Talk about your gamer Father and/or Mother.

[Damion]

I'd like to talk about my Game collecting father. I know some of you have them to. So please share if you have them.

OK,

My Father is a huge gamer. I mean He has stuff most of us wished we had and he's taken damn good care of it all. He even has a LARGE Wooden Box he made himself (which me and my Brothers Called the Lockup) to store some of his nes games. Which of 99 percent still have the Cellophane on them. There is ever so slightly an opening but it's on there. Almost like new.

Now this was before Games could be considered a real Hobby. Back when he couldn't talk to friends or family about it without being looked down on. Which I recall my Grandmother reminding him what a useless hobby it was during many Discussions.

His collection is envied, not just by me. You could look up a lot of games in his collection and find them on EBay. Priced well over 50. Some coming in over 100 dollars. Even 200. So I know it's not just me who envies him. It’s Most of my fellow gamers As well.

He has never let bad reviews of any games or systems get in his way. If a game caught his eye he would buy it to see for himself. Not that he isn't discerning because he is. He knows whets going to "Blow" before it hits the shelves. He is wrong sometimes. But it's rare and of course that’s relative anyways.

I remember Spending almost an entire day at toys'r'us waiting for a shipment to arrive that carried a game my father wanted. I remember Spending Days Calling and traveling to every store we knew to find a game. I Say it that way because it was a Family thing. When he wanted a game we all worked to get it.

In essence he was a gamer before being called a gamer was Cool. I love him just that much more for thinking outside of what was considered the norm and giving me and my brothers something to look forward to after school.

For us it’s a tradition. Because now I collect too. I'm carry on the Tradition now in my home. With my children. I may have a collection that rivals his someday. But he will always be gamer king in my book.

Thanks for reading.

Tell me about your gamer father or what inspired you to start collecting. I'd love to read them.

[McBacon]

My dad is an xbox fanatic. He has about 5, all modded and tonnes of controllers and crap. He likes case modding, here is my favourite one he's done.

http://www.members.aol.com/robinbrownmartin/xboxmod/Picture-146.jpg

He plays every FPS he can get his hands on, GTA, Racing games and the odd beat em up.

He's not obbsessed, but he plays alot, he's got a good balance sorted.

[Damion]

My dad is an xbox fanatic. He has about 5, all modded and tonnes of controllers and crap. He likes case modding, here is my favourite one he's done.

http://www.members.aol.com/robinbrownmartin/xboxmod/Picture-146.jpg

He plays every FPS he can get his hands on, GTA, Racing games and the odd beat em up.

He's not obbsessed, but he plays alot, he's got a good balance sorted.

Very Cool, Nice mod work.

[AlexKidd]

My dad was very into pinball and arcade games in the early 80's, now he has an xbox and loves it. For some reason he skipped like 20 years of video games. I've bought him an nes, genesis and gamecube to catch him up.

[Kroogah]

My dad had an Atari before I was born, and he played the Hell out of Enduro and Air-Sea Battle. Then when he bought an NES from a friend at work, we had some great times with that. Beat Contra together quite a few times (with the code) and he got addicted to Rad Racer. He also played a lot of Wolfenstein 3D on the computer.

Then it changed to me staying obsessed with games and him scolding me for it, until I started bringing the PS2 and Xbox over. He got so hooked he even bought a PS2 for "my younger brother"

ATV Offroad Fury, Hot Shots Golf (and Tiger Woods even more so), Gran Turismo 3, Top Spin, he loves all of those. I still haven't gotten him to try Burnout 3.

[Videogamerdaryll]

I just got my Dad into gaming-collecting..though he's always played the ATARI 2600,his all-time favorite game is Demon Attack.

He loves Bosconian now..

He's been romping through the flea markets with me now buying systems/games and handheld games....creating a collection..
He wants to play FPS games on the XBOX etc..

[TEND]

Ok, well my Dad never liked my gaming, so I'm gonna stray a bit and talk about my Gaming Mom. She had an old Pong unit and an Atari growing up, and is responsible for my love for games. She bought me an NES, and lots of great games as I was too young to really pick out games she did so, and looking back she picked some great ones (Castlevania 2, Zelda 1&2, Dragon Warrior). After about 2 years of begging, and my dad saying no, my mom bought me an SNES in 94'. She found a way to convince my dad so that for christmas, I would get a few games or a console. She's not as much of a gamer, but I've turned her on to a few games lately, Ace Combat, Katamari Damacy, and the Metal Gear Solid series mostly.

[GrandAmChandler]

My dad is the one I hold responsible for getting me into gaming. When I was younger in the Mid-80s, he would hook up his Atari 2600 for us on rainy days while he was watching us when my mom went shopping or to college. He had all first Party games, and some Activision & Imagic titles. Some games we used to play forever:

Video Olympics
Adventure
Canyon Bomber
Slot Racers
Sky Diver
Robot Tank
Decathalon (Until it broke)
Atlantis
Phoenix
Pac-Man

We had about 30 games total after his co-worker gave him some more in the late 80's because no one liked Atari anymore...

Today, his favorite games to play are:

Super Battleship (SNES), Silent Service, and Carrier Aces

[Cryomancer]

I remember playing racing games on 2600 with my dad. I've seen him play a few other racers since as well, but that's about it really. Maybe I should set him up with unreal on his new computer...

[Flack]

My dad has always been into gaming, technology and computers, and was the one who got me in to those things as well.

In 1977, when I was four, my dad bought our family a Pong system. He and I were the ones who played it the most. He later bought our family an Odyssey2, and when he got frustrated at the lack of games available for it, he got rid of it and bought us an Atari 2600.

My parents were pretty strict about school attendance and stuff like that, but my dad let me skip school the day Space Invaders came out for the 2600. We went to Toys R Us to get it, and when we got home and stuck it in, the Space Invaders cart turned out to be ... Bowling! So, we went back and exchanged it, and spent the rest of the day playing hookey playing Space Invaders.

In the early 80's, my dad was really into computers. He was on Radio Shack's waiting list for the TRS-80 Model III. I was just telling someone the other day that when most people didn't even have a home computer, we had three -- an IBM PC Jr, an Apple II, and a Commodore 64. I spent the majority of the 80's gaming on computers.

One story I like to tell is when Wizardry came out, my dad was working 3pm-11pm. I was probably 9 or 10 at the time. I would play the game when I got home from school, mapping out dungeons and levelling up characters. Then when dad got off work he would come home and take over, playing until the wee hours of the morning. We would always leave notes for each other about where to go next and what we had found.

In the mid-80's my parents opened a computer store that sold software. I was there every day after school for an entire year and it was awesome, telling people we had our own store.

My dad's favorite types of games were text adventures, point-and-click Sierra adventures, and puzzle-type games like The Incredible Machine and Lode Runner. As these genres waned, so did his interest in gaming. After getting out of playing games for a long time, he purchased a PSX which he bought about three games for before giving up on it.

These days I think all he plays is Majhong (sp?) and stuff like that. If it weren't for those early days, I would have never got into games or be the person I am today.

Thanks dad.

[Yago]

It was my dad who bought me our first system which was an Atari 2600. We played Combat daily. Then he got us a Colecovision. From then on, I was hooked on games. Now, my dad is in his upper 60's and has an X-Box, he playes halo 2 every damn day. I am sure when I retire I'll be doing the same thing, I hope.

[DDCecil]

My father owned a video game store for a couple of years and really liked different games. We completed Landstalker for Genesis together, and I helped him beat Final Fantasy II/IVj. If it wasn't for him, I would of never experienced the Atari 2600 which led to my obsession of video games.

Thanks dad, wherever you are.

[PDorr3]

My dad handed me down this colecovision, which was technicaly my first game system. He used to play alot of PSX and n64, his favorite games being resident evil and waverace 64, and especialy theme park.

He still games daily on my genesis, and plays dr robotnicks mean bean machine, ms pacman, risk, monopoly, and zombies ate my neighbors.

[RJ]

My dad always knew OF them, since I as a gamer go way back, but actual INTERACTION?

When I recently introduced Atari 2600 Video Checkers to him, it took him over half an hour to play Game 1, which I could get through (& beat) in about 10-15 mins.

[Mr.FoodMonster]

My dad is an occasional gamer. He really only plays stuff that I buy, but he still plays. I got the Atari Arcade PC thing cheap (the good one, not all the old lame ones) and he plays the hell out of that, but then he also plays FarCry. Hes played through that about 3 times, but I cant get him into any new FPS. It dosnt make sense, but oh well.

[CrimsonNugget]

My dad used to stop by the occasional Centipede machine in the early 80's, now he just plays Risk II, online poker, and some old DOS civil war game (text used as graphics old). He used to be pretty gnarly at using a computer in the early 90's, but now I'm the dominant PC guy in the house.

[norkusa]

My dad never touched a video game in his life until this summer when I got Karaoke Revolution for Xbox. One Friday night him and my uncle came back from golf completely wasted and saw me playing it, so they wanted to try it out. They ended up playing for the next 3 hours. Now they play it every Friday night and get totally into it. They even downloaded a couple of the $5 song packs from Live.

I just wish he'd play the Get On Da Mic that I just bought. I'd probably piss myself laughing if he did.

[Damion]

Wow I knew I wasn't the only one :)

I currently play halo two with my family every monday and wensday and sunday. To this day my dad Still Loves them.

Keep those storys coming guys I really enjoy reading them and gamer moms are Cool to don't let the topic line fool ya. in fact I'm going to Edit it just so we don't miss out.

[VG_Maniac]

My dad only gamed back in the NES days...and that was only every so often. He played games like Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, 10-Yard Fight, and Golf. That was about it.

[Dire 51]

My parents started the ball rolling... my mother received a 2600 for her birthday in 1980, after playing my older brother's and loving it. She and my dad used to spend hours playing Air-Sea Battle and Canyon Bomber.

Back then, gaming actually was a family thing. It wasn't uncommon to see my dad playing Space Invaders or Q*Bert, or my mom playing Pitfall! or Carnival (http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/carnival_2600.htm). Getting a new game was always an event, and a lot of times my parents would take turns playing against me, my younger brother and my sister.

That changed by the late '80s. The NES was a bit "too complex" for my parents, who couldn't seem to grasp the newer types of games, or the funky control pad that was so different than the joysticks and paddles they were used to. On top of that, they was beginning to step away from gaming, even the older games and systems. I guess they thought it was more of a thing for the kids now. My dad even went as far as to claim his disdain for anything post-Atari... and once or twice went as far as to bash games in general, which is something I never quite understood.

However, during that period, I caught my dad red-handed playing (or at least trying to play) Mega Man 3. My brother was in the middle of a game and had paused it to go do something. My dad heard the music and decided he was going to try it out. I walked by the room and happened to glance in, and there he was, swearing at Mega Man because he wouldn't do what my dad wanted him to. LOL When he realized he'd been caught, he paused the game real quick and said he was just going to walk the dog. Riiiiiiight. LOL

His stance against games changed once we were all out of the house, it seemed. A couple of years ago, knowing that he hadn't seen any of the 2600 games we had in years, I stopped by his house one morning and stuck z26 and some ROMs (mostly his and my mom's favorite games) on his PC. He was amazed that he was now actually able to play these games on his PC.

A year or two later, his system crashed and he lost them all. *shrug* He never got it fixed, but it doesn't really matter to him anymore. He did appreciate them, though, as I think in a lot of ways he was reminded of my mom, who passed away in 1995, and the days when we were growing up. At least he was able to relive those days - kind of - for a brief time.

[Dr. Morbis]

Contrary to most of your parent's gaming qualities, my mother is the exact opposite. She is a technophobe who still uses a typewriter to send letters and can't successfully move a mouse pointer across a computer screen without guidance and supervision. Actually, a few weeks ago, I arranged for my mom to have a race against my 4 year old nephew in Super Mario Kart on SNES. Naturally I put it on the easiest course that is basically a big circle. Anyway, long story short, the 4 year old absolutely smoked her. She never completed a lap and spent the whole time going in circles and spinning out. And this was with me trying to coach her through the whole thing. From my experiences, I can't even begin to imagine a "gamer" mom.

[mieu_c]

Contrary to most of your parent's gaming qualities, my mother is the exact opposite. She is a technophobe who still uses a typewriter to send letters and can't successfully move a mouse pointer across a computer screen without guidance and supervision. Actually, a few weeks ago, I arranged for my mom to have a race against my 4 year old nephew in Super Mario Kart on SNES. Naturally I put it on the easiest course that is basically a big circle. Anyway, long story short, the 4 year old absolutely smoked her. She never completed a lap and spent the whole time going in circles and spinning out. And this was with me trying to coach her through the whole thing. From my experiences, I can't even begin to imagine a "gamer" mom.

Well my mom kicks some serious ass at Tetris. She was pretty good at Super Mario too. As for recent games.. since I'm out of the house she hasn't realy played any game in awhiel. But I think she would still give me and my friends a run for our money at Tetris.

Man.. I miss my mommy! Wish she didn't live 1000 miles away :(

[Lothars]

Well I want to talk about my gaming mom, when i was younger she was always supporting my gaming habits but she was playing tetris, dr mario, heck she even told me stories about playing dungeons and dragons when she was younger,

she always seemed to buy me games, I remember when she bought me my games for the nintendo which my uncle had bought me, or also had bought me my first gameboy

otherwise to this day she still plays games, lot's of times flash games but she can kick my butt playing bomberman 1 and 2 for the super nintendo,

she is so much better than me at it, it's scary.

she does love her games though,

but also my step dad is a gamer, and a sort of collector, he has either an atari 2600 or 5200 also has a super nintendo, and he's starting to collect for that as well,

but he's not collecting per say more of just if he finds a game for cheap he will buy it.

but it's all good, it's nice to hae my parents that support my gaming habits.

:D

[izret101]

My dad use to be wicked into gaming when i was younger.
I don't know if he played alot before we got videogames but he mentions playing this game or that game when he sees me playing one on a classic compilation pack.

I know during the SNES to PSX era he was wicked into RPGs.
Most the RPGs on SNES that i love (and are rare) he bought and later gave to me.
Chrono Trigger, FFIII, Illusion of Gaia, AD&D: Eye of the Beholder are the ones i remember of the top of my head.
We use to play the Mario games alot too. The SMW/Allstars game came with our SNES.

Then when we got a PSX he played ALOT of Hexen and played the Crash games with us. Me and him played the Atari Anniversary Redux game alot too. Mostly Asteroids and Centipede which we both loved and he played in arcade while in the service.

Starting about 5-6 years ago he almost completely stopped playing games. He still will play games with me but he doesn't play alone because he would only play and not get anything else done so he cut himself off.

Last weekend we played Katamari Damacy which he was honestly pretty crappy at but he had a great time and we had alot of fun.

[Pantechnicon]

Back in 1990 I came home on leave from the USMC with my Gameboy and taught my mom how to play Tetris. She liked it so much I wound up buying her her own machine. Fifteen years later and that Gameboy is still a fixture in her nightstand as part of her going-to-bed thing. I don't think the Tetris cart has ever been removed from the GB unit.

My stepdad was initially never a gamer but he never pooh-poohed it either when my brother and I were in our Atari heyday. A few years ago my wife taught my stepdad how to play Snood on PC and both he and my mother have been addicted to it ever since. The last time I was poking around on their PC I saw that they had logged something 95,000 games of Snood since it was installed. That's just staggering.

I should also mention my real Dad, with whom I don't get along so great. His one and only foray into gaming lasted all of 10 minutes. The game in question was Star Trek 25th Anniversary for PC. I had it on my old 386. One day he decides he might get along better with me if he tries this out. So he's playing the game in starship combat mode and I am trying to help him out: "Go up! He's above you!", "You should have fired torpedoes!" "Use the damage control!" After a few minutes of this he puts down the joystick, looks at me and says "I'm not going to do this if you keep yelling at me like that." My Dad has a long and proud (to him, anyway) history of Nobody Bossing Him Around, and so my enthusiasm for this game was construed as some sort of effort to subjugate his will to my own x_x , and that was the last time AFAIK he ever played a video game.

[Slimedog]

My dad was really into Atari and I wouldn't be the gamer I am today if he hadn't gotten me involved as a wee tike. Now he sticks of PC puzzle games. I've got a lot of fond memories of him and I playing Atari when I was young. All attempts to lure him back to the console world have ended in failure, with a few two-player exceptions.

My mom has always jammed on puzzle and point-and-click adventure games. She really tore up on the GB. She got all the endings of Tetris, beat Boxxle 1 & 2 and several others. Now she beats piles of PC point-and-click adventures. She beat all of the Mysts (save the online one) without using a faq. She has been doing GBA puzzlers and also spent a lot of time with her Pokemon Mini playing the Puzzle Collection. Hardcore, yo.

I've got a "Busted!" story too. One time, I came into my room and found my folks both huddled around Marble Madness for the NES. At the time I was pretty much dumbfounded since they hardly ever came into my room and never played NES. They were at level 2 and since I don't think either had ever picked up a control pad before, I would say that was pretty good.

[digitalpress]

I learned a lot about gaming from my dad. Not because he is a gamer - NO, far from it. But in those few moments where I was able to get him to sit down and play something with me he ALWAYS made me laugh.

Most memorable moments:
- Law of the West, C64. You're the sheriff and the goal is to provoke the criminals to draw their weapons through a series of text responses. Non-criminals simply give you info. You lose points and your game ends early when you shoot before the other guy does and obviously if you shoot a harmless person. The first time he played, dad didn't even wait to read the text responses, he drew the weapon and shot the first three people. I explained how the game works again. Second game, he did the same thing. I was rolling on the floor, he was role-playing the second time: "that school marm probably had explosives under that dress"... "damn little schoolkids - that's who the bad guys send in as scouts!". He's hilarious.

- Virtua Racing on the Genesis. Dad and I go head to head. Immediately he turns his car around and drives the wrong way for the entire race. I explain that the "wrong way" blinking was on HIS screen. He says "I know. Everyone watches racing for the crashes though".

There were more, but these two spring to mind LOL

[Damion]

I learned a lot about gaming from my dad. Not because he is a gamer - NO, far from it. But in those few moments where I was able to get him to sit down and play something with me he ALWAYS made me laugh.

Most memorable moments:
- Law of the West, C64. You're the sheriff and the goal is to provoke the criminals to draw their weapons through a series of text responses. Non-criminals simply give you info. You lose points and your game ends early when you shoot before the other guy does and obviously if you shoot a harmless person. The first time he played, dad didn't even wait to read the text responses, he drew the weapon and shot the first three people. I explained how the game works again. Second game, he did the same thing. I was rolling on the floor, he was role-playing the second time: "that school marm probably had explosives under that dress"... "damn little schoolkids - that's who the bad guys send in as scouts!". He's hilarious.

- Virtua Racing on the Genesis. Dad and I go head to head. Immediately he turns his car around and drives the wrong way for the entire race. I explain that the "wrong way" blinking was on HIS screen. He says "I know. Everyone watches racing for the crashes though".

There were more, but these two spring to mind LOL

LOL

My dad does that to, one time I happened to be visiting him while he was playing fabel. I guess the villagers were getting to him Because he all of a sudden just lost it and started Killing all of them then he ended up going to every town and killing everybody all the while yelling SSSPPPPOOOOONNNN!

He was cracking me up. Also he likes to yell SUCK GAS at Sore winners on halo two. It's pretty funny.


There is also times when we Butt heads. One Time I came over when he was playing C&C for the PS1. I was trying to give him advice and generally tring to play the game for him. Man did it get him pissed. we didn't talk to each other for about two weeks lol