Gen 1 (Pokemon Red)



Generation One was the original run of Twitch Plays Pokemon. Started on February 12, 2014 by an anonymous Australian programmer, this was the first iteration of TPP, originally designed as a "social experiment". Initially, the streamer claimed the game being played was a hack of Pokémon Red, "Pokémon Red 151" by Suicune, which allows all 151 Pokémon to be captured with different methods, however, the streamer later contradicted this, saying that the patch was faulty and that a vanilla version of Pokemon Red was being played. Viewers control the protagonist by inputting commands into the chat. This run was beaten by the TPP community on March 1st, 2014 with the defeat of the Elite Four and rival Blue. This gen saw a peak of 120,379 viewers and a total of 1,165,140 unique views over its run. Gen Mechanics and Gen Statistics for this generation.

Concept and beginning
The premise behind the creation of TwitchPlaysPokemon was much simpler than the guise of a social experiment that has been used frequently. The unnamed streamer and creator of TPP has said that calling it a social experiment was "just a fancy way of saying 'I want to see what happens'"[1]. The result was a worldwide phenomenon, with viewers tuning into the stream from the US, Europe and Asia as well as Australia. Inspiration for the idea came from another Twitch stream called SaltyBet[2] which allows viewers to place wagers of fake money on AI vs AI computer fighting games. The Streamer has said that "An automated stream with a focus on audience interaction was something that was very appealing to me"[3] and went on to say that Pokemon Red was chosen to test the simple design that had been created for command inputs due to the game's simple controls.

Viewership
The stream saw an average of around 30 viewers on day 1 of TPP Red. Early in day 2 however in Mt. Moon, Twitch Plays Pokémon began to see widespread popularity and quickly reached 4,000 viewers in the middle of the day.

Viewership continued to rise at an alarming rate until the stream reached its all-time viewership peak at 6d 2h 55m, 123,224, just after Giovanni's defeat. From there, the number of viewers started to decline, with an average of 62,500 viewers on day 15-16.

Due to Red battling the Elite Four, viewership rose dramatically on day 16-17, hitting around 109,000 viewers. Red defeated the Elite Four and Blue during the lower viewership hours, and finished the run with around 96,000 viewers.

World Record
At E3 2014, Twitch (accepting for the Players and Streamer) was awarded the World Record for "most participants on a Single Player online video game" for TwitchPlaysPokemon Red. Guinness says that 1,165,140 people played the game during its duration.

Major Events/Items
A more complete timeline can be found here.
 * Bloody Sunday
 * S.S. Ticket
 * Helix Fossil
 * Release of Abby and Jay Leno
 * Capture of Zapdos

Hall of Fame
The following Pokémon were in Red's party that finally defeated Blue. The final battle can also be viewed here. A complete list of Gen 1 characters can be found here.
 * AA-j
 * Air Jordan
 * ATV
 * Bird Jesus
 * King Fonz
 * Lord Helix

Lore
The lore in Generation 1 revolved heavily around various religions spawned from the game play. (see full article: Gen 1 Religions).

Red appears to have been chosen by the Hivemind, voices from another world (community players) to embark on a quest to resurrect Lord Helix. Along his journey, he gathered several 'Mon to join in on the quest, but an apparent (but still debated) betrayal by his Eevee who had recently evolved into a Flareon (see The False Prophet) left his starter, Abby and fan-favorite Jay Leno dead, or released. After consulting with the at-the-time dormant Helix Fossil, Red decided to release the Flareon, and continued on the journey with another faithful 'Mon, Bird Jesus.

Questions still remain as to who the true enemy of Generation 1 was. Many pointed to the Dome Fossil, due to it being the other fossil a player can choose at Mt. Moon. Due to the prevalence of Bill lore surrounding his involvement in releases in subsequent generations, there has been some revisioning of generation 1 that centers around Bill being the main villain. Regardless, soon a strong team was formed with Bird Jesus as its backbone and late-addition AA-j as its powerhouse, and the Helix Fossil was revived into the Omanyte, and later Omastar, Lord Helix.

After all eight Kanto gyms were conquered, and carrying the memories of those lost on the infamous Bloody Sunday (see  Bloody Sunday), Red entered Victory Road and began the march to the Elite Four. After conquering the road's boulder puzzles, Red challenged the Elite Four, eventually besting them and defeating Blue to become League Champion. This moment was seen as Lord Helix's victory, either besting the Dome, Bill, or both. It is believed that after becoming champion, Red traveled to Mt. Silver at the behest of Lord Helix, where he and his 'Mon waited for the rise of a godslayer, to kill Lord Helix and restore balance to the world (see Gen 2).

Save file
The save file for generation one can be found here:
 * Download 1