We need your assistance!
Tracing the origins of Gen III PCNY Pokémon is difficult. These Pokémon first became globally tradeable with the release of Diamond & Pearl in April 2007. By August of that year, dozens of PCNY Pokémon were in circulation. Who did they come from? Who owned them originally?
Why, ChronoCritic. Can’t you just search the web? We have. Extensively. And we’re not sure why, but thread archives on popular Pokémon websites like PokeCommunity and GameFAQs don’t go back further than August 2007. It means we’re missing a written record of the critical months where these Pokémon where introduced into broader circulation.
We can throw some names at you. Collectors like Sogeki, XJessicaRabbitX, I_Want_Shiniez and quietdrive all had overlapping, if not mostly identical, collections of legitimate PCNY in those earliest days of June 2007. Over the years these consolidated into the hands of traders like DJ_Osiris, darksteel88, and YoshiMoshi.1By which I mean, minus the numerous inevitable hacks. But who introduced them? Who went to the Pokémon Center New York in 2003/04, and self-obtained these Pokémon from their GCEA machines, to trade them out on the worldwide web a few years later? We know Inkydog did. And DanTrain. And GoldUrsaring. But between them, that leaves many PCNY unaccounted for. Here are the most notable unattributed sequences. Each sequence was most likely obtained by a single individual. Can you help link them to a collector?
Sequence 1:
PCNYd 16 Tropius
PCNYd 17 Gardevoir
PCNYd 18 Salamence
(Campaign: “Spring Fling”, April 19-25 2004)
Sequence 2 & 3:
PCNYc 656 Flygon
PCNYc 657 Seviper
PCNYc 658 Seviper
&
PCNYd 463 Flygon
PCNYd 464 Absol (Wish)
PCNYd 467 Absol (Spite)
(Campaign: “Pokémon Box”, July 10-16 2004)
Sequence 4:
PCNYd 670 Zangoose
PCNYd 673 Seviper
PCNYd 674 Kingdra
PCNYd 676 Milotic
(Campaign: “Summer 2”, August 7-13 2004)
Sequence 5:
PCNYd 164 Seviper
PCNYd 165 Zangoose
PCNYd 172 Zangoose
[PCNYd 180 Kingdra (Gentle)]
PCNYd 200 Seviper
PCNYd 207 Milotic
(Campaign: “Summer 2”, August 7-13 2004)
Certain aspects of PCNY event distributions remain shrouded in mystery. Can you help?
Questions
– Gen II campaigns were scheduled and timetabled on the Pokemon.com website. Gen III campaigns seemingly were not. (Or if they were, we haven’t been able to find the archived page!) Why?
– Gen III campaigns were a lot less frequent than Gen II campaigns had been. Why?
– Were campaigns reused during Gen III in particular? If so, what campaigns, and when?
– Was there a custom GCEA / PCNY event for Christmas 2003? (There were in 2002 and 2004.) Anecdotal evidence suggests one was planned revolving around the move “Present”, pitched to Japanese offices but rejected. Is this correct? Was an older campaign reused instead?
– Were there any new PCNY campaigns between October 2003’s Monster Mosh and Spring (April) 2004, perhaps for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day or Easter? Current sources indicate a six-month gap. Were older campaigns perhaps reused?
– No legitimate PCNY*a* Pokémon has ever been found, not for Gen II and not for Gen III. The event research community isn’t quite sure why. For a time it was assumed machine A was simply broken. If all four sides were in fact functional, was there perhaps no PCNYa OT memory card at all? (But instead, for example, duplicate PCNYd?) Or was machine A on permanent demo / non-distribution duty?
– Over time, the PCNYb OT seems to have been phased out. It was last used in October 2003’s Monster Mosh. The PCNYc OT was phased out too, last used during July 2004’s Box Promo. Why?