Feature: Missingno. Master's Pokémon Memories

Missingno. Master is one of many Pokémon fans who grew up with the series from the very beginning. While he loved watching the anime and playing the video games, he was deeply fascinated by a certain Pokémon in particular, which some might say isn’t even a Pokémon at all!

A picture Missingno. Master drew of Missingno. flying above the sea in Kanto on Route 20, with Cinnabar Island in the background

Missingno. Master:

Back in the days of Gen 1, when Pokémon was just starting to make itself known around the world, it had become the next big popular thing at my school. I typically just ignored whatever the latest fad was – they never lasted, so it never really felt worth my while to keep up with them. Pokémon, however, lasted like nothing else, so after maybe months had passed and my classmates were still into it, my curiosity was piqued. One day after school, I [saw] that an episode of the anime was about to air, so I figured, y'know what, sure, I'll watch it, see what all the fuss is about. Half an hour later, my eyes are glued to the screen as Ash Ketchum is catching his Muk, and the rest is history.

Later that year, for my 10th birthday, no less, my parents gave me a Game Boy Color and copies of Yellow and Red (I got a copy of Blue later that day from my aunt and uncle). To this day I think they lowkey regret it – probably not really, of course, but back then, they just might have, because I was hooked. Pokémon had taken hold of my attention and interest like nothing else. I wasn't good at the games back then, but I was still hooked on them.

And then one day, I was outside my house, playing Red Version, and some of the neighbor kids saw that I was struggling, and so they decided to teach me what they called the "Rare Candy Code." Their instructions were so weird to me - put the Rare Candy in a specific spot in my bag, go watch the old man catch a Weedle, things of that nature – but I followed them exactly all the same, and I was rewarded for this in grand style. I still remember the awe and wonder I felt as I first saw that glorious pixellated L crossing my screen – my first encounter with Missingno.

An archived page from TRsRockin, where Missingno. Master shared his original findings for Missingno

Missingno. Master:

Now, back then, I knew next to nothing about Missingno., and so I believed my neighbors when they warned me that catching it would wreck my save file. But I was still obsessed with this strange new Pokémon, this thing that official resources weren't helping me with in any way, and I so badly wanted to find out more about it. I began investigating, first by having a Ditto Transform into it, which is how I learned that it knows Water Gun, Water Gun, and Sky Attack. Finally, one day I took the risk and actually caught one, and from there I slowly began to learn that Missingno. wasn't actually dangerous to one's save file.

The era of investigating Gen 1 glitches back in those days was a big deal to me. It felt like we were truly venturing into the unknown, putting our save files on the line in the name of uncovering this whole other side of the world of Pokémon, something that no official strategy guide could walk us through. I remember the various websites that would pop up about this, and oh, man, TRsRockin in particular, that one was the place for investigating Gen 1 glitches back in the day. I remember reading on that site about how .4 and A both just turned into ordinary Rhydon when they were caught, so nobody was really investigating them further.

Screenshot of “.4” glitch which can be found in Pokémon Red & Blue

Missingno. Master:

I went and caught an A myself, and I got a weird glitchy dex entry for it before it turned into a Rhydon. I knew something was weird there, as I'd never gotten a dex entry for Missingno., even for the first one I ever caught. So I think to myself: ‘Hey, what if it's the dex entry that does it?’ So I repeat the Mew glitch, I catch a second A, no dex entry, and sure enough: it's not a Rhydon! I then sat down with a pen, a pad of paper, and shoveled Rare Candies into this thing and just wrote down the level-up moves, and submitted my findings to TRsRockin.

I still remember how amazed I was when A tried to learn Transform! At the time it was believed that A only knew one glitched move. To explain a bit: This same glitched move could be obtained on a Ditto while it was transformed by having it transform into something that knows at least 2 moves. During combat you could change the move order so that Transform is no longer in the first slot, and when that happens, the game basically lets you use a blank moveslot like a move, which can have some weird effects. It tends to be called the Cooltrainer move since "Cooltrainer" is what the game lists as the glitched move's type.

I knew that A had other moves, since it would use them when I was battling it to try to catch it. But after catching it, its moveset appeared blank. I found out its first move was hiding them! Since A has this blank "Cooltrainer" move as its first move, the first moveslot is blank and the game assumes all subsequent moveslots are also blank. But when A leveled up, the glitch move was automatically overwritten when it learned Tackle, and then the entire moveset became visible. This is the kind of weirdness that so fascinated me about these Gen 1 glitches.

It was... it was just such a cool thing that I felt like I was actually a part of there.

A photograph of Missingno. Master's cherished Pokémon items, which include his old Pokémon Game Boy games mounted to a board, his Pokédex toy, two Weezing plush toys, and his Pokémon Mini console with games

Missingno. Master:

I continued to watch the anime, and that definitely shaped my opinions by helping me realize which kinds of Pokémon I prefer. With one of my first impressions of Ash being him catching his Muk, which was a pretty epic moment, I found him to be a bit of a letdown most other times. He tended to prefer these cutesy, unevolved Pokémon that had a tendency to not stack up well to their larger, fully evolved opponents. His Charizard didn't obey him and he almost never used the Muk I knew he had. And then you had Team Rocket, who always went in with these big, awesome, fully-evolved Poison-types that actually listened to them. Even Victreebel, once it spat James out, would do as he said, and I quickly realized I preferred them over the likes of Ash's insolent, disobedient Charizard.

It didn't surprise me that the likes of Arbok and Victreebel soon became some of my favorites, but the one that ended up my all-time favorite, and remains so to this day, is Weezing. I think part of the reason for that is that it has two heads – I tend to be drawn to Pokémon with multiple heads, I always thought that was cool. Stuff like Dodrio and Exeggutor, and later on, Vanilluxe, they all appeal to me. There's also the fact that it's purple, which is my favorite color, and also the skull and crossbones – I always thought that was cool, I've always had kind of a fondness for pirates and stuff.

Galarian Weezing is also a Pokémon I very much enjoy, but Normal Form Weezing continues to stay as my absolute all-time favorite, and I don't foresee that changing so easily. And quite possibly as a result of all this, plus the aforementioned seeing Ash catching his Muk, Poison has cemented itself as my favorite type early on, and it remains so to this day.

A wild Missingno. encounter in Pokémon Red & Blue

Missingno. Master:

Nowadays, I'm 35 years old [as of 2025], and I will stop playing Pokémon when they pry the Nintendo handheld of the era from my cold, dead fingers. However much things have changed, my love for Pokémon has stayed strong. I do have a lot more fond memories revolving around Pokémon, and I'm hoping to continue to make all the more as time goes on.

We are very thankful to Missingno. Master for sharing his experiences with Pokémon, glitches, and his passion for the franchise as a whole. I truly hope that Pokémon will continue to be a hugely positive influence in his life.