Kids and classic games/arcade cabinets

[97thruhiker]

I think many of the people here hit it on the head when they said that they will like it because they will enjoy playing the games with you.  My 3-year old daughter loves to sit on the bar stool in front of me and smash the keys.  No clue what shes doing yet it but the bonding time with her father  (she does love the Super Nintendo Bugs Bunny Game though) is priceless.  As they grow older they will naturally grow away from it and you to a point but by then they will have fond memories of playing all those old classics almost as much as you do.

[cscon115]

After I finished my spy hunter, my 6 and 7 year old children started to play. Both of them are too short to use the gas pedal and look down at the screen. So they take turns. One gets up on a stool and works the steering wheel while the other operates the gas pedal blind.

Pretty Darn funny to watch. They are not going to win any high score awards this way, but they have fun.

Furthermore, my son found tapper on a flash webpage. He loves it, as well as pac-man! They love the classics.

Dan

[ChadTower]

I'm just curious of those of you out there with kids, how many of them are actually interested in old arcade/console games from the 80s?

[sliddick]

I've got an 8 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. When my son was 2 or 3, he showed interest in my PS1, so i'd let him try. It was Tony Hawk and at the time, i don't think his eyes could even register the 3dness, ie, his steering was way off, and forget timing jumps as he couldn't tell they were coming.

When he was 4 or so, I got my wife a 2600, which he still plays to this day. His favorite games are pitfall and ms pacman. I think around this time I showed him MAME, and although he still didn't have a ton of coordination, he would sit at my computer for hours. He loves the metal slug series and we rented the ps2 re-release not too long ago.

He's also a N64 nut and regularly plays pilot wings and super mario 64. Recently, he's taken up VF4 evolution on my PS2 and isn't bad considering his age.

I find it fascinating, and rather refreshing, that all he cares about is gameplay. From Pitfall on the Atari, to a modern day fighter, he'll play them all, as long as they have great gameplay.

It's also been cool watching him get better over the years. I reflect on how he played Tony Hawk on the PS1, and now I see him playing THUG 2 and I am amazed at how skilled he's become.

My daughter has shown some interest and she likes to watch me play Frequency. She'll sometimes want to try the 2600, but isn't taking to it like my son did... I wonder if it's just a hard wired thing with boys.

I'm going to build my cabinet after the holidays so I'm sure I'll be fighting them both for playing time once it's done.