RetroGaming

out of touch? more like saving her from the absolute garbage fire that passes for 'games' these days. she'll actually learn what a good game is. this dad's doing god's work.

I am 50+, remember paying quarters to play Pong and Space Invaders.

Built my kids a game box using Batocera Linux and ROMs from the 80s and 90s (Atari2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, etc)

I was thereby able to show them the True Magic and Wonder of Computers

When I was young my parents encouraged me to watch Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, and Abbott & Costello. These are easy things for children to watch because the physical comedy is universal.

As I got older my love for them remained, but also it gave me a love for media from any age. So long as it's done reasonably I think this sort of thing can be quite enriching.

My favorite musical artists as a child (90s) were John Denver; Peter, Paul, and Mary; the Beatles; and Cream. I didn’t ever get into boy bands, but I can sing along to the absolute biggest spice girl hits.

That was only really a hindrance in elementary school because in middle school I branched out into more contemporary musicians. Now, I’ve got a lot more knowledge about the 70s in music than most of my peers, but I’m not isolated from the things my peer group likes (I will lose my shit to Mr. Brightside or Yeah by Usher if I’m drunk, but I definitely will as well for anything from Carole King’s Tapestry)

My little guy just started Mario Paint this week and he’s loving it. He’s not reading yet so a game with easy symbols and painting is age appropriate. Plus that fly game is getting him a lot of practice learning how to use a computer mouse.

A well made game knows no age limits! My kiddo was super into the original mario when we showed it to him. I would have thought it would look dated, but he doesn't know!

Counterpoint:

The reason they will be out of touch is that they will have better impulse control and better spending habits than kids raised on modern games with their FOMO MTX and gacha bullshit.

So basically, actual 'nerds' are rasing another generation of 'nerds', except this time, nerds 2.0 will probably actually be more socially intelligent than the brain dead zombies being raised on fornite, roblox and tiktok, who have negative attention spans and cannot fathom the concept of doing any actual thought-work, when chatgpt can just do their homework for them.

They'll also be more tech savvy, like being exposed to or having to learn at least some of how emulation works, which kinda de facto makes you understand things like a file structure, which an increasing number of kids (now adults too) raised on modern mobile UIs... have no clue about.

Oh, they'll also likely just be generally more literate.

as a kid a never played the same games as my friends, and since that's all they would talk about i was pretty distant from the group, also that guys daughter looks like she's old enough to rent a property and just buy her own games.

(but all those old games really are better than what we have now)

I did this to myself because I only played games that my gpu could perform and that was the reason why pretty much all of the games I play are pre 2010.

You are just giving your kids more options, most don't have that choice and can only play whatever launches for phones or switch.

Why so salty about a dad sharing his interests and stuff from his life with his kid? She can play other games too.

Yeah, if she plays an N64, she won't be exposed to any popular series from today, and will instead play things like Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Smash Bros., and Pokémon.

I do plan to start my sons on retro games starting when they're about 4 years old. They'll basically get an abridged experience of some of the best games from each generation.

They should be on modern games by the time they're old enough for it to matter in terms of relating to their peers. And it's not like I'd say "no" if they said their friends wanted to play a particular game with them just because it's from the "wrong" generation.

I'm also not going to force the issue if they just aren't receptive to it. Everyone has different interests.

Shit this is what I'm doing. My kids are nuts about the niche indie games I play. My son has crazy good skills for Super Meat Boy and Super Hexagon.

The other one loves Mario games from the 3DS.

as if everybody gaming in the 90's we were all in sync with each other. lol i was rocking pc win98 tie fighter, and old floppy disc knock off games/ sim city, one kid down the street, she had a Nintendo with 3 Disney games Aladdin, lion king etc, one had a Sega with zombies ate my neighbors, that paper boy game and some sanic. it was pure chaos even later when "everyone" had a ps1 everyone's tastes were completely different. sure there were trends but nobody felt they were stuck in a outdated bubble like op is implying except for that Atari kid. only played pong, fuck that bubble kid neanderthal mutherfucker. lol

I still play animal crossing new leaf. Just got the golden net the other day (my town has been going since 2013)

God I tried. And it told me a lot out myself.

The VAST majority of that old stuff, the stuff that I remember so fondly, was only fun because it was the best we had.

My first game was Yars Revenge. By today's standards, it's about 30 seconds of entertainment.

Even Super Mario Brothers, the pinnacle of games for years, had no save button and you have to pull off a long series of perfect play with only a couple of lives or get sent back to level 1. It was almost all single player taking turns.

Compared to even old current systems, there's just no draw there and there's no social aspects for them.

I grew up playing games with my dad. I wouldn’t change a thing. I miss it dearly.

He never went easy on me in Soul Calibur.

There are plenty of games up to the PS3 era that every kid would do well to play at least once. Stuff that is objectively good, that aged well, or close enough.

The problem, as I see it, is that if they get too used to mobile games, they won't have the patience for typical console or PC games, because those, on average, aren't dopamine dispensers and won't be rewarding every second click or button press - more importantly, they should NOT nag the player with cash shops.

Also important: limit the amount of games available - this is valid both for current and retro games. The moment you have "all the games" at your disposal, several things kick in: analysis paralysis, appeal to familiarity (will only play what you already know or someone knows), seeing no value in the games^[If, when you were small, you only had a limited selection of games, which was common during the cartridge era, you would be very careful with choosing new games to ask your parents to buy, though renting was an option to see which ones were good or not. You had to make do with the little you had. When you got bored with one, you either looked through your collection and played something else, or did something else entirely; you never threw away a game (unless it really sucked) and you never got a new game on a whim. That is good.].

Others mentioned the social aspect, which is true as well and something they just can't experience nowadays anymore. Minecraft and Roblox are famous because they're easy for kids to pick and play with friends. Back in our days, we had to physically sit beside one another and play together, or pass the controller on death; we also physically lent and traded games, so the games also had value within our little social circles. While fully digital games are extremely convenient, the "scarcity" gave them a social value that they completely lack today and which I suppose boardgames now fill out (yes, you can play them online, but playing on an actual table is almost always better)

I think Guitar Hero was a good investment for my kids, as they came to love all the classics I grew up on.

Now my daughter brings her friends home to play Mario 64! Masterpieces have no expiry date!!

Cant force the shit, same with any culturally significant thing from your childhood. Think of it in reverse: if you aren't willing to engage with their zeitgeist in good faith, how could you expect them to engage with yours?

• Mario 64?
• Ocarina of Time?
• ~~Turkish~~Turok?
• Goldeneye?

This kid is about to meet one of the gaming gods.

Kid'll be fine.

Besides, what super awesome lifestyle changing game is out right now that the kid will miss?

Edit: Ha! Yes, Turok, not Turkish!