On which platform did the first Pokémon games appear?

The first Pokémon games appeared on the Nintendo Game Boy.

Pokémon Red and Green launched in Japan as Game Boy role-playing games in 1996. The handheld’s Link Cable was central to the design because it allowed players to trade Pokémon between two systems.

That trading feature was more than a technical extra. It helped make the two game versions complementary: some Pokémon could be obtained only in one version, encouraging players to connect with friends and exchange creatures.

Later Pokémon games expanded to the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch. Because the series now appears on much more powerful systems, newcomers sometimes associate its beginning with a later platform. Its origins, however, are firmly tied to the original monochrome Game Boy.