Here is what happens when a father makes his son play through video game history

[Shawn Knight]

When Andy Baio’s son was born in 2004, he decided to conduct an experiment. As a video game fanatic that was born in the golden age of arcade gaming and played through each subsequent generation as he grew up, Baio wondered what would happen if his kid was forced to do the same.

Starting on his fourth birthday, Biao gave his son Eliot a Pac-Man plug-and-play TV game loaded with several arcade classics including Galaxian, Rally-X, Bosconian, Dig Dug, Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus and Pac & Pal.

Things progressed nicely as Eliot was beating his father’s high scores in Dig Dug within just six weeks. After another plug-and-play TV series, they moved to the 8-bit era that was the Nintendo Entertainment System.

By age six, Eliot was able to complete games like The Legend of Zelda all by himself and after knocking out Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Mega Man 1-6, Castlevania 1-3, Rygar, Contra and Duck Tales, Eliot graduated to the SNES.

Super Mario World and Link to the Past made the list here as well as a game called E.V.O: Search for Eden that Baio described as an underrated 16-bit uncle of Spore. Moving to the Nintendo 64, Eliot collected every star in Super Mario 64 by the time he was seven and after knocking out the PlayStation 2, the experiment was complete.

In the end, Baio found that the experiment certainly had an impact on the types of games Eliot likes now. In addition to Minecraft (which virtually every kid gamer enjoys), Eliot has a knack for difficult games that challenge those 2-3 times his age – and he’s really good at them, too.

For example, he beat Spelunky just one month after his eighth birthday. After that, he beat it the “hard” way by going through Hell. The game’s creator, Derek Yu, said Eliot was the youngest person he’s heard of to pull off the feat.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/59137-here-what-happens-when-father-makes-son-play.html

 

[Guest]

Awesome story! It's absolutely the way I would like my future kids to approach old school games.

Hence why I'm glad I still have all of my original consoles from NES to Now. =)

 

[Guest]

Sweet

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Poor kid. I wonder if he's allowed to indulge in healthy normal kid activities...

 

[TrueBooleanFals]

Poor kid. I wonder if he's allowed to indulge in healthy normal kid activities...

No... No he isn't... /sarcasm
Really, people these days...

 

[Realtekkie]

Too bad his father wasn't way over-excited about math, science or reading instead.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Too bad his father wasn't way over-excited about math, science or reading instead.

Hahaha - kid could have finished college by the age of 10.

 

[TekGun]

Too bad his father wasn't way over-excited about math, science or reading instead.

Judgemental much, how do you know he isn't?

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Too bad his father wasn't way over-excited about math, science or reading instead.

Judgemental much, how do you know he isn't?

probably because the kid beat more games in a year than any other kid did in 5 years. Although any kid who can beat games that quickly probably doesn't have much trouble with grade school math and science.

 

[scorpian007]

I always thought about doing something like this if I ever had a kid. Make them okay through all the classic dos games from the 80s and 90s. I still have all my old consoles too

 

[cliffordcooley]

Maybe we should force the game developers to play all the old school games. Maybe just maybe they would learn to make games worth playing. At least that way they would learn which games they liked playing and quite possibly be influenced to make their games better.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Maybe we should force the game developers to play all the old school games. Maybe just maybe they would learn to make games worth playing. At least that way they would learn which games they liked playing and quite possibly be influenced to make their games better.

I think we should do the same to the publishers.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I think we should do the same to the publishers.

Publishers should be required to prove they have a love for games (not just a need for money). That is before they are given power over which games live or die.

 

[SNGX1275]

probably because the kid beat more games in a year than any other kid did in 5 years. Although any kid who can beat games that quickly probably doesn't have much trouble with grade school math and science.

He is a kid, and he played old games. I was born in 1980 and I didn't have a NES until like 89.. but a lot of my friends did (released in 85 in the US), they were crazy good at games. When I was about 24 I bought a few old NES games off ebay that I never got to play when I was a kid, I was pretty bad at them. I think kids are naturally gifted at learning those games.

/I'm still amazingly good at Super Mario Bros (1)

 

[risc32]

This is cool I have kids and doing something like this had crossed my mind, but it never got done. my kids did play a fair bit of nes mario and other 8bit era games, plus some ps2 stuff. the results seemed to be that they liked most of the older stuff and would play more but the biggest take away seemed to be that the older games were much harder than the current stuff they play. no endless lives or continues, often one or two slip ups and your starting over. and not from that level, all the way over. no wonder I used to sweat bullets while taking on level 8 castle in mario bros.

 

[cliffordcooley]

no wonder I used to sweat bullets while taking on level 8 castle in mario bros.

No wonder I still hate dying in MMO's, even though you can re-spawn and try again. I came up where dying was a thing you tried not to do. Games today seem to be built around the concept of dying 100 times during a single boss fight.

 

[SNGX1275]

No wonder I still hate dying in MMO's, even though you can re-spawn and try again. I came up where dying was a thing you tried not to do. Games today seem to be built around the concept of dying 100 times during a single boss fight.

Yep, if you didn't survive 8.3 big, you were in for a rough time. Hell, if you didn't make it out of 8.1 big you were in for a tough time. It can be done for sure, but having fire power to kill the hammer dudes was very beneficial. Toughest to time is that last guy before koopa, if you can run under him then awesome!, the only alternative is to not lose firepower before then (which is difficult)..

 

[Arris]

no wonder I used to sweat bullets while taking on level 8 castle in mario bros.

No wonder I still hate dying in MMO's, even though you can re-spawn and try again. I came up where dying was a thing you tried not to do. Games today seem to be built around the concept of dying 100 times during a single boss fight.

Probably why Dark Souls was a bit of a niche game

Limited lives and "earning" lives was the way back in the day.
"Do you want to continue? Yes / No" usually meant spending more pocket money. Some improvements to the die/retry formula are welcome but there certainly isn't the same in game consequences there used to be.

 

[gingerbill]

no wonder I used to sweat bullets while taking on level 8 castle in mario bros.

No wonder I still hate dying in MMO's, even though you can re-spawn and try again. I came up where dying was a thing you tried not to do. Games today seem to be built around the concept of dying 100 times during a single boss fight.

lol , I'm the same , it hurts me in games I try so much not to die , it's just a habit . Especially as EQ and ultima online trained me not to die as well as growing up playing in the arcade's.

 

[DAOWAce]

Now if only I owned all the old consoles instead of my father (bought for me, but I don't 'own' them), I could do the same to my son/daughter..

Shame he let my sister's kid use them, who was highly destructive. Suppose I can be glad it was only the NES and related games/peripherals and my Genesis and later things are safe away in storage.

 

[SeiveD]

"In the end, Baio found that the experiment certainly had an impact on the types of games Eliot likes now. In addition to Minecraft (which virtually every kid gamer enjoys), Eliot has a knack for difficult games that challenge those 2-3 times his age – and he’s really good at them, too."

How do we know the kid wouldn't have turned out like this anyway? "Correlation is not causation" is a phrase some people like to throw around. It seems relevant here. Also, Minecraft is loads of fun. Yay.