Pokémon first hit the United States in 1998 with two Game Boy games and a cartoon series. Nearly two decades, dozens of games and about 1,000 episodes later, Pokémon Go is making its mark.
In Galesburg, the evidence of the smartphone app’s popularity is all around.
The LASER’s Ben “Stone” Stomberg, owner of Stone Alley Books & Collectibles, tells WGIL he sees people all over downtown Galesburg glued to their phones, flicking digital Pokéballs to catch and collect the virtual creatures that appear onscreen.
“It’s a phenomenon,” Stone says. “When you have the map in front of you and see the locations, you can see, obviously, the people who are in the crowd doing Pokémon. Like, there’s a lot of people out this weekend. Yeah, that’s all Pokémon. It’s just people on their phones doing stuff like that. It’s really fun, but it’s funny as well.”
The app tracks would-be Pokémon masters’ GPS location and populates the area with Pokémon to catch, stops for items and gyms to battle.
Galesburg-native Zaac Moberg says a component of the game involves joining a team to capture locations.
“When I was at Starved Rock this weekend, I ran into a group with like eight other people that were all on the same team as me,” Moberg says. “They were capturing gyms and stuff, which was pretty interesting.”
Pokémon Go is a free download on Android and iPhone. People can buy items through in-app purchases.
