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[blooflame]

Any recommendations for video games for someone as old as your Dad?

Here's the deal:  I kind of like Mario-type games; I thought Bomberman was fairly neat when the kids lived at home and it was on an N64 (I think). I like driving games. I'm never going to remember the 75-button combination to make some old Kung-Fu Master spin in the air like a top, flip over his opponent, and kill him with the  Kim Chee Breath of Dragon move. When I play Tekken (with my son) my "strategy" is to hit random buttons as fast as I can and see what happens (surprisingly, I sometimes manage to win 2 out of 3 and advance to a second round).   The last game I really liked was Star Raiders II on an Atari 800XL / 130XE - which, by the way, would be damn good on a GameBoy SP or Nintendo DS.

So - what games/platforms would you recommend for someone like that?

And before you rant at me for liking "cute" games like Mario: everyone has their own tastes and such. I can really appreciate the effort that goes into something like a Halo2, and as a programmer I know how hard a good graphics engine is. But I play for the fun-ness of it.  I don't play to win, or to beat the game , I play to "kill time" and have fun doing it.

[Kai]

Mario is easily more fun to me than Halo 2 anyways. And bomberman on the N64 was really good fun. You might want to pick up any of the Nintendo systems and the Zelda games for it; I reccomend the SP, simply because that's the system with the simplest controls and the most of those sort of games on there.

[will: wanton sex god]

get a gameboy sp, youll find lots of games (theyre making remakes of several) thatll tickle your fancy.

[japaneasy]

I have no idea what it was called, but my pops found this game that he was crazily addicted to for the PS2.  It involved running through a city after it had been hit by and earthquake.  With all sorts of stuff falling on you and stuff.

Come to think of it, it was a horrible game.  Only the Japanese would come up with something like that.  That and Intelligent Qube (which was surprisingly challenging and intriguiing while playing, but rather odd in retrospect)  and Mr. Domino (which involved you being shrunk to the size of a domino and running through various levels knocking over a domino chain while dodging giant cockroaches and lollipops, among other things).  When my pops lived in Hong Kong we'd go to the underground market and buy 5 bootlegged PS games for ~$US10.  Aaaand I'm veering again.

Back on topic, I'd say Metroid.  The original, if you can find it.

[Johnny C]

Dude, shut up, Disaster Report was friggin' awesome.

[SailorPunk]

dr. mario.....fun and has awesome music

[MFD]

Luigi's Mansion wasn't horribly complicated for controls... and it's an easy puzzle game... with replay value.

[mosfet]

heh. I saw the "old as your dad" part and had to wonder... as old as your dad, assuming you are how old?

I'm 30, so my dad is a bit older than say the dads of those who are 14-16.

Well, my dad likes chess.  I find Puzzle games like bejeweled, or Zoo Keeper on Nintendo DS are awesome time killers.

My wife's dad is even older than my dad, and I cring at the thought of him even near a computer.  he likes golf and card games apparently.

Personally I try to keep a Palm Zire on me, or my DS, so that I've always got time killers handy.  Zoo Keeper is great, so is Worms for Gameboy Advance/SP.

Oh, and just remembered!  For those of us who like the old consoles, they're ressurecting old platforms in those "hook-to-TV" units!  Theres an Atari one thats got a bunch of 2600 roms onboard.  And apparently, the Commedor 64 one is actually a C64 on a chip!  (but minus the OS side, just the game roms)

Even better yet, is to get a Gameboy SP, and one of those writable GBA Rom kits!  I used to have one with 200 NES roms on one cart!

[blooflame]

I am x'32', that is 5 decades, half a century, old (50 for the math impaired).

To those who suggested the GBA SP - even with the backlight I find it hard to figure out some stuff but maybe I'm holding it at a weird angle or something. Otherwise I do like the form factor. I don't know if the DS screen is any clearer. I'd love to see an OLED screen in this form factor some day.

I could maybe see a used Gamecube, too.. the stores here sell used ones for $60 (US)...

[mosfet]

My manager likes Gameboy Advance games, but can't stand small screens, so he uses one of those Gamecube GBA addons that lets you play GBA games on the cube on the TV.

That'd be a good investment right there.
You'd be able to do GBA games on the bigscreen plus theres some pretty good Gamecube games out there.

As for the DS screen, I picked up a DS, and the screen is great!  A bit better than the GBA SP screen.  I think its not only a bit better quality, but a bit brighter.  You can select to have the GBA games display on top or bottom screen on the DS, but the touch film of the bottom screen makes it a bit less bright.