Training Regimen For Gaming Excellence

[kevates]

Help me design a training regimen to transform a non-gamer into a gamer who has skills, but also understands the culture of gaming. What do they need to read? What games are must plays, starting with Space War and Pong?

[Sailorneorune]

Reading: this site.

Recommended games: Tetris and Sonic 2. :)

[Kid Ice]

Somewhat similar thread posted here by...uhh...you

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92522&highlight=curiculum+curriculum

[kevates]

True, but i got tired of all the moral issues concerning kids and video games in the previous thread, so I thought I'd remove the kids from the equation... this is more of what I wanted to find out, my upcoming kids were just the context in which I began thinking about it...

[NE146]

Although it's probably impossible for most of us, I think plopping someone in front of a Defender machine and making them play it until they can achieve their first extra life (a very easy, measly 10,000 pts... sometimes obtainable on the 1st stage if you're good) then they've officially cut their teeth as a gamer.

You'd be surprised though how long it takes some supposedly "hardcore" gamers to do it! :)

[Kid Ice]

Although it's probably impossible for most of us, I think plopping someone in front of a Defender machine and making them play it until they can achieve their first extra life (a very easy, measly 10,000 pts... sometimes obtainable on the 1st stage if you're good) then they've officially cut their teeth as a gamer.

You'd be surprised though how long it takes some supposedly "hardcore" gamers to do it! :)

That sounds more like the final exam to me. :)

I'd start just like I did as a kid: (1) Pong (2) Space Invaders (3) Pac Man.

[tcv]

I think a long soak in the classics are a good idea. (You were expecting something else posting on here?!) Others have mentioned PONG and Space Invaders. Put them in front of an emulated 2600 and Intellivision. They'll cut their teeth on that. Then go on up to early PC games. Always keep them in tune with arcade stuff!

Hmmmm... perhaps a program is in order. Something someone would practice on everyday with a set time and set amount of time per game.

But you'd have to figure out the curriculum, in a way.

Someone mentioned Defender, for instance. What game would be good for someone trying to train up-to Defender. I know when I tried it, it wiped me.

[Arcade Antics]

Robotron: 2084, Warlords, Wizard of Wor.

[irata]

I posted this the other day on your other topic, so I've moved it to this one in case you're not looking at that one any longer.


We just had a son in September. My plan is this:

I don't have a certain age I plan to start him, but whenever he seems to have interest in actively playing games I will introduce them to him in a historical fashion. I'm not so cought up in which specific games he should play, rather how he'll experience video games as a whole.

Maybe the first 6 months are focused on the 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision. As for games, I'll definitely be careful as to what he gets to play, but there's not a whole lot that's off limits for that era, so that discretion will come into play later. The simple graphics are also much easier for their young eyes to focus on.

After that, we'll move on to NES, 7800, SMS.

Then maybe a year on SNES and Genesis. Anyway, I think I want him to appreciate where all of the current stuff has come from, by somewhat mimicking my experience and path through videogames.

I'd like him to be able to command simpler games at first, rather than subjecting him to multiple menus, submenus and complex control schemes that have become commonplace today, then grow into the recent generations as time goes by. I certainly won't want him to start out in a Ferrari when it comes time to drive; I'd rather he learn the overall concepts of driving on public roads with a little less horsepower to begin with.

Then again, maybe he won't want anything to do with games. I have no idea, he's only 6 weeks old.[/quote]

[GaijinPunch]

You need to stick them on games that have a scoring mechanism, which excludes just about everything w/ a save feature. The only two genres that fit this that still have games coming out today are shooting and puzzle, and almost all of them come out of Japan.