lost blog

Hm.. You may want to look at the classic Apogee releases. They have many, many side-scrolling platformers, most of which are kid friendly. I believe most of these can be purchased online, also, in case you wish to use them legally (the shop at 3drealms.com allows you to purchase many of the old Apogee titles).Also, a lot of the stuff by Epic Mega Games (Now just Epic/Epic Games) consists of happy-go-lucky platforming action. Most of their games actually didn't have blood or guts, even if they featured heavy doses of action (Jazz Jackrabbit series, for instance.. Very NES/SNES/SEGA Mario/Sonic style gameplay).Off the top of my head, I cannot think of many first-person shooters (DOOM/Shadow Warrior style) that aren't gory. The only one I can really think of is Ken's Labyrinth, and old one that is very much like Wolfenstein 3D, minus any sort of blood and gore. Regardless, he may enjoy it.Anyways, hope that helps!

XCOM:UFO Defence, Sim City 2000, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Eye of The Beholder are all great classic DOS games.

 

Chris

Thanks! I will look into these recommendations. I've heard of most of them. When DOS gaming was big, I was going through a period where I didn't play games much, if at all. I probably missed out on a lot of good stuff.

 

I can't take any games to school that have guns or weapons. I would love to take Super Mario, except I don't want to introduce the kids to emulation - due to legality concerns. I don't care to take in my consoles because I've seen the abuse my GBA has taken.

 

Last night I downloaded about 12 fan-made Super Mario Bros clones. A couple of them were decent, but each were flawed enough to make the experience less than satisfying. I guess I've been spoiled by the real deal.

"Wacky Wheels", shareware "Mario Kart" type game

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vVIiKp6xMs

Cool! I'm a fan of Super Mario Kart... I'll check it out!

 

Today I broke my own rule and introduced my student to Super Mario Allstars (I own the game, so I don't feel too bad). He loved it! At least I have something (somewhat) school appropriate that will motivate him to work.

 

The child has anxiety problems that get in the way of learning. He tends to obsess about a subject and finds difficulty getting interested in much else. I've been trying to find something he can get interested in... some sort of creative outlet. I asked him today if he was at all interested in creating his own video game. He seemed excited by the prospect, so I may load the freeware (for schools) version of Klik 'N Play onto my thumb drive and help him create his own simple game. I just hope he will be happy starting simple - we won't be creating any Doom-like games with the software.

The child has anxiety problems that get in the way of learning. He tends to obsess about a subject and finds difficulty getting interested in much else. I've been trying to find something he can get interested in... some sort of creative outlet.

Hm, this kid almost reminds me of myself at his age. Definitely give him something creative to do, especially creating a game.. I bet he will get engrossed in it. I'm curious to see how this pans out in the end..

*Update*

 

My fourth grader acts interested in making a game, but can't get motivated to do anything about it. One of my second graders, however, drew up some pictures straight away! I'm going to take this short demo to him tomorrow so he can see that more graphics and gameplay ideas are needed:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-5TlCTmSNY

 

In other news... my fourth grader has me playing Doom 2. I never thought that would happen, but I find Doom 2 to be much more entertaining than Doom. He also told me to download Outlaws... and I have, but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet.