Pokémon was invented by Satoshi Tajiri, a Japanese game designer, inspired by his childhood hobby of collecting insects. As a child, Tajiri loved catching, studying, and trading bugs with friends. When he grew up and saw the Nintendo Game Boy, he imagined a game where players could catch creatures, raise them, and trade them with others using the Game Boy’s link cable. This idea became “Pocket Monsters,” later shortened to Pokémon. In 1996, the first games—Pokémon Red and Green—were released in