Growing up Gamer

[Fireside_Stories]

Was just watching Cohh's Conan stream from this morning and had to pause to write this when he mentioned figuring out what games to introduce to his kid.

This is actually something really worth talking about so I thought I'd start a thread where people could post their own stories about growing up a gamer.

One of my first memories is of playing Pac-Man with my dad on a Commodore 64... I must have been 3 years old. Next on the list of Commodore games was ZORK. This text based game has a special place in my memories. My dad and I played it together. At first he'd read the screen and do all the typing and I'd decide what we did. It was an activity, we adventured together through the ruins of that old empire, we drew maps, made lists, got lost, and every time we died and restarted we got a little closer to victory. Over time I learned how to read in part because of this game and I also learned how to use a keyboard.

Another early game was Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I played this game with my mom, she's a big fan of detective stories so while she's not really a gamer outside of casual gaming like solitaire or bejeweled this game was a lot of fun for both of us. We'd wear fedora hats and take notes in matching notebooks. An exercise in writing and penmanship as well as all the history and geography taught in the games.

Of course there were the classics, Mario which I played with the neighbor kid who had a Nintendo, I grew up having a PC though so I missed a lot of the console classics until later. Speaking of PC gaming the first game I ever bought with my own money was Wing Commander 1. I must have been around 8 and I earned the money helping my dad do the yard work. I picked it out myself and I spent the weekends and Summer after getting it Living in that game. That's a very special memory, that first game you pick in the store instead of just picking it up off a shelf or getting it handed to you by your parents.

I could probably go on for pages telling stories about games I played growing up and the memories of things like the first time I played a Final Fantasy game, or downloading the freeware version of DOOM (back before the internet had pictures or web browsers) which taught me about shooters and helped get me hyped for getting Star Wars Dark Forces the first CD ROM game I ever bought. But I don't want this first post getting too long and the point of this was to make a place where everyone can post stories about growing up playing games.

Also while ZORK might be a bit too old to get into, I really recommend finding a fun turn based RPG to play with a young kid. Something you can just walk away from if you need to and then pick right back up. Something old-school without voice acting so you can read it to your kid and make him want to be able to read it himself. Something where you can ask simple questions like "Which way do we go? Left or Right?" so it's like you're playing together even if he's too young to hold a controller or is just learning how to talk. I have a 7 month old niece and my brother is already doing Fallout 4 base building with her. I'm sure it's all just pretty lights and strange sounds to her right now but my dad did the same thing with me. I can't remember the first time I saw a computer it's always been there and while that's probably common now not everyone in the 30 and older age group can say they got their first PC when they were 3.

So yep 30 years of gaming and going because my dad handed me a joystick as soon as I could sit up in a chair without falling over.

Also look into Sesame Street Games I'm sure they have a lot more now than they used to but I remember having a lot of those on the Commodore 64. My dad got the 5 1/4 floppy disk drive add on for the Commodore 64 so he could use it as a work PC at home. Ancient technology now but before that he was writing code on punch cards.

Though I think he really got the 5 1/4 drive because ZORK came on a 5 1/4 floppy disk. I think I still have that disk somewhere.

[Fireside_Stories]

Just to be clear my dad never forced me to play games it's something he introduced me to and we both loved doing together... It was doing it together that made it special. Over time I gamed on my own because I wanted to, not because my parents told me too... If anything they tried to get me to game less. I was never allowed to game on school nights and I was encouraged to spend time outside. I actually spent more time outside and playing with toys like Lego than I did gaming, but video games have always been something special for me. (probably in part because it was a restricted activity, so it was something extra and special.)

Also my brother doesn't have his 7 month old girl looking at a screen, it's more he has her in the room with him when he games and just talks to her about what he's doing. Kinda like a streamer talks to chat. She'll watch a bit but also will just play with her toys so it's no different than having her in a room with the TV on.