Your parent-child gaming anecdotes

[DMC]

I guess lots of us have played video games with our parents when we were kids.
Any funny, nostalgic, or interesting anecdote related to that?

Here's mine:

My dad and I had an ongoing rivalry during the 90s (mostly when I was around 8-12 years old).
Because I was younger, I had better reflexes and a few other gaming advantages.
My dad compensated with intense old-school cheating. For instance, in:

Command & Conquer: Red Alert. My dad and I played LAN with two computers in two adjacent rooms linked by small stairs with no walls. Inititally, I was unbeatable, but suddenly he turned the tables and won game after game. I was clueless. I just couldn't get why he started winning. I even double-checked the instruction manual to see that there wasn't some spy construction in the game that I had not heard of. But years later my dad admitted: He had put up a set of mirrors in the apartment so that he could see my computer screen from where he was sitting and spy on my base through the mirrors. Apparently one day I had asked him why there was a mirror standing next to one of the chairs and he then removed all the mirrors because he thought I was on to him.

Sega Rally. On the Saturn. Inititally, I was constantly beating my dad, gaining time on him on almost every turn on the desert stage. He practiced a whole lot though. I typically woke up early on Saturday mornings to hear a familar, lovely sound from the living room (VROOM, VROOM, VROOM, SEGA RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP). Despite this practicing he could not beat me. Until one day, when he suddenly raced pass me on the long, straight parts of the stage. I just couldn't get it. I guessed that he took the turns in some unusual, novel way that gave him extra speed on the long runs. I tried to change my driving style accordingly, but he just kept on winning and laughed and smiled quoting his race times and mine... Weeks later I discovered that you could increase vehicle speed in the settings. I confronted him, but he was sort of proud of his accomplishment.

He cheated also on cards, or any game for that matter. Ironically, he always accused me of cheating, but I think it made me the opposite. Thanks to him, I'm an honest man.

So what's yours?
Anecdotes in which you are the parent together with your kid are also welcomed.

[Shepardus]

I remember seeing my dad playing Tetris once back when we had it on our Windows 98(?) computer.

[mdsfx]

My Dad thought Galaga was the sh*t. Even better is how he puts an accent on the second "A"every time he says it: "ga-LA-ga."

First time talking my daughter to the Arcade and she settled on one of my favorites

And I just took my son (and grandma) for his first time and I couldn't get him off of Cruis'N USA:

[DMC]

Nice pics, mdsfx! Three-generation gaming is class.

[Lord Satori]

I grew up watching my dad play the best fps's out there. Wolfenstein, Doom II, Quake, Hexen, Duke 3D, Half Life, and maybe a few others. Wolfenstein was the earliest. I don't remember much myself, but according to him, whenever I wanted to see him play I would ask if we could kill more nazis. It must've been hysterical.

I have vague memories of him playing other kinds of games as well such as Tyrian, Raptor, Major Stryker, and a game called Bedlam. I have memories of a game called "Bioforge" but all I remember is that he kept dying and eventually gave up.

I didn't even get into console gaming until I turned ten. Up until then it was all PC.

[Stormwatch]

Even better is how he puts an accent on the second "A"every time he says it: "ga-LA-ga."

And that is the correct pronunciation.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've always heard (and thought) "ga-LA-ga", simply because in my first language accentuating a word's second-to-last syllabe is the most natural thing.
First time I heard "GA-la-ga" was in Family Guy.

My anecdote is pretty sad. When I was eight or so, we were spending summer holidays on a camping site. A wagon harbouring arcade machines was there, of which (I think) Galaxian looked best to me. When I asked my mom for a coin so I could play it, my father also happened to be present and his knee-jerk reaction was "hell no".

[mdsfx]

Even better is how he puts an accent on the second "A"every time he says it: "ga-LA-ga."

And that is the correct pronunciation.

No way! Lol Oh man I can't wait to tell my brother we've been wrong this whole time
Edit: and my entire generation who seemingly all pronounce it wrong lol

[copy-paster]

My mother can clear the NES Tetris and getting high score better than mine, that was unexpected.

[broken harbour]

My father bought me a Lynx II back in 1991, and we used to play it together in my room all the time. One day he brought home Chips Challenge and we stayed up until 3am together playing it that night, we got pretty far in the game. I remember one particularly grueling ice level that had a unexpectedly simple solution of just pushing down about 40 times, then up once. We felt like geniuses after that. I was 9.

[BIL]

"Dad that's me" is a long-running joke between he and I, stemming from his "accidentally," immediately and repeatedly clobbering me with a trashcan in a game of River City Ransom. Dad likes a windup. No matter the game, friendly fire is assured. In the N64's heyday we'd always rope him in for a few Goldeneye 2v2 matches and watch the carnage ensue.

Recently blew his backstabbing head off with a railgun in cooperative DOOM to a mock-startled yelp of "Blimey, that bloke's nasty!"

[Jon]

I have very fond memories of my dad taking me to Superfun which was the arcade located in our local mall. He always gave me a dollar or two for tokens but I had just as much fun watching him play. He loved Tempest and Pac-Man and was good enough at the latter to always get a few people to gather around and watch. As for the home consoles he had a Magnavox Odyssey 2 which was upgraded to Colecovison and then years later the NES.

I now have two wee ones myself but they're a bit young at three and nearly one year old for gaming. My older daughter will watch for about ten minutes or so when ever I fire up MAME. She seems to favor Darius Gaiden because the fishies.

[Eaglet]

Never got to experience gaming with my father as he passed away when i was young.
My uncle in law (i guess this is what you call it? My aunts husband) used to always have a LAN set up for gettogethers though and as i started playing pretty early i usually joined in on fragfests in Quake and UT from an early age. Was a lot of fun kicking programmer asses as a kid.

[TransatlanticFoe]

My Dad still randomly comes out with the "A-HA-HA" laugh you hear in Crossbow when the eye appears.

All I remember fron my Mother playing video games is that Sonic the hedgehog is a "pissing thing" who "won't do what I tell him".

[BulletMagnet]

My mother always avoided video games like the plague, but my dad got into a total of three of them over the years; Super Mario World, Ocarina of Time, and The Lost Vikings, the latter of which we'd alternate back and forth on. I'd play after finishing my homework (usually) in the afternoons and he'd take over where I stopped when the kids went to bed; we got pretty far, but never quite finished it (though I called him into the room years later to watch me finally beat the last level).

All I remember fron my Mother playing video games is that Sonic the hedgehog is a "pissing thing" who "won't do what I tell him".

She had him pegged!

[Stormwatch]

My mother can clear the NES Tetris and getting high score better than mine, that was unexpected.

Which version, Nintendo's or Tengen's?

[LSU]

My parents bought me a ZX Spectrum when I was 12 (back in 1982) and so of course the first game I ever got seriously into playing was Manic Miner. The computer was set up in our living room on the TV so I'd play with both my parents watching me, sometimes for 2 or 3 hours per night with them cheering me on. I think I eventually got to level 19 (the Solar Power Generator) but could never quite get to level 20 which is the last stage.

Fast forward a decade or two (ahem) and I briefly worked for Sony games before I left the UK. I donated my PS2 (which Sony very graciously gave me on it's release) to my parents before I left. Ever since, they have been playing more modern 'platform' games on it such as Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet and Clank, etc. I like to think I turned them both into gamers. They still play now and they're both in their early 70's.

More recently, my son when he was a baby would sit in my lap and watch me play shmups, his most calming one was most definitely Sega Saturn Blast Wind - it would send him to sleep in about 20 minutes if he ever watched me play. Those were the days.

[Blinge]

As a kid spent a lot of time at my grandparent's house so I'd take whatever console I had at the time. My Grandfather used to indulge me by watching me play sometimes, with such encouragements as "You'll beat that guy next time" when I'd just lost at the arcade mode in some ECW wrestling game
Oh man, I remember he tried playing against me at Goldeneye 64 once. He'd get flustered as soon as anything happened and just lost track of his thumbs, his character would just rotate endlessly on the spot while rapid firing. One time he walked into a hallway I'd lined with proximity mines, there were so many. As the explosion happened I was shooting into the fire, absolute deathtrap. He found it hilarious how I'd created such a certain death situation. Like roaring, wheezing laughter.

My mother used to try her hand games from time to time when I was very young. She'd beat us all at Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and wouldn't tell us the secret of chaining in vs mode. The rest of us didn't know how she was sending those obstacle beans/puyo at us.

My sister and I stayed on playing that game for years to come, I used to have the upper hand but not anymore. She also had the 'Tetris Friends' Facebook app for a couple years, that was quite a good iteration of the game, y'know. With your friends list as the leaderboards, showing who's score you were surpassing even as you did it. I think it was around 2008 before microtransaction/F2P bullshit was ubiquitous, I think that version is gone now, so my sister's insanely high score is lost to the ages. I couldn't beat that damn score, no one else on my friends list was anywhere near as high.

I wanted to rekindle that rivalry recently so I've been firing up TGM2 when she visits. The speed in which gravity increases in TGM is way faster than that facebook app, so I think it gives me a distinct advantage because of my input speed. So for the time being I'm in the lead, but it's a hollow victory..
Generally we don't get on that well, she's a stubborn, bullheaded, 'everything in its right place' sort of person. So tetris just seems perfect for her.. haha. Actually she kicks my ass at puyo these days aswell, the girl is a demon at vertical puzzlers.
The only other game she's really been into was Ocarina of Time, didn't care about my suggestion of playing Majora's Mask or other Zeldas =/. She'd get mad at OoT though and throw controllers, yelling "stupid thing" or "I didn't press that." Of course I then stoked the rage by smugly saying "yes. yes you did."

[ghego]

I have this anectode about my 4 year old (at the time) kid becoming almost obsessed playing Metal Slug (1, 2, X and 3) in Mame a few years back.
The interesting thing is that it was mandatory to beat the game every time and in order to do that my wife and myself (alternatevely) were obliged to play as sidekicks and help him achieve the goal.
Also the boy used to make up names for final level bosses.
So to speak the game became a family matter.

[copy-paster]

Which version, Nintendo's or Tengen's?

Nintendo's, also she can score 13654 points (no wall) and 4276 (square wall mode) in Nokia 1650's Snake Xenzia. When I first saw that I said to her, "Mom, are you human?".

[Stevens]

I've also said Galaga incorrectly my entire life.

My dad and I both loved Black Belt and After Burner on the SMS. He could often be found in my room playing one or the other whether I was around or not:D

We didn't game much together during 16 bit, but he did take a liking to the Saturn when I bought one in 95. I had just finished high school and would often play after returning home in the evenings after 11. I think he was sick or getting sick by this time, but would always make a point of coming downstairs after mom was asleep.

We would just generally bullshit while I played VF 2 or X Men or whatever I had just brought home. We did this many nights that summer, and as it would turn out it was the last summer he was well.