"How did people catch em' all back in the day? This is ridiculous."

I've always pushed for the removal of trade as a requirement to complete the Pokedex. Last night broke the Camerupt's back.I want to try for 251 on VC Crystal and 150 on Red. I can trade using my old 3DS, which has a second NNID and copies of VC Blue/Gold. Kanto starters are no problem with the Time Capsule, and I know the games well enough that I can easily play through Gold for some of the missing pieces in Crystal- Mareep, Mankey, Remoraid, Vulpix and Girafarig as well as a second Metal Coat. Red's missing Pokemon are also no problem and I can farm them without issue.Extra Aerodactyl from Blue? No problem. The birds? No problem. But it's the damn fossil Pokemon that are going to be the biggest headache.I have to play through most of Blue twice to get the missing fossil Pokemon for both Red and Crystal. One run for Kabuto (I'm picking Dome Fossil in Red), and another to get Omanyte in both games- my convoluted plan is to breed said Omanyte with a Ditto in Crystal, trade it back over to Blue and bounce it back to Red. I have a headache just thinking about it...I guess my question is how the fuck did people manage to complete the Dex back in the day? I'm beginning to think Pokemon was engineered as an MMO even before internet became a factor. via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2Cc2q5U