<![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> @bgordon: :)

Spoony Bard

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My Mom was addicted to Zombie's Ate My Neighbors.

purdy

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Michael,
When you came in yesterday and said, "Mom, you'd better go to Kotaku", I was ready to get out my dueling swords, grab your baby book and raise hell!

But when I read your words I was so surprised and moved... I knew they came straight from your heart.

I've been proud of you from the moment you drew your first breath and will be till the day I draw my last. Love,Mom

PS I have never been invited to return to your apartment to play Wii bowling again. Just thought I'd mention that.

bgordon

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> my mum still plays puzzle fighter on PSN lol and beating up noobs.

GimmeCat

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Aww thats such a sweet story!

Last time I saw my mom was 11 years ago. The last thing she said to me was "I'd rather you be dead than a fucking queer"

So people - enjoy yer moms y'hear!

Basscadet

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Hmm. May 28, 1973... my wife's birthday. Sounds like you two were born 27 days apart.

mariospants

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> @ ego531: You beat me to it!

Great story, Mike, but I suspect ego531 is correct in thinking that you wanted "empathetic" rather than "emphatic." Although, you were probably that as a kid, too!

wotthehell

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My mom really didn't have a lot of money, but she was always good about getting me a game that I wanted or at least MASK vehicles. When we got our Atari, she liked to play Laser Blast, but I don't remember her playing any games after that. She expressed some interest in trying out the Wii, but so did my wife and neither one of them has bothered to try playing it, even though I got it at launch. She would coordinate with my dad and sometimes grandparents when a system came out. When we moved from England to the US when I was nine, they were American and I was born in England so I was English and American, she worked with my dad to get me an NES, which was great because they had just started going through an incredibly messy divorce. The divorce was still fairly messy when they bought the Game Boy with supplemental games from my grandma. By the time the SNES came out, they were not talking to each other, but they still coordinated to get it for me. Having divorced parents meant that I often got two games for Christmas and two for my birthday, so that was pretty great, since it took forever to save up my $1 allowance for a game.

kingofallcosmos

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Great story. My girlfriend did something similar for my birthday this year. She bought me a copy of Resistance, and I had to sadly tell her that it wouldn't play on my Xbox 360. So, she said she had the receipt in the other room so I could return it. She came back in the room with my new PS3.

I love that woman.

Sasquatch

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My 15th birthday was spent on a school trip. When I got home, the NES I asked for was already set up in my bedroom... and my Mom was playing Super Mario Brothers. She was always a gamer, even back in the Intellivision days (Lock 'n' Chase and Burger Time were her favorites), and after I went away to college she bought herself a SNES. The N64 and Gamecube were Christmas presents from me - I enjoyed turning the tables on her like that. And I'm convinced that playing games kept her mind sharp.

After I moved out, she'd invite me back to the house under the guise that she wanted to cook me dinner, but inevitably she'd say "I'm stuck on this one part in Mario..."

She passed away about two years ago, and I still miss helping her with video games...

gotroot801

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> great story and great point. share the joy and spread the knowledge. YAY!

Awoken

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> *crying*

kwant

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> @Chances: Correction: love your parents, EVEN IF they're jerks.

phinehas

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Toys? all my gifts where socks.

Now that you ask, I hate socks. Socks are evile. Socks must die!.

I can make my own toys with bananas and coconuts.

Also, the "Tanks" game on the Atari2600 was, is, awesome.

Tei

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Me and mom playing street fighter 2 for hours on end. Good times!

Lokku

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Very nicely written, nice use of dramatic irony, overall a well done piece.

Empathetic.

ego531

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My parents got me a ColecoVision Christmas Eve 1982. I still did not know how tell time and they told me it was bed time after I had only played Donkey Kong once. They stayed-up all night playing that thing.

Then my mother started gambling with her brother over the video game Lady Bug. It got so bad that she got RSI before anyone knew about that and she would see the little bugs from the game on the walls.

The ColecoVision was the last gen that my mother was more into than me though. She never got the hang of SMB. That actually made me sad when I was a kid, but her brother, my uncle, was a worthy competitor.

mzs

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Mike, your mom is awesome. That's a great sense of humor she has, glad she passed it down.

MelodyKitn

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Dude, has your mom seen this? Seriously? It's freaking great.

Narynan

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> i remembered one year, i was prolly about 12-13 dad came back from the states bearing gifts for everyone. mine was a box just about the right size for an snes which i had asked for months and months before. i proceeded to shake my brother's hand and said 'cools we've got an snes' only to get home and find out it was a set of electronic circuitry toy set thing. i was crushed :( the following year he made it up though. we got a Gameboy (non-color) with FF Adventure.

Kusa

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Ha, very nice and touching story !

On one of my birthdays, my dad had dropped me off at my grandparents' house, after giving me a birthday cake.

After getting out of the car, he told me the trunk wasn't closed properly and asked me to go and close it.

When I opened it to slam it back down, I saw a white plastic bag, through which I saw a big box with a picture of Mario riding Yoshi ... I screamed so loud my dad had to put his hand in front of my mouth.

Good times !

Lapoisse

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My mom, man. She bought me Super Mario Bros 3 for 120$ Canadian the day it came out.

jeffx

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Something kinda similar happened to me when I got my TurboGrafx-16 for Christmas. My parents weren't watching when I was opening presents and I opened one of the games first. I nearly knocked over the Christmas tree leaping for the only gift that was the right shape and size to be the system.

Eltigro

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Really awesome man. A real lesson in (future) parenting as well! I like the bike in the bath story.

Also great to read that you and mom still get together to game - very touching.

Cheers!

tkshredder

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Wow cool parents.. my mom's this cool.. except the part where she beat the crap out of me for burning out my first sega genesis cartridge. Poor Sonic.. rest in peace.. Well father's day is next.. too bad leng's dad sucks ;d

Zeiphor

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> That's so genius, dude! I wish I had grown up with crafty parents like that. Not that I'm not thankful to my parents for raising me, but because they didn't help shape me into anything good for this world..anyways off topic.

GAMESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

jiSh

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Just so you know . . . over time you invented the bit about being sad because of your mother's disappointment. Ask your mom. She knows, as well as I know, that you were a seven year old who was crying because he didn't get an Atari 2600. :)

You'd like to think you were that noble when you were seven years old.

shmokes

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My mom plays Diablo 2, Beyond Good & Evil, Bioshock, and Offroad Velocirapter Safari.

glutto

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I'll always remember the year my mom bought me a remote-control plane. It was something I didn't ask for so I didn't even open it and my mom returned it. I have incredible guilt from appearing to be such a selfish bastard when my mom tried so hard and probably spent a lot of money on it (money we didn't really have). What's strange is I'm 22 now and would love a remote-control plane. Guess I should have told her that, it being mother's day and all.

Spaceboy

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My mom's done double deceptions. Big boxes filled with smaller gifts but the gift that was originally inside the large box actually is a gift hidden elsewhere. Win-win for me.

Spaceboy

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> x3
My Mom can still to this day kick my ass on Super Mario Bros. for the NES.

Tom133t

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I said "pew pew" out loud about halfway through that story.

Unfortunately, my parents hate games, so I've never had an experience even remotely as amusing/momentarily heartbreaking.

Aethyr

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Ah, everybody loves a great "mom" story.
Thank you good sir.

fecalchaos

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> For my 10th Christmas, I ripped off the paper on a certain present to find... a shoebox. I couldn't keep the disappointment off my face, but my mum told me to open it and see if I liked the shoes. I lifted the lid and sitting there was a copy of 1080 Snowboarding for the N64. I love those deceptions.

Majorasblaze

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Thanks, Mr. Fahey.

willyt9

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I was visiting my father and half brother one year for christmas and my brother and I recieved a couple of Japanese games for our playstation. I smiled, thanked my father and tried, as gently as possible to explain to him that these games wouldont work on our U.S. market playstation. He looked slightly confused and said "it never hurts to try."

Much to our surprise the games booted right up and started playing. I was shocked, my brother was too for a brief moment. Then i suddenly saw the realization in his eyes. "I KNEW i wasn't really in trouble last week!" Apparently our father had found an excuse to "punish" my younger brother by confiscating the Playstation for a week or so. I can only imagine how my brother whined and screamed at cuelty of such a move at the time. Still, playing "Kamen Rider" and "Densha de GO!" on our home PS one was totally worth it.

fetusdacat

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> that reminds me of time my mother tricked me into thinking i was dieing of sleeping disease at the age of 11.

Mothers are awsome

Prinygod

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I was born in '79 but we still have the Sears Video Pinball my parents played when they were younger. I remember my father purchasing Jungle Hunt for the Atari as a Christmas gift for my mother. Now she loves Guitar Hero and has her own DS. She plays it all the time.

Adam In Texas

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Nicely written :D

Mpalm.

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I have a similar story, Owen.

I'm a single child and never had a dad, but one year I was promised a Commodore 64 computer for Christmas.

Normally, all my presents were put in a big xmas sack by the end of the bed. That morning I woke up excited as hell, but there was no computer in the bag, but instead some books and toys, and clothes.

I was disappointed, but knew mum was struggling as it was, so I thanked her for the presents and sat happily reading my book.

Meanwhile, she snuck into the lounge and put the C64 in the middle of the floor, knowing I'd eventually go in there to watch cartoons.

As soon as I saw the package, I knew what it was, and flew into her room thanking her for the amazing present.

FunkyJ

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Great stuff. The part where she let you cry for an hour is especially devious. I would have broken down and called the joke off by then. (seeing people cry always makes me want to cry too :p)

ShaggE

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> @VergessenHeld:
In a kind of similar way, me and Mum conspired this Xmas to find my little sister a Wii, two cities, double the chances. I got one, thanks Darren, along with tonnes of games. Christmas Day, she holds off on the big, obvious present, which we all told her to open first, only to open the one with all the games in it first.

Still, she was happy, the main thing.

josh51

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Nice story Mike. After reading the story one of the things that stood out in my mind is the one time my family went back to the Jersey shore to visit my grandparents. My dad and grandparents went in the casinos and my mom took my sister and myself into one of the casinos arcades to watch us play games. She was not into any games but one caught her eye, Centipede, she played that game the hole day we were there and to this day if she will play that game as long as it is the classic arcade version of the game.

GGhoul

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Hahaha man, what an excellent birthday prank. Your mom was on point!

残心

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Back in the height of the Nintendo days, we gave my mother Dr. Mario for Mothers' Day. It was a very happy May in my household.

Come to think about it, I think that's the only game I ever played with my mom. She loved it.

Good memories.

cv_otaku

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> That's a great story Mike. My mom got me an SNES the year it came out, without me even asking for one. Those were good times and I didn't even realize it. Ah to be young enough to still get presents. Wish I wouldn't have had to work today, but at least I got to take her to dinner.

Rabite

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> That is one of the better mean/funny mom stories I've heard. I also love the bike-in-the-shower idea. I'll have to try that when I have kids. Hiding stuff under my bed wouldn't have worked, because under my bed was typically the cleanest part of my room, simply because I liked to crawl under there and hang out.

etho

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I remember getting an N64 from my parents for me and my brother. I think our first two games were Turok and Mario Kart. They bought Turok because it had a dinosaur on it and my brother and I were obsessed with them. We later stayed away from the game because it was too scary.

BrutalAssailant

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> lol, thats quite similar to my own story: My mom gave me a coloring book for my birthday once, after having begged her for an N64 for about month. I cried for a while, and she came into my room with Ninty in hand. Moms are spectacular arent they?

AMFresh

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Great post, thanks for sharing.

pvaras

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Nice story. It's weird how presents that I didn't want or were missing something ended up being the most cherished. I remember getting a Go-bot instead of a Transformer one time, but it became one of my favorite things as it was bought out of love.

Swordmonkey

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I remember my mom bought me the NES for my birthday along with a game. Of course we weren't the richest of folks so she had been saving up for a while.
My most vivid memory is her having the entire electronics department at Kmart helping her count rolled up coins. She got it and we walked out from Kmart with it...and she proceeded to own me at Duck Hunt ever after.


Chuco

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> my dad tricked me when the PS2 first came out by practically telling me he was giving me one for Christmas and putting it under the tree and then replaced it with a similar sized VCR for my mom when I wasn't looking hiding the PS2 under his bed but he gave it to me after everything else was gone while I was deeply confused

schuylerv

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I have a similar story, though not Mother's Day-related. When Christmas comes around, my entire family gathers from around the U.S. to celebrate together.

When I was 4, they handed me a present about the size of three DVD cases. Inside was Jurassic Park for the Genesis. I told my family with much disappointment that my brother and I didn't have a Genesis. The next present they handed us had the Genesis in it. I practically cried.

VergessenHeld

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> To correct myself, it was actually from Coleco bought in Sears

Orionsaint

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> wicked story

happy momdukes day

horsekateer

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]>

That's a great story. My first experience with a video game was my in 77 when older brother got a Sears Telstar for his birthday. The carts were triangles, so was the console itself. It came with three games, pong, dragracing and shoot the man on the screen. All in green and white color. I was fascinated to say the least. In 79 my mom got us an Atari 2600 and the rest is history.

[gamesmuseum.pixesthesia.com]

Orionsaint

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> @Wizzard: Nope, it's today...

bobtheduck

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I remember when my mom bought Donkey Kong for me... She told me not to look in the bag, but I did, and I got excited about it and talked about it... She told me i couldn't have the game until I went a certain amount of time without talking about it... It was a while before I got it... Didn't help I had to see it every day at school, and we weren't allowed to play the arcade games most of the time... They were just there. It was a huge treat when we could stay in from recess to play them...

bobtheduck

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> ...Is mothers day on a different date in the US? If not, I'm in trouble.

Wizzard

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> "... even going as far as to mimic playing a portable game with her hands." Nice sell. Good on your mom lol.

I was awaiting the PlayStation NA launch and had saved up my money. The day before I was over at my mom's place and was talking about it with here. She went to her room and came back handing me $300. That was coolness.

OldManGaming

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Coolest mom-day story ever!

DukeOfPwn

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> @hogarth1: lmao, why the hell would you continue to eat it if it was really onion sauce? hahah thats awesome, I'm going to go to that to my mum right now brb.

Laser_iCE

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Mike,very cool story. I had to re read the date you put in there. You were a bit ahead of me on the games. I was just being born on May 1st, 1980. My mom has done some very cool things on May 1st as well.

R0D1MUSPRIME

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> awwwww.

KM91

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Nice story Fah-man! Especially nice to see, as a child of divorce myself, how your parents were able to work together to make your birthday something special.

I similarly remember when my mom bought my father an Atari 5200 for his birthday in 1982 (I think) little did they know they were creating a monster in their son!

GettinMyGooseOn

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Not to be an asshole, but I would have never forgiven my mother for something like that. A real mistake? Yeah. Then again, as a different child, maybe you appreciated tricks. If there's one thing I could never (and still don't) take well, it was deceptions.

tzaketh

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> AND HOW!

I find it how ironic it is my mom always kinda bitched about me playing games later when in the end she started it lol.

demonknightinuyasha

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Very nice story!!! I thnik I'll buy another gift to my mother (in my country, Spain, it was first May's sunday)

nmlss

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Nice story, Mr. Fahey.

I fondly remember my mother playing the family's 5200 with me on weekend nights, cranking up the music of the 80s while we played such classics as Pac-Man(the best Atari version PERIOD), Ms. Pac-Man, Countermeasure, Pengo, Star Raiders, and Centipede.

I'll never forget the look on my mother's face when I drew a NES for my Christmas wants, complete with a TV screen depicting Super Mario Bros.

Hardcore

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Mike, that is the most beautiful childhood memories stories I've ever heard. I could write a screenplay for a movie with that story.

rich8606

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Yep - good times...
I was 12. Came home from school on my birthday, all excited at the thought that there would be presents waiting for me.
No presents. My mom had forgotten my birthday! I was so crushed.
A bit later she asked me to put a load of clothes into the washer, where of course she had hidden my presents.
She did like to have fun at my expense, I must say...like the time she made a dessert that had lemon sauce drizzled on it, which she told me was "onion sauce". She and my brothers just ate it up, while I stood there crying - "Onion sauce??? No way!".
Very funny, mom...very funny.






hogarth1

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> The best thing about parents (apart from the love and endless supply of money), is when they try to do things for their kids without any kind of knowledge, like how every gaming console is an "xbox" or "playstation". When I was younger I used to get annoyed with it, but now I've learnt one day I'm gonna be the crazy cook with no idea! BRING IT ON!

Laser_iCE

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Your story reminds me of the time my dad got me a NES game when all I had was an original Gameboy at the time. He said he thought it would work because it said "Nintendo" on it. However, his wasn't a deception. It was really him not knowing.

jeccaneko

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> aww cute story ^^~ and happy mother's day to all the moms!

hrabbit

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> I... shed a tear... I haven't called my mom yet :((

sugardeath

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> very cool, my mom pretty much grunted , took me to toys r us, bought me a few things ,grunted again and then sat me down in front of the tv when we got home, so yeah, id say your mothers methods were mroe heartfelt and imaginative.

though on the games not i got a nes when i was 3 or 4 off my grandparents, but never played it much since my mom said "you wouldnt know how to plug it in, and i got my 2nd after that, a gameboy in 1999, after 5 years of convincing her that they didnt give you brain tumours like someone convinced her they did.

good times. retarded, but good.

underground_slacker

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Mike, your mom is awesome. And when she reads this page I can't wait to see her response. :)

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, and yours...and all the others out there. :)

I LOVE the bike in the shower. Classic!

Spoony Bard

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> Beautiful.

steerpike

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> That's an awesome story Mike. :) You're very lucky to have a mom like that, and vice versa. Also, Happy Mother's Day to any mothers reading this page.

nekura

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> And yeah, a very good story.

Chances

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> My younger brother and I took our mumsy out to a restaurant she liked this week - she was so happy about it, I am now beset with guilt at having not done it more often.

Love your parents! Unless they're jerks.

Chances

]]> <![CDATA[The Games My Mother Played]]> awwwwwwwwwwwwww~! good story. and happy mothers day~!

MushroomBoy1022

]]>