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Twitch Plays Pokémon is a Twitch channel that streams playthroughs of modded versions of Pokémon games, where the viewers control the game by commenting button presses. The stream went live on February 13, 2014 at 01:23:18 GMT. After the viewers finished Pokémon Red on March 1, 2014, the stream displayed a timer, counting down the time until the next adventure started. On March 2, 2014, viewers began playing a modded version of Pokémon Crystal that has all Pokémon available.
Twitch Plays Pokémon logo
The stream peaked at around 120,000 viewers during its first playthrough, and has been the most viewed live Twitch stream for periods of time. Only footage from 11 hours into Day 2 onward has been saved, which can be found here.
Twitch users controlled the character by submitting case-insensitive button names through the chat. Valid commands were A, B, up, down, left, right, and Start; Select previously was valid, but after it was used to soft reset the game, it was disabled due to having no other significant functional purpose. Each input in the chat was processed for one frame of gameplay, so the process of canceling evolution required three consecutive inputs of the B button in anarchy mode.
Originally, players would simply submit buttons and the game would execute as many as possible. However, after players were stuck in the Team Rocket Hideout for almost 24 hours on the first spinner puzzle, the host implemented a system where players could choose between anarchy (the original method) and democracy. In democracy mode, players' button presses are instead tallied, and then the most popular is executed; also, players can enter compound and iterative commands (such as "start9" and "upleft"). The "wait" command was also available in democracy mode, in which, when inputted, the player character takes no action until the next non-"wait" command is received. Players could vote to switch between anarchy and democracy by using "democracy" and "anarchy" as if they were buttons. 80% of the votes were required to switch from anarchy to democracy mode, whilst only 50% of the votes are required to switch from democracy to anarchy mode. The host said that the reason behind the asymmetry is that, with the previous system of requiring 75% of votes for a switch in either direction, it took a smaller majority to disrupt democracy mode than it did to reinstate anarchy mode.
Simple tasks had often become extremely difficult due to the high number of players; players had spent hours trying to teach HM moves, cut down trees, pass through areas with ledges, and reach crucial points in the game.
Progress
The player character used the default name of RED and started with Charmander. The player entered the Hall of Fame and finished the end credits at 16d 7h 50m 40s. After the game was continued, it froze and the timer was reset permanently to 16d 7h 50m 19s, with a timer counting down from approximately 27 hours reading "A new adventure will begin". The header above the video was later changed to "TwitchPlaysPokemon playing Gold/Silver/Crystal". The save file has reached the maximum amount of playtime that can be recorded within the game, 255 hours.
27 hours after Twitch viewers defeated Blue in Pokémon Red, Pokémon Crystal was started, on March 2, 2014. Unlike Red, an entirely new game was started, allowing viewers to name the player character: AJDNNW. Currently, the player has obtained all eight Johto Badges and is currently at the Indigo Plateau.
Gameplay changes
Originally, during Pokémon Red, players would vote to choose between anarchy and democracy as the game progressed. With the start of a new game, this system was changed to the current style, where players are no longer allowed to change between anarchy and democracy at any time. Instead, the game starts in anarchy mode while a timer counts down at the top of the stream. At the start of every hour after the start of the game, the countdown reaches zero and democracy mode takes over. In democracy mode, players are allowed to vote for which button they want used, along with both an option to vote for "anarchy" and to vote for the "wait" command. If anarchy is the most popular command when the votes are tallied, then the game will automatically switch back to anarchy. The countdown is then set again to reach zero at the next hour, whether it is in an actual hour or in a minute.
Into the seventh day and fourth hour, the anarchy/democracy was adjusted once again. It was completely overhauled into a new system, in which a certain command had to be entered ten times within a period of 500 milliseconds for it to be executed. This system was briefly abolished an hour later, reverting back to the format described in the previous paragraph, until resuming the new form twenty minutes later. Anarchy/democracy was re-established at 8 days, 5 hours.
The host currently wishes to remain anonymous, but has revealed that they are Australian. They have stated that they wish to intervene as little as possible. Previously, they had suspected that they may have had to do so for the Safari Zone due to the imposed step limit, but ultimately it was completed using democracy mode.
Occasionally, the host has throttled the Start button, to prevent people using it simply to interrupt progress; Twitch users who submit Start as a command will be put in Slow Mode. The host also had to intervene when the game was soft reset, so that the save file was not overwritten; after this, the host disabled the Select button since it had no other significant function (the early games used it solely for sorting items in the player's Bag or a Pokémon's moves). Later, the host added the anarchy/democracy system to help players overcome otherwise incredibly difficult tasks such as the Team Rocket Hideout spinner maze.
Secret Key 
TM17 (Submission)
S.S. Ticket 
Card Key 
HM03 (Surf) 
Moon Stone 
Silph Scope 
Town Map 
HM01 (Cut) 
Lift Key
Poké Flute 
Potion 
Super Rod
Awakening 
Carbos 
Elixir ×2 
Escape Rope ×2 
Full Restore 
HP Up 
Iron 
Nugget ×3 
PP Up ×3 
Protein
Revive 
TM05 (Mega Kick) 
TM06 (Toxic) 
TM14 (Blizzard) 
TM21 (Mega Drain) 
TM27 (Fissure) 
TM30 (Teleport) 
TM38 (Fire Blast) 
Full Heal ×3
Max Elixer
Ice Berry
Rare Candy
Ice Heal
TinyMushroom ×2
Calcium
Poké Ball ×12
SquirtBottle
Basement Key
Coin Case
Card Key
Clear Bell
TM04 (Rollout)
TM23 (Iron Tail)
TM24 (DragonBreath)
TM46 (Thief)
TM49 (Fury Cutter)
HM02 (Fly)
Miracle Seed
