Striking to Simplistic:
Pokémon Red, Green, & Yellow

Shiny Pokémon are special Pokémon aesthetically introduced in the second generation of Pokémon games. While they had no gameplay differences compared to their non-shiny counterparts, these Pokémon spawned with a unique color scheme and a fancy sparkle animation when sent out of a Pokéball. Every single Pokémon had a shiny counterpart that could be encountered through sheer will, perseverance, or dumb luck. It's easy to see why these Pokémon became an easy talking point and status symbol for trainers and collectors.

Unfortunately for us, there's one tiny issue with this major piece of Pokémon history. It hadn't happened yet. Pokémon Red & Green came out in 1996, about three years before Pokémon Gold & Silver.

So... why start this series with a game that did not have shiny Pokémon?

Well, that's simple. While you could not encounter any of these Pokémon, you could still add them to your collection in these games.

In Generation Two, a Pokémon's shiny status was determined by its Determinate Values, or their "DV"s. To summarize, only certain combinations of DVs were compatible with shiny Pokémon and any Pokémon that spawned or hatched with those specific values would have a fancy color effect. This does mean that you could more likely predict what stats a given shiny Pokémon had, but these were Gameboy games for Generation One, and Gameboy Color games for Generation Two. Technical limitations were abound.

In Generation One, only ceratin Pokémon were able to spawn with the necessary DVs. When these Pokémon were transferred to any Generation Two game, they would have the special color scheme as they had the proper DVs.

Blue Moon Falls has a great guide on which Pokémon are "shiny huntable" in this game, but to summarize, the only Pokémon that can be caught with the right DVs are Pokémon acquired through static encounters or gift encounters. Using glitches in theory allows any Pokémon to be a possible shiny, but these Pokémon are already not meant to be shiny huntable.

One interesting aspect to these games worth noting is that there is a small glitch or exploit in Generation Two that increases your odds of hatching a Shiny Pokémon to 1/64. However, that glitch requires sending a shiny Pokémon from those games over to Generation One, then back. More on that in the next retrospective.

Pokémon Red, Green, & Yellow are important parts of Pokémon history. I personally am not the biggest fan of these games, but I appreciate them for what they brought. That being said, for a shiny hunting retrospective, I obviously can't give this game much praise. It's necessary if you want to improve your odds in the next generation, but this game itself is not that necessary. If you want to shiny hunt that specific list of Pokémon in these games, then I hope you have a blast.