I found an official record of my Pokémon Red team from1999.

It's time for one of old man Jeffers's long, rambling stories. Settle down, kids.

I often mention my memories of playing Pokémon Red following its launch back in the UK, shortly before my tenth birthday. It was to be my birthday present, but following a tough week on my school residential trip, my first time ever away from my parents, my mum gave it to me early.

I remember wanting to pick Charmander as my starter, but actually picking Squirtle. I remember catching Mewtwo and leveling it to 100, along with my Blastoise. I remember trading with my school friends and my cousin, who had Pokémon Blue, to complete the Pokédex. I remember going to an event and getting a Mew, and challenging one of the writers from the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine with my level 100 Mewtwo as part of some event. He beat me with his level 100 Mewtwo.

Mewtwo was the biggest deal back then. There is a reason its popularity endures.

In those days, before I had constant, unrestricted access to the internet (the best we had was a dial-up connection my dad would occasionally let me use on his work computer, but we would have to essentially disable all the telephones in the house to use it), I would buy that Official Nintendo Magazine. And I would write letters and enter competitions.

I actually won their competition to get a Nintendo DS before launch, but they took so long to ship it to me, my parents had already bought me one.

I sold it to a friend and used the money to buy a couple of games, including importing a copy of Diamond from the US, months before the UK release. The Pound was so strong then, it was cheaper to import games and ship them from America than to buy them in the UK.

But back in '99, that magazine had a column in which "Professor Oak" would give you tips and advice. You know that image of Professor Oak telling you to save your master ball for rare Pokémon like Fearow? That's where it's from.

They also had a segment for kids to send in their Pokémon teams in game for Oak to rate. And it just so happens that mine got published.

And today, in my trawl through the internet, I found a scan of that magazine.

Here was my team:

• Mewtwo Lv 73
• Charizard Lv 72
• Parasect Lv 64
• Venusaur Lv 69
• Moltres Lv 53
• Arbok Lv 41

Professor Oak said he was happy to see a Parasect making the grade, but that I needed to "beef up [my] Arbok".

Seeing this confused me. It is an honest historical record of the Pokémon I was actually using at the time.

But where was my Blastoise?

This must have been after the league, because I had Mewtwo, but before I levelled my team to 100, and before I went to that event and got a Mew.

I suppose this must have been after I had traded with friends to get the starter Pokémon (quite a sacrifice given that this was before breeding and you could only get one starter each playthrough). I guess I had decided to level up the starters I received.

The Arbok I think I got following one of my trades with my Cousin's Blue cartridge. I guess I hadn't taken it off my team since the trade. Parasect I just found interesting I guess.

Sadly, my copy of Pokémon Red is back at my parent's house in the UK, the battery will have long since died, before I had any access to the devices I use now to back up GB carts which could have preserved the save.

My memories and this old gaming magazine are the only relics of my first ever Pokémon playthrough.

Still, I hope this has been an interesting insight into my introduction to the Pokémon games and into the early days of the franchise, before the internet could tell you all the answers and the best teams, and before some of you reading this even existed.

Thanks for reading.