Kids friendly games, age around 6?

mediamogul

@lurker said in Kids friendly games, age around 6?:

"Q-bert" I'm not even very good at Q-Bert but the kids like to play it.

Here's a 'Q-bert' play tip for you, or anyone else having trouble. Q-bert was originally designed to be played with a 4-directional joystick that was mounted at 45 degree angle. Gottlieb was so worried that players would have difficulty using the control scheme that they intentionally dialed down the difficulty. Initially, players did have some trouble, but after only a few wasted tokens, Q-bert become infamous among arcade regulars as a game that was not only a lot of fun, but also one that could be played almost indefinitely on one life, due to the reduced difficulty.

When 'Q-bert' was first released by Parker Brothers for its various home ports, the control scheme was unwisely, but perhaps necessarily, carried over in all but the Intellivision port. The problem has since been that Q-bert behaves erratically when played like any other game, making the experience very non-intuitive. Parker Brothers knew this at the time and recommended players hold their controllers at a 45 degree angle to compensate. I've tried this myself and have never really been able to get a good handle on it. For whatever reason, probably due to the increased directional range of the controllers, the Intellivision port allowed players to control Q-bert's movement with diagonal input, returning the game to it's intended feel and difficulty level, without having to contort your hands, or do mental gymnastics.

Luckily, MAME has a very versatile system for mapping controls on a game-by-game basis. To allow Q-bert to be controlled with diagonal input, invoke the 'Tab' menu ('Tab' key) and select the menu option to remap controls for 'this game'. From there, you would input the following:

P1 Right: Right Down, Down Right
P1 Left: Left Up, Up Left
P1 Up: Up Right, Right Up
P1 Down: Down Left, Left Down

You'll notice that each assignment has two directional combinations mapped. This is so that no matter if you happen to hit one combination or the other, Q-bert will still move in the expected direction. I hope this helps and if it happens that you end up mastering 'Q-bert' and are looking for a greater challenge, this same control scheme will also work for the much more challenging sequel, 'Q-bert's Qubes', as well as the little known arcade prototype, 'Faster Harder More Challenging Q-bert'.

madmodder123

@xboxwin said in Kids friendly games, age around 6?:

@andershp Hey.
You can try Bubble Bobble on Mame (maybe you did it cause your avatar....) and Gauntlet (the 2 players version) on FBA (Rom's name is gauntlet2pr3.zip => which means Gauntlet 2players Rev3).
If you use PCSX2, you can try Shrek 2 too. It's a coop game really funny for kids.
On PSX, all Crash Bandicoot (Crash Bash, Crash Team Racing....)
Regards

Make sure you download save games for CTR and especially Crash Bash (so you can play all the minigames!)
Here is a link to my github: https://github.com/madmodder123/retropie_saves/

KyotoUK

Just about the most perfect post at the right time and I had to sign up. I have just dug out my Amiga and spent last night playing some games when I remembered I'd always wanted to get my son in to retro gaming. As I clearly don't trust a 4yo with an Amiga I thought about emulation and managed to stumble across this site. Just costed a Pi 3 b+ with a 128GB card and a NES case to sit on the tv unit.

Then I couldn't think of which games would be suitable. He is a little young for Miss World Nude 96'

Anyway that post was to say thanks.

PittStone

In this post are a few Kids Friendly Games. ;)

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/18741/best-of-games-for-kids-up-to-12-years-collections-themes/3

mwshook

I have a seven year-old son. MAME co-op games are really the best for parent-child bonding. The unlimited quarters make difficulty a nonissue.

He finds MAME's King of the Monsters hilarious. It's a wrestling game with big monsters destroying the city as they battle. You can play 2 humans vs 2 computers so it's got some good co-op action.

He's obsessed with Mega Man but the NES games are too hard and he can't beat a level. So he loves Mega Man: Power Battle on MAME. 2 humans cooperatively take on Robot Masters. It's kind of like a fighting game but the 2-on-1 format is interesting. There's a sequel called Power Fighters.

Marvel vs Capcom on MAME is also popular. It has a lot of his favorite characters including Mega Man and Spider-Man. I can set my difficulty to Hard and go easy on him so he can win half the time.

I also second the suggestions for MAME cartoon character beat 'em ups like TMNT, X-Men, etc.

Clyde

A friend recommended Trog to me yesterday. Seems like a kid-friendly game, if you don't mind the mild violence (battering the cavemen*). It supports up to four players simultanously.

*edit: Oh, and you actually eat the cavemen later in the game, 😇 as you can see at 17:50 in the video.

Clyde

@Clyde Sorry for the necro, but I think this thread is a good place to collect such games for other parents.

Another cute, funny and relatively easy to play platform game is Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2. It was available on no less than 18 platforms:

quicksilver

My 4 year old loves playing hydro thunder for Dreamcast on my pi 4. The controls are very simple and the game forces you to go forward and you can't get stuck on objects in the game.

VictimRLSH

Bishi Bashi Minigame Madness (MAME 2003) is also a lot of fun, and only needs 3 buttons and the ability to recognize colors to play. It helps if you can color your buttons though.

AndersHP

@Clyde said in Kids friendly games, age around 6?:

@Clyde Sorry for the necro, but I think this thread is a good place to collect such games for other parents.

I never understood the bashing of people reviving old threads. I mean why not keep the threads alive and expanding, instead of opening something new with questions that's partially been discussed before?

I will try the Rainbow Islands game. Thanks!

To update my own thread, my daughter is now 8 and my son 4, and nothing beats the sight of them co-opping in some MAME shmup :D

Actually I find most MAME games work great with kids, since you can always toss more fictive quarters in the game :)

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barbudreadmon

@AndersHP said in Kids friendly games, age around 6?:

I never understood the bashing of people reviving old threads.

I think that's only an issue when the new question is barely related to the original question (it happens).

Clyde

@barbudreadmon said in Kids friendly games, age around 6?:

I think that's only an issue when the new question is barely related to the original question (it happens).

That, and if it's about a technical problem, the chances that the former information in the thread may be hopelessly outdated are growing with time.

WeirdH

Snow Bros, Zupapa, Bang Bang Busters, Tumblepop and Don Doko Don are great kids games on MAME. Others already mentioned Frogger and Rod Land.

Also fantastic, but a fair bit more difficult, are Kickle Cubicle, Pang (aka Buster Bros) and Solomon's Key.

Also check out Funky Jet, although it might be deemed to 'aggressive' by some (beating enemies with boxing gloves while jetpaccing around).

For kids a bit older, Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy might be fun, as well as Spinmaster.