Keeping It In The Family

sopranos_lMore and more it seems that gaming is becoming a pasttime for the entire family. Thanks to the Wii, we can even get the grandparents involved, although my grandma did play Top Gun, Contra and Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers with me when I was sick one day. It was cute to see her play Top Gun. She even shot me down once or twice!

In my family, gaming has been around since I was born. My mom and dad both played on the Atari and Intellivision. My mom used to reset the game if she died anywhere on the first 3 levels of Pac-Man! She also loved Burger Time, a game where a chef runs over lettuce, tomatoes and other parts of a sandwich in order to drop them to a platform below the level and complete the sandwich, all the while being chased by a couple of hot dogs and a pissed off egg. That egg always was the hardest to avoid.

My dad also had a Commodore 64, which was very big in gaming. He was one of the first people I ever heard of who invited his friends over just to play games. My uncle and him would play this horrible football game, with lousy graphics and control, and sit there and talk trash and argue and have a great time. It was fun just to watch them. He has a PS2 and still plays PC games, to this very day.

My older brother was once a loyal console gamer. We discovered Final Fantasy together and had a great time playing Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2. Now that he has kids, his console days are over, as they play the Wii and he sits all alone in the corner, playing World of Warcraft non-stop. It’s kind of sick. My little brother just got a PS3, so we play online against each other all the time. I hooked him on Final Fantasy and he introduced me to Suikoden, a PS1 rpg that is amazing. Go download it on the PSN, it’s like 5 bucks. Before all that, he mainly played Pokemon, which I gave an honest try and just could not get into it. Not after having played epics like Final Fantasy and the Legend of Zelda. My older sister just plays the Wii, although she had a GameCube and Nintendo 64 and always played any Mario games that came out, like Tennis or Golf. She ignores most other games, which is kind of typical of a girl gamer.

So you see, gaming has been a part of my life since I could ever remember. I have played every system from the Atari to the Wii and my family has been there to for me to leech off and try new things. I am the only one now who is really into gaming, but I prefer to think of myself as the last man standing, rather than the last one who refuses to grow up.

What about your families gaming history? Do you still play together?

Written by

Age: 34 PSN ID: Starkiller81. I've played games since before I can remember, starting with my dad's Atari and I haven't stopped yet. Keep them coming and I will keep playing them.

17 thoughts on “Keeping It In The Family”

  1. I remember when I first played the NES as a little kid, it was my dad that hooked it up and played with us. Same thing with the Atari. After that, it’s pretty much become only me and my brothers that play the junk out of video games.

  2. Back when I was 8, my dad’s computer company received Half-Life Generation (Which included HL1, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Counter-Strike(that really old one))To install in some new Lan Houses. He installed it on our computer and we played HL together. And then we played Opposing Force. And then Blue Shift. Today, we’ve gone through every thing Hl related. (Even the PS1 HL version, that had the Decay storyline, involving two other scientists) We’re eagerly waiting for Episode 3. In the meanwhile, I play the crap out of every single player mod I can find.

  3. Well me and my dad used to play Quake (back when I was 4, I pulled the trigger he moved around) and some Star Wars game on the PC and, of course, Goldeneye all the time. We fell out after I finally let him play as James Bond and subsequently pwnd him with Xenia. Many moons later, we played Killzone on the PS2 for a while, but he got sick of me camping with the sniper rifle (I was 12! I didn’t know any better!). Oh! And Tekken Tag Tournament! Nowadays, me and my sisters play the odd bit of Mario Kart or SSBB. We haven’t done that in ages. All they play now is the Sims non-stop. My mum used to play the N64 with us (Diddy Kong racing was the Wii Sports back in the day), but alas, it has never happened since ='( I remain the only ‘true’ gamer in that I play a wide variety of games and I’ve been trying to encourage my sisters to play something else.
    Hint: Don’t try to start sibling off on Resi 4.

  4. I remember playing Descent and command and conquer with my older brother, he would play I would select the weapon/group of solders he wanted. We still get together and play HL1 death match or counter-strike (the old one) together…good times.

  5. Well, I was brought up on NES ( before my memory ) but my game memory begins at SNES, playing NHL with my dad, Zelda/SMB alone, etc. I had an older cousin who PC gamed it up, he’s about 4 years older than me, so I looked up to him when I was a kid, and so that probably had something to do with me getting into games like HL and CS. While my console career lasted, i played NHL with my dad. PC at first I showed my younger brother CS and we gamed together. Christmas 2007 I got COD4 aswell as my cousin, who is a best friend ( our moms are identical twins ) and we played the crap out of that online together.

    But definetly i am the most seriuous gamer in the house, brother plays Original XBOX/Ps2, younger sisters have DS’ and the sims on their laptops. But im the only one with a mean machine gaming in my dungeon.

  6. When grandparents come over, we bust out the Wii Sports, and it is genuinely fun. As for more serious gaming, me and my brother pretty much grew up together. First we had the Gameboys, then the N64 and Gamecube and then PS2, and then from there we sort of went our different ways. My brother was much more into RPG’s and joined FFXI (the MMO), while I found myself playing a lot of FPS’s for no particular reason. I suppose FPS’s were just the new thing then, and most games that were coming out were FPS’s. I haven’t abandoned RPG’s, but FPSRPG’s are my favorite.

  7. I am the only gamer in my family. Although my half sisters occasionally play. My dad USED to game A LOT on his old MAC computers. Starfighter, Jurassic park games, Star Wars flight games, WWII hellcat games. So much fun

  8. My gaming habit is totally my dad’s fault. He was a computer buff back in the early days of the PC, and used to come home all the time with disks of random games, everything from pinball to text adventures to primitive platformers. I was hooked for good the day he brought home Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Consoles came later and with much less family involvement – finally landed an SNES after years of spending countless hours on friends’ couches, and no one else in my house would touch the thing. My sister and I still find the time to occasionally game together, but it’s a rarity. Most recently, we spent a long evening into the wee hours with Braid, some snacks, and copious amounts of alcohol, systematically breaking down the puzzles and laughing hysterically at our own half-drunken attempts to interpret exactly what the hell kind of story Mr. Blow was trying to tell. One of the best nights of recent memory.

  9. I’m the lone hold-out of virtual pastimes in my family. My parents are firmly opposed to video games. The last system they bought for me was an N64, which they immediately regretted. I mean, common, Ocarina of Time was really, really good!

    My younger cousin used to be heavily into video games (he introduced me to Halo when I couldn’t afford an X Box), but he doesn’t play much any more. I’m the black sheep in that sense.

  10. My dad and a Friend of his got me into DOOM2, which was great. My dad also had a NES. He also gave me my first love (gaming wise) in Command & Conquer. Other than that, mostly just me and my bro playing Coop whenever we found a game that had it (many NES/Sega games I own are Coop-capable). oh, And tons of Halo on Legendary when it first came out with my bro. um… cant think of anything else

  11. Well, gaming isn’t a huge thing in my family so I ended up bringing it in. First by begging to stay a few extra minutes at Best Buy just to play some Xbox game. Then I got a box myself, and the rest is history. But gaming didn’t really catch on in my family until I got Star Wars: Battlefront. I swear, if my dad or sister were stranded on a desert island with just one game, it wold be Battlefront. So really, I’m kind of the first generation of gamers in my family.

  12. [quote comment=”5364″] Diddy Kong racing was the Wii Sports back in the day[/quote]
    WHAT?! Diddykong racing was great, it had a story, multiplayer and awesome powerups. It wasnt wii sports, it was like mario cart

  13. [quote comment=”5391″][quote comment=”5364″] Diddy Kong racing was the Wii Sports back in the day[/quote]
    WHAT?! Diddykong racing was great, it had a story, multiplayer and awesome powerups. It wasnt wii sports, it was like mario cart[/quote]
    What I meant by that was that everyone played it! Also, I’ve never played Mario Kart 64.

  14. [quote comment=”5395″][quote comment=”5391″][quote comment=”5364″] Diddy Kong racing was the Wii Sports back in the day[/quote]
    WHAT?! Diddykong racing was great, it had a story, multiplayer and awesome powerups. It wasnt wii sports, it was like mario cart[/quote]
    What I meant by that was that everyone played it! Also, I’ve never played Mario Kart 64.[/quote]

    WHAT???? EVERYONE played Mario kart!

  15. [quote comment=”5396″][quote comment=”5395″][quote comment=”5391″][quote comment=”5364″] Diddy Kong racing was the Wii Sports back in the day[/quote]
    WHAT?! Diddykong racing was great, it had a story, multiplayer and awesome powerups. It wasnt wii sports, it was like mario cart[/quote]
    What I meant by that was that everyone played it! Also, I’ve never played Mario Kart 64.[/quote]

    WHAT???? EVERYONE played Mario kart![/quote]

    He has a point. I dont think I’ve met anyone yet who hasnt

  16. [quote comment=”5396″][quote comment=”5395″][quote comment=”5391″][quote comment=”5364″] Diddy Kong racing was the Wii Sports back in the day[/quote]
    WHAT?! Diddykong racing was great, it had a story, multiplayer and awesome powerups. It wasnt wii sports, it was like mario cart[/quote]
    What I meant by that was that everyone played it! Also, I’ve never played Mario Kart 64.[/quote]

    WHAT???? EVERYONE played Mario kart![/quote]
    Not me. My uncle owned the console. All he had was Ocarinia, Mario 64, Diddykong and Goldeneye and my aunt got Majora’s mask.

  17. My family immigrated. That says enough. No I’m not mexican or any other stereotypical immigrant story whatever race. SO yeah, I was kind of the first one to get into gaming. My half brother was a gamer too, and when I used to go to his house when i was younger, we played all the time on his..uh..what was that thing called..one of the sega hand helds. and his..ps something. ANd he had dreamcast for a while. But yeah, I was the only gamer. I didn’t get to do all of the Atari, pong, etc etc stuff. ANd pac man never excited me, but I was a Zelda fan from..near the start. And I got an N64 later, so I didn’t get completely left out of game world. No one in my family games wiht me. I don’t really have anyone my age in my family and everyone is old so..yeah. I mostly game with my friends. They’re like my family.

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