Good Games for Today's Kids?

[The Equalizer]

I'm on a bit of a crusade at the minute.   I work with primary age children and they're obsessed with tablets and phones.  I've managed to get a few interested in older machines.

 

At the moment, I've one or two particularly interested in what I got up to when I was their age.  Thing is most of my experiences then were on a VIC 20!

 

I've got a Speccy that I'm taking in to work next week.  I've already decided that Manic Miner is a nice game to introduce them too but I was wondering if anyone has other suggestions.

 

The games can't be to obtuse or unforgiving but they can't be too boring either - today's kids are a fussy bunch!

[Spider]

Difficult. I have a few suggestions but I think I may refer to you several lists actually if you don't mind glancing at a few of the linked submissions within. Some are not going to be brilliantly suitable (diffuclt isometric 3D for instance) or 'race' games (as they will appear too crude by todays standards)

 

'Your Sinclair' Top 100 of 'all time (Static list)

 

WOS Best Games (updated relatively frequenty as its visitor voted)

 

WOS Frequently Played (this is not always ideal as above some may not be suitable given their type)

 

And just to add a bit of spice into the mix (sorry!) > Top 100 Worst Games (Again, visitor voted for these)

 

If you really wanted a couple of suggestions then here but this is in no particular order as such. I've excluded text adventures and some isometric games and hopefully all these are available and not 'denied' although to be blunt Google would turn up any such things anyway. :)

 

Chuckie Egg (not CH 2)

Arkanoid

Motos

Tapper

Bomb Jack (or BJ2)

Spiky Harold

Stop The Express

Uridium

Skool Daze (this or Back To Skool) , although SD is smaller its less involved than BTS

Jack The Nipper 2

Bruce Lee

Kokotoni Wilf (one of my favourites!)

Cybernoid 2

Saboteur (possibly too difficult)

Mikie

Ant Attack

Space Raiders

Horace Goes Skiing

Boulder Dash

Thrust

Pheenix

Batty

[jetsetdanny]

From my personal playing experience + imagining what today's kids might like / find acceptable, I would support "Bomb Jack" (played using a joystick, though, not the keyboard) and I would add "Jumping Jack" (played using the keyboard), both having fantastic gameplay which I think makes their "poor" graphics irrelevent.

 

In a similar vein, perhaps "Frogger" could do the trick, too? Plus one of these games (I can't remember the name right now, I think there must have been various versions) where you have a moving platform at the bottom and there is a ball or something which bounces off it and goes up and destroys blocks up there, and then comes back downwards, and you have to be there at the right place to make it bounce back up again.

 

Another of my favourites of the 1980s, with a fantastic gameplay for me, was "Paperboy" (or "Paper Boy", I can't remember the spelling off the top of my head). However, I'm not sure if the graphics would not put them off, taking today's standards into account.

 

Another thought (slightly blasphemous!) would be to use some of the PC remakes of the 1980s classics. They wouldn't convey the full flavour of the originals (loading from tape, etc.), but they might showcase some of the old games with graphics and sound more accessible to the young generation...

Edited August 11, 2017 by jetsetdanny

[Spider]

Good call on Jumping Jack. :) I thought about New Zealand Story and / or Rainbow Islands and suchlike but those are a bit difficult sometimes.

 

Frogger is a good idea too. Plenty of clones of it. Bat/Ball games, aka "breakout" type clones, yes. I did include Arkanoid and Batty although both are a bit difficult but not too bad to get a couple of levels in.

 

Most seem to call PB as "PaperBoy" despite it being "Paper Boy" at least as far as I know. :)

 

Remakes are a good call too, although the only slight downside with some of these is the inability to add a quick tweak or two if needed to make it a bit easier, faithful remakes may be a bit too difficult. :unsure: for those used to forgiving games and save points.