Gotta catch 'em all - one flight at a time

From June 2005 to February 2006 I worked at Electronic Arts Redwood Shores and kept a room with my in-laws in Los Gatos. My family lived in San Diego so I flew home every Friday and flew back to San Jose every Monday morning on Southwest Airlines. The Video Game industry had given us some rough spots over the past 4 years and EA was the 4th company in a long list of short hops for me - we weren't about to re-re-relocate for another company no matter how large so we spent the relocation package on airfare.

The time I spent waiting in airport terminals was surprisingly short due to my tight schedule but I managed to fill it with one continuous game of Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire for the Gameboy Advance.

I played on the Ruby Board and developed some techniques that helped me keep the game going, catching and evolving hundreds of pesky Pokemon including Kecleon, Groudon, and Rayquaza dozens of times over, as well as Jirachi and Latios.

The time spent in the air I filled with crosswords, Sudoku, Game Design books, and complimentary cans of Mr. & Mrs. T's Bloody Mary Mix (or tomato juice if there was none)

I always saved my game before boarding and again before being picked up in San Diego. After the end of my time at Redwood Shores, I returned to San Diego for a time to find my next Game Design job, having amassed several billion points in the game. I put the game away to focus on updating my resume and getting interviews and found it again sometime later after I had reunited with Electronic Arts at their Los Angeles studio.

My 5-year-old had wiped out my multi-billion-point game and started a new one while sitting on the toilet.

Such is life like a multi-billion point Pokemon Pinball game: you put so much time and effort building something up and it's gone in a flush.

Thanks, Joseph, for putting it all into perspective.

- UPDATE! As of October 6, 2008, my Pokemon Pinball passion persists! My new game is going strong with over 65 BILLION POINTS and 360 Pokemon caught!

- UPDATE! October 24, 2008, Electrode became the 500th Pokemon caught. Score is now at 89,321,560,691! Later tonight I lost a ball and recorded my bonus score. See the YouTube video here: Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire - over 5 Billion point bonus! Final score is 95,022,337,691

- UPDATE! October 27, 2008: 100 Billion points! - EVIL! On November 11, 2008, Snorunt was the 666th Pokemon caught! Score is now 117,862,426,987! - UPDATE! November 28, 2008, lost a ball and working backwards to get the score: current score is 149,766,848,779. 808 Pokemon caught. Score before the bonus was 135,456,398,779. Bonus subtotal was 144,550,000. Multiplier was 99. Bonus total is 14,310,450,000. I have a video of the bonus but I pressed the 'A' button before seeing the breakdown of the bonus so I was only able to see 99 Pokemon caught on the ball. Video is here!