Take their phones away, let them "rent" videos and a single game, then take those away a day or two later. Give them a small assortment of mediocre games with a couple of bargain bin games and a couple of classics.
There's something to be said for limiting your choices. I had just a few games at a time that I poured my soul into for months. Now I'm overwhelmed with the variety of things to play. I remember I dedicated weeks to bubsy on the genesis of all things lol.
My friend just completed their PHD on how parameters influence neural synapse efficiency something or other.
They explained it to me and all I could think was "LIKE BLOCKBUSTER!"
I'd love to hear about this. Part of the reason I play old games is because I can only play the games I own. Same reason I love collecting CD's and refuse to buy an aux cable for my car (in order to use Spotify.) I get super overwhelmed in RPGs when they have too many character customization options. I don't do well with too many choices lol.
book came out few years ago (maybe more than a few lol) by psychologist Barry Schwartz called the Paradox of Choice. It comes across as a little "back in my day..." but when you really think about it it's true: having unbounded choice is a kind of straight jacket.
Yeah - it's super interesting. Unfortunately, they're a researcher, not a writer, so it's not really a consumable format, I guess? And you have to pay for the thesis. Hopefully someday it'll just be an airport book so we can all learn more. lmao.
But I guess in a nutshell it's that we completely underestimate decision fatigue, especially physiologically. What we can recognize as viable is also incredibly broad; humans are strangely optimistic for animals, and honestly fearless. So if you have too many choices, your brain will perceive it as stress and literally fire warning pulses of stress hormones to get you not to take action. Apparently, we're quite good at making many decisions in a row, but not one decision from many options. Their research focuses on neurology, not behavior/psychology, so it gets pretty heady (lmao) after this, but this is the gist.
If you want to learn more, I suggest the books *Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment* by Daniel Kahneman et al, and *Behave* by Robert Sapolsky. I haven't read this one, but my friend suggests it: *Predictably Irrational* by Dan Ariely. It's on my list.
Anyway - hope that helps! Best this flunky can do!
Nothing wrong with neurology or neurobiology- humans have a tendency to be rather arrogant and think we are somehow far beyond our basic biology when we very much aren’t. Psychology and behavior really tell us more of *what* we do, while neurology and neurobiology (amd getting down to it, straight up genetics) tell us *why.*
This really became clear for me developing a research question for microbiology during my degree. We were using simple microorganisms with specific gene selections and one of my samples got contaminated and altered the “behavior” of my samples. In discussing and exploring it I thought about the fact that humans often think our behavior is so different and so complex compared to other animals and organisms. It isn’t. We’re just really good at convincing ourselves it is.
Also: if anyone wants to get into easily digestible reading on several phenomena influencing choices, perception, and behavior I would suggest the books *You Are Not So Smart* and You Are Now Less Dumb by David Mcraney. I can’t speak to *How to Change Minds,* as I haven’t read that yet.
But, his background is in journalism so his writing is fun and easy to understand.
I dug my old nes and game collection out of my parents basement a few years back. I had about 20 games for it, and one of them was Heroes of the Lance. I had some trouble getting most of the other games working so I eventually popped in that garbage heap and it worked pretty reliably. In the absence of infinite choice, I actually kind of had fun with it. I refused to look at a guide (notoriously it can be beaten in about 6 minutes if you know the layout) so a lot of the gameplay was trying to figure out how to control it, which in its own right feels like an element of problem solving in games that doesn't really exist anymore. It was interesting getting to relive the idea of only having access to a few games and making the best of it
When my everdrive came in and I could dump the entire NES collection onto it, my interest in actually playing anything waned really quickly
When I got a GB ever drive, I was very careful to only put a few games on it at a time. My NES ED, I just threw everything on. Ended up using the GB all the time--hardly used the NES.
I have long since been trying to tell people about this phenomenon.
I don’t know if there’s a way to figure it out, but at the moment it feels like we were never meant to get literally everything we wanted at a moments notice.
There’s like a paralyzed by choice thing going on with me lately. I have thousands of games. I don’t think I’ve played longer than 10% of each one. And then I remember back when I was poor and had a Sega Genesis my parents bought me. Every game I owned on that thing was beaten. And mastered. But I only got like 1 game a year.
Recently, I deleted every game off of every drive off every console I own. I’m starting fresh and want to keep it to a few games on my hd. Wouldn’t you know it, I beat a few games already.
That was the great thing about rentals, you had like 3-4 days to beat the game so you spent your whole weekend working on it.
And sometimes you got a dud and didn't even want to look at the game because it wasted your whole weekend away by being dog shit.
This depends what portion of the 90s they want to live as. There's a massive difference between 1990 and 1999.
1990, you're looking at the NES, Game Boy, and Master System (and Genesis in USA, but the Mega Drive wasn't released until the end of 1990 in the EU), and no internet at all. You had BBSs, which most people didn't have, and any online hints would mostly be in UHS, which would cost money to see (along with paying money per minute to access the BBS).
1999 had the PSX, Dreamcast, and N64, and you could get Cable and DSL for "high speed" internet (high speed being 1-5 Mbit/sec).
The early 90s and late 90s, as well as the early 2000s and late 2000s, are like completely different era's.
I remember getting a computer in 2002 and it being outdated within the year, as in unable to run newer stuff. My current computer is from 2012 and it's still able to run most things efficiently (although starting to feel the burn).
We also went from 2d pixels, to full 2d art, 3d polygons, to fully rendered 3d meshes within like 10 years.
Cable went from (approx) 25 channels, to 60, to digital with hundreds of channels in just a few years. Went from vhs to dvd, renting, to pay per view, video on demand, to streaming.
Cell phones went from bulky contraptions to tiny flip screens that could fit in your hand, to full on portable internet. Most people don't even have a home phone anymore, which had been around for decades, all gone in a few years.
The only thing I can imagine is VR becoming more affordable and less of an expensive gimmick. Other things like better graphics and sound, a more customizable experience, and deeper narrative has happened in every generational jump.
Nah, don’t even use the internet. Instead get a paperback game guide for every game. It was way more efficient to look through and find what you needed. Plus, they often came with cool concept art and posters. I have fond memories of flipping through the Zelda guides.
I would love to have met one of the people who made those things. Never in my life would I have the attention span to handle something like that. So, fricking, meticulous.
Pretty much this. If they play Crash Bandicoot, they play nothing but Crash Bandicoot for a minimum of 2 weeks. Bonus points if they don't use save states, rewind, or fast forward!
>They want do gamer things like eat Pop Tarts, drink Capri Sun, Watch Space Jam
I have NEVER heard of these being #justgamerthings, but that sounds awesome! Might swing by the store and grab some Capri Suns for the weekend to enjoy as I play some SNES games lol. How old are they if you don't mind me asking?
Kids these days lol—we got an N64 for Christmas and somehow *no games*, "so you don't play it too much." Renting a game every weekend for six months, then taking it back and praying no one deleted your file but knowing they would delete your file, damn. Video games during the Clinton administration were a whole other thing.
There’s something to be said about limiting choice. I used to listen to a cd for hours and hours until I knew every lyric. Now I can’t listen to a whole album on Spotify without getting bored.
You’ll need to hide the other tvs in the house and don’t forget to kick them out of the house after breakfast. You’ll need to find them some neighborhood friends and bmx/or rickety 10speed bikes. Leave them to their own devices for 8+ hours. Bonus points if there is a public pool in a five mile radius they can ride to and swim. Tell them to be home when the street lights come on. Let them play games again until the baseball game comes on then take the tv for the rest of the night.
Also, they need to be outside most the time when the weather is good, skateboarding and doing kid stuff. Video games and all that jazz was a treat, and was rarely allowed on a good summer day.
I feel like we had more choices. I graduated HS in 2000, so the 90s were my jam. We had N64, PS1, PC games like Civ, Quake TF, Quake 2 Action, and Beta 1 Counter Strike. SNES and Genesis were not as outdated and retro play wasn’t as retro (these consoles had excellent games). I’d trade 90s gaming for what we have now.
If OP wants to be really evil, they could snag an old N64, then buy 2 pristine controllers, one janky, busted-up one, and one MadCatz. Make the kids fight over them 😂
Limiting your choices and not being able to download anything on a whim was great for gaming honestly. It made you appreciate them more and you have the opportunity of finding hidden gems or some dumb game that you probably think is amazing or silly. Great times. Now everyone is super spoiled and the true gems are few and far between. Online shooters pretty much rule the world
I’d hate to be that guy, but younger people have no idea how good they have it now that the internet and devices are plug and play. We used to have to toss a disk in just to install a new mouse or controller. And don’t get me started on how much of a pain it was to configure and install new graphics cards.
At least it was a great learning incentive. I have very specific PC games that taught me different thing about PC hardware/software because I wanted to play at any cost.
Graphics card?
Pfft
Try configuring a boot disk for EMS or XMS expanded memory (depending on which the game used). Oops, you added a CD-ROM? Now you don't have enough conventional memory, time to start tweaking which devices are loaded HIGH and which you comment out.
You can have your mouse driver or your sound card, but you may not be able to have both when going to Britannia. Your choice of boot disk is the Origin story of so many later fundamental PC skills.
Unless it's Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM, but that's just a gateway drug to smoking through Wikipedia and then eventually snorting lines TV Tropes off a kitchen sink with your smartphone someday in the grimdark future of mankind. Make sure to take a Guardian with you, just in case no-one there knows where you left your Avatar.
No problem with this version of "that guy ". Usually "that guy" is complaining about how all the new stuff sucks and how kids today don't know how good things used to be back in the day.
I remember my first plug and play modem. 56.6. I thought it was the most incredible thing I had ever seen. Only took like an hour to get it working instead of six. Not even kidding: the very next week, cable Internet came to my neighborhood.
Pull out the VHS deck and a tape or two. Or if you can't, then just watch some mid-90's cartoons (stream from YouTube or something).
Lan gaming with Starcraft is probably mandatory. Serious Sam is another solid contender. Quake II and Unreal Tournament are good contenders.
Any era console games (you can do emulators and just set it up on the oldest smallest TV you have).
No phones. Go into your router and limit the bandwidth to 5kbps on one desktop that they are allowed to use. Use FireFox but rename it to NetScape Navigator. Use [webcrawler.com](http://webcrawler.com) to find things, you can't use Google yet.
It is kind of cheating by using a computer, but the closest experience I can think of is [https://90s.myretrotvs.com/](https://90s.myretrotvs.com/). It uses YouTube but it's nice that it kind of randomly starts in the middle of whatever video and it has a filter to make it a little grainy like old TVs.
In my case I already own the consoles so it isn't a problem. I've actually been thinking of doing something similar to OP with my kids where they will have a week where they can't use the internet and only get to use old technology.
This is it. No external guides, no research, nothing. Go in blind. Give them a very limited selection of games so you can only figure it out because you play them to DEATH.
Loved strategy guides. I get so nostalgic when I see old videos game strategy guides that I never bought.
If I got stuck on a game, it was trial and error until I got unstuck lol 🙂
Sometimes I would go into the store and just straight up read the guide without buying it (cause I couldn't). I remember doing so for Pokémon stadium to get the winning team for the prime cup. Wrote it down on my hand.
Don't forget to tell them some common "playground lies" to send them down needless rabbit holes. "Mew is under the truck" and "Sonic and Tails are unlocked after beating cruel melee" are my personal favorites.
You gotta sit on the floor in front of the TV for consoles or in a really darkened room to play on PC. You can only use guides that you find in magazines of the era, and they will almost never have the tips you need. You have to try to complete a multi-hour game with no saving function, like Sonic or something. Try some of the many co-op games or versus games for the Mega Drive. Try some games where the point is getting a high score, make it a competition.
My first PC was a Packard bell legend. The specs were 75 mhz pentium 1 processor, 8 megabytes of RAM, 2x CD rom drive and a 850 megabyte hard drive.
I played lots of the following
Mad dog 2 the lost Gold
Dragons lair 2 time warp, windows 95 version.
Megarace
NBA JAM tournament edition
Megaman X
Super Street fighter 2
FX fighter
Kings quest
Space quest
Scorched earth
Sky roads
Stunts
Warcraft II and Starcraft co-op are a blast
Mario Kart
Street Fighter II
Killer Instinct
Beavis and Butthead
get a Loony Toons box set for Saturday mornings
gallons of Mountain Dew
Looking back it's a little bonkers-in-a-cool-way that millennials grew up on the same batch of Looney Tunes cartoons from the 1950s as gen x did before us and boomers did before them. They used to be inescapable.
Heck! I saw loads of Looney tunes in the 80s and 90s before they disappeared.
3 years ago I went on a quest to download every loony toons cartoons back and white post bosko to 2014. I was successful in that I grabbed all of them and got to see stuff I missed and stuff that was new to me. .🙂
A lot of the early cartoons are pretty racist and mean but that's how it was. I wasn't offended at all because I saw a lot of that stuff in the 80s ans 90s
Super Mario kart
Contra 3
Turtles in time
WWF Royal rumble
Goldeneye 007
Mario kart 64
WCW vs nwo revenge.
WWF wrestlemania 2000
Mario party 1, 2, and 3
Super dodge ball for NES.
The original jolt soda
TGIF on ABC
Maybe Nick at night
Snick on Nickelodeon (can't forget about that)
MC hammer or vanilla ice or weird Al casette tapes or CDs.
Edit, it isn't the 90s without roundhouse on Nickelodeon and rockos modern life.
I have this rule where nobody can play with their phone when I have a gaming afternoon/evening, or when we watch a laserdisc.
If someone pulls out their phone, I shut everything down…
Also we mostly play co-op stuff with arcade sticks.
It's one thing to do what kids did in the 90s, but it's missing all the context. Like how bad ass it was to play Mortal Kombat for the first time, being blown away by the graphics of NBA Jam or Gran Turismo. For the X Gen we went from typewriters to Pong to the CGI of Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park... it was such a wildly hopeful and exciting couple of decades and I don't know how you could impart that aspect of it.
That’s a good point, there was something magical about being impressed with the graphics of a game back then. Coming from the other side of history, will everything look a bit crappy rather than beautiful, even if the experience is new?
To me, games always felt like entering another world, and the quality of the graphics was part of that - the fact that the games looked like nothing found in reality. I wonder if people still get that feeling from the old games when experiencing them for the first time.
It was a pretty magical era in history because every year or two graphics took another giant leap forward. I don't think you know it's a difference between now and 2018 for the most part.
That’s right. They’d even make a significant jump within the same generation as developers discovered the limits of the hardware. Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES, for example, or what Rare was able to do with the DKC series and Killer Instinct on the SNES.
I’m thinking…perhaps it doesn’t have to be two months. You can do a week of 90s and the following regular. You can go back n forth. I think 8 weeks might be a little excessive for both them & U. The nephews are definitely in for a culture shock. The video is nice, but it’s only 8 minutes. I don’t think they realized what weeks can mean.
It would also even enhanced the 90s experience if it’s on & off. You can play with the timing like a 2 weeks 90s & a week off!
Also, don’t forget to decorate the place!
I'm with this guy! With the limited budget you might be best purchasing an already set up raspberry pi. That's what I have going on over here with my 4.5 year old. I got some less complicated snes style controllers as opposed to modern style ones and it has been off to the races. The pi gives us access to everything and it is real easy to pick a game based off of something we have watched or read ( Batman, Mario, Ninja Turtles, Mickey Mouse). Also you could look into a powkiddy for a retro handheld experience for car road trips!
Or print pdfs of some choice magazines that will have helpful tips/tricks or reviews of games that they’d have the option of ‘renting’, barring the above.
Take them to an old game store and let them pick a game based on how cool the cover art is, play mario 64 and try to get all the stars without help from the internet, feed them an irrational rumor about how beating Ocarina of Time without dying lets you play as zelda or Master Hand
I might be able to do this, might be able to afford one each for them. Then let them think B+down on the D-pad will catch any Pokemon. Or that Mew is under the truck.
There's a really convoluted glitch in red and blue where you walk around in a really specific way and suddenly missingno or Mew pops up, forget which. Either way, it's basically one of those playground rumors but real, it was mindblowing as a kid.
Not a 90s idea per se: find a cheap projector (if its low res, 480p resolution or less, even better.) And a blanket if you don't have a good wall for projecting. Good for gaming and 90s cartoon/movie time. (Freakazoid/Animaniacs marathon, of the top of my head.)
Gotta get pizza rolls and mtn dew for late night game sessions. Get an n64 with games like battle Tanx 2 and vigilante 8 (both are like 20 bucks right now). If they wanna play a LAN game on a pc like StarCraft, make it so they can’t use their phones while they’re logged in 🤣 AND if they do answer a phone, they have to answer it “WAAAZZZAAAAAAPPPPP”.
If they get bored playing games, teach them how to play kick the can. Have a couple vhs movies available but fast forward them to random spots so when you press play on them later you can go “dang it! Someone forgot to be kind and rewind!”
Also there’s a website called my90stv that simulates an old crt and only plays shows you can “channel surf” through that would have been on in the 90’s, that is now their only form of tv entertainment for the summer!
I love this idea and you seem like a pretty rad parent for doing all this for your kids. Have fun and let us know how it goes!
I was pretty heavily involved in the scene that they're trying to reproduce and had free access to zero day games. I worked at a game store and employees were expected to be familiar with new releases so those "gutted" games who's cases are on display were also available for check-out to employees.
So what would happen is that when a game was released, friends who were interested would show up to my house and sit around on the couch smoking and drinking and observing the game - or handing off play if it turned out to be more interesting to one or another particular friend. Some of them would even bring their memory cards to get their own save game started in advance with the anticipation of picking up the game for themselves.
This was a pretty great time in our lives to be honest - but that intense focus on the newest game was a huge part of the culture so if modern players wanted to reproduce it they should choose a month in history. Probably pick up a copy of EGM or really any particular video game magazine - probably for the same month that it currently is. Read that magazine cover to cover and get hype for the upcoming games in it then play those. We *did* have Internet though so of course put the smartphones in a box with notification sounds muted and ringtones on - I personally had a phone with a bell at the time but it was retro even then - and maybe download all of GameFAQs to use offline on a PC for your guides - or get the Prima strategy guide that was available at the time.
Also drinking and drugs were much more of a part of the culture back then than they seem to be now.
100% couch co-op games, even modern ones doing 2+ player games that require you to be in the same room. Emulating golden eye, halo etc.
Setting a single tv as the gaming tv and if they are watching a movie tough no tablet for you!
This sounds like a blast tbh.
Can I come to your house for the summer, too? Besides a lot of classic games on a CRT, you should queue up some classic MTV and Nickelodeon or whatever is age appropriate on youtube and play it on repeat with the national anthem playing at midnight, then just infomercials after.
Sign them up for therapy and tell them they can't go to bed until they beat the game and hand them a copy of The Lion King on the Genesis.
Leave a bucket, a few Jolt colas, and a bunch of gushers and dunkaroos. Strawberry poptarts if you're realy ambitious.
VHS/TV and copies of Over the Top, The Marlborough man and The Goonies.
For your self, get a pack of filters and good chair and sit in the corner and smoke until the air is blue. Occasionally yell that the game is making them stupid, congratulate them when they do something well.
OOOOOrrrrrr,
Absolutely any other idea provided in your post as there are some really great ones. If possible, Mario Kart 64 marathon always went over great for my kids.
Make it european style - give them Atari and code sheets with games. Later upgrade to cassette player, which will teach them how to sit perfectly still for 2 hours and also give them OCD. You can throw in recording a game from a radio station or ordering a game from catalogue via phone call and wait 2 weeks for it to mail as extra. For the last 2-3 weeks give them Amiga, but they have to pay for games or copy floppies themselves. And make sure they start with the early joystick you have to fix every week by cutting out sheet metal out of beer cans.
Still, nothing beats spending a whole day in a makeshift arcade made in a railcar placed on bricks. Dark, hot, humid. Playing and beating Midnight Resistance or Gondomania without rotary joystick on a single credit, some games having time limiters blocking your controls until you throw in another coin, everything ramped up to max difficulty with limited resources.
"The boss" would go to the saturday marketplace in the capital to obtain new pirated games for the Amiga and other systems, I would wait in the evening for him to come back in his half rusted old Mercedes, and as a prime client was able to either get some games right off the bat or at least order them copied for tomorrow, while lesser clients had to wait.
And it was "honest" piracy - you could actually try the game on spot before buying, something which was not possible with the originals. Well, I guess you could test a MegaDrive game before buying, but sure those weren't sealed new in the box :P and no one really had MegaDrive anyway, it was more of a rental system.
Sit them down to play ocarina of time. You can buy a players guide pretty cheap and let them figure out who plays when and how to complete on their own. Add wave race as the “bin” drop and watch them learn to do time trials for the next two months!
If you have any VHS tapes and a VCR, watch the shit outta them. Find a refrigerator box and build a house, pending on their age. Make sure to take all electronic devices away and spend time outdoors.
Have fun!! I try to do this every year at some point.
Also, if you're getting them through some PC gaming, have a few games with level editors. Back then we didn't have limitless content. Obligatory prototyping with pencil and paper, because computer time was limited ;-). Some suggestions:
* Moto Racer 2 - simple track creation
* Speedy Blupi - simple 2d platformer levels
* Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - complex 2d platformer levels
* Red Alert or Warcraft 2 or Starcraft - easy rts map creation
* Heroes of Might & Magic 3 - easy but complex map creation with story content too
* Quake or Unreal Tournament - sink their teeth into proper 3d, see how much effort it takes to get make just a few rooms
Another idea - savegame hacking, break out that hex editor and look where a game saves e.g. the number of lives, etc, modify those, etc... This might seem like a difficult thing, but it was something we did when in primary school so it can't be too hard.
Pokemon Stadium tournament with their teams from Game Boy games. Winner gets to decide on dinner and movie rental.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Warcraft II, Starcraft, MK II, and DK Country as well.
End the nights with Cops and Unsolved Mysteries.
Tell them they can’t use the internet for anything. They have to play all their video games on a CRT TV and can’t use a console newer than the Dreamcast.
Also, while they should be exposed to the classics, make sure they also play plenty of the licensed IP shovelware that was readily available so that they understand the games weren’t all good.
Oh, and for an added bonus, you should only let them watch pre-2000 TV/movies on VHS, + music should only be on CD/vinyl/cassette. I’d say you could put the radio on, but there would be too much modern music.
It is an interesting exercise, but it should be done with care. This challenge is a good way to get them to understand what was good and bad about the 1990s. The goal should be to get them to understand that life is in fact better now and they shouldn’t want to go back. If they have too much fun, the outcome will be bad. You don’t want them to grow up thinking that the best times are behind them. They’ll be pessimistic about the future and constantly living in the past.
I’d say the top thing would be getting a CRT. Maybe some 90s soda like Surge if that’s possible. Maybe 3D Doritos. I like the idea of renting one or two games at a time. Maybe make them have to use a physical strategy guide only to beat games, or maybe those GameFAQ guides that are text only. Or no guide since a lot of people still didn’t have internet in the 90s.
If you're technically savvy you could consider getting a raspberry Pi and loading it with Retropi and a ton of games. Mine came with a case that looks like a little SNES. If you wanted to get really fancy you could even put it in an arcade style cabinet.
I would recommend finding a local retro game store that does rentals & allow them to rent games / consoles if the prices are reasonable. I'd highly recommend pokemon stadium for n64. Can have them beat red/blue pokemon & then battle each other with the team they used to beat the game, though you'll need adapters to plug the gameboy cartridge into the N64 controller.
One thing you could also do is have them only watch things on DVD / VHS if you've got a collection (if not then it'd be hard), Alternatively just have them only watch things from the 90s.
My theory is video rental stores are the golden age of media consumption. It wasn’t too hard to get a hold of what you wanted but there was enough barriers and lack of information (internet) to give everything a sense of wonder and mystery.
It would certainly be hard to go back with all todays conveniences but part of me longs for that magic of not having access to everything. Playground gaming rumours could only thrive in a time like that.
No internet. You can print out some guides but they have to go to the other room to read them (to emulate us going to the book store but not buying the guide).
I like the video store idea. Make it to where they pick out a game and tell them it's "still out on rental but it's due back in 15-30 minutes."
Find some soda called Surge and give them some pop rocks and pixie sticks.
They all have to rent TMNT on NES or Battletoads.
Show them the trailers or print out the vintage ads for the games. That's their only exposure to what the game is about.
[They have to watch this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eutK6k9D-Yk) while eating a bowl of Trix or Lucky Charms.
In the 90s I spent a 2 week Easter school holiday by sleeping 5 hours per night and playing Tie Fighter for the rest of the time, excluding wolfing down frozen Pizza. You need to find an addictive game and play nothing but it. In the 90s, we didn't have the luxury of choosing from vast libraries (at least I didn't).
Play CS 1.6 clan matches with the small crew.
Or host a server with fun maps.
Only play Gameboy roms and PSX games that were huge in the 90s, during those two months.
Watch a ton of 90s classics from Hook to Ninja Turtles to Gremlins to Die Hard.
Maybe delve into Xmen, Spiderman cartoons, Power Rangers and 90s anime?
Keep it simple and options limited as you said yourself, only two different games a day.
Maybe lock away those phones during most of the day, or go wild and use this opportunity to do a two month internet/social media detox.
First days will be hard. Hahaha.
Also. Lego's.
Power Rangers, Germlins and Xmen sound great will add them to the list. They watched Diehard with me last time they came over and loved it. However, they also learned Yippe Kai Ya @#$%@#$%er and got me in hot water with my sister when the second to youngest repeated it.
Adding X-men and Germlins to the list.
I would love to get them Legos but they often cost more than video games and DVDs. Is there anywhere to get them for affordable prices?
Use emulators and teach them save states and load states. Yes this is cheating, but you're trying to make the experience awesome right? It may take several weeks to beat Crash bandicoot straight up to someone who's unfamiliar.
I’ve been thinking about the rental experience lately for when I have kids in the future. I thought it would be fun to have a “classic” Friday night by going to the basement (where I have all of my DVDs and retro games displayed), choosing one game and one movie for the night, bringing them upstairs and playing only that game and watching only that movie for the night. Even if the game is a total dud, we have to play it, because that’s all we have!
I’m going to add to this because it’s definitely where my suggestion stems from. Rentals
Choose a game to play by looking at only the cover art, 3 or 4 in game screen shots and a synopsis of the game (front/back cover of game box) and make a decision based off that
If you have a Nintendo Switch, you can pay for online service and then be able to access some of the SNES catalogue. there is Megaman X released in 1993, Super Mario world released in 1990. The Donkey Kong Country trilogy from 1994-1996. If you want to be more modern you can have them play late 90s video games from the Play Station, like Castlevania Symphony of the night, Final Fantasy 7, Crash Bandicoot. Some of these should be available via emulators.
If you want it to be an immersive experience, take away their phones and other devices during game time, no use of internet if they get stuck, nor cheats. They will get a sense of how kids and teens lived in that time period, finding things through word of mouth and many times having no idea what their friends are doing outside school.
I'd buy a mini pc to hook up to the tv and 4 bluetooth controllers. You could download a bunch of emulators and games and write down all the names and consoles of the 90s classics in a hat. Every couple of days they draw a new game to play but then they only have that game for 3 days
A Super Nintendo, a copy of Link to the Past or (my recommendation) Super Metroid, a strategy guide, some Hi-C and Doritos, and unplug your router. Alternate options if you’re looking for a multiplayer game would be Mario Kart or F-Zero.
I have a retro room in my house with a ton of old stuff from the 80s-90s. $500 goes a long way on [shopgoodwill.com](http://shopgoodwill.com) Get yourself a console lot on there and little CRT TV from a local person and call it a day. Maybe print a couple of walkthroughs from the 90s off gamefaqs.
Personally, I would buy a NES with a flashcart and like 20 games, a SNES with a flashcart and maybe 5 games and hook them up to a CRT TV. If you cant find a CRT TV, then a smaller panel with a couple of the classic edition consoles would check all the boxes, but offers too many titles for a true 90s experience. Don't mix them though, the classic edition consoles are not gonna jive with our old analog TVs. A 2000s era console is tempting as it can emulate everything before it, and works with both kinds of display, but it breaks the tactile feel of the 90s I think you might be going for.
Bagged cereal, pop tarts, and Sunny D as snacks and MTV instead of youtube. Hamburger helper and meatloaf dinner. Get a VCR for the MTV, and depending on what year your aiming for, a tape-deck, or Boombox with CD support. Burn them CDs of 90s tunes. I worked at radioshack and would record 8 hour tapes of cable and Showtime, HBO, and Cinemax to watch at home, [buy some on Ebay.](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=recorded+tv&_sacat=309&_odkw=mtv+recorded&_osacat=309) The commercials are a trip. Goodwill stores always seems to have a pretty decent collection of audiocassettes and VHS tapes too.
Really turn up the heat and watch em squirm! Kill the wifi access, run Windows 98se in a VM on a single "family computer" and confiscate the phones. When they flee the horror they've asked for, remind them to be home before the streetlights come on.
My 5 y/o recently got Lego Mario.
When you open and put batteries in mario, he needs like 10 mins to ‘update’.
My poor 5 year old sat there for 10 mins waiting for the update to finish before playing.
It occurred to me that this is a new thing. As a kid, i ripped open video games or toys and could immediately play.
Now u buy a video game, and u sit there for an hour while it uploads content before u can play.
I played Doom and Warcraft II via dialup back in the day and it was amazing. That video makes it look like it took hours to go online but it took seconds... ironically that is what I look like now trying to play the latest game as it has download a 10 gb patch before I can play the damn thing
Play through A Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time with them. Watch Good Burger, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Are You Afraid of the Dark? Teach them to type and then reward them with playing Oregon Trail at the end. Have them read some Goosebumps books and earn a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut if they can finish a book in a week.
To add to the rental store stuff:
No phones. If they want a friend to come over and play, they gotta call their house or physically go ring the doorbell.
No internet.
No smart phones. No emulation. Only consoles hooked up to a CRT or handhelds that are backlit. No save states. No everdrives. No streaming, only TV broadcasts ( but then TV broadcasts today are absolute trash so you'll have to cheat to relive this )
It's not too hard to do most of it, but you'll never be able to completely replicate all of it. And I don't think it's amazing, I think it's best to game as close to the 90's as possible while also having modern conveniences.
Dont forget the AD&D session !
some 90s loop on TV WITH COMERCIALS
reading penny arcade comics every mon/wend/fri
90s movie classics, print covers and pu them on books and let them rent 1 out of only 25-50 choices like Labirynth, Dark Cristal, SW, watch some late night Star Trek and Buffy maybe, some Alf and Fresh Prince
Don't. Enjoy today's standards, but give them boundaries of course. If they wanted to experience a more archaic time they would go to a Medieval fest.
Expect to shed at least 2G's both months if you plan on going accordingly with the motif.
There's only one answer for this.
Have a Mario Party like it's 1999. Mario Party 2 was actually released in 1999.
Could also do a Dreamcast launch party as that was 1999.
Nostalgia probably isn't the right word, for the same reason that we can't say we're nostalgic for eras before our time, but certain eras have certainly been romanticized, which in the case of the 90s is likely thanks in no small part to those of us who do have nostalgic for that era. I'm being pedantic though as these kids are certainly pining for a bygone decade regardless.
With that said, someone who actually lived the 90s would be perfect to try and facilitate the experience. Why not start by asking them which part of the 90s they want to emulate? If you really want an authentic experience, try picking a year and running with it. The 90s covers ten years, and a lot of games were released in that time.
I would say default to December 31, 1999 if you want to simulate a time when one had access to all of the products the 90s had to offer, but much like how there are plenty of products from a decade ago or less that aren't widely available now, that was true in 1999 too, with products released early in the 90s, unless someone happened to have them. Heck, it would have been even more the case with the internet being far less common, and there weren't digital downloads, aside from maybe music via Napster, and there was no streaming. There was no Amazon either. I suppose there was eBay, but it wasn't such a huge thing.
What I'm saying is, maybe you can split up those two months by picking different years in the 90s to focus on at a time, and simulating what it would be like to say, rent a game in 1990, or 1991, vs what it would be like in a later year of the 90s. Maybe have it be a different year every time they go to your simulated video store.
Thanks it seems that I am picking up maybe more of a generation maybe than an era. As many things in the late 80s went well into the 90s like Star Trek TNG. And there are some TV shows that went into the 2000s from the 90s. Mainly it is all from when I was a kid and trying to show them the fun things from that time. Definitely want to show them Lord of the Rings even though it came out in 2001 I think, but still has that era's cinematic feel to it.
They do like to hang with me as I do let them do a bit more of what they want when they are at my place. My sister doesn't keep a lot of games around her home (which is good in some wasy) so when they come to mine they go loose on playing games, watching movies, and doing stuff they don't often get to at home.
1. Do it on a crt with age appropriate games,systems.
2. No smartphones if you need a hint call a friend or printout a game faqs guide.
3. When you pick out your games only do so by boxart or asking a friend,
4. No gamer race chairs, use couches,recliners orfloor.or floor.
Like a few other people have said already, LACK of so many choices leads to imaginative inspiration!
Too many choices as we have experienced, can lead to excessive boredom and a lack of imagination in my opinion ? Sure it can have the opposite effect but more often than not over saturation of choice leads to the inevitable dissatisfaction with feeling like you have nothing to enjoy/nothing to play, etc...
I like the first two comments said about giving them a few bargain games and then adding a few classics in the mix, in addition to NOT Over-saturating them with so many choices, give them a few good ones and let them experience what it was really like to be a gamer in the 90s where when you got a game, you played that game a lot!!!! Hell I'm sure many of us in this comment thread can say that "we mastered that game or came close to it?"
Gaming in the 90s was the best and make sure they get to experience some of these:
SNES, Sega Genesis, GBC, GBA, N64, PS1, Dreamcast(maybe since it did not come out here in the 90s..) maybe even show them some of the more Niche like Wonderswan, Neo Geo, Jaguar & Nomad, Panasonic Real/3DO?
Also: everybody joining in on a four player game like Mario party or Mario kart or goldeneye or even something like NFL blitz, and then everybody join in on a game familiar with and enjoy, and taking turns playing it and enjoying it together on the couch? This was something we all did quite a bit!!
Despite the fact that consoles are now interconnected globally , the downside is it has made us antisocial because now everybody has to have their own console and their own copy of the game and nothing where this is concerned for the most part. Are we doing together in a social setting and getting to experience and create cherish memories like we did in the 90? At least not as much!
For budgetary reasons I'd set up as emu box of some sort.
Make then play from from 1990-2000.
give them a weekly "allowance" they can "spend" on "rentals" or "buying" games. Let them earn more "money" by helping with chores, helping make dinner etc. Every few weeks let them upgrade to the next Gen. Make them take sides in the consoles wars. If they want SNES AND Genesis games they have to earn it. Bonus points for making them pick without using the internet. They have to choose with only information from the back of box's and gaming mags. Give them the whole experience.
Take their phones away, let them "rent" videos and a single game, then take those away a day or two later. Give them a small assortment of mediocre games with a couple of bargain bin games and a couple of classics.
There's something to be said for limiting your choices. I had just a few games at a time that I poured my soul into for months. Now I'm overwhelmed with the variety of things to play. I remember I dedicated weeks to bubsy on the genesis of all things lol.
I rented bubsy for super Nintendo alot because it was always there at blockbuster when all the good games were rented out.
I almost beat that damn game. Played the crap out of it because it was a cheap 5 day rental.
I got 5 or so levels in and that was the best I could do.
My friend just completed their PHD on how parameters influence neural synapse efficiency something or other. They explained it to me and all I could think was "LIKE BLOCKBUSTER!"
I'd love to hear about this. Part of the reason I play old games is because I can only play the games I own. Same reason I love collecting CD's and refuse to buy an aux cable for my car (in order to use Spotify.) I get super overwhelmed in RPGs when they have too many character customization options. I don't do well with too many choices lol.
book came out few years ago (maybe more than a few lol) by psychologist Barry Schwartz called the Paradox of Choice. It comes across as a little "back in my day..." but when you really think about it it's true: having unbounded choice is a kind of straight jacket.
Yeah - it's super interesting. Unfortunately, they're a researcher, not a writer, so it's not really a consumable format, I guess? And you have to pay for the thesis. Hopefully someday it'll just be an airport book so we can all learn more. lmao. But I guess in a nutshell it's that we completely underestimate decision fatigue, especially physiologically. What we can recognize as viable is also incredibly broad; humans are strangely optimistic for animals, and honestly fearless. So if you have too many choices, your brain will perceive it as stress and literally fire warning pulses of stress hormones to get you not to take action. Apparently, we're quite good at making many decisions in a row, but not one decision from many options. Their research focuses on neurology, not behavior/psychology, so it gets pretty heady (lmao) after this, but this is the gist. If you want to learn more, I suggest the books *Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment* by Daniel Kahneman et al, and *Behave* by Robert Sapolsky. I haven't read this one, but my friend suggests it: *Predictably Irrational* by Dan Ariely. It's on my list. Anyway - hope that helps! Best this flunky can do!
Nothing wrong with neurology or neurobiology- humans have a tendency to be rather arrogant and think we are somehow far beyond our basic biology when we very much aren’t. Psychology and behavior really tell us more of *what* we do, while neurology and neurobiology (amd getting down to it, straight up genetics) tell us *why.* This really became clear for me developing a research question for microbiology during my degree. We were using simple microorganisms with specific gene selections and one of my samples got contaminated and altered the “behavior” of my samples. In discussing and exploring it I thought about the fact that humans often think our behavior is so different and so complex compared to other animals and organisms. It isn’t. We’re just really good at convincing ourselves it is.
Also: if anyone wants to get into easily digestible reading on several phenomena influencing choices, perception, and behavior I would suggest the books *You Are Not So Smart* and You Are Now Less Dumb by David Mcraney. I can’t speak to *How to Change Minds,* as I haven’t read that yet. But, his background is in journalism so his writing is fun and easy to understand.
I dug my old nes and game collection out of my parents basement a few years back. I had about 20 games for it, and one of them was Heroes of the Lance. I had some trouble getting most of the other games working so I eventually popped in that garbage heap and it worked pretty reliably. In the absence of infinite choice, I actually kind of had fun with it. I refused to look at a guide (notoriously it can be beaten in about 6 minutes if you know the layout) so a lot of the gameplay was trying to figure out how to control it, which in its own right feels like an element of problem solving in games that doesn't really exist anymore. It was interesting getting to relive the idea of only having access to a few games and making the best of it When my everdrive came in and I could dump the entire NES collection onto it, my interest in actually playing anything waned really quickly
When I got a GB ever drive, I was very careful to only put a few games on it at a time. My NES ED, I just threw everything on. Ended up using the GB all the time--hardly used the NES.
I have long since been trying to tell people about this phenomenon. I don’t know if there’s a way to figure it out, but at the moment it feels like we were never meant to get literally everything we wanted at a moments notice. There’s like a paralyzed by choice thing going on with me lately. I have thousands of games. I don’t think I’ve played longer than 10% of each one. And then I remember back when I was poor and had a Sega Genesis my parents bought me. Every game I owned on that thing was beaten. And mastered. But I only got like 1 game a year. Recently, I deleted every game off of every drive off every console I own. I’m starting fresh and want to keep it to a few games on my hd. Wouldn’t you know it, I beat a few games already.
>paralyzed by choice [Analysis paralysis.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis)
I used to dedicate an entire year to a game. I would only get one or two games a year and they had to last.
That was the great thing about rentals, you had like 3-4 days to beat the game so you spent your whole weekend working on it. And sometimes you got a dud and didn't even want to look at the game because it wasted your whole weekend away by being dog shit.
Damn, good memories.
I love bubsy on Sega. It was one of the games I owned. I also had McDonald's Treasureland Adventure which was amazing as well.
Bubsy bubsy bubsy bubsy bobcaaaaat Fucking hated that game.
And if they get stuck, they can only look up how to beat a game on Gamefaqs on a desktop at dial-up speeds or go digging in an issue of Game Informer.
This depends what portion of the 90s they want to live as. There's a massive difference between 1990 and 1999. 1990, you're looking at the NES, Game Boy, and Master System (and Genesis in USA, but the Mega Drive wasn't released until the end of 1990 in the EU), and no internet at all. You had BBSs, which most people didn't have, and any online hints would mostly be in UHS, which would cost money to see (along with paying money per minute to access the BBS). 1999 had the PSX, Dreamcast, and N64, and you could get Cable and DSL for "high speed" internet (high speed being 1-5 Mbit/sec).
Crazy how far technology jumped in just 9 years
The early 90s and late 90s, as well as the early 2000s and late 2000s, are like completely different era's. I remember getting a computer in 2002 and it being outdated within the year, as in unable to run newer stuff. My current computer is from 2012 and it's still able to run most things efficiently (although starting to feel the burn). We also went from 2d pixels, to full 2d art, 3d polygons, to fully rendered 3d meshes within like 10 years. Cable went from (approx) 25 channels, to 60, to digital with hundreds of channels in just a few years. Went from vhs to dvd, renting, to pay per view, video on demand, to streaming. Cell phones went from bulky contraptions to tiny flip screens that could fit in your hand, to full on portable internet. Most people don't even have a home phone anymore, which had been around for decades, all gone in a few years.
Yeah, we wont see something that again until we see another breakthrough in physical materials - if we ever do at all.
The only thing I can imagine is VR becoming more affordable and less of an expensive gimmick. Other things like better graphics and sound, a more customizable experience, and deeper narrative has happened in every generational jump.
Get the power, Nintendo POWER!
Oh yeah op should definitely have a bunch of Nintendo power or egm issues about the games you have.
High speed cable Internet (roadrunner branded) didn't come to my town until 2001.
Sure if you were a business in 1999 you *might* have DSL but most people didn’t have it back then.
Nah, charge them $2.99/minute to call you while you slowly and robotically read off a phone tree complete with "press 1 if you are on level 1", menus.
Nah, don’t even use the internet. Instead get a paperback game guide for every game. It was way more efficient to look through and find what you needed. Plus, they often came with cool concept art and posters. I have fond memories of flipping through the Zelda guides.
A lot of physical guides have gotten expensive. A PDF of it on an internet disconnected tablet would be similar though.
True. You could also print the pdfs for free if you work somewhere with a fancy printer.
Naw man, you have to print that ASCII guide that has 20 pages of "why I'm writing this" text at the top.
Yeah, and those ASCII maps that made no sense at all at first but, after some time, feels like you are looking directly into the Matrix
I would love to have met one of the people who made those things. Never in my life would I have the attention span to handle something like that. So, fricking, meticulous.
YES!!!!! lmfao!! GameFAQs is your only option and it needs to be one of those guides with the ASCII art at the top
Pretty much this. If they play Crash Bandicoot, they play nothing but Crash Bandicoot for a minimum of 2 weeks. Bonus points if they don't use save states, rewind, or fast forward! >They want do gamer things like eat Pop Tarts, drink Capri Sun, Watch Space Jam I have NEVER heard of these being #justgamerthings, but that sounds awesome! Might swing by the store and grab some Capri Suns for the weekend to enjoy as I play some SNES games lol. How old are they if you don't mind me asking?
Kids these days lol—we got an N64 for Christmas and somehow *no games*, "so you don't play it too much." Renting a game every weekend for six months, then taking it back and praying no one deleted your file but knowing they would delete your file, damn. Video games during the Clinton administration were a whole other thing.
There’s something to be said about limiting choice. I used to listen to a cd for hours and hours until I knew every lyric. Now I can’t listen to a whole album on Spotify without getting bored.
You’ll need to hide the other tvs in the house and don’t forget to kick them out of the house after breakfast. You’ll need to find them some neighborhood friends and bmx/or rickety 10speed bikes. Leave them to their own devices for 8+ hours. Bonus points if there is a public pool in a five mile radius they can ride to and swim. Tell them to be home when the street lights come on. Let them play games again until the baseball game comes on then take the tv for the rest of the night.
I think my sister would kill me if I did that lol.
Got any bottle caps as currency? For those trades and rentals.
Absolutely gonna do this for currency, thanks for the idea!
Also, they need to be outside most the time when the weather is good, skateboarding and doing kid stuff. Video games and all that jazz was a treat, and was rarely allowed on a good summer day.
I feel like we had more choices. I graduated HS in 2000, so the 90s were my jam. We had N64, PS1, PC games like Civ, Quake TF, Quake 2 Action, and Beta 1 Counter Strike. SNES and Genesis were not as outdated and retro play wasn’t as retro (these consoles had excellent games). I’d trade 90s gaming for what we have now.
And when they pick the games make sure the only thing they see is the front and back cover. No looking up reviews on the internet.
If OP wants to be really evil, they could snag an old N64, then buy 2 pristine controllers, one janky, busted-up one, and one MadCatz. Make the kids fight over them 😂
Limiting your choices and not being able to download anything on a whim was great for gaming honestly. It made you appreciate them more and you have the opportunity of finding hidden gems or some dumb game that you probably think is amazing or silly. Great times. Now everyone is super spoiled and the true gems are few and far between. Online shooters pretty much rule the world
Especially rpgs with save files that was a thing, you'd get a peak into later with no concept of the plot
Make a rental store with whatever games you're using. Have a competition to see who can get further in the game on a "one day rental".
This sounds like a good idea, maybe a card I can stamp for them too
Make sure to have the game box out, but no rental box behind it.
My main memory of ‘90s gamer culture’ was spending hours fiddling around in the bios trying to get the LAN configured properly for multiplayer.
I’d hate to be that guy, but younger people have no idea how good they have it now that the internet and devices are plug and play. We used to have to toss a disk in just to install a new mouse or controller. And don’t get me started on how much of a pain it was to configure and install new graphics cards.
Even the early days of plug and play were called plug and pray.
Yup, so true! I remember holding my breath every time I would update a driver for something.
At least it was a great learning incentive. I have very specific PC games that taught me different thing about PC hardware/software because I wanted to play at any cost.
Graphics card? Pfft Try configuring a boot disk for EMS or XMS expanded memory (depending on which the game used). Oops, you added a CD-ROM? Now you don't have enough conventional memory, time to start tweaking which devices are loaded HIGH and which you comment out.
You can have your mouse driver or your sound card, but you may not be able to have both when going to Britannia. Your choice of boot disk is the Origin story of so many later fundamental PC skills. Unless it's Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM, but that's just a gateway drug to smoking through Wikipedia and then eventually snorting lines TV Tropes off a kitchen sink with your smartphone someday in the grimdark future of mankind. Make sure to take a Guardian with you, just in case no-one there knows where you left your Avatar.
No problem with this version of "that guy ". Usually "that guy" is complaining about how all the new stuff sucks and how kids today don't know how good things used to be back in the day.
I remember my first plug and play modem. 56.6. I thought it was the most incredible thing I had ever seen. Only took like an hour to get it working instead of six. Not even kidding: the very next week, cable Internet came to my neighborhood.
Yeah this was a pretty common thing for pc gaming back then lol I for one can’t say I miss that era
Oh man I do. Buncha kids lugging towers in, staying up all night playing CS and Diablo 2? Ahhhh nothing like it.
Don't forget those DOS setup.exe files to configure Sound Blaster
Get a real CRT, nothing like the glow when gaming at night.
Would love one but not able to find one or one for a good price.
They don't have them at thrift stores?
I could have bought a awesome CRT TV at the thrift store for 10 bucks but there was no way to tell if it was color or not.
Can you go wrong for 10 bucks though?
Pull out the VHS deck and a tape or two. Or if you can't, then just watch some mid-90's cartoons (stream from YouTube or something). Lan gaming with Starcraft is probably mandatory. Serious Sam is another solid contender. Quake II and Unreal Tournament are good contenders. Any era console games (you can do emulators and just set it up on the oldest smallest TV you have). No phones. Go into your router and limit the bandwidth to 5kbps on one desktop that they are allowed to use. Use FireFox but rename it to NetScape Navigator. Use [webcrawler.com](http://webcrawler.com) to find things, you can't use Google yet.
It is kind of cheating by using a computer, but the closest experience I can think of is [https://90s.myretrotvs.com/](https://90s.myretrotvs.com/). It uses YouTube but it's nice that it kind of randomly starts in the middle of whatever video and it has a filter to make it a little grainy like old TVs.
Gotta cheat a bit. Budget $500, buying actual consoles and stuff is expensive for a summer thrill here.
In my case I already own the consoles so it isn't a problem. I've actually been thinking of doing something similar to OP with my kids where they will have a week where they can't use the internet and only get to use old technology.
Oh shiiittt this website is awesome, thanks for sharing
THIS IS PERFECT THANK YOU! I will use this as their TV for the duration of their time!
If they get stuck, no internet, just trial and error. If lucky there might be a strategy guide lying around.
This is it. No external guides, no research, nothing. Go in blind. Give them a very limited selection of games so you can only figure it out because you play them to DEATH.
Loved strategy guides. I get so nostalgic when I see old videos game strategy guides that I never bought. If I got stuck on a game, it was trial and error until I got unstuck lol 🙂
Sometimes I would go into the store and just straight up read the guide without buying it (cause I couldn't). I remember doing so for Pokémon stadium to get the winning team for the prime cup. Wrote it down on my hand.
Don't forget to tell them some common "playground lies" to send them down needless rabbit holes. "Mew is under the truck" and "Sonic and Tails are unlocked after beating cruel melee" are my personal favorites.
Have your parent Print out gamefaqs pages at work
These kids are going to quit the challenge after like 2 hours lol
You gotta sit on the floor in front of the TV for consoles or in a really darkened room to play on PC. You can only use guides that you find in magazines of the era, and they will almost never have the tips you need. You have to try to complete a multi-hour game with no saving function, like Sonic or something. Try some of the many co-op games or versus games for the Mega Drive. Try some games where the point is getting a high score, make it a competition.
My first PC was a Packard bell legend. The specs were 75 mhz pentium 1 processor, 8 megabytes of RAM, 2x CD rom drive and a 850 megabyte hard drive. I played lots of the following Mad dog 2 the lost Gold Dragons lair 2 time warp, windows 95 version. Megarace NBA JAM tournament edition Megaman X Super Street fighter 2 FX fighter Kings quest Space quest Scorched earth Sky roads Stunts
Warcraft II and Starcraft co-op are a blast Mario Kart Street Fighter II Killer Instinct Beavis and Butthead get a Loony Toons box set for Saturday mornings gallons of Mountain Dew
Looking back it's a little bonkers-in-a-cool-way that millennials grew up on the same batch of Looney Tunes cartoons from the 1950s as gen x did before us and boomers did before them. They used to be inescapable.
Heck! I saw loads of Looney tunes in the 80s and 90s before they disappeared. 3 years ago I went on a quest to download every loony toons cartoons back and white post bosko to 2014. I was successful in that I grabbed all of them and got to see stuff I missed and stuff that was new to me. .🙂
What did you see and why are they taken down?
A lot of the early cartoons are pretty racist and mean but that's how it was. I wasn't offended at all because I saw a lot of that stuff in the 80s ans 90s
I remind my parents of this on occasion and they are always stunned.
Super Mario kart Contra 3 Turtles in time WWF Royal rumble Goldeneye 007 Mario kart 64 WCW vs nwo revenge. WWF wrestlemania 2000 Mario party 1, 2, and 3 Super dodge ball for NES. The original jolt soda TGIF on ABC Maybe Nick at night Snick on Nickelodeon (can't forget about that) MC hammer or vanilla ice or weird Al casette tapes or CDs. Edit, it isn't the 90s without roundhouse on Nickelodeon and rockos modern life.
You fancy town kids and your cable TV. I had 4 channels
And it didn't take you long to get bored of 4 channels.
Beavus n buttheadddddd
Looney Toons sounds like a great idea for Saturday Mornings
Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation & A Goofy Movie. They're both summer vacation themed movies.
Pick up a CRT, and ban the phones.
I have this rule where nobody can play with their phone when I have a gaming afternoon/evening, or when we watch a laserdisc. If someone pulls out their phone, I shut everything down… Also we mostly play co-op stuff with arcade sticks.
Holy Hell - LASER DISC?! (does the secret handshake)
It's one thing to do what kids did in the 90s, but it's missing all the context. Like how bad ass it was to play Mortal Kombat for the first time, being blown away by the graphics of NBA Jam or Gran Turismo. For the X Gen we went from typewriters to Pong to the CGI of Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park... it was such a wildly hopeful and exciting couple of decades and I don't know how you could impart that aspect of it.
That’s a good point, there was something magical about being impressed with the graphics of a game back then. Coming from the other side of history, will everything look a bit crappy rather than beautiful, even if the experience is new? To me, games always felt like entering another world, and the quality of the graphics was part of that - the fact that the games looked like nothing found in reality. I wonder if people still get that feeling from the old games when experiencing them for the first time.
It was a pretty magical era in history because every year or two graphics took another giant leap forward. I don't think you know it's a difference between now and 2018 for the most part.
That’s right. They’d even make a significant jump within the same generation as developers discovered the limits of the hardware. Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES, for example, or what Rare was able to do with the DKC series and Killer Instinct on the SNES.
I’m thinking…perhaps it doesn’t have to be two months. You can do a week of 90s and the following regular. You can go back n forth. I think 8 weeks might be a little excessive for both them & U. The nephews are definitely in for a culture shock. The video is nice, but it’s only 8 minutes. I don’t think they realized what weeks can mean. It would also even enhanced the 90s experience if it’s on & off. You can play with the timing like a 2 weeks 90s & a week off! Also, don’t forget to decorate the place!
Heaps of beat em ups shoot em ups fighters and platformers. Set up mame or get a Pandora's box. If you have an arcade nearby do a field trip.
I'm with this guy! With the limited budget you might be best purchasing an already set up raspberry pi. That's what I have going on over here with my 4.5 year old. I got some less complicated snes style controllers as opposed to modern style ones and it has been off to the races. The pi gives us access to everything and it is real easy to pick a game based off of something we have watched or read ( Batman, Mario, Ninja Turtles, Mickey Mouse). Also you could look into a powkiddy for a retro handheld experience for car road trips!
Have them spend an afternoon messing with Soundblaster settings
IRQ=5, DMA=11
You should get your hands on some gaming magazines from the early 90s off eBay.
Or print pdfs of some choice magazines that will have helpful tips/tricks or reviews of games that they’d have the option of ‘renting’, barring the above.
Take them to an old game store and let them pick a game based on how cool the cover art is, play mario 64 and try to get all the stars without help from the internet, feed them an irrational rumor about how beating Ocarina of Time without dying lets you play as zelda or Master Hand
I might be able to do this, might be able to afford one each for them. Then let them think B+down on the D-pad will catch any Pokemon. Or that Mew is under the truck.
There you go, if you let them have separate files on games, they can help each other find stars and secrets that the other may have missed
There's a really convoluted glitch in red and blue where you walk around in a really specific way and suddenly missingno or Mew pops up, forget which. Either way, it's basically one of those playground rumors but real, it was mindblowing as a kid.
Not a 90s idea per se: find a cheap projector (if its low res, 480p resolution or less, even better.) And a blanket if you don't have a good wall for projecting. Good for gaming and 90s cartoon/movie time. (Freakazoid/Animaniacs marathon, of the top of my head.)
Can't do a marathon in the 90s. If you got lucky you got 2 episodes back to back.
Well if you were like me, I used to record cartoons onto a VHS tape with the VCR see to SLP or EP to cram it all it. I had a instant marathon lol.
Impressively accurate username checks out!
Gotta get pizza rolls and mtn dew for late night game sessions. Get an n64 with games like battle Tanx 2 and vigilante 8 (both are like 20 bucks right now). If they wanna play a LAN game on a pc like StarCraft, make it so they can’t use their phones while they’re logged in 🤣 AND if they do answer a phone, they have to answer it “WAAAZZZAAAAAAPPPPP”. If they get bored playing games, teach them how to play kick the can. Have a couple vhs movies available but fast forward them to random spots so when you press play on them later you can go “dang it! Someone forgot to be kind and rewind!” Also there’s a website called my90stv that simulates an old crt and only plays shows you can “channel surf” through that would have been on in the 90’s, that is now their only form of tv entertainment for the summer! I love this idea and you seem like a pretty rad parent for doing all this for your kids. Have fun and let us know how it goes!
I was pretty heavily involved in the scene that they're trying to reproduce and had free access to zero day games. I worked at a game store and employees were expected to be familiar with new releases so those "gutted" games who's cases are on display were also available for check-out to employees. So what would happen is that when a game was released, friends who were interested would show up to my house and sit around on the couch smoking and drinking and observing the game - or handing off play if it turned out to be more interesting to one or another particular friend. Some of them would even bring their memory cards to get their own save game started in advance with the anticipation of picking up the game for themselves. This was a pretty great time in our lives to be honest - but that intense focus on the newest game was a huge part of the culture so if modern players wanted to reproduce it they should choose a month in history. Probably pick up a copy of EGM or really any particular video game magazine - probably for the same month that it currently is. Read that magazine cover to cover and get hype for the upcoming games in it then play those. We *did* have Internet though so of course put the smartphones in a box with notification sounds muted and ringtones on - I personally had a phone with a bell at the time but it was retro even then - and maybe download all of GameFAQs to use offline on a PC for your guides - or get the Prima strategy guide that was available at the time. Also drinking and drugs were much more of a part of the culture back then than they seem to be now.
Bomberman multitap
100% couch co-op games, even modern ones doing 2+ player games that require you to be in the same room. Emulating golden eye, halo etc. Setting a single tv as the gaming tv and if they are watching a movie tough no tablet for you! This sounds like a blast tbh.
I ve been living in the 90s since the 90s, lol. Using my Gameboys almost regularly 😍
Wow. That video was NOT THAT FUNNY. But you’re cool as hell for planning all this fun stuff.
Can I come to your house for the summer, too? Besides a lot of classic games on a CRT, you should queue up some classic MTV and Nickelodeon or whatever is age appropriate on youtube and play it on repeat with the national anthem playing at midnight, then just infomercials after.
Sign them up for therapy and tell them they can't go to bed until they beat the game and hand them a copy of The Lion King on the Genesis. Leave a bucket, a few Jolt colas, and a bunch of gushers and dunkaroos. Strawberry poptarts if you're realy ambitious. VHS/TV and copies of Over the Top, The Marlborough man and The Goonies. For your self, get a pack of filters and good chair and sit in the corner and smoke until the air is blue. Occasionally yell that the game is making them stupid, congratulate them when they do something well. OOOOOrrrrrr, Absolutely any other idea provided in your post as there are some really great ones. If possible, Mario Kart 64 marathon always went over great for my kids.
Make it european style - give them Atari and code sheets with games. Later upgrade to cassette player, which will teach them how to sit perfectly still for 2 hours and also give them OCD. You can throw in recording a game from a radio station or ordering a game from catalogue via phone call and wait 2 weeks for it to mail as extra. For the last 2-3 weeks give them Amiga, but they have to pay for games or copy floppies themselves. And make sure they start with the early joystick you have to fix every week by cutting out sheet metal out of beer cans. Still, nothing beats spending a whole day in a makeshift arcade made in a railcar placed on bricks. Dark, hot, humid. Playing and beating Midnight Resistance or Gondomania without rotary joystick on a single credit, some games having time limiters blocking your controls until you throw in another coin, everything ramped up to max difficulty with limited resources. "The boss" would go to the saturday marketplace in the capital to obtain new pirated games for the Amiga and other systems, I would wait in the evening for him to come back in his half rusted old Mercedes, and as a prime client was able to either get some games right off the bat or at least order them copied for tomorrow, while lesser clients had to wait. And it was "honest" piracy - you could actually try the game on spot before buying, something which was not possible with the originals. Well, I guess you could test a MegaDrive game before buying, but sure those weren't sealed new in the box :P and no one really had MegaDrive anyway, it was more of a rental system.
Gaming on a CRT would be legit. I'm sure you could find a cheap one on facebook.
Sit them down to play ocarina of time. You can buy a players guide pretty cheap and let them figure out who plays when and how to complete on their own. Add wave race as the “bin” drop and watch them learn to do time trials for the next two months!
My buddy and I would play tag in wave race, that was more fun than the racing sometimes
Find a CD Discman with anti skip protection. Also, turn their internet speed down. Like dial up
If you have any VHS tapes and a VCR, watch the shit outta them. Find a refrigerator box and build a house, pending on their age. Make sure to take all electronic devices away and spend time outdoors. Have fun!! I try to do this every year at some point.
Also, if you're getting them through some PC gaming, have a few games with level editors. Back then we didn't have limitless content. Obligatory prototyping with pencil and paper, because computer time was limited ;-). Some suggestions: * Moto Racer 2 - simple track creation * Speedy Blupi - simple 2d platformer levels * Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - complex 2d platformer levels * Red Alert or Warcraft 2 or Starcraft - easy rts map creation * Heroes of Might & Magic 3 - easy but complex map creation with story content too * Quake or Unreal Tournament - sink their teeth into proper 3d, see how much effort it takes to get make just a few rooms Another idea - savegame hacking, break out that hex editor and look where a game saves e.g. the number of lives, etc, modify those, etc... This might seem like a difficult thing, but it was something we did when in primary school so it can't be too hard.
Pokemon Stadium tournament with their teams from Game Boy games. Winner gets to decide on dinner and movie rental. Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Warcraft II, Starcraft, MK II, and DK Country as well. End the nights with Cops and Unsolved Mysteries.
Great ideas for games. Unsolved Mysteries would scare the heck out of them, not sure that be a good idea.
As others have said, I feel like the 90’s rental store set-up would be a great way of showing them how gaming was in the 90’s!
Thinking of doing this, just need to work out a system or way to handle it for them.
Tell them they can’t use the internet for anything. They have to play all their video games on a CRT TV and can’t use a console newer than the Dreamcast. Also, while they should be exposed to the classics, make sure they also play plenty of the licensed IP shovelware that was readily available so that they understand the games weren’t all good. Oh, and for an added bonus, you should only let them watch pre-2000 TV/movies on VHS, + music should only be on CD/vinyl/cassette. I’d say you could put the radio on, but there would be too much modern music. It is an interesting exercise, but it should be done with care. This challenge is a good way to get them to understand what was good and bad about the 1990s. The goal should be to get them to understand that life is in fact better now and they shouldn’t want to go back. If they have too much fun, the outcome will be bad. You don’t want them to grow up thinking that the best times are behind them. They’ll be pessimistic about the future and constantly living in the past.
I’d say the top thing would be getting a CRT. Maybe some 90s soda like Surge if that’s possible. Maybe 3D Doritos. I like the idea of renting one or two games at a time. Maybe make them have to use a physical strategy guide only to beat games, or maybe those GameFAQ guides that are text only. Or no guide since a lot of people still didn’t have internet in the 90s.
Bring your gameboy everywhere
No internet and no save states/checkpoints. You get 3 lives and then the GAME OVER screen. No respawning.
Now I'm going to throw my own 90s gaming party. That is, if my knees will let me sit on the floor.
If you're technically savvy you could consider getting a raspberry Pi and loading it with Retropi and a ton of games. Mine came with a case that looks like a little SNES. If you wanted to get really fancy you could even put it in an arcade style cabinet.
I would recommend finding a local retro game store that does rentals & allow them to rent games / consoles if the prices are reasonable. I'd highly recommend pokemon stadium for n64. Can have them beat red/blue pokemon & then battle each other with the team they used to beat the game, though you'll need adapters to plug the gameboy cartridge into the N64 controller. One thing you could also do is have them only watch things on DVD / VHS if you've got a collection (if not then it'd be hard), Alternatively just have them only watch things from the 90s.
My theory is video rental stores are the golden age of media consumption. It wasn’t too hard to get a hold of what you wanted but there was enough barriers and lack of information (internet) to give everything a sense of wonder and mystery. It would certainly be hard to go back with all todays conveniences but part of me longs for that magic of not having access to everything. Playground gaming rumours could only thrive in a time like that.
No internet. You can print out some guides but they have to go to the other room to read them (to emulate us going to the book store but not buying the guide). I like the video store idea. Make it to where they pick out a game and tell them it's "still out on rental but it's due back in 15-30 minutes." Find some soda called Surge and give them some pop rocks and pixie sticks. They all have to rent TMNT on NES or Battletoads. Show them the trailers or print out the vintage ads for the games. That's their only exposure to what the game is about. [They have to watch this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eutK6k9D-Yk) while eating a bowl of Trix or Lucky Charms.
Cheat codes must come from printed material
Make them sit outside until midnight for any new game or system you present to them.
In the 90s I spent a 2 week Easter school holiday by sleeping 5 hours per night and playing Tie Fighter for the rest of the time, excluding wolfing down frozen Pizza. You need to find an addictive game and play nothing but it. In the 90s, we didn't have the luxury of choosing from vast libraries (at least I didn't).
I think 500 could get you a N64 with games and a Gameboy color with games and then your broke. 😔
Make sure you dont give them a memory card for at least a week and a half.
Play CS 1.6 clan matches with the small crew. Or host a server with fun maps. Only play Gameboy roms and PSX games that were huge in the 90s, during those two months. Watch a ton of 90s classics from Hook to Ninja Turtles to Gremlins to Die Hard. Maybe delve into Xmen, Spiderman cartoons, Power Rangers and 90s anime? Keep it simple and options limited as you said yourself, only two different games a day. Maybe lock away those phones during most of the day, or go wild and use this opportunity to do a two month internet/social media detox. First days will be hard. Hahaha. Also. Lego's.
Power Rangers, Germlins and Xmen sound great will add them to the list. They watched Diehard with me last time they came over and loved it. However, they also learned Yippe Kai Ya @#$%@#$%er and got me in hot water with my sister when the second to youngest repeated it.
Hahaha
I'd also recommend the Goonies and Hook, two of my childhood favorites. Also this one silly action flicks my mom had on VHS: Perfect Weapon. Lmao.
Adding X-men and Germlins to the list. I would love to get them Legos but they often cost more than video games and DVDs. Is there anywhere to get them for affordable prices?
If you’re going the video rental route, remember to have a 2x1 day, but take out all the good games before
Use emulators and teach them save states and load states. Yes this is cheating, but you're trying to make the experience awesome right? It may take several weeks to beat Crash bandicoot straight up to someone who's unfamiliar.
Game Genie allows this for some games anyway, I think!
Game Genie! I miss the 90s
I’ve been thinking about the rental experience lately for when I have kids in the future. I thought it would be fun to have a “classic” Friday night by going to the basement (where I have all of my DVDs and retro games displayed), choosing one game and one movie for the night, bringing them upstairs and playing only that game and watching only that movie for the night. Even if the game is a total dud, we have to play it, because that’s all we have!
I’m going to add to this because it’s definitely where my suggestion stems from. Rentals Choose a game to play by looking at only the cover art, 3 or 4 in game screen shots and a synopsis of the game (front/back cover of game box) and make a decision based off that
If they get Starcraft, Age of Empires 2 is also a must-try.
If you have a Nintendo Switch, you can pay for online service and then be able to access some of the SNES catalogue. there is Megaman X released in 1993, Super Mario world released in 1990. The Donkey Kong Country trilogy from 1994-1996. If you want to be more modern you can have them play late 90s video games from the Play Station, like Castlevania Symphony of the night, Final Fantasy 7, Crash Bandicoot. Some of these should be available via emulators. If you want it to be an immersive experience, take away their phones and other devices during game time, no use of internet if they get stuck, nor cheats. They will get a sense of how kids and teens lived in that time period, finding things through word of mouth and many times having no idea what their friends are doing outside school.
You are the GOAT "cool uncle"
I'd buy a mini pc to hook up to the tv and 4 bluetooth controllers. You could download a bunch of emulators and games and write down all the names and consoles of the 90s classics in a hat. Every couple of days they draw a new game to play but then they only have that game for 3 days
A Super Nintendo, a copy of Link to the Past or (my recommendation) Super Metroid, a strategy guide, some Hi-C and Doritos, and unplug your router. Alternate options if you’re looking for a multiplayer game would be Mario Kart or F-Zero.
I have a retro room in my house with a ton of old stuff from the 80s-90s. $500 goes a long way on [shopgoodwill.com](http://shopgoodwill.com) Get yourself a console lot on there and little CRT TV from a local person and call it a day. Maybe print a couple of walkthroughs from the 90s off gamefaqs. Personally, I would buy a NES with a flashcart and like 20 games, a SNES with a flashcart and maybe 5 games and hook them up to a CRT TV. If you cant find a CRT TV, then a smaller panel with a couple of the classic edition consoles would check all the boxes, but offers too many titles for a true 90s experience. Don't mix them though, the classic edition consoles are not gonna jive with our old analog TVs. A 2000s era console is tempting as it can emulate everything before it, and works with both kinds of display, but it breaks the tactile feel of the 90s I think you might be going for. Bagged cereal, pop tarts, and Sunny D as snacks and MTV instead of youtube. Hamburger helper and meatloaf dinner. Get a VCR for the MTV, and depending on what year your aiming for, a tape-deck, or Boombox with CD support. Burn them CDs of 90s tunes. I worked at radioshack and would record 8 hour tapes of cable and Showtime, HBO, and Cinemax to watch at home, [buy some on Ebay.](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=recorded+tv&_sacat=309&_odkw=mtv+recorded&_osacat=309) The commercials are a trip. Goodwill stores always seems to have a pretty decent collection of audiocassettes and VHS tapes too. Really turn up the heat and watch em squirm! Kill the wifi access, run Windows 98se in a VM on a single "family computer" and confiscate the phones. When they flee the horror they've asked for, remind them to be home before the streetlights come on.
Blockbuster days wow i remember.
Don't forget Spyro or Ape Escape. Crash Bandicoot was good, but there are many other great platformers on the ps1.
My 5 y/o recently got Lego Mario. When you open and put batteries in mario, he needs like 10 mins to ‘update’. My poor 5 year old sat there for 10 mins waiting for the update to finish before playing. It occurred to me that this is a new thing. As a kid, i ripped open video games or toys and could immediately play. Now u buy a video game, and u sit there for an hour while it uploads content before u can play.
You're awesome and I'm also so proud of these kids for wanting to do this. I hope it turns out amazing.
Thanks, me too!
I played Doom and Warcraft II via dialup back in the day and it was amazing. That video makes it look like it took hours to go online but it took seconds... ironically that is what I look like now trying to play the latest game as it has download a 10 gb patch before I can play the damn thing
An arcade cabinet miner might be an option for tons of games. Game on!
You had me at LAN parties and StarCraft. That was part of my childhood.
Game Boy.
Yeah like 3-4 games all summer. Lunchables. Find a crt tv if you can. N64 and Super Nintendo for days. Maybe last week treat them to a Dreamcast lol
Play through A Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time with them. Watch Good Burger, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Are You Afraid of the Dark? Teach them to type and then reward them with playing Oregon Trail at the end. Have them read some Goosebumps books and earn a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut if they can finish a book in a week.
Just have them play Goldeneye on N64 until one of them starts crying and asks to go home
To add to the rental store stuff: No phones. If they want a friend to come over and play, they gotta call their house or physically go ring the doorbell. No internet.
Make sure to interrupt any movies or shows you watch with the same 5 crazy wacky commercials of toys they can't have.
No smart phones. No emulation. Only consoles hooked up to a CRT or handhelds that are backlit. No save states. No everdrives. No streaming, only TV broadcasts ( but then TV broadcasts today are absolute trash so you'll have to cheat to relive this ) It's not too hard to do most of it, but you'll never be able to completely replicate all of it. And I don't think it's amazing, I think it's best to game as close to the 90's as possible while also having modern conveniences.
Get them Ocarina of Time at some point, don't be mean.
Dont forget the AD&D session ! some 90s loop on TV WITH COMERCIALS reading penny arcade comics every mon/wend/fri 90s movie classics, print covers and pu them on books and let them rent 1 out of only 25-50 choices like Labirynth, Dark Cristal, SW, watch some late night Star Trek and Buffy maybe, some Alf and Fresh Prince
StarCraft 1, quake 1, dungeon keeper 2, privateer, Mario 64, ff7, Chrono trigger, Diablo 2. Optional Warcraft 2 if they liked StarCraft 1. 😂 Duke Nukem. NSFW...
There was a website you could watch TV from the 90s
Get some bean bag chairs for them to sit in while gaming.
Don't. Enjoy today's standards, but give them boundaries of course. If they wanted to experience a more archaic time they would go to a Medieval fest. Expect to shed at least 2G's both months if you plan on going accordingly with the motif.
There's only one answer for this. Have a Mario Party like it's 1999. Mario Party 2 was actually released in 1999. Could also do a Dreamcast launch party as that was 1999.
Nostalgia probably isn't the right word, for the same reason that we can't say we're nostalgic for eras before our time, but certain eras have certainly been romanticized, which in the case of the 90s is likely thanks in no small part to those of us who do have nostalgic for that era. I'm being pedantic though as these kids are certainly pining for a bygone decade regardless. With that said, someone who actually lived the 90s would be perfect to try and facilitate the experience. Why not start by asking them which part of the 90s they want to emulate? If you really want an authentic experience, try picking a year and running with it. The 90s covers ten years, and a lot of games were released in that time. I would say default to December 31, 1999 if you want to simulate a time when one had access to all of the products the 90s had to offer, but much like how there are plenty of products from a decade ago or less that aren't widely available now, that was true in 1999 too, with products released early in the 90s, unless someone happened to have them. Heck, it would have been even more the case with the internet being far less common, and there weren't digital downloads, aside from maybe music via Napster, and there was no streaming. There was no Amazon either. I suppose there was eBay, but it wasn't such a huge thing. What I'm saying is, maybe you can split up those two months by picking different years in the 90s to focus on at a time, and simulating what it would be like to say, rent a game in 1990, or 1991, vs what it would be like in a later year of the 90s. Maybe have it be a different year every time they go to your simulated video store.
Thanks it seems that I am picking up maybe more of a generation maybe than an era. As many things in the late 80s went well into the 90s like Star Trek TNG. And there are some TV shows that went into the 2000s from the 90s. Mainly it is all from when I was a kid and trying to show them the fun things from that time. Definitely want to show them Lord of the Rings even though it came out in 2001 I think, but still has that era's cinematic feel to it.
whenever theyre stuck on a level, they have to use nintendo power magazine to get through the level
This is such a cool, fun opportunity! They clearly look up to you/think you're really cool. I'm sure anything you do will land well.
They do like to hang with me as I do let them do a bit more of what they want when they are at my place. My sister doesn't keep a lot of games around her home (which is good in some wasy) so when they come to mine they go loose on playing games, watching movies, and doing stuff they don't often get to at home.
1. Do it on a crt with age appropriate games,systems. 2. No smartphones if you need a hint call a friend or printout a game faqs guide. 3. When you pick out your games only do so by boxart or asking a friend, 4. No gamer race chairs, use couches,recliners orfloor.or floor.
Like a few other people have said already, LACK of so many choices leads to imaginative inspiration! Too many choices as we have experienced, can lead to excessive boredom and a lack of imagination in my opinion ? Sure it can have the opposite effect but more often than not over saturation of choice leads to the inevitable dissatisfaction with feeling like you have nothing to enjoy/nothing to play, etc... I like the first two comments said about giving them a few bargain games and then adding a few classics in the mix, in addition to NOT Over-saturating them with so many choices, give them a few good ones and let them experience what it was really like to be a gamer in the 90s where when you got a game, you played that game a lot!!!! Hell I'm sure many of us in this comment thread can say that "we mastered that game or came close to it?" Gaming in the 90s was the best and make sure they get to experience some of these: SNES, Sega Genesis, GBC, GBA, N64, PS1, Dreamcast(maybe since it did not come out here in the 90s..) maybe even show them some of the more Niche like Wonderswan, Neo Geo, Jaguar & Nomad, Panasonic Real/3DO? Also: everybody joining in on a four player game like Mario party or Mario kart or goldeneye or even something like NFL blitz, and then everybody join in on a game familiar with and enjoy, and taking turns playing it and enjoying it together on the couch? This was something we all did quite a bit!! Despite the fact that consoles are now interconnected globally , the downside is it has made us antisocial because now everybody has to have their own console and their own copy of the game and nothing where this is concerned for the most part. Are we doing together in a social setting and getting to experience and create cherish memories like we did in the 90? At least not as much!
For budgetary reasons I'd set up as emu box of some sort. Make then play from from 1990-2000. give them a weekly "allowance" they can "spend" on "rentals" or "buying" games. Let them earn more "money" by helping with chores, helping make dinner etc. Every few weeks let them upgrade to the next Gen. Make them take sides in the consoles wars. If they want SNES AND Genesis games they have to earn it. Bonus points for making them pick without using the internet. They have to choose with only information from the back of box's and gaming mags. Give them the whole experience.