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04
Jul 2021
A Harrogate man has walked 8,000km around the town playing the mobile game Pokémon Go — the same distance it would take to walk from Harrogate to New Delhi in India.
The game was launched in 2016 and players use their phones to "catch" different monsters called Pokémon, such as the yellow and furry Pikachu.
A mobile app shows a live street map in real-time, and players rush to different locations where they can catch Pokemon and have digital battles with them at Pokemon "gyms".
Rob Nixon, who works in retail, has pounded the pavements of Harrogate for the past five years and has caught 150,000 different Pokémon.
The 33-year-old said:
It can get competitive, though, and he recalls how tempers flared with one "hardcore" local player.
Many of the players are adults who have nostalgia for the Pokémon cards craze of the late 1990s. Rob remembers trading them during his time at Harrogate Grammar School.
To keep the game interesting, it evolves and adds new challenges and Pokémon to catch. Rob sees no reason why he can't walk another 8,000km, as long as he has a charge.
He added:
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