Fun Of Pacman

I have happy memories of my childhood toys, mainly because I would play with them well into older childhood. This was not because of a developmental delay. The games that I remember where kept at my grandparent’s house. Since my grandmother had no clue about appropriate child development, she kept these games in a closet that smelled of mothballs, in a box that I could easily access.

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One of the most difficult things for me when it comes to games for my boys is finding appropriate games for an eight year old. To make it harder, his brother is three years younger and wants to watch or play the game. In the gaming world, three years age difference is huge. The eight year old can read very well so instructions are not a problem and word based games are well within his abilities. The five year old is just learning to read so he cannot play the same games as his brother, and that just chaps his hide.

One of the things that I have found is that going old school is a good solution. Things like pacman games are both safe and fun. Pacman came out in 1980, so I played them as a kid. I am able to talk to them, give instructions and generally coach without having to be right over their shoulders. These games are great since the level of instruction is low. Eat the dots. Eat the blue ghosts. Eat the fruit. Run from anything else.

There is a reason that these old games are a classic. Whether they are kept in a box at grandma’s house or whether they are loaded up on a tricked out computer, the originals have stood the test of time. As I get older (and stand the test of time myself) I appreciate that.