Penny Pinching Mom

Classic Video Games Rule!

I’m not a hardcore gamer by any means. In fact, I just can’t get into most of the newer games. But I love, love, love some of the older ones. There’s just something about those ancient Atari games that takes me back to my childhood. And besides that, they actually make a reasonable amount of sense to me.

I also like some of the games from the Nintendo/Sega Genesis era. Pumpkin has a Super Nintendo, and we were all major Donkey Kong Country addicts for a long time, until we finally beat the final level. And yesterday, my brother-in-law let us borrow my favorite game of all time: Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

My cousin bought me that game for my birthday when I was a teenager, and we would spend hours on end playing it. It didn’t have the most cutting-edge graphics for the time or anything, I just loved the whole concept of it. Each level was like one of those cheezy old horror movies. Sometimes there were guys with chainsaws after you, sometimes it was giant bugs, and sometimes it was clones of your character. Awesome stuff.

We brought it home and played it for a while last night. Even Pumpkin loved it, which surprised me seeing how even little things like the noise that hand dryers make scare her. One of the books she had to read for school gave her nightmares, but that game does not bother her in the least. Go figure.

If you need a video game fix on a budget, classic games are definitely the way to go. You can find old systems in good condition at yard sales or on eBay for next to nothing, and the games to go with them are even less expensive. You can also find some of the older games on those joysticks that plug right into your TV. Happy gaming!