Pokémon Night

On Dec 27, 2008, shortly after midnight, something very strange started happening...

It started off when the Water Dragons were calling up images of Gyarados, a Pokémon, instead of their normal image. People on the forums were speculating about it, someone suggested the Reds be Charizard and, lo and behold, they soon were! This went on for about 2.5 hours until the site went down for maintenance at 3 AM EST. It came back up a little after 4 AM EST and the Pokémon hung around for a few hours only to disappear and have everything return to normal at about 8 AM EST.

Pokémon Night was meant as a joke pulled by TJ09. Even though this "event" caused a bit of drama and confusion, most users on at the time found it to be hilarious and a great laugh.

In addition to the Pokémon changes it was also noted that Missingno (who is usually just a cloud of fog) had changed into the REAL MissingNo. (Read more...). Later, it turned into an even stranger sprite that was apparently spliced by Pokemonfan13 herself.

There was a quote by her saying that: "It's a Growlithe with a Golbat and a Mightyena. I should know, I'm the one who spliced it."

Rumor:
 * Several members stated they were bored and talked TJ into doing it. Although TJ09 never confirmed if this was true.
 * Other ideas were that the site was hacked (unlikely) or that it was something to celebrate Pokemonfan13's birthday. However, someone mentioned her birthday is not around this time of the year.

The origins of Pokemon Night began in the IRC, where members were in fact jokingly comparing some of the dragons to pokemon. Kila grabbed a few of the mentioned pokemon sprites, passed them to TJ09, and the madness began. Many of the included sprites were suggested by member in the IRC, and the list grew as the "event" continued.