All of my games were bootlegs other than Silver. But I was lucky, because I got a cartridge with like, 80 games (not hyperbole, I think it was 83 or 86?), and the games were all different, and it also had Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow (the American releases, so Red and Blue are both versions of what in Japan is Pokemon Blue, which is kind of a remake, so it they have the item swap glitch fixed, but not most of the rest of them, and with the Missingno glitch because they fucked up), AND it had Pokemon Green, Gold and Silver in Japanese (by the way, the version-exclusives in those were flipped in the west, for some reason). Also, saves worked normally, so I could have one save per game in that cartridge.

I had Crystal and Blue as well before that, but I actually traded for that cartridge, because it was clearly worth it, and I tested it in advance at it worked. The difference between Silver and Crystal is small enough that it didn't matter to me. Anyway, that was really big deal, because I'd get one bootleg a year, two if I was lucky. So, getting 80 games was a really fucking big deal. It had a lot of random stuff, and other than Pokemon Yellow, Gold and Silver, they were all regular Game Boy games, not Color. Some examples are Super Mario Land (only the first one, unfortunately, but of course, I played the second on emulator), Super Chinese Land (what a name), Soukoban, Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima, Spartan X, and a bunch of shit that I don't even remember the name of, and also a few truly horrendous games.

Also, I had Pokemon Jade, and your reaction to that may be "what the fuck is that?", and it's a bootleg version of the first Keitai Denjuu Telefang, with truly horrendous translation. I liked it, though. And no, the "translation" doesn't mention the word Pokemon, it only on the box and I think the intro screen (actually forgot that, I just remember the stupid creature, that I'm pretty sure is not in the game either). There's also Pokemon Diamond, it's the other version, but Jade is easier to look up for obvious reasons. It's fucked up how GameFreak stole the name from the bootleggers, they should sue. Other than that, I had another cartridge with a bunch of games, but a lot were repeats. So I had like, 100 of them, which is ironically more than rich kids get, in areas that don't have bootleg cartridges.

After that, I never got a GBA, but I did find out that I could emulate it, so I did. But I shouldn't ramble about that or this single post will be too long and I won't have time to sleep today. But I was really into Rockman.EXE and Zero, and also the Summon Night Craftsword Monogatari games (actually played through half of the second one first, in Japanese, and then Atlus released the translation for the first one shortly afterwards), maybe the only games from that franchise that I can play to this day because it's Japan only. Really good, still some of my favorite games ever.

I recommend going back to the GB. I did it myself years ago and beat a bunch of games in a short period of time. I beat I think Spartan X, Ninja Gaiden Shadow (Ninja Ryukenden GB), Rockman World 1 ~ 5 and Dragon Quest (heard that the GB version was good so I played it, because why not?), Dracula Densetsu, and maybe something else. Should do it more. Hell, I should play games more, I barely do it anymore, and when I do it, I tend to play once and forget to continue. Went from beating a bunch of games every year to beating maybe one or two. Not doing it as much makes sense, but barely doing it at all is kinda sad. https://social.076.moe/url/57578