Retro Gaming Log: Pokemon Yellow

I’ve yet to buy a Nintendo Switch because of finances, moving, baby, etc. It’s also hard to justify a new gaming system when I’m not using the ones I have. I had the idea of writing about my retro games (how old exactly is considered retro gaming?). So first up is Pokemon Yellow. 

I had a friend (who recently got into Pokemon) decide the team I’d work towards. Despite never having successfully done a nuzzlocke before, I took one principle from that method: only one Pokémon from each route (doesn’t have to be the first encounter). At least until my prescribed team was complete. Also tried to avoid running from any wild Pokemon and to hit every trainer battle along the way. And for fun I decided to use some of my geeky Pokemon nicknames (as if Pokemon isn’t geeky enough already).

Starter Pokémon: Pikachu (duh)

Pallet Town - Pewter City

• Pallet Town: Since you don’t get to pick your starter in Yellow, one of the first decisions to make is “Should I influence how my rival’s Eevee evolves?” Nah! I don’t want to lose any battles. I’ll win what I can and whatever happens will happen!
• Viridian City: After delivering Oak’s Parcel, I had to go slightly west of the city to catch a Mankey (I needed that or Nidoran to fight Brock) and to battle my rival again. 
• Viridian Forest: I had to keep Pikachu alive (because Bulbasaur) while grinding Mankey/Caterpie to stand up to Brock. 
• Pewter City Gym: The Jr Trainer wasn’t enough to level up Mankey/Metapod, so I had to grind against wild Pokemon outside Viridian Forest.
• Current Team: 

Pewter City - Cerulean City

• Mt. Moon: First encounter with Team Rocket in this game. I think I remember theories about them wanting the fossils for research about Mew. Regardless, I picked Helix Fossil and moved on past Jessie and James. 
• Bill’s Sea Cottage: I tried to grab Bulbasaur before the rival battle, but apparently my Pikachu wasn't happy enough. Still grabbed Charmander at the end of Nugget Bridge though. 
• Cerulean City Gym: I guess I had let Pikachu faint one too many times, because I couldn’t acquire Bulbasaur before the gym. Fainting against Misty won’t help. That meant that Bellsprout was this battle’s MVP. 
• Current Team:

Cerulean City - Vermillion City:

• SS Anne: It took me a few times leaving the boat to heal up before I made my way through (I felt the need to challenge all trainers). My rival wasn't much of a challenge (my Wigglytuff was a bit of a tank) so HM01 was relatively easy to obtain once I got to the rival battle.
• Vermillion City: I wanted to pick up Squirtle when I first arrived, but forgot that I needed the Thunder Badge first. So instead I grabbed the Old Rod and moved on with my life.
• Vermillion City Gym: It took me two tries to defeat Lt. Surge. Normally I get a Diglett or Dugtrio to take down the gym, but I was able to defeat Raichu almost exclusively with Wigglytuff and Body Slam. Like I said, it's a tank.
• Current Team:

Vermillion City - Celadon City

• Diglett’s Cave: First thing I did after leaving the gym was to get Squirtle. Since he starts at level 10, he had some catching up to do with my team. What better place for a water Pokemon to train than Diglett's Cave? Had to go that direction for HM05 anyway. And for good measure, I took Mt. Moon back to Cerulean City for training.
• Rock Tunnel: A lot of potions used here to make my way through without having to dig my way back out to the Pokemon Center. 
• Celadon City: I made my way straight through Lavender Town and under Saffron City. I made a bee line for Eevee and the coin case. Also I needed HM02 to give myself a flying move going into the Celadon Gym. 
• Celadon City Gym: I went to the gym so quickly that I forgot to evolve my Eevee. It didn’t matter though. Pidgeotto was able to dive bomb almost all of Erika and her lackeys’ Pokemon with Fly before Charmeleon took over. 
• Current Team:

Celadon City - Saffron City

• Rocket Hideout: Got kind of burned out at trying to outwit and outlast every trainer. Good for EXP but not conducive for this project. 
• Pokemon Tower: After dealing with the Game Corner, this is where I finally gave up challenging every trainer. Though at the same time the task here was trying to level everyone up to get the desired moves and evolutions. 
• Saffron City: The place isn't locked down anymore, so I retrieved the TM from Mr. Psychic (to give me some variety to my arsenal).
• Silph Co: As a kid, I knew exactly where to go here. Apparently that didn't survive in my long-term memory, so I ended up exploring basically every floor. But in the end I made it to Giovanni and got my Master Ball... I mean I saved Silph Co.
• Saffron City Gym: This is about the point that I got tired of fighting every trainer (it was slowing down my game) but I went back to the tedious battles after a couple losses at the hand of Sabrina. Even went to the Fighting Dojo for EXP--Was going to skip it since my team wouldn't include the Hitmons. The grinding was going well and after Body Slam paralyzed Alakazam, I was pretty confident… until I accidentally threw my Master Ball (I meant to click on a Revive). Restart the DS and time to grind again. Fortunately it didn’t take as much effort when I got to her again. 
• Current Team:

Saffron City - Fuschia City

• Cycling Road: It took a number of Pokémon Center trips to beat all the biker trainers. Fortunately, Wigglytuff’s Psychic attack made the poison-type enemies easier. 
• Fuschia City: Not much to do upon arrival, but restock items (selling all Super Potions and Great Balls in favor of Hyper Potions and Ultra Balls—Though I’m not sure why I cared about the Ultra Balls since I have my final team already).
• Safari Zone: Since I’m not concerned with catching more Pokemon, I sped through the Safari Zone, retrieving HM03 and Gold Teeth (to exchange for HM04). Only thing left is the gym. 
• Fuschia City Gym: Despite being a poison gym, there was a curious amount of Drowzee, Hypno, and Kadabra. You’d expect more Weezing, Muk, or Arbok. Either way, Wigglytuff’s Body Slam took care of most psychic-types and Vulpix’s Ember took care of all of Koga’s Venonat. I needed the rest to finish off Venomoth because of his Double Team. 
• Current Team:

Fuschia City - Cinnabar Island

• Cinnabar Island: Since my team was already complete, I didn't bother resurrecting my fossil. I got tired of Jolteon's limited moveset (it wouldn't learn Thunder until Level 54) so I took a field trip to the Power Planet to get the TM for it. Now Jolteon could be more useful in the Mansion. 
• Pokemon Mansion: As a kid, I had the trick with the statue switches down into long-term memory. Decades later, I had to Google a walkthrough to get it right.
• Cinnabar Island Gym: I intentionally got the quiz questions wrong to battle all the trainers for the EXP. Because of that, five of the six on my team were fully evolved. With Surf and Earthquake, Blastoise easily took down Blaine's Pokemon. 
• Current Team:

Cinnabar Island - Viridian City

• Viridian City: I stocked up on items before leaving Cinnabar Island. After that, nothing to do but head to the gym (sounds like everyday in real life for me).
• Viridian City Gym: I had to heal up after beating all the trainers, before I would face Giovanni. I thought I had it made with Blastoise's strength. But my tank was taken down early by Dugtrio's Fissure attack. Weepinbell picked up the slack with Solar Beam. After learning Razor Leaf and beating Giovanni, it was time to finally use the Leaf Stone that's been burning a hole in my bag. Next up is the Pokemon League.
• Current Team:

Viridian City - Indigo Plateau

• Victory Road: We're in the endgame now (completely forgot about the rival battle on the way to Victory Road, by the way). I went into the tunnel puzzle worried about my weaker Pokemon managing the trainers and wild Pokemon on the way to the Elite Four (but that's why I came stocked up on Escape Rope). Turns out I didn't need the Escape Rope. I needed some Potions, Revives, and an online walkthrough. I made it! Now for the final task.
• Elite Four: I got through the Elite Four without too much trouble... until Lance took me down. But with the help of some Hyper Potions and Revives (and the fact that Blastoise and Wigglytuff are tanks), I made it through the Four and the final rival battle. And that's it! Yes, I could hunt down the legendary Pokemon, but the story ends here basically. Next Pokemon game on my list: Silver.
• Final Team:

More Content You Might Like:

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• LDS Geeks Podcast #64: Pokemon Kanto Region
  Show Notes: click here
  Spotify: click here
  Apple Podcasts: click here

A Voice of My Childhood: Jim Cummings

(Guest Post by Tyler)

Hey y’all, Tyler here – your resident Bulbasaur writer! It’s been a bit, but I was so glad to be join FanExpo Dallas again this year.

I didn’t quite have much time to put together a costume. So I ended up wearing a Bulbasaur cap that Spencer was sweet enough to get for me for my birthday (I truly do not deserve him), and building the rest of my fit around that. It’s been a couple of years since I wrote my article “Bulbasaur at the Zoo” for this blog – and now, I have “become” the Bulbasaur at the zoo. Poetic, right?

This year, schedules didn’t line up well for our crew, so I couldn’t meet up with everyone. I ended up mostly walking around with my brother, who hadn’t ever been to a comic con before. I enjoyed showing him around, and we appreciated seeing the creativity of so many people in their costumes and their merchandise. When life’s so crazy, it’s refreshing to be able to be with people to just “enjoy” things.

For me, the highlight will always be walking the vendor floor. But this year, I was also able to do something different. I attended a panel by the incredible voice actor, Jim Cummings.

Jim is known for many voices from several different properties. Some of them include:

• Winnie the Pooh
• Tigger 
• The Tasmanian Devil
• Ray in The Princess and the Frog
• Hondo Ohnaka in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels

There are literally hundreds more. During this panel, I was looking up his IMDB and Wikipedia page and realizing how many more characters I knew but hadn’t realized were his voice. He talked about his processes of voicing some of these characters. He would do some physical movements and even stand like the character to really project that character’s essence into his voice. Something he shared as well that found interesting is that he never read the scripts before doing a recording session. He explained that these scripts can be hundreds of pages long, so he would just make sure he could get in character beforehand and just read it as they go along.

It was fun to listen to him share some of his experiences as a voice actor. He talked about one time doing voice work for a movie, but actually his part ended up getting cut entirely from the work. He unfortunately didn’t find out about this until the movie premiere, which he attended with his family. The director didn’t see him until after the viewing and apologized for notifying him earlier. (I am writing this weeks after the comic con, but if I remember right, it was for the movie Surfs Up, about the surfing penguins). He also told about a time that they misspelled his name in the credits of the final cut of a movie, even when he was a pretty well-established name in the industry. (Imagine the intern that was probably fired for almost offending a legend in the voice acting industry).

I was absolutely excited to be there. While I am your in-house Bulbasaur writer today, I love many different fandoms. But one of my first was actually Winnie the Pooh. My mom actually nicknamed me her Pooh Bear growing up – because I would love watching the movies, and because I would do nothing but eat and sleep all the time. He did end up doing the voice for us, as well as a couple of others, and it felt incredible to hear it live. (And in an appropriate setting, at least. I would have hated to be one of “those fans” who goes up to him outside of a panel and beg him, “Do the voice!!!”).

It was also humanizing to see him as just a person, talking normally and joking around. As silly as it is to say, I had to remember that he is just the voice of Winnie the Pooh and other characters. He is not those characters themselves. This was especially interesting to me, because sometimes he would say jokes that weren’t necessarily distasteful, but were a bit more off-colored than what you would hear in a Winnie the Pooh show.

(Nolan North, another voice actor, was also on the panel. But I was focused more on Jim, so I didn’t take any notes)

In the end, I was really glad to be able to do something different than I have at cons before. To sum it all up, I just say: while it’s cool to see the actors who voice your favorite characters or play as your favorite characters, I hope that you yourself stay attuned to the voice of your own inner child.

(My inner child is saying to go eat something and take a nap. Good to know that I still have a bit of Pooh Bear in me).

More Content You Might Like:

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LDS Geeks Podcast #75: Disney Songs (6)

It's hard to believe that we've already been at this two years. To celebrate two years and seventy-five episodes, Russell and I decided to center this podcast episode on Disney songs you could use for mission preparation (because of the two years). We believe in the power of music. And we believe in over-analyzing every note of geekdown through a spiritual lens. Hopefully you get something enlightening from our Disney ramblings, whether you're a prospective missionary, returned missionary, or member missionary.

--Spencer

PS: Pardon our physical therapy metaphors.

Listen to Episode 75 on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

Check out Spencer's recent content: click here

Check out Russell's recent content: click here

Show notes:

00:12 - Introductions
01:26 - Russell's Recommendation: "Healer" by McKenna Hixon
        Listen on YouTube
04:25 - Spencer's Recommendation: Hevy app
        Available on Google Play and App Store
05:51 - 75th Episode Stats
15:25 - Disney Mission Prep songs
19:05 - Honorable Mentions:
        "I'll Make a Man Out of You" (Mulan)
        "A Girl Worth Fighting For" (Mulan)
        "Go the Distance" (Hercules)
20:12 - "Zero to Hero" (Hercules)
24:28 - "Into the Unknown" (Frozen 2)
26:38 - "You'll Be in My Heart" (Tarzan)
28:48 - "Love Power" (Disenchanted)
30:27 - "Waiting on a Miracle" (Encanto)
35:28 - "Son of Man" (Tarzan)
41:33 - "Heigh-Ho" (Snow White)

Pink Video Game Characters for Breast Cancer Awareness

It's been a couple years now since my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a miracle they found it so early (especially since they were serving their mission in Northern Canada at the time). So now I make a pink-related blog post every year in October. My mom isn't the geeky type, but then again she's already aware of the risks of breast cancer anyway. This year with my kids loving the Super Mario Galaxy movie, I thought pink video game characters would be a good place to go this year.

Princess Peach

Naturally, I have to start with Princess Peach. The kidnapped princess of the Super Mario Bros games. She's the subject of the quote "Your princess is in another castle". In North America, she was originally known as Princess Toadstool to fit the mushroom theme. We finally got in line with Japan when Princess Peach returned in Super Mario 64. She's become more than a damsel in distress in the years that followed. In the Mario Kart games, she's a formidable racer. In Super Smash Bros, she became a melee fighter, armed with a frying pan, an umbrella, and a Toad. In the two animated Mario movies, she's a sassy and fearless heroine with a mysterious past, finally learning of her older sister Rosalina.

Pinky

I'd heard before that the Pac-Man ghosts have names, but I'd forgotten. In preparation for this post, I was reminded that the only pink enemy of the dot-muncher is literally named "Pinky". Obviously there isn't much backstory in the original Pac-Man arcade games, but spin-off games and material have built on Pinky's character. That's getting pretty deep into a two-dimensional character (literally) even for me. 

PS: This is one video game my mom has actually played, since it was available while she was a bartender as a single mom.

Kirby

The pink copycat alien was once my go-to on Super Smash Bros. The fact that he inhales his opponent to copy their powers is almost comical. He's a whimsical pink blob (not to be confused with Jigglypuff) who basically flies around space on a shooting star. In the cartoon series, his main foe is King Dedede in "monster of the week" episodes. Back to Super Smash Bros, one of my favorite Kirby forms (at least in the original) is probably Samus.

Birdo

First appearing in the late 80s, Birdo could be a pink Yoshi at a first glance. Unlike the lovable green dino, Birdo is not friendly to Mario and his friends. At least not usually. While Birdo is often an unique character, like Yoshi, the term can also be used to refer to the species. In addition to throwing eggs as projectile weapons, Birdo can sometimes suck an enemy towards her and steal their energy, kind of like a Yoshi/Kirby mashup. While not a playable character on Super Smash Bros (yet), the pink dinosaur has made plenty of cameos in the crossover franchise. However, she is a playable character on Mario Kart and other Mario spin-off games. Final note: Birdo made a cameo among the minor villains in the Mario Galaxy movie.

Amy Rose

Though only a brief cameo at the end of the third Sonic movie, Amy Rose is set to appear in the fourth movie (voice by Kristen Bell). The pink hedgehog has been part of Sonic's crew since the early 90s. In her first appearance, she was kidnapped (not unlike Princess Peach) by Metal Sonic. Since then, she's been a playable character in spin-off games and she's a major player in many of the Sonic cartoons. She's Sonic's self-appointed girlfriend and will hammer smash anyone who says otherwise. My first-grader already can't wait to see her in the next movie.

Jigglypuff

Any number of pink Pokemon could go on this post (see my previous post for more of those). However, Jigglypuff has become iconic enough to be mentioned again. As a recurring character in the Pokemon anime for a long time, she was a comical addition to the show. And as I said before, my respect to anyone who plays Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros and extra respect for anyone who plays her well (except this one guy in my ward--he's evil when playing Jigglypuff).

I'm sure there are plenty of other video game characters that could be spotlighted. I'll leave the list there for now (maybe do more next year) but in the meantime encourage those you love to keep alert with their health. the American Cancer Society recommends women start screening for breast cancer in your early 40s. If your family has a history of breast cancer, you can often start earlier. And men, it's possible for us to get breast cancer too. Rarer, but possible. So hug your loved ones and all the prayers to any of you going through the cancer battle (personally or with a family member).

More Content You Might Like:

• "Why I Liked The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" by Spencer
• "10 Fun Attacks from Video Games" by Joe
• LDS Geeks Podcast #20: Super Smash Characters
  Show Notes: click here
  Spotify: click here
  Apple Podcasts: click here
  YouTube: click here