Games for your family
Re: Games for your family
Oh, you've just reminded me - as a family we also played the Mastertronic shooting gallery game "Rifle Range". I remember my dad being very enthusiastic about it, and me wondering why he didn't order JetPac.
CLEAR 23855
Re: Games for your family
It's strange how most Dad's didn't really care about games but would develop a strange fascination with one particular game. Usually one you would not expect.
Back in 84is I wanted a Speccy because my friends across the street had one. My birthday was coming up and they knew I wanted a computer. So they got me the Commodore 16
. I did have some fun with it, although I think I only had it about 6 months and my friends across the street sourced me a rubber 48k 
. But I remember my dad being obsessed with the painting program that came with the C16, which as you can imagine was very basic.
Back in 84is I wanted a Speccy because my friends across the street had one. My birthday was coming up and they knew I wanted a computer. So they got me the Commodore 16
. I did have some fun with it, although I think I only had it about 6 months and my friends across the street sourced me a rubber 48k . But I remember my dad being obsessed with the painting program that came with the C16, which as you can imagine was very basic.
Re: Games for your family
My Dad liked Tank Trax by Mastertronic and nothing else, although he would have liked Galaxians by Artic if I had it then - because it was such a good version of the arcade Galaxian, which he played. He liked the two player game where we could fire at each other's tanks using the simple controls. Sort of relaxing game. He wasn't good at the fast controls (including Galaxian) so Tank Trax was ideal.
My sister liked Atic Atac, I think because of the graphics and sound.
My sister liked Atic Atac, I think because of the graphics and sound.
Re: Games for your family
Not a bad game that, for the £1.99. Perhaps he liked it because it reminds him of the real thing?
I hope that you did not miss out on Jetpac!
Re: Games for your family
When I spent my teenage life savings on a 48K rubber key model from Boots my Dad looked at it and said "well they had bigger ones than that in there!" He was genuinely annoyed I'd spent my money on a physically smaller computer than was necessary. That was the only comment he ever made on it, other than to repeatedly tell me I'd never get a career in computers and I should learn a proper trade. I'm typing this from my desk at IBM. 
My Mum loved playing Space Raiders. That was the only game she ever played, and she always used the same strategy: sit behind a block, blast a hole in it, and keep firing until the enemy fire destroyed the block and she got hit. Time and again I tried to teach her to play out in the open and dodge incoming bullets, and time and again she scuttled back behind a block to do it her way. I recall being interested in how she always got a very similar final score, determinism of computers not being something I was familiar with back then.
My Mum loved playing Space Raiders. That was the only game she ever played, and she always used the same strategy: sit behind a block, blast a hole in it, and keep firing until the enemy fire destroyed the block and she got hit. Time and again I tried to teach her to play out in the open and dodge incoming bullets, and time and again she scuttled back behind a block to do it her way. I recall being interested in how she always got a very similar final score, determinism of computers not being something I was familiar with back then.
Derek Fountain, author of the ZX Spectrum C Programmer's Getting Started Guide and various open source games, hardware and other projects, including an IF1 and ZX Microdrive emulator.