Happy Father’s Day! And so, in honor of that, this article is all about my dad’s favorite video games. Now, if you asked him directly which video games he likes, he probably wouldn’t say too much. As the family grows and changes and new commitments arise, my dad is just too busy to try and remember all the games he’s enjoyed playing in the past. Luckily, I have a pretty good memory and I know which games he likes. So I guess I should rephrase and say that this article is all about the games I REMEMBER my dad playing and enjoying! Have fun!

Pong
I was pretty young when Pong was in its heyday, so I don’t remember too much about my dad playing it. But I have to mention it anyway because my dad learned electrical engineering in college as one of his majors, and he’s super smart and can fix and build almost anything. In fact, he even built our first family TV! I’m not sure if they’re around anymore, but back then you could order parts from a catalog called HeathKit and build stuff from them. The TV he put together was super big, and even had a remote control! (big deal back then). The TV looked like a piece of wood furniture, but then, lots of TV’s back then looked like that. Also, my dad built a HeathKit piano metronome. Anyway, one of the things he added to the TV was a Pong console. All you had to do was pull the paddle controls out of the back and turn it to a specific channel and start playing! I was so young that I didn’t even realize that was a video game. I just thought it was something on your TV that you could do when there was nothing else to watch.

Centipede
When arcades were huge in the 80’s and our family would go to one, whether it was in Chuck E. Cheese or Putt-Putt Mini-Golf, each of us had our favorites. I would zip on over to Pac-Man, my mom would hop to the Frogger machine, and my dad would make a beeline for Centipede. He loved that game and I’m pretty sure that if you asked him today, he’d probably still mention enjoying it.

Pole Position
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of, or see Pole Position, is how my dad and I used to play it in early 80’s arcades when I was a kid. Arcade games like Pole Position and Sega’s Turbo had sit-down arcade machines that simulated driving as much as they could. So my dad would sit in those and put me on his lap and we’d play it together. When I go to arcade auctions and see one of those old Pole Position sit-down machines now, I always think to myself that I must’ve been a REALLY little kid when my dad and I would do that, because I don’t see how we could’ve fit in there!

Arkanoid
I’ve already talked about Arkanoid in my last article, so if you want to read that, just click here. However, I will repeat that my dad and I used to love playing the arcade version at the Pizza Inn near our house. And the NES version was one of the first games I got for that console because I thought he would enjoy playing it (and the paddle controller was cool, too).

NES Golf
Speaking of the NES, another game I got for my dad back then that he liked was NES Golf. And I mean the OLD NES Golf, where Mario looked more like a dumpy human with a beer gut. One of my dad’s favorite pastimes is playing golf in real life, and ever since I can remember, he’s loved golfing with friends, co-workers, and his other brothers. So he did play NES Golf quite a bit. I did go with my dad out to the golf course a few times as a kid, but I think I was more interested in driving the golf cart then actually playing. I could try to play for real now, but I bet I’d be terrible at it. Mini-golf is more my speed: the tackier the course, the better!

One of my original plans for this article was to talk more about some other modern golf games as well. I picked up a couple of Wii golf games super cheap recently: Super Swing Golf and We Love Golf. Unfortunately, I haven’t found the time to play them yet so I can’t say much about them! I picked them up not only because they were super cheap, but because they also had adorably cute characters and you all know I’m a sucker for that. Plus I know that We Love Golf was made by Camelot, makers of the awesome Mario Golf on GameCube (and the Hot Shot Golf games as well). I heard you can unlock costumes of classic Capcom characters in We Love Golf, like Ken, Chun-Li, Morrigan, Zack from Zack & Wiki, and even Apollo Justice! I heard that Super Swing Golf: Season 2 also has costumes of classic game characters from Tecmo. The characters from Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive I don’t care about, but they have REAL old classic costumes like Solomon’s Key and Mighty Bomb Jack (I wish Tecmo would bring back those games). But I won’t get the sequel until I actually play the first one! Another cutesy golf game I’m keeping my eye on is Pangaya: Fantasy Golf for the PSP. I think my favorite video golf game is Mario Golf on the GameCube. It’s amazing to me how much control you have over the ball. If I could get my dad to play it, I bet he’d like Mario Golf, too.

There were other NES games that my dad and I played together. We played Rad Racer a lot, which I can’t understand why because that really wasn’t a very good game. And we played two-players shooters like Capcom’s Legendary Wings. At the time, the NES was popular when my parents were going through a divorce, and it was pretty tough sometimes so I think playing NES games together with my dad was a good way for us to cope and spend time together.

Flight Simulators
One type of game my dad has always had an interest in are flight simulators. Not any one in particular, just any he can get his hands on and find time to play! He even piloted super old primitive simulators on our very first computer we owned: the Apple ][+! When I go to E3 I always take my dad with me, and any time he saw a flight simulator or flight stick on display, he always had to try it! Which is good, because that’s how I learned that the makers of Fly!, Terminal Reality, are located real close to where I live, and they also developed the new Ghostbusters game!

And speaking of flight sticks, when I was writing for The Dallas Morning News, not only did I review video games, but game accessories as well. One time, Saitek sent us a super cool flight stick to review and it looked like real fighter jet controls. It even had the flip switch with the big red button underneath for shooting out super secret missiles! Needless to say, me and my dad gave it glowing reviews! But since it was a really expensive joystick, we had to give it back. My dad was a very Sad Dad that day! Years later when we went back to E3, the folks at Saitek still remembered us!

Pilotwings
Speaking of flight simulators, when I first got my Super Nintendo, I took it with me at Christmas when we visited relatives in Alabama. For Christmas that year I got Mode 7 showcase Pilotwings, and I swear, my dad and his brothers/my uncles played that game all night! And they did that for three nights in a row! I’ve never seen them play a game like that! I definitely got my money’s worth out of that game in just that time! I never played Pilotwings 64, though. I wonder if it’s any good.

MechWarrior
Another simulator that my dad kind of got into for a while was the MechWarrior game on PC that came out in the 90’s. But I think the only reason why he got into it was because his other brothers were playing it. From what I could tell, MechWarrior looked more like a tank simulator so maybe that’s why my dad liked it because he used to drive real tanks when he was in the Army. Personally I think the Armored Core games are better mech titles. I even reviewed the first in the series for the newspaper back then.

Ridge Racer
When I got older, arcade games became more advanced and cost more than a quarter to play. My dad and I didn’t play arcade games as much as we used to, but sometimes we’d still go and see what they had. When 3-D was just getting big in arcades, there were a couple of games that did catch my dad’s eye. One was Air Combat. My dad really never got into the home console Ace Combat games, but my other little brother on my mom’s side, Jeff, his dad is into those. But the other 3-D game, also from Namco, that my dad played a lot in arcades was Ridge Racer. He was into that game long before I got into the home console RR games! In fact, much later on when I was playing a Ridge Racer game at home (the N64 one I believe), he walked in and without even looking at the box, asked “Hey, isn’t that Ridge Racer?” He recognized it just by seeing the track on screen, and I was impressed he remembered details like that!

Myst Games
Another video game my dad was really into was the Myst series. And I mean REALLY into them! He bought and finished all the sequels, read the books and other merchandise like calendars, heck I think he even got the parody Myst games like Pyst! Every year that we would go to E3, he’d always ask what the next Myst game is going to be and where is was at E3. I hated having to tell him in the last couple of years that I don’t think they’re making Myst games anymore.

I like point and click adventure games, but I never really got into Myst. Sam & Max and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is more my speed. The original Myst looked cool at first, but once I realized it was nothing more than a slideshow, I lost interest. Of course, the Myst games have improved since then, but one thing they all have are non-intuitive puzzles. I do have to admit, though, the Myst games do have a unique mood about them. I think that’s what my dad likes about them. And since he likes to figure out tough puzzles, even staying up all night if he has to, I think that’s why he’s really into Myst games!

Conclusions
And that’s about all the video games I can remember my dad really playing and enjoying. I think most of the time, though, he was playing video games with me simply because he knew I really liked them, and nothing makes a dad happier than seeing his kids be happy. Nowadays, my dad is so busy with his job and taking care of our ever-growing family that he doesn’t have any time to play video games anymore. If you asked him what his favorite thing to do is, he’d say something like, “Taking care of my family and spending time with them.” And who can blame him? My little brothers are awesome! I think it’s great that my dad and stepmom do whatever it takes to do what they feel is right for their kids and devote their life to taking care of them-and me, too! The only thing that worries me is I hope my dad doesn’t work himself too hard. I hope he takes time out every once in a while to do what HE wants to do. “Dad” time that doesn’t involve doing things for others, just himself. That’s part of the reason why I take him to E3 and/or PAX every year, just so he can get away from it all.

Anyway, on Father’s Day this weekend, I am going to do something video game-related with my dad. I bought tickets to a Final Fantasy orchestra concert that is playing that night, so I’m taking him and a handful of my little brothers to go see it. I don’t think my dad and little brothers have much interest in Final Fantasy games, but I bet they’ll enjoy learning about one of the aspects of why I like some of the titles in the Final Fantasy series: the sweepingly beautiful musical scores that would fit well in an orchestra setting. So when I get back from that, I’ll write about the concert in my next article.

And that’s all for now. What kinds of games does YOUR dad like? If you’re a dad, what kinds of games do you like to play with your kids? Share your video game and dad related stories in the comments section. –Cary

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