music began again. I inspected Glitchlett. His sprite had changed now, although his face was never visible, like Dugtrio’s it seemed to be formed into a pixelated scream. Dark brown streaks cut through the sprite - they looked like claw marks, or blood.

I pressed on. I don’t know what I was thinking at that stage - just that this tiny Pokémon had infected my game in a much bigger way than expected. Glitch Pokémon seemed kind of wrong to me then, as though it was something I ought not to have been massing with - something we didn’t understand or couldn’t control.

With no Pokémon left, I was surprised to find that I didn’t ‘black out’ or warp to a Pokémon Center. The game just continued as ‘usual’. It was only a few steps before the Pokémon encounter theme played and the screen turned black.

“A Wild Dugtrio Appeared!”

With no Pokémon left, my trainer’s back sprite faced the glitch head-on.

Before my eyes, the screen faded as my Gameboy’s batteries cut out. Whatever had just happened gripped me with fear. That night I didn’t sleep. I even took the game out of the now dead Gameboy, although I’m not sure what that would have done.

Days later I started that game up. I’d not saved during what had happened, so I was returned to my last save point. Glitchlett was at the head of my party, DIG his only move.
I thought for a moment, before abandoning that game forever and starting anew.

We are all familiar with the game Pokemon Snap.

It was a family fun game for the Good ‘ol Nintendo 64. You played the role of a young man who went around taking pictures of Pokemon. I loved this game, and it just so happens that it was on the the first games I bought for my Nintendo 64. But something happened that will keep me from ever touching that System again.

A few days ago I bought a Nintendo 64 from my friend. It came with 6 games. Mario Kart 64, Pokemon Stadium, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time, Legend of Zelda Majoras mask, Smash Brothers, and Pokemon Snap. He sold them to me telling me, that he just did not want to look at these games anymore. I thought nothing of it, and just marked it off in my mind, as he was just getting sick of the system taking up room on his Dresser.

I started playing Pokemon Snap first, When that familiar N64 logo came up, I about creamed myself in pure Nostalgic bliss. Then the start up screen came on. I noticed that the last save was made only about a week ago. I figured my friend wanted to play one last round to say goodbye to the system. I opened the file to see how far he had gotten when I noticed some strange things about the game.

Prof. Oak was not standing in his normal lab I remember, the background was lined with blackened marks, and the windows were broken in. The outside was a dismal gray, looking almost overcast. His dialogue did not match the cheery attitude I remember.

“Good day to you young one, are you ready for your most important shoot?” His face contorted to a cruel looking smile.

I wanted to know what came next, so I pressed Go….God I wish I would have just turned the system off.

The overworld map looked wrong. The landscape was not a lush green and brown, but a muddy brown and red, almost like fire. My friend had beaten all of the tracks. So I could select any of them. I picked Beach. If only I would have just turned off the system.

The start up was the same animation. My character reading his camera and switching to first person view. The whole track was dark, and it seemed to be almost completely abandoned. The cheery music did not play. The only sound was that of my vehicle going down the track, and the wind blowing. I turned the first corner and what I saw is still fresh in my mind.

Bodies were strewn all across the screen. The Meowth that comes running from the grass was on the tracks. I figured the Cart would just stop like it normally does when something obstructs the path, but it just ran over him. The worst part was the sound. That squish of meat, the crack of his bones…the sound was not the crappy quality that I was used to either. This sounded real, like it had been recorded and broadcasted into my game. I looked back to see if the Meowth was still there, Pidgeys where eating him!! They pecked out his eyes, and continued to devour his body. I don’t know what drove me to take the picture but I did.

I wanted to just reach out and flick the power switch, but something compelled me to continue the game. I came to the part where the Snorlax normally was, but instead of a comedic sleeping giant I found him mourning over a dead Pikachu in his arms. Once again some sick notion inside me forced me to take this picture.

I came to the part where normally a Meowth would be gusted by a Pidgey, but the only thing I saw was two dead Pidgeys. A meowth came out from the grass and began to feast on their remains. I found myself taking pictures of almost everything I saw by this point so I snapped the picture.

As I neared the end, I came to the bridge that crosses over the small river. Bodies floated down the river, some looking like they had been torn apart, some looking like they just died for no reason, no cuts, bruises, or anything wrong with them. I snapped a picture of this as well. I came to the warp gate that takes you back to Prof. Oak’s lab, I skipped doing Oak’s pick because I just could not bear to see the images I had captured, but when the game cut to Oak saying

“Welcome back” he opened my entire library of photos and began to comment on a few. The one of the dead Meowth being eaten made him smile a sick sadistic smile. “Nature taking it’s course. Lets check the size…260 - It’s so-so. Technique…Great you really captured the beauty of it’s demise.” He brought up the one of the Snorlax.

“Great! you have done well capturing his pain and suffering. True work of art. Lets check the size….”

After him commenting on all of my photos his face turned to his -now sick looking- smile.

“Ever since Mew became angry, the world is just full of beauty don’t you agree?”

I was given the option of Yes or No, but when I clicked no he would just say “Are you sure?”

After I finally said yes, he told me I had one last thing to do. He said I must capture an image of Mew in all his glory.

I went to the start screen and picked Rainbow cloud. When the start up screen started I was greeted with the loving, friendly clouds I had prayed I would see, but the only problem was the contilations were not their normal Pokemon forms. They resembled Lightning bolts, Tidal waves, falling meteors, and forest fires. After about 10 minutes of just moving through the map I finally encountered Mew…Or at least what I can only assume was once Mew

The creature was much larger than the cute, cuddly Mew, I had seen before. This thing was huge, with sharp teeth, and horrible looking eyes. Eyes that seemed to suck the joy out anything they cast their gaze upon. I brought up my camera to Snap the creature when my game started Glitching out. Text kept appearing over the screen, while the creature seemed to warp around the screen.

“You have seen what true beauty is, now you must become part of the beauty. Become part of the beauty, become part of the beauty, become part of the beauty…” It repeated this for about 2 minutes until the creature stopped warping, and flew towards the screen. He pointed at me and mouthed the word “Beauty” and my game crashed.

I threw the cartridge out, and have not since touched the N64…I can only wonder what the other games may hold…

Know how, in the old Pokemon Red, Green and Yellow, after you beat the trainers on Nugget Bridge a member of Team Rocket asks if you’d like to join them? How many of you actually hoped a YES or NO screen would pop up?

I’m not saying now that you’re all grown up if you’d make the choice, no I am asking if you would have back then. Back when you were barely 10, maybe even younger when you first started playing. Back when you’d kill to watch Power Rangers, draw on Etch-A-Sketches, etc. Back when you were truly innocent to all of the war that plagues our everyday life, from all of the evil people.

Would you have?

I can sit here and type out creative and horrifying Pokemon pastas, make a stab at the eeriness of Lavender Town or The Ruins of Alph, but if you truly want to see corruption, see true terrifying evil, all you have to do is remember what it was like, when you had beaten down those trainers and you had recieved that NUGGET. All you have to do is remember how it felt when the Rocket member asked you:

“By the way, how would you like to join TEAM ROCKET?

We’re a group of professional criminals specializing in POKEMON!

Want to join?”

Remember how disheartened you felt when the game wouldn’t let you choose to be evil? What went on in our unripened psyche to even consider wanting to play the bad guy? Be honest with yourself; did you wait for that YES or NO screen?

Seems we lost our innocence a very, very long time ago.

A few years back, whilst feeling nostalgic, I dug out my old Silver game. 
Tragically, the battery had died, thus my save data was all missing, and I was unable to start a new save. Oddly, this has been the first time in all of my 20+ years of playing video games that a battery has died in one of my cartridges.

This left me understandably disappointed, as I had lived and breathed that cartridge when it was new. I was rarely without it within arm’s length, no matter where I was, had accumulated at least one dozen each of Shinies and Level 100s, and worst yet - I had traded my best Pokémon from my first game, Blue, to it, including a Level 100 Squirtle that I had outfitted with strong physical attacks and named “Ninja”.

While I was thoroughly sad in regards to this event, it was not something that debilitated me in any way. For the next few years, I, on the whole, forgot about my little Silver cartridge, and went on with life.

Every summer my family goes to the local Swap Meet. It’s been tradition for as long as I can recall and continued even after I moved away from my parents; last summer was no exception. The Swap Meet, especially recently, has had the quality of its selection decreased by far, but a few gems can be found to the careful observer; for example, five years ago, I had nabbed a pirated English Pokémon Green version for $10, that, although it is just a title screen hack of the English Blue release in a green cartridge, is one of my prized possessions.

In any case, last year, I came across an elderly gentleman with a slew of old games for various Nintendo systems. Most of these cartridges were either games I already owned, or had no interest in, such as the stacks of every Madden release for the SNES that were so high that they threatened to topple every time someone approached the table.

Skimming through the GameBoy games he had for sale, I came across a copy of Pokémon Silver. Strangely, although the little labels affixed for prices on the cartridges read $5-15 on each GameBoy cartridge, Silver was only noted as $1. Nostalgia came flooding back to me, and not wishing to curse my luck, I decided not to inquire the price and jumped on the chance to purchase the game.

I had become sidetracked upon arriving home that night, so the game went untouched until the following afternoon. Rummaging through my bounty of the previous day, I came across the Silver cartridge and decided to give it a go.

I popped the cartridge into my GameBoy Advance and booted up the game. A save file was already present, and like anyone would be, I was a tad curious as to what had gone on in the previous owner’s game. I smiled as I chose “Continue”, hoping to receive a little insight on a stranger’s psyche.

Immediately after the game started, I realized that I hadn’t seen the name assigned to the player character; using the start menu to check, I found it was labeled as “The S”.

I cocked my eyebrow in surprise. Surely, there was no way anyone else would use this moniker in his or her game - in all of my years, the only people I’ve encountered using it have been deliberate impostors - hardly someone that would use it in a game of Pokémon.

I shrugged this off for a few mere seconds, when I had found that the player’s team also mirrored mine at the last time I had seen it - Ninja, Venom Jr. (Beedrill), Mewtwo, Lugia, Letherhed (Feraligatr), and Slashclaw (Scyther). I couldn’t tell whether I was more creeped out or jubilant. Eventually, even though I failed to comprehend exactly how this turn of events came to be, I was just so excited to see my old team again that I continued to press on.

Everything in the game mirrored my previous Silver adventure, right down to other Pokémon I had caught, rival’s name, and more. Despite still feeling a little uneasy over my game being duplicated, I kept playing, as nothing else seemed amiss, and it was like I had never lost my initial game.

After clocking a few hours just battling and messing around, eventually I made my way to Cinnabar Island. This is where things truly began to frighten me. Cinnabar had been restored to its former glory, as it had been in Generation I. My fear temporarily subsided after I reasoned that it had to be some sort of hacked cartridge, or maybe, since I had read that Gold and Silver were built on Generation I’s architecture, that some glitch had called back to some Gen I Cinnabar Island data still left on the cartridge. This second theory seemed to be the most accurate at the time, considering that the buildings on the island were unavailable for entrance (as if the code to enter the buildings had been disabled) and the sole inhabitant, an old man, spoke only in glitchy-looking gibberish.

I fooled around a bit, surfing and fishing around the area. I was only coming up with low level Magikarp and Tentacool, which was becoming exceedingly tedious. Just I was heading back to the island from surfing off the east side, I ran into a Wild Pokémon encounter. With a sigh, I anticipated another Tentacool, but what awaited me caused my heart to skip a beat.

I don’t know why I hadn’t consciously made an effort to run into MissingNo. on the coast of Cinnabar Island, but I did indeed encounter it upon my attempted return to land. However, instead of the garbled mess of town sprites that normally compose Pokémon #000 (as well as many glitches in Generation II), this was the standard Red/Blue MissingNo. sprite. Unfortunately, MissingNo.’s appearance in this game wasn’t what had me nearly soiling myself in terror; it was the cry it made upon appearing. A sound that had already burrowed itself into my brain.

Earlier that year, I had been out for a jog a few blocks from my apartment, when I had come across a house on fire. Nobody seemed to be around, nor was anyone responding to my shouts for help. I did not have my cell phone on me at the time, and so, in an instinctual move, I broke a window and entered the house. Exiting the kitchen (which was the room I had come into from the window), I was hit in the back with something heavy, hard, and hot (although not on fire), sending me to the floor. Unable to get up, I heard a blood-curdling scream echo throughout the building. Later, after I had been rescued by the firefighters, I had learned that it was the elderly man that had lived there; his wife was already dead when I had made my rescue attempt.

This was the sound that MissingNo. made. The scream of a man burning to death.

Immediately, I dropped my GBA on the couch. Terror flowed through my body like blood, as I just stared at the game lying there. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, or what I was going to do next. It may have actually been but a few minutes, but it seemed as if an eternity had passed before I worked up the nerve to pick it up again, again trying to reason why this had occurred, I figured that it simply was a random assortment of glitch noises that just happened to sound similar to the man’s screaming. With a shaky hand, I lifted the game up, telling myself how silly it was to be freaking out over a game.

Although it was only Level 3, the MissingNo. wiped out my entire team - which consisted of three Level 100s and no Pokémon under Level 70 - with one Water Gun each, claiming it was “Super effective” no matter what type the Pokémon it hit was.

After Whiting Out, I arrived in a Pokémon Center that according to the map, was in Lavender Town. I had not visited Lavender since I had turned on the game several hours previously, so I was a bit surprised at this. I suddenly heard a bizarre noise, which actually did sound like a glitched warble that would be given off by a MissingNo. It took me a few minutes, however, to realize it was my cell phone. This was not a normal sound for my phone, thus I was startled. Flipping it open, I found that the battery was drained, and it was warning me of such. I had just charged the phone the previous night and the phone has only ever been drained when I hadn’t charged it for a couple of days, or used it excessively - which I hadn’t.

Sighing, I plugged in my phone, only to be shocked to see a photo pop up on the screen. It was a MissingNo. against a plain white background. Pressing a key on the phone made the phone cycle to another photo, which was another one of MissingNo., but from another angle, as if it were a 3D representation of the glitch, such as an action figure or papercraft.

It took a lot of attempts, but eventually I was able to figure out how to delete the photos (as the normal method only caused the phone to advance to the next photo). Sadly, these photos either overwrote or deleted the dozen or so photos I had on the phone previously.

Now aware that there was definitely something “not right” going on, I approached the game again… but instead of turning it off, I continued playing. I can’t tell you why I did… morbid curiosity, perhaps, or maybe it had me in some sort of trance. Normally, as a fan of horror movies, I would think myself savvy enough to not take the bait, but ultimately, I kept at it.

Exiting the Pokémon Center, I found the surroundings to be familiar, but a bit different than I recall Silver’s Lavender Town being. It didn’t take long to dawn on me that it was because this Lavender Town was a reproduction of the Generation I version, like Cinnabar Island before it - Pokémon Tower included.

I walked into the Pokémon Tower, but the interior was completely different than in other games. It was a small nigh-featureless room, about the size of the inside of a Pokémon Center, with one gravestone in the center. My palms sweating so hard that I thought I was going to drop the game, I approached the grave, expecting to see my name there.

“Here lies Tomb.”

Now, most of you would probably find this a bizarre non-sequitur or the game pointing out the obvious. After all, it’s a tombstone, so of course there lies a tomb, right?

This message had special connotations for me, however. I had a close friend named Tasha who I had basically mentored for almost a decade, who was like family to me. When she moved out to Wisconsin, her friends there realized that her initials - TMB - were like “tomb” without an ‘o’, so that became her nickname. Tasha ended up having lymphoma, and while she was sick, I lent her my English Green version - her name as “Tomb” in that game is still there to this day. She passed away in 2008.

This was starting to drive me mad. This game knew details of my life, or at the very least, ones that had been entered into my Pokémon games previously. It was causing things to happen with my cell phone - even though Crystal was the first game to have cell phone interaction, and that was removed from the English version. And it was able to reproduce, realistically, the screams of a burning old man despite the technology not being available on an 8-bit cartridge.

My text message ring tone went off on my phone at this time, causing me to drop the game on the couch hard enough to bounce. Eying my phone, I was reluctant to pick it up again. After a few minutes, eventually irritated by the ring tone going off every 30 seconds as a reminder, I picked up the phone and saw that it was from Tasha’s partner, Leslie. At first a chill went down my back, as there was no way this was a coincidence that she was texting me right after I had seen this event in my game. Then, I, still likely in denial, reasoned that perhaps there was ultimately some mystery and that she had come across clues. Sure, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but at this point, I was grasping at straws.

I saw that the text had a photo attached, so I held my breath for a moment while I chose to download it. My phone is a TracFone that runs on pre-paid phone cards, so it’s not exactly stellar technology, and thus, it took a while for the attachment to transfer. When it appeared on the screen, I came face-to-face with the most horrifying sight I had ever seen in my life.

Tasha appeared on the screen, her flesh a sickly gray and her face covered in deep, bleeding cuts, like the time she had been thrown through a bar window. Her mouth was twisted in a menacing scowl, and her normally beautiful eyes were completely devoid of life. She appeared to be reaching for either the photographer or the item being used to take said photo.

Seeing the face of someone so close to me in such a disturbing manner, tears began to trickle down my face. I just stared at her, willing away the photo while my thumb nervously bashed the keypad, trying to get the image off. I finally managed to delete the text (via the standard method, not the workaround I’d used to get rid of the MissingNo. photos), and quickly closed the phone. Using my landline, I dialed up Leslie… no answer, no voice mail. Scared out of my wits, I pulled the cartridge from the GBA’s slot (without first turning it off), stepped out onto my balcony into the hot summer night, and flung the cartridge with all of my might across the street, hearing it crash against something with a satisfying snap.

The GBA screen was white, and there was no sound emanating from it. I turned off the system, confident that I had beaten whatever cursed monstrosity that had tormented me. As I went to put away the GBA, I saw a Silver cartridge sitting on my sofa. Nearly vomiting, I realized there was no price sticker, and that this was my original Silver cartridge, which must’ve fallen out from the carrying case. Just to be certain, I loaded it into my GBA, and it indeed had no save file. Satisfied, I returned everything to it rightful place. I checked the cell one last time, and everything seemed to be in order, save for all of the photos that were removed by the MissingNo. ones.

I never did have problems with the cell phone or GameBoy again. I got a hold of Leslie the next day through her job, and she had told me that she had switched providers but not numbers, thus why I wasn’t able get a hold of her. I decided not to frighten her with the plight I had just encountered, though.

To this day, I don’t think I’ll ever get another Silver version. I definitely will not purchase any more Pokémon games secondhand, and if I decide to get one of the remakes, I’m getting HeartGold.

I was just starting my adventure on SoulSilver I got from a friend who was scared as hell of the game and gave it to me. I decided I’d delete his profile and start anew. Eventually, I made it to Bugsy, who for some reason, I ALWAYS had trouble with. Well, I went down the Slowpoke Well, to save Kurt and all the Slowpoke, I encountered a Slowpoke. It was an easy battle, but when I got out, a box came up and I heard Dusknoir’s cry. Lugia’s battle theme came up, and a level 100 Shiny Dusknoir appeared.

“HOLY CRAP!” I cried, as my favorite Pokemon is Dusknoir and I would gladly train one. “I’ve got to catch-! Wait a minute… what’s this pokemon doing in a place like this?” I think to myself thinking if I should catch this or not. “Eh, why not?” I throw a Ultra Ball, and surprisingly I caught it. I had named it Dante, as this was my Dusknoir OC’s name. “YES! I got me a Dusknoir!” I continued on, kicking Rocket Grunt’s asses with my level 100 Dusknoir. But when I killed one pokemon, it said “Dante grew to level 101!” I stared in awe as my Dusknoir elevated to level 109 after only 1 pokemon. “What the hell? I thought level 100 was as high as you can go…” I just went with it and continued my trek through the cave.

I beat Proton, but his response was much different than usual. “That pokemon is not ordinary. It was too strong. This is not the end.” And they all cleared out. Kurt said something different too, but I don’t really remember…

I beat Bugsy, and Silver, and before I knew it, I was in Ecruteak. I couldn’t believe how fast I was zipping throughout this game. This mass collection of pixels was excellent to have. He was level 234 by now. I hadn’t checked his stats yet, so I took a quick glance. I noticed his health said “475/??????” He also had the Leaf Crown and every ribbon, which came by as a surprise to me. I clicked out and a text box said, “Do you like my stats, papa?” There was a “Yes” or “No” question. But it was replaced with either “I hate it” or “I hate it”, which I thought was cruel, so I said the top one, which was the “Yes” command usually. “Why do you hate it?” “Yes” or “No” again. But now they said “Yes” or “No”, which I didn’t understand. “Uh yes?” I say in confusion. The Dusknoir says, “Ok…”

When it was 17:30 in the game, another text box came up, saying “Aaron, Do you love me?” This really freaked me out… It used my REAL name, not Gold, as it was in the game. “Yes” or “No” option again. I said “Yes”, fearing a dark presence for some reason. “Yay I do too.” He replied. I brought my game with me as I walked down the hall into the kitchen and put it on the counter. A text box appeared again. “What are you doing, Aaron? Are you hurt?” The text dissolved away rather than just disappearing. I had no clue what was happening, and by now I was starting to get frightend.
I checked my Trainer Card and my sprite seemed somewhat in pain, having one arm on his stomach, as if sick. I ignored it and continued to cook my food, having several thoughts rush through my head. “Oh god, what now?” I say as another text pops up.

“Oh no, Aaron, why are you in pain?” I checked my Trainer Card again, and my sprite looked worse than before. His visible hair was droopy and gray, his skin was a little lighter than usual. The eyes seemed sad and undetermined. He was kneeling on one knee, acting as if he was dying. I checked my party. Dante was happier than ever, but everyone else looked as crappy as my sprite, and had a green fluid seeping from their mouths and gashes on their bodies. I walked slower than usual, and trekked farther through the moo-moo farm. When I reached the door, Dante made more dialogue appear and I silently cursed under my breath. “Oh Aaron. You look like your going to die. Please don’t die on me, Aaron. PLEASE!” I checked my sprite and this was a drastic change. My sprite was on his knees and his face looked like it was dissolving. His clothes were tattered and torn, and he had cuts and gashes on his body. His hat was torn, and one arm gone. He also had a green fluid coming from his mouth and gashes.

“Oh Aaron… Tsk, tsk, tsk… I’ll tell you the truth. I’m the one doing this.” I was shocked to hear this, as my favorite pokemon was starting to turn its back on me. “Ha ha ha! This what’s called “Curse”. your pokemon have suffered it too. But they are all dead. Just wait an hour.” Before I pressed A, I hadn’t understood how a GAME could tell time. But I guessed the hack had specific times set or something. “You’ll love it, my friend.” It left, and I had no pokemon following me. A text came up and said,
DIANE JET (Feraligator) HAS DIED!
WEEDBOY (Beedrill) HAS DIED!
DUNCE (Dunsparce) HAS DIED!
JOTTY (Jumpluff) HAS DIED!
DOPPY (Victreebel) HAS DIED!
I was heartbroken and devastated. I knew this was just a game, but I still loved them, as they were my favorite team. This was my cherished team, and they were lost forever. After about an hour, the REAL horror began.

“Ok, are you ready for THIS?” The box disappeared and I was thrust into battle. When I appeared, the screen went black, and these shrieks of pure horror filled my ears, and my sprite returned slowly. When it came back, I was laying down as my sprite from the Trainer Card, on my side, but cut in half. “Aaron, Aaron, Aaron… you didn’t think that your favorite pokemon would ever turn on you, did you?” My mouth dropped in shock. How did it know that Dusknoir, of all pokemon, was my favorite?

“Your scream was so cute daddy. But you and your pokemon have been very naughty. That is what everyone was saying. So I decided to kill you. You should check your pokemon now.” The pokemon were a corroded, mess of blood, guts, and bones. “Heh say good night daddy…” Once again the screen went black, and a shattering sound followed by a bloodcurdling scream was heard. when I returned, we were at what looked somewhat like the distortion world, but still distinct. “Well, how do you like your new home, daddy? It’s the spirit world. Isn’t it wonderful?” “Yes” or “No” option. I picked “No” in fear. “Oh you don’t? THEN DIE.” Again, screen went black, with shrieks of pure terror once again, and when it came back, my head was laying in a corroding pile of hyper-realistic blood and gore.

Thanks to this hack, I’ll never look at my favorite pokemon again the same way.