Games your parents liked

[BassGuitari]

Agreed. Atari 2600 QBert was a childhood favorite and it holds up well. Atari 2600 Popeye happened to be the only video game that my dad liked. He'd come home from work and play it. ("Games that your parents liked." would make for another interesting topic.)

I concur.

 

My mom was especially partial to Tetris on the Game Boy. On the NES, she liked Bart Vs. The Space Mutants, Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular, and Rampage, the arcade version of which she was also known to occasionally pop a couple quarters into at a local pizza joint.

 

Apparently both of my folks endured a bout of Pac-Man Fever when they were dating in the early '80s, before I was born, although my dad otherwise finds the very concept of video games generally abhorrent ("Absolute wastes of time!").

 

When I must have been four years old, my dad got an old Commodore 64 from a guy at work that had a couple of games with it--Blue Max, Ms. Pac-Man, Beach Head II, and Stealth, although I think it was probably me who did the bulk of the game-playing. I remember seeing my dad play Blue Max once, and I think my mom played Ms. Pac-Man, but I don't remember much from that far back. I do remember being in a Radio Shack with my dad when he bought a new TAC-2 joystick for our Commodore, though.

 

When I was a kid, my dad humored me enough once to let me try to show him how to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the first one) on our Nintendo; that lasted about five minutes, and was the last time I ever saw him play a video game.

 

My mom played a lot of Windows Solitaire in the '90s, though.

Edited October 19, 2018 by BassGuitari

[mbd30]

My mom would never play on a console but she loves puzzles, word games and card games on the tablet and Windows PC. But I think that's almost everybody's mom.

Edited October 19, 2018 by mbd30

[accousticguitar]

My mom liked playing Asteroids on the 2600.

[Flojomojo]

I wish my parents would have played video games with me. My mom commented that everything was either a shoot-em-up, or a chase (which is mostly true, if a little reductive) and my dad wasn't quick enough with reflexes to have any fun. I just remembered that they bought me TWO new games for our secondhand Odyssey 2: Keyboard Creations! (whoo) and The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt! (rah).

 

From then on, all video game purchases were my choices, with my money. Thus an obsessive was born, way to go Mom and Dad.

[Nebulon]

Neither of my parents were at all into video games.

 

However, when my dad was in his late 70s, he actually started to like a few of them (Missile Command [Atari 800XL] and Time Pilot [Vector Pilot] in particular).

 

And my mom actually tried playing a game once -- about a year ago. It was strange seeing a classic 50s mom swear at the ghosts when they caught Ms. Pac-Man. She didn't play any more games after that because she said it, "made her too angry."

 

It really says something when simple pixelated characters can create such an emotional reaction in people across generations.

[Skullazzi]

Hi all.

I have to say my parents didn't care much for video games. But we got mv mom to

play Atari 2600 Bowling once or twice when we got it in new. And she threw a couple games

of Wii Bowling but that is the extent of her game career hehe.

 

As for my dad, I guess he was into pinball in his youth though.

[BydoEmpire]

The family got an Intellivision around '81, I remember playing Horse Racing, Basketball, and Poker & Blackjack with my dad.

[derFunkenstein]

My mom would never play on a console but she loves puzzles, word games and card games on the tablet and Windows PC. But I think that's almost everybody's mom.

 

Yeah, my mom and I played Scrabble and pinochle (as a pair, vs my dad and sister) more than anything. She played some Q-Bert on the VIC-20 and some Jr. Pac-Man on the 2600 but that's about it. Today we play Words With Friends.

 

My dad loved playing Super C and Tiger Heli on the NES. I was better at both games, but I'd put in the Super C 10-life code and he'd just steal a life from me when he ran out. We'd run through all the continues and get to around level 6, then he'd be about done. But it was fun for 30-40 minutes for him and it is a good memory for me.

[Ransom]

My mom liked playing Asteroids on the 2600.

 

That was my dad's favorite video game, too. He'd play anything, but that one was his favorite.

[Silverfleet]

My dad is a "gadget guy", and always tells me that he bought his buddy an original Odyssey for his birthday back when the were new. They both liked hunting, so the rifle accessory sold him. He also liked playing Pong in the arcades and on some of the Pong consoles friends later had.

Later on, my sister begged for a Colecovision for Xmas in '82. My dad liked to play it with her, and somehow enjoyed the Smurfs game more than anything else. He was going to get a 2600 like my cousins had, but he liked the graphics better on the Coleco.

When he bought me my NES for Xmas in '87, he didn't play it at all outside of him trying Duck Hunt once. That changed the next year, when I caught him red handed in the middle of the night playing my new copy of Rad Racer! He was shocked and startled when I caught him! We sat up all night playing after that, with a complimentary "don't tell your mom" for keeping me up so late. One of my favorite gaming memories!

My mom can barely operate the house phone, so needless to say, she has never played a game in her life.

 

Another random memory: a friend's grandfather started playing the NES after picking one up for when my friend would go to visit him. His favorite game was... get this... Dragon Warrior. This guy from The Greatest Generation had a Dragon Warrior save that was around level 25, and he popped it in to show us how Gold Men would run away from his character! That impressed the hell out of us back then!

[glazball]

I clearly remember my grandma playing Video Pinball, saying it was the only Atari game she liked.

 

My wife, who is a little younger than me, told me she found out her grandma would play Super Mario Bros. after everyone had left for work and school. She wanted to keep it a secret because of course grandmas aren't supposed to play video games!

[Newsdee]

My mom used to play adventure games on the Apple II. I remember her going through King's Quest 1 and Castles of Darkness, but I don't think she finished either of them.

[carlsson]

My parents were not interested in any games at all, until they both were retired and learned how to play the various forms of solitaire on the computers. Yes, they got one each.

 

On my Dad's 50th birthday, he had an open bar and people could mix booze and soda in any quantities. Some of my uncles took really good advantage of this and were quite wasted. Later that evening we rigged up my brother's C64 to the big TV and played the motorcycle game Speed King. It was great fun, in particular watching my drunk uncles having a hard time staying on the track at all. Some of them dared not drive their cars for 24 hours afterwards.

[Flojomojo]

When I grow up, I want to be Shirley Curry

 

https://kotaku.com/grandmother-who-plays-skyrim-has-made-over-300-videos-1788387554

[ND40]

My dad only ever played one videogame, Pong. After that, and until this day, he detests them, grumpy old git!

 

This version to be precise, with metal balls for a scoring system. Wish we still had it.

 

http://www.pong-story.com/vmolympic.htm

[Montrealer]

My parents only ever liked 3 games.

 

1. Super Mario Bros.
2. Tetris
3. Dr. Mario

 

Special mention to Clu Clu Land, which I remember playing with my dad, we rented it a few times.

 

Me and my brother litterally had to share the NES with our parents, who both enjoyed those 3 huge classic games. But once I started getting more into action games, they didn't follow. And when the SNES came around, my dad still only wanted to play Tetris on NES.

[DragonGrafx-16]

My mom really liked Dr. Mario and Yoshi's Cookie on the NES. Now all she plays are those silly mobile hidden object games.

 

My dad only ever plays computer card games.

 

My parents only ever liked 3 games.

 

1. Super Mario Bros.
2. Tetris
3. Dr. Mario

 

Special mention to Clu Clu Land, which I remember playing with my dad, we rented it a few times.

 

Me and my brother litterally had to share the NES with our parents, who both enjoyed those 3 huge classic games. But once I started getting more into action games, they didn't follow. And when the SNES came around, my dad still only wanted to play Tetris on NES.

You should have gotten Dr Mario/Tetris for SNES. It adds 2 player Tetris and even Dr. Mario vs. Tetris!

[Montrealer]

My mom really liked Dr. Mario and Yoshi's Cookie on the NES. Now all she plays are those silly mobile hidden object games.

 

My dad only ever plays computer card games.

 

You should have gotten Dr Mario/Tetris for SNES. It adds 2 player Tetris and even Dr. Mario vs. Tetris!

 

Yeah well, things are what they are. They kept playing their Tetris and what not and I was playing NBA JAM or some shit lol

[Ramses]

When I was a kid my dad would play Berzerk, Warlords, and Tutankham on the 2600. He played Super Mario Bros a bit when the NES came out but that was about it. Nowadays he mainly plays Solitaire and simple strategy games on mobile. He'll also play Mario Kart 8 from time to time as well if other people are playing.

 

The only game my mom played was Loom on Turbo CD. She didn't care for video games much, but she did like that one.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Ramses

[mr_me]

I don't think my mother has ever played a video game in her life and that includes her tablet and phone. I know my father took us into the arcade and watched us play but I'm not sure if he played any games. He gave it a shot, briefly, when we first got one at home but then kept complaining about how stupid video games are.

[Duke75]

My mom and stepdad were pretty into Star Raiders and Pac-Man until the 5200 controllers broke. Now my mom mostly just plays Mahjong on the computer while my stepdad watches golf on TV nonstop.

[dj_convoy]

I remember Defender being a big hit in our household, as well as Centipede and Dig Dug. The parents really liked light gun games on the Master System. My dad would play Side Pocket with me for hours when we got a Genesis. Mom liked puzzle games.

[godslabrat]

My mom would play anything I asked her to, just to be a good mom. But the only thing I think she genuinely enjoyed was Tetris.

[+Black_Tiger]

For several years, it was hard to get time on our Intellivision, because my parents wanted to play first.

 

The games they liked most are:

 

Vega Poker & BK

Lock 'n Chase

Astrosmash

AD&D Cloudy Mountain

Pac-Man

 

 

They hated Treasure of Tarmin and that freed up a lot of time for me to play it and develop my love of RPGs.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Instantly when I read that I recalled a few. Keep in mind I grew up a only child in a single parent family. That said, my MOTHER though not

really into videogames, she DID enjoy and even got really good at a few back in the day.

 

Colecovision. - Mr. Do! and Ken Uston BlackJack/Poker. The Black Jack and Poker was pretty much a given but she also took to Mr. Do!

to the point that we were pretty competitive. We both got to the point we could roll the score and so it was more about how many times you could roll the score, so for example if I rolled the score 3 times, I would come home and she would have beaten that and I would immediately go and beat that, over and over. At some point we pretty much just had to agree that we were both pretty amazing at Mr. Do! lol.

 

Some time later after getting the Nintendo 8 bit system there was the usual family Duck Hunt competitions. After those systems though she pretty much lost interest.