Introducing your kids to retro games

[cheesyboy]

Anyone tried it?

I spent a couple of hours playing C64 games with my 8-year-old today. Just a few I had ready access to in my collection and that I played when I was around his age.

He loved Ghostbusters (my favourite, nowadays , of the old C64 titles), enjoyed Kickstart (Mastertronic), didn't think much of Gauntlet (he really enjoys the modern iteration, as do I: the old one doesn't hold up), and liked watching me play Kane but found it too difficult to be enjoyable himself.

He also was interested in hearing about the way gaming used to be, and what my favourites were.

Was a successful time, on the whole. Would be interested in hearing other's experiences.

 

[cheesyboy]

Yeah, I could see the initial shock of seeing something quite primitive could be a barrier.

As he's only 8, I've so far been able to curate my boy's gaming for the most part. So he plays Minecraft (basically looks like an 8-bit game transferred into 3d), as well as stuff like Trine, Gauntlet (2014), and FTL which looks almost like it could be on the SNES anyway. So not too much of a culture shock. Also, he doesn't get given all that much gaming time, so he's always jonesing for some more, even if it's old crap

Streets of Rage is a good shout - I've been thinking about a brawler. Will probably go for TMNT arcade, as I've already told him how much cash me and my friends used to pump into that bad boy, and he's at least heard of Ninja Turtles!