How old were your kids when they finally "got it"?

[javeryh]

Today, for the first time ever, I played an arcade game with my daughter.  She is 2 years and 6 weeks old and really smart - she talks in full sentences, recognizes every letter in the alphabet and has just about every book she owns memorized.  Anyway, we played Ms. Pac-man and I let her use the controls.  I don't think she "got it" as far as moving the joystick correlates to moving Ms. Pac-man and she definitely didn't understand the object of the game.  She did point out all the ghosts and their colors and said "he got me" every time she was caught.  Bottom line - she sucks!

At what age were your kids able to play and understand what was going on?

[NickG]

Funny how it's always MsPacman.  No kids of my own but that's what I used to put on for my niece when she was around two.  She seemed to get distracted by all the shiny blue buttons on my franken-panel, though, so I tried to teach her Trog on my cocktail - with less buttons.  No go , the one red button on that panel was just too fun to push.  At three years old, however,  she was playing all kinds of games and using a mouse...  Mspacman is the first game  I can remember playing and has a shallow learning curve.  Supposedly, .

[vorghagen]

Supposedly, .

Are you trying to say that a chimp is smarter than jeveryh's daughter?
Anyway, I have a nephew that seemed to finally catch on to the concept at 3 1/2. Up until then he just wiggled the stick and mashed the buttons frantically with a huge smile on his face. Then one day playing centipede it just clicked and he 'got it'. The huge smile is still there, but now accompanied by intense concentration.
I now live in fear of the day he begins to shunt my initials off the hi-score tables.

[diverdown]

My three year old has only known about MAME for about 3 months. He is happy playing Superman and can fly around and kick the bad guys. He sucks at frogger, unless the point is to be hit by the very first car every time.

What he likes most is when he dies the game restarts and he gets to watch Clarke Kent run accross the screen, turn into Superman and fly off.

This preceedes about an hour of my son strutting around the house saying "I'm Clarke Kent"  then he puffs his chest out, takes off his top and flies around the living room 


We had to buy him a laptop "mimi-mouse" when he turned 2 because the big one on my PC was too big for him to hold.  He "got" the mouse at that age and has been navigating the PC playing flash games...... he recommends "Postman Pat".

About 6 months ago he actually taught his mum to copy a DVD in DVDshrink, open up a dvd printing app, design a dvd printout, instert the dvd-r into the printer caddy and into the printer, and print said design onto the dvd-r...... Bless his pirating little heart. 
His mum had never done this before and just took his word for how it was done.

Probably a good job he can't spell or I would have to put NetNanny on the PC.

[NickG]

Supposedly, .

Are you trying to say that a chimp is smarter than jeveryh's daughter?

No    just trying to emphasize that Pacman games are good to start with, because all you do is move the character.  I hope any chimps that had read this were not offended.     

[kkingsto]

My daughters 4 now, but the for the last year or so, she's been heading down here to the basement and saying "I want to play your games!".   She's a real whiz at the bowling games for one!

We got her Feeding Frenzy after seeing it in the Arcade at Pop Century at Walt Disney World and she's been playing that game for a while.   She's even an expert at the games she's found on noggin.com.   I should build her a CP so she can use real arcade stuff with these games!

[TOK]

I'd say things typically start to click right around 3. My daughter is 2 and just likes slapping the buttons in Track and Field and yelling at Frogger. She's also a regular coin slot checker. My niece who is a little over 3 was doing the same thing a few months ago, but now is capable of understanding the purpose and control of Frogger though doesn't quite have the coordination to play it well.

Its funny the reaction arcade cabinets have on kids. Any kid from a year and a half up to 10 pretty much flips out when they see them.

[AlanS17]

Its funny the reaction arcade cabinets have on kids. Any kid from a year and a half up to 10 pretty much flips out when they see them.

... a year and a half up to 100.

[NightGod]

Its funny the reaction arcade cabinets have on kids. Any kid from a year and a half up to 10 pretty much flips out when they see them.

My 12 yr old daughter's friends STILL bring other friend over to my house just so they can go "See, I TOLD you her dad has an arcade machine in his house."

[Stobe]

I don't know why our first instinct is to let our young'ns try MsPacman.  I can't even survive very long in that game.

I'm now letting my daughter get used to the eye-hand coordination on the old Moppet games (Laprechan, Pirates Treasure, etc.)  Very simple gameplay,  but gets her used to the concept of "avoiding bad thing/finding good thing"

Another fun thing for her is the 2player co-op type games, where I can help clear the screen so she doesn't get whacked so much.  Our favorite is The COWboys of Moon Mesa (or something like that.)

-Stobe

[Glaine]

My daughters 4 now, but the for the last year or so, she's been heading down here to the basement and saying "I want to play your games!".   She's a real whiz at the bowling games for one!

We got her Feeding Frenzy after seeing it in the Arcade at Pop Century at Walt Disney World and she's been playing that game for a while.   She's even an expert at the games she's found on noggin.com.   I should build her a CP so she can use real arcade stuff with these games!

Funny, I just got a copy of Feeding Frenzy also after playing it at the local Putt-Putt, I really like the cabinet sideart - its a mini-aquarium on each side with plastic fish floating around in real water.

[ahofle]

A great game to start very young kids on is 'Shoot the Bull'.  It's a pretty elementary trackball darts game where you just push forward on the trackball to shoot the darts.  My 3 year old likes to play it.  He still really hasn't gotten the hang of the joystick yet though.

[flashiv]

I just had my 14 year old nephew and 5 of his friends (also 14 y/o) over for his birthday party last weekend.  The PS2 upstairs wasn't even used at all, but boy did my MAME cab get a work out that day! 

(6) 14 y/o + (1) 7 y/o + (1) 38 y/o Uncle = Best Birthday Party Ever

[fatfingers]

A great game to start very young kids on is 'Shoot the Bull'.  It's a pretty elementary trackball darts game where you just push forward on the trackball to shoot the darts.  My 3 year old likes to play it.  He still really hasn't gotten the hang of the joystick yet though.

Likewise, I find my 4 year old daughter enjoys trackball bowling games (well, and Marble Madness  ).

[Bill Mote]

I didn't build my cabinet until 2 years ago so it's hard to say with arcade games for my house.  I was playing Counter-Strike a lot and my oldest son started playing that at about 5 and my other son was 4.  They weren't very good at first, but they did understand how to play.  Now they're 11 and 12 and I can't beat them at CS

dot

[unclet]

Both of my children played around with Mame since they were three years old.  Mainly me holding them up to the controls and them having fun watching the colors of everything moving and exploding while I played.  They would try but just could not figure it out as well as not having the reaction time required.

Anyway they both started really "playing" Mame when they were about 4-1/2.  They understood Ms. Pacman enough to finally clear the first board.  They also played Centipede a bit and would possibly be able to clear that, although it was still tough for them.  The spider freaked them out   

My children are now 6-1/2 and 8 years of age and they turn on the cabinet and play many games (from a few different emulators) with friends who come over.  Their favorites are "Vs. RBI Baseball", Galaga, Shuffleshot and Mario Kart.

[Glaine]

I've got a friend who takes his Counter Strike hammer to all LAN parties. Anyone he sees playing it, he quickly remedies their computers with said hammer.

I've never actually played it, but that guy can't stand that last time I talked with him it was the still most popular LAN game years later. Bet those Multi-player war games are doing pretty good about now though.

I didn't build my cabinet until 2 years ago so it's hard to say with arcade games for my house.  I was playing Counter-Strike a lot and my oldest son started playing that at about 5 and my other son was 4.  They weren't very good at first, but they did understand how to play.  Now they're 11 and 12 and I can't beat them at CS

dot

[Donkey_Kong]

The bummer for me and my kids is, we only discovered MAME about 2 1/2 months ago. I got to tell you though my 10 year old is having a blast. He recently achieved the landmark of making it past the chase levels on Ms Pac (we all remember that achievment) It is so weird though I think I was probably about the same age when I finally pulled it off. He is pretty decent at Donkey kong too already. Can you say ADDICTED!

[sac01]

My 3 year old has been playing with the Cab since he was old enough to press the buttons... He's a real pro at alot of games on both the cocktail and upright.  WorldClass Bowling is a great one for kids to start on.. just spin the trackball. Alot of time my son beats me on it now.

[Dervacumen]

My daughter turns 3 in a few weeks.  She always wants to play the cab and is specifically interested in inserting tokens.  I think she gets some amount of validation that she has completed a necessary task.  It's physical and causes a reaction that she wants (ie allowing her to hit the P1Start button).

She can play Pot Of Gold and Leprechaun pretty well (although I've got some cheats enabled so I don't have to keep goin' over there...)

She also plays Centipede but I don't think she's "got it" yet.  She forgets to keep her finger on the fire button  (or use it at all some times) but is learning the trackball movement.
Pac-man is hit and miss.
She can't stand the 8 way, only the 4 way joystick.

She sucks at Virtua Fighter so I kick her ass. :laugh2:Just kidding.

[WaRpEd]

My son was about 13 when I built my first CP to play Mortal Kombat now I can't beat him most of the ( damn Lukang ) He's 21 now and still addicted as I still am.

[ahofle]

This thread inspired me to try some joystick games with my kid again.  Low and behold he is starting to get the hang of it.  He can play Excitebike now by just holding the throttle button down and jerking the stick up and down mostly by himself.  He also enjoys playing paperboy.  This one I have to help keep the bike on the sidewalk, but he likes throwing the papers in the windows (there are no resubscribers after his first day LOL).  I sure hope he doesn't lose interest in these old games once he starts playing other more modern (console) games.

[Glaine]

My nephew is the only one who plays most cab games with me, though he is becoming reluctant because I always wipe him out at all the fighters. I figure, the couple of times he has won it was worth something. And losing all the time would get old for me.

The worst is playing anything competitive with the ladies. Win and your a jerk. Lose to much and they feel patronised. Unless you luck out and get a nerdy girl who understands.

[AnalogKid]

My girls are 10 and 7, they have been playing since they were around 4 or 5 and seem to catch on to the object of most games pretty quick.  What they *still* haven't gotten their heads around is that I used to  have to put a REAL quarter in the machine to play ONE game. And would walk 2 miles each way to spend those quarters.

[TOK]

Just found a game that my 2 year old seems to love... World Class Bowling.
All you need to do is spin the trackball. She loved doing that anyway, and pretty much went crazy when she saw something happen onscreen and heard the sound of pins crashing.

Great game for kids just to mess around with, since there is no "dying" and even if they throw a gutter ball, it still goes down the lane and shows a ball going down a toilet onscreen.

[Dervacumen]

Just found a game that my 2 year old seems to love... World Class Bowling.

I was playing that with my daughter (almost 3) last night for the same reason.

[sphetr2]

(6) 14 y/o + (1) 7 y/o + (1) 38 y/o Uncle = Best Birthday Party Ever

OMG Pedophile!!!!!

Just kidding....but that did come out a little strangely...

[CheffoJeffo]

My youngest has a pretty severe speech delay, but one word he says pretty clearly is "Galaga" as in "Dahee, ca I pay Galaga" ... melts my heart every time (his love of Galaga, that is).

My middle child (by 13 minutes) is 6 and came within 100 points of my Galaga HS last night ... he was playing double-the-ships-free-play mode, but still.

And my oldest (by 13 minutes) prefers pinball, although she wil occasionally play Bust-A-Move for 5 minutes at a time.

Cheers.

[Donkey_Kong]

Was my kids 11th B-Day bash today and the first big crowd around the new cab...Pretty cool as it was and well, still is the center point of attention for the day.

I just wanted to make a quick note about game selection and age relation. No matter what the age...it was ALL about Robotron!! We had a 4 year old making it to 3rd or 4th wave after playing for about 2 hours or so. Anybody can play it, figure it within in seconds and instantly LOVE it!! My little nephew...13 years old is currently in 5th place all time. He was introduced to the game no more than 90 minutes ago...Son of I'm shaking in my knees...Will he take down my high before the night is over??
 

[Donkey_Kong]

Dang!! My 10 year old just mopped up on my Robotron High. I was @ 225K and he just hit 313K!! I wonder if I will ever catch him now!! Dang, I wonder how far he can go, he has only been playing this game for 2-3 week...I feel so inadequate now!
 

PS: Ultra Stik 360's are working really good now. Figured out that whole Analog problem and they are super fluid on games like Robotron now, and well everything else for that matter. 2-way, 4-way, 8-way & Analog. I'm no expert but these have got to give a performance advantage over original robo sticks!?!?

[Kaytrim]

The first real unveiling of my junk/test cab was at my b-day party a month ago.  The kids went ape over it and they ranged from a 2-year-old to the oldest kid of 39 (me).    The 2-year-old quickly found a flaw in my CP design.  I had the admin buttons on the side of the CP right at his eye level and he kept hitting them much to the displeasure of the other kids.    My first modification to the machine was to move those buttons to an admin panel above the CP.  As parts came in the mail my kids would get excited, especially when the trackball arrived.  They bugged me for over a week until I finally got it installed, now they want to play it full time.  I'll never get a chance to finish the cab now that they have 'control' over it.

PS: Ultra Stik 360's are working really good now. Figured out that whole Analog problem and they are super fluid on games like Robotron now, and well everything else for that matter. 2-way, 4-way, 8-way & Analog. I'm no expert but these have got to give a performance advantage over original robo sticks!?!?

Thanks for the vote on the U360s I have two T-Stick Plus joysticks and I really have trouble on the cardinal directions with them especially on Robotron, I can rarely get past level 5.  I just don't have the funds to buy the U360s to replace my T-Sticks.   Once I get the U360s I will probably end up selling the T-sticks.

[TOK]

Depending on the age of the kids, you might find the admin buttons on the CP are just as big a problem.
My 7 year old niece was playing games with her dad. He put on a fighting game, and she kept spazzing out and hitting every button she could reach.

I hide the admin buttons on all my cabs now. Usually on top.

[Glaine]

Or use a combination of buttons as the quit key and hope no one does it on accident. Like 2nd player coin + 2nd player start. Only time that stuff gets quit with that when kids hit both when we play schmups and they start to panic.

[Donkey_Kong]

Combination of keys for 'exit' seems neccesary especially when little kids will be playing. I currently have a little 'shift (Ipac) key' stashed and is used for all admin type operations. When I hit my shift button all of my game buttons morph into cool stuff like 'tab', 'exit', 'F3' etc...Keeps the little gamers on track and makes for an uncluttered CP. 

PS: Ultra Stik 360's are working really good now. Figured out that whole Analog problem and they are super fluid on games like Robotron now, and well everything else for that matter. 2-way, 4-way, 8-way & Analog. I'm no expert but these have got to give a performance advantage over original robo sticks!?!?

Thanks for the vote on the U360s I have two T-Stick Plus joysticks and I really have trouble on the cardinal directions with them especially on Robotron, I can rarely get past level 5.  I just don't have the funds to buy the U360s to replace my T-Sticks.   Once I get the U360s I will probably end up selling the T-sticks.

U 360's are da bomb! I noticed in Project Announcments that javeryh is building a Pink Mini for the daughter and is going with U 360 with a pink ball top. I can't get over how nice the U 360 is turning out to be for us...You will love it!!

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59828.0