Pokemon Red player discovers legit Mew survived for years despite the odds

A Pokemon Red player has discovered that their cartridge is still active and contains a legitimate Mew that they acquired at a real-life event.

The original Gen 1 Pokemon fans must live with the fact that the ‘Mons they loved so much are all gone, banished to the digital afterlife, where they are shepherded to the kingdom beyond by winged-choirs of MissingNo, singing glitched-out hymns.

The reason the original Pokemon are gone is due to the batteries in the old Gen 1 & 2 Game Boy cartridges. These are needed for the save game function to work. The batteries have degraded over time, so the old saves are no longer functional.

While there are methods for backing up Game Boy cartridges, they’re useless to the many games already degraded due to the dead batteries. Fortunately, a few Gen 1 & Gen 2 cartridges have survived over the years with their Pokemon still intact.

A Gen 1 Mew is still alive on a Pokemon Red cartridge

A user on the Gaming Reddit has shared photos of their Pokemon Red cartridge that is not only functional but still contains the Mew they received at a Pokemon 2000 Stadium Tour, meaning the Mew has survived for decades despite the degradation of so many Gen 1 batteries.

“Nice! My copy of blue with a legit Mew and a 151 Pokédex had its battery give up, so it’s all just a distant memory now,” one fan lamented, while another said, “To think, 14 years ago you played this thing l, set it down, and never played it again. Until now lol.”

“Aww man, still remember going over to the game store and getting my free Mew,” one player reminisced, “You’d insert your cartridge into some thing, and you’d get one transferred. We even got a “Mew inside” sticker to put on the cartridge. Pokémon yellow… Damn, now I need to go digging around for that one.”

“Highly recommend you get those batteries out of there and replace them with something new. Old batteries just love to find excuses to leak,” one player suggested, referring to the methods you can use to retain your old Gen 1 Pokemon.

Unfortunately, Gen 1 and 2 Pokemon are locked to the Game Boy cartridges (not counting their 3DS ports), which means this Mew cannot escape Kanto. It is fortunate, however, that it has defied the odds and survived this long when so many of its brethren have vanished.