Game Corner

I'm currently in Sapphire, got my 6th badge, taking a break from the league to battle old trainers again as they pop up for rematches. These rematches are fun, break the tedium, give me plenty of money, and most importantly build my Pokemon up for the next Gym. I barely got through the last one, what with half my team being weak against Flying types, and if I encounter the same problem with the next Gym I'm going to need my Pokemon to at least match the Gym Leader's levels.

As I level my Pokemon up, I realize that my Combusken needs to learn a more powerful fire move than Ember. I know there's a department store around the place somewhere, just gotta keep going through to the last couple cities on the map, and I'm sure it's gotta have at least one fire move available. The move I'm looking at to upgrade to is Flamethrower, and apparently it can only be found at the Game Corner.

The Game Corner is a casino where people can go to buy Coins, bet them on slots or roulette, and if they win enough Coins folks can turn them in for prizes such as TMs, dolls, and even Pokemon. If you're lucky, it can be a fun way to get powerful TMs or rare Pokemon such as Porygon; if you're as unlucky with gambling as I am though, it's a good way to spend lots of money on Coins for absolutely nothing but frustration.

TM 35, Flamethrower, costs 4000 Coins, and to buy that many Coins costs about $80,000 in-game. I've got more than half that currently, but I'd MUCH rather spend it on Ultra Balls and Super Potions than one single TM, even if it IS a powerful attack. I know my Pokemon is going to learn a new Fire-Type attack when he evolves at level 36, but there's still the matter of him having this old, weaker attack.

I wish I had more luck with gambling, but I know I'm just gonna frustrate myself if I try to win enough Coins for that. I don't know how lucky anyone else is when it comes to gambling, maybe there's some kind of trick involved to get Coins out of all that, but even in a video game I'm just getting screwed.