MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hey all. My three year-old is very fascinated by the colourful displays of my MiSTer but it's nearly impossible to find any appropriate games that he can play. His motor skills are just about enough to move Mario (whom he knows from a plush toy) left and right, then stop and jump in place. That gets boring soon, even with cheats. So I'd like to appeal to the wisdom of the crowd.. Any game suggestions for the very youngest? I don't really mind which core.

I almost have something in mind but been trying for 7-8min now but does not want too come out .
Probably think about it 15seconds before falling asleep which then causes me to wake up for half an hour

The only thing i do think about right now is pong and pong like games, maybe arkanoid/breakout but think they will be a bit too fast.
A joystick could maybe be a bit easier to handle.

I'm pretty sure I wasn't playing video games at 3yo, but maybe a year or so later I was playing Atari 2600 games. Those are very simplistic, require only moving up/down, left/right and one button. Most of those are one screen arcade type games. So you could also look at 70's and early 80's arcade games. I.E. Pacman, Space Invaders, etc.

Good luck!

The joystick was a great suggestion, much more "tactile" to small hands than the gamepad. Fortunately I had a The Arcade stick from the 80's and DB9 to USB adapter around. Makes a world of difference.. and the little man is now using his proud dad's old weapon of choice. That counts for something!

I think you should avoid arcade core for now, those games want to kill the player as fast as possible. I don't have any specific suggestions, but you should start with console like the Atari or Coleco Vision, also old computer core like the MSX or C64 got more of educational and slow pace games than consoles.

My kids love playing Goof Troop for SNES with cheats on! Maybe try that one.

There is Barney's Hide and Seek for Sega Genesis. But I feel that is opening a door you can't close. Games with cheats is a great option. Throw a console game on with an invincibility cheat on and go to town. Maybe Mickey Mousecapades for NES? Possibly Mickey Mania on Genesis?

My four year-old is having a lot of fun playing TMNT 3 & 4 on NES/SNES with infinite lives. Even after several playthroughs. Highly recommended if your kid is into TMNT.

Bas wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:16 am Hey all. My three year-old is very fascinated by the colourful displays of my MiSTer but it's nearly impossible to find any appropriate games that he can play. His motor skills are just about enough to move Mario (whom he knows from a plush toy) left and right, then stop and jump in place. That gets boring soon, even with cheats. So I'd like to appeal to the wisdom of the crowd.. Any game suggestions for the very youngest? I don't really mind which core.

ao486 core and this --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putt-Putt_(series)

Bas wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:16 am Hey all. My three year-old is very fascinated by the colourful displays of my MiSTer but it's nearly impossible to find any appropriate games that he can play. His motor skills are just about enough to move Mario (whom he knows from a plush toy) left and right, then stop and jump in place. That gets boring soon, even with cheats. So I'd like to appeal to the wisdom of the crowd.. Any game suggestions for the very youngest? I don't really mind which core.

At 3 yrs old, that might be a bit too young for video games on MiSTer. A leap frog device seems more appropriate to be honest

But I guess if I were to recommend a game, maybe Pac-Man? I mean the controls are simple enough.

Here something I think you might want to look at

I had some success with Darius II for mega drive using its invincibility code. The ship can’t be destroyed, so it’s just practice for using a d-pad to move around and a button to make something happen.

This isn’t on MiSTer, but my kids really like Untitled Goose Game. We play on Switch using two seperate joy-cons. I mapped all the buttons to the right one and gave them the left one so they just had the stick for movement, and once they got used to that gave them control of the buttons as well. It’s actually a fairly tricky game for kids to make progress in, but there’s no fail state, the theming is very wholesome, and just waddling around making a mess is a lot of fun for the kids.

"Richard Scarry's Busytown" for SEGA Genesis is popular with my 2 year old. "Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion" on easy, and Frogger are also good. All on Genesis.

Jim Mack wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:24 pm There is Barney's Hide and Seek for Sega Genesis. But I feel that is opening a door you can't close. Games with cheats is a great option. Throw a console game on with an invincibility cheat on and go to town. Maybe Mickey Mousecapades for NES? Possibly Mickey Mania on Genesis?

The Barny game is absolute garbage. Avoid.

SegaSnatcher wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:07 am

Bas wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:16 am Hey all. My three year-old is very fascinated by the colourful displays of my MiSTer but it's nearly impossible to find any appropriate games that he can play. His motor skills are just about enough to move Mario (whom he knows from a plush toy) left and right, then stop and jump in place. That gets boring soon, even with cheats. So I'd like to appeal to the wisdom of the crowd.. Any game suggestions for the very youngest? I don't really mind which core.

At 3 yrs old, that might be a bit too young for video games on MiSTer. A leap frog device seems more appropriate to be honest

But I guess if I were to recommend a game, maybe Pac-Man? I mean the controls are simple enough.

I was at pre-school age and playing Frogger on my dad's Atari 2600, by Kindergarten I was playing Dragon Warrior I on the NES. Don't underestimate kids

Three of the first games I recall playing (around age 4) were Pole Position II, Donald Duck's Playground and Bozo's Night Out, all on C64.

Years later, a friend of mine's little brother started with the Putt Putt series of games on Windows. He was three or four, I think.

Pacnan and Frogger with a nice sturdy arcade stick should.be.easy to pickup. Pooyan, Bubble Bobble, and Wonder Boy are harder but can be appealimg.due to the colorful graphics.

Super Mario Brothers - my kids loved it (and so do I).

My oldest daughter loved ms pacman at the laundromat and mslug on my mvs at age 3. My youngest son is a wizard at age 5, playing online fps he installed on my Linux computer himself.

I have them play "prodigy game" web based math game in trade for time with other games. It starts at age 5 grade 1. Both my kids love it, which is odd because they fought me on other educational programs.

Arcade games I enjoyed early in childhood were contra, tmnt, sunset riders. Console were smb, excitebike, duck hunt, sonic, streets of rage, earthworm jim, golden axe.