I'm going to try and get into Pokemon.  I was too impatient the first time I tried, back when there were so many games on GBA and The Great ROM Age gave us plenty to sleuth. 😈

Now that I am an aging man and have time to sit in my rocking chair to pass time, I was wondering which one I should start with. Should I go with Red, Blue or Yellow?  What's the pros and cons? Will I need real life friends to catch them all?

I picked Yellow because I get the three starters. If you want to get the full pokedex, I suppose that one is the easiest.

Yellow. It is superior in every conceivable way.

Go for yellow. Then you don't have to decide on a starter. xD

Yellow because you can get all the starters, if you don't care about that and hate pikachu then pick red

Yellow.

1. Only one in color because of a built in palette in the original game.
2. Based on the anime if you were into that at all.
3. Pikachu is your starter but you can also get all 3 original starters from Red and Blue.
4. The Pokémon sprites and overall game looks a tad better.

Yellow is better in everyway, though I can see why people would go for the more sentimental Red/Blue in monochrome colors :P

Yellow was always my favorite even thought it didn't have the missingno glitch, which was a big deal as a 6-7 year old kid haha. I would also consider Firered or Leafgreen if I were you, I find them to be excellent remakes, and it can give you somewhat a feel of what modern Pokemon is like (mechanically, albeit these are ageing as well.)

Yellow is pretty much the definitive version.

Red isn't a bad choice as well though, nor is Blue.

Yellow's the best - according to my son. He's just downloaded it and playing it right now!