Games your parents liked

[MaximumRD]

Admittedly, I am parroting this topic I seen over on Atariage because I think it could be really interesting. 

 

"Games your parents liked"

 

Instantly when I read that I recalled a few. Keep in mind I grew up a only child in a single parent family. That said, my MOTHER though not 

really into videogames, she DID enjoy and even got really good at a few back in the day. 

 

Colecovision. - Mr. Do! and Ken Uston BlackJack/Poker. The Black Jack and Poker was pretty much a given but she also took to Mr. Do! 

to the point that we were pretty competitive. We both got to the point we could roll the score and so it was more about how many times you could roll the score, so for example if I rolled the score 3 times, I would come home and she would have beaten that and I would immediately go and beat that, over and over. At some point we pretty much just had to agree that we were both pretty amazing at Mr. Do! lol. 

 

Some time later after getting the Nintendo 8 bit system there was the usual family Duck Hunt competitions. After those systems though she pretty much lost interest.   

[RickR]

I can honestly say my parents NEVER touched a video game or computer.  I remember trying a few times, but they just cursed in Italian and went back to what they were doing. 

So for those of you with memories like those mentioned above...I'm jelly! 

[Starbuck66]

Atari my dad was into Super Breakout, Battlezone, and Combat. He had high score competitions with my grandfather (a career Army man and Vietnam vet) on Battlezone... I was too young to remember them but from what I was told they were pretty intense!

 

Later when we got the NES I borrowed Solar Jetman from a friend, and my dad instantly fell in love with it! It was so bad I could barely get time on the game (even though I was much better at it than he was :-P). We went out and got a copy a week after I gave it back to my friend, and we hardly ever bought NES games, I always just rented them, so that was a big deal. My dad LOVED Tetris, both on the NES and Game Boy, and also Choplifter II on the Game Boy.

 

On the PC he was big into Sid Meier’s Civilization, especially CivNet and Civ II. He’d play those games for hours! And of course MS Solitare games on the Entertainment Packs; he liked Tri Peaks the best I think.

 

My dad was quite the gamer for a long time, until his MS got too bad for him to play anymore. He passed away several years back from complications related to it, but if it weren’t for him I don’t know if I would have had as big of a passion for video games as I do today.

[dauber]

My mother never wanted anything to do with video games (although she did insist that I join her in a game of Mr. Do! some time in the '90s when we were waiting for a table at a restaurant; don't know what came over her!) but often my dad would play some Atari stuff with me. He's VERY left-handed, but the CX-40 is wired for right-handed people, so he'd only play games that didn't require a fire button - usually Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. (He actually brought that up recently! "I was getting addicted to that!" he said.) He'd also play Super Breakout, as he had no problem wrapping his right hand around the paddle to operate the button.

[RadioPoultry]

I don't know if I can say my parents actually liked any particular games, but I remember my parents at least briefly playing Apple ][ versions of Frogger, Lode Runner, and a Pac-Man clone called "Snack Attack". And I can still remember my dad reading to me the intro to Dino Eggs.

[Atari Creep]

My father was never into them but after I got a Genesis somehow my NES ended up in our den and my mom purchased Dr. Mario for it. Sge played the hell out of that game!!! Right now she has a Genesis and a copy of Toe Jam & Earl that my nephew gave her. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

So games my parents played?  Centipede and Frogger on the 5200 was Mom's.  

 

I had a family friend named Charles.  We got pretty close when I got my 386 in the early 1990's.  He spent a whole day with me seeing what games I got and putting new games on my hard drive.  Every weekend or other weekend after that I would literally pack up my 386 and visit his place.  Then we would do sort of a software swap.  It was because of him I discovered shareware games.  Since he lived a rural area that got very little I usually had the cool commercial games.  His area had a small computer shop that started carrying shareware programs (had a whole wall dedicated to shareware stuff).  They would make their own disks and print out short manuals on how to install and play the games, all packaged in ziplock bags to protect them.  Once we discovered Doom and Heretic we would setup local networks and play multiplayer games.  Otherwise we would work together on some adventure games like the AD&D series from SSI or Wing Commander.  He was always good about giving me his older computer parts to put in my 386 if they would fit and work.  I still remember all the headaches we would go through trying to squeeze as much conventional RAM (640k and less) out of our systems so we could run some games.  

 

At the time I was a teen, he was in his 30s.  Computer stuff back then just seemed more interesting to me.  It was always about faster processors, higher quality sound, more storage space, more memory, better graphics, better storage solutions (floppy, optical)...it seemed never ending.  Now everything is pretty much the same.  Instead of new hardware promoting development of better software the computer end is now having to be created or upgraded to use software that exceeds some computer setups.  Seriously...dual graphics cards?!?  And I thought the Diamond Multimedia graphics card I had back then was the bomb.  I understand basic setups are just that...but a basic computer setup back then would at least play most of the games...now a basic setup might play one or two major game releases if you are lucky.

 

So...to recap again...Centipede and Frogger on the 5200 with Mom and on PC Doom, Heretic, AD&D, Wing Commander, Wolfenstein 3D, and there was one more I can't remember the name of on IBM PC with Charles.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I just remembered something.  Mom did play a few computer games with me a few years before her passing.  When she remarried I spent a weekend with them.  Brought my computer, too, as they had nothing to do and I had tons of games I thought they might like to help break the silence.  I tried game after game with the results being pretty much the same...too complicated.  Then I showed them Links (by Access, not Microsoft) running under DOS.  Once I showed them how to play it with the mouse they spent all night long playing the game.  I remember going to bed about 2 AM and when I woke up around 9 AM they were still playing the game having started a new one at some point.  

 

Another game Mom played with a friend and me was You Don't Know Jack (the first edition).  It was a simple game to play...just push one button and type in your answer.  Mom would laugh at "Cookie's" obnoxious jokes and trivial questions when he would say examples and then give the question.

[Control Issues]

I don't think my mom has ever played a video game.

My dad played a round or two of duck hunt, but other than that, it's just Spider Solitaire on his computer.

[Justin]

My mom loved playing Pole Position II with me when it was new. She would always end up driving on the grass and thought that was funny. My dad would play Mario Bros. with me on 7800. We were supposed to be playing co-op but he would always jump on me. Later when I bought an NES one of my first to games was LOLO. That was a great puzzle game. Even though my parents didn't really play video games, they would play that game with me. It's one of the only times I can remember them getting sucked into a game after dinner. For about a week we would play that in the evenings and they were even more into it than I was. Of course Wii Sports much later on got everybody involved. They liked Pilotwings on Super Nintendo too.

[Keatah]

My gramma liked it when I'd play Doom. She'd always bounce around on the end of the bed grunting as I worked through a level. That's about as close to any older relative of mine liking gaming. They just couldn't see the point or were distracted by other adult concerns.

[DegasElite]

My dad loved "Artillery Duel" for the A2600 and "Choplifter" for the A7800. I think he loved "Choplifter" more. He used to call it "Whopper Chopper." The name stuck with him.

[LeeJ07]

My Mom was all about Ms. Pac-Man. She was really good at it, too. Better than I'll ever be, lol.

[Rocker67]

My mom was never into games much, but she would play when my dad brought out the Super Pong unit. My dad and me would always play games together, and I seem to think his favorites were Video Pinball and Asteroids on the 2600. We would also play long hours on different variations on Air Sea Battle and Combat.

[CrossBow]

Well my step-dad didn't play video games much, but he did like Galaga in the arcade and always had to play it when he saw it. Having said that, he would occasionally play space invaders with my mom and I. But it was my Mom that was the game junkie like I was. She would never admit it of course, but many a night after I was sent to bed, I would hear Ms. Pac-Man or Spider man, etc being  turned on and played. More than once my mother was able to turn the scores over on several games she would play. I can remember her maxing out Sea Quest and turning the score over in Ms. Pac-man on several occasions. We didn't really know about the patches and such you could send off for back then, but I think by this time 83' 84' timeframe, I doubt that the send in offers were still valid. My mother still plays games to this day, but pretty much only Bejeweled and Mahjong games these days on her PC or 3DS XL I gave her a few years ago to play in the living room.

[RickR]

I'm trying to think about what my children will say when this question is presented to them in 20 years. 

• Mom rarely played
• Dad introduced them to video games and would get his butt kicked by kids if the controller had more than two buttons.
• DS multi-player games were a family pastime.  Mario Party DS being an all-time fave. 

 

[HDN]

My dad introduced me to a lot of the games I play. Without him, I would most certainly not be here. So we played a lot of things together, like Combat, Mortal Kombat, Super Metroid, Mario Kart, NES Golf, and more. For a while, he was busy and we didn’t play many games together, as I always wanted to play things like Super Mario Brothers 3 and he wanted to play more competitive games like Madden 93. However, over the past year we have been playing a lot more, as we found many  games we could agree on and his schedule better accommodated these faster and more competitive games. 10-Yard Fight, NES Baseball, and Video Olympics are a few of our new favorites. In fact, just the other day we played some Fishing Derby and Jedi Arena. Two awesome games, by the way.

As for my mom (and most other adults in my family), well... *cough cough*

[socrates63]

My parents never played. It was always a mystery to them why I would waste my time playing video games growing up. Thankfully, they never discouraged me or prevented me from playing. My father was always about enabling me to pursue whatever I was interested in.

As for my kids, dad was the one who introduced them to video games. My kids still talk about the time I played Halo on my PC with them sitting on my lap (I turned off the blood). They also mentioned sneaking out of bed to watch me play. When they were older, we played multiplayer Halo but that lasted less than a year. I asked them why they don't play with me, and they said and I quote, "You suck, dad." They'd probably answer that I liked Halo games and games with old blocky graphics.

Mom doesn't play games, and her favorite pastime is watching Korean shows on your iPad. Wii Sports was the only game that we played regularly as a family that included my wife. This would have been when the kids were 6 and 3, so they probably don't remember much if at all. The only other game that she plays when given a chance is Galaga, a game my kids know nothing about.

 

 

[Justin]

My dad really loved the original Donkey Kong arcade machine. I remember playing the Donkey Kong cocktail table with him at Chuck E. Cheese, he was a master.

My family also was pretty enamored with my Power Pad (World Class Track Meet), and years later my family also liked playing Wii Sports when the Wii was brand new.

[Rocker67]

On 12/28/2020 at 10:18 AM, RickR said:

I'm trying to think about what my children will say when this question is presented to them in 20 years.

I saw this and started thinking the same thing. Their first response would be that mom never played any games as she hates technology and technology hates her. 🙂

Me, they would probably say the Sims 3 or Sims 4 as I have been trying to complete some challenges on these games and I played them a lot around the holidays because I was on vacation. They might also say Star Wars as I have one of the Arcade1up machines. One other thing they might mention is one of the Arcade Archives on the Switch. I have been playing a lot of Crazy Climber and I am trying to better my score on Time Pilot as I am ranked, right now, number 60 on the Global Scoreboard. I cannot seem to get any higher as I keep getting interrupted playing that long and lose the groove.

[socrates63]

Star Wars Arcade and Time Pilot ❤️

When The Sims first came out, I remember buying it for the PC and then lending to a friend who begged for it before I even had a chance to unseal it. Well, that pile-of-dung-who-was-also-my-groomsmen never gave it back nor paid me for it so I could buy another 

Suffice to say, I haven't played any version of The Sims to this day 🙂 

Edited December 30, 2020 by socrates63