Console gamers of GRM - What console with young kids?

So the situation here is that I've been a member of the PC master race for, oh, the past 20 years or so.. (When did the Genesis get surpassed?)

I've now got a few young kids running around the joint, and I thought it would be fun to play games with them (well, the 4 & 7 year old, anyway. The 1 year old will have to wait!). What's the current kid-friendly console that I should be looking at? I have the 7 year old playing some PC games, but nothing really beats a good controller and a dedicated system that they don't have to worry about clicking on updates or such to get a game going. Bonus points if the 4 year old can play along.

Back in my day, sonny, we had Sonic & Tails, which was perfect because the sidekick could help, but not really do anything to screw you up.

The last console I've used that I thought would fit the bill is a Wii. Looks like they're pretty cheap on the used market nowadays, too. I'm not looking for a portable screen or expensive controller here.

What's your thoughts?

The Wii is probably the most kid friendly. Next would be an XBox followed by Play Station.

The Play Station was by far the hardest system to find age appropriate games for.

I'll second the Wii. There's a lot of shovelware for it though.

my kids are 8 and have a ps2 and 3... im a sony fan myself so thats what they ended up with. some games are really kid friendly, some of them are rated for kids but the difficulty is kind of up there.

Wii/wii u. Game over. My kid has one. He's 5. He also has an xbox1, but that's because daddy was in a mood to troll mommy.

Another vote for WiiU.

Although Nintendo switch is coming out in a couple of months and might be worth waiting for.

Raspberry Pi 3 + RetroPi + USB SNES style controllers + NES/SNES ROMS

Wii/U or NES Classic if those ever hit shelves again.

I'm going with the NES as well as soon as I can find one.

m4ff3w wrote: Raspberry Pi 3 + RetroPi + USB SNES style controllers + NES/SNES ROMS

This, or an Ouya if you can find them. I have my boy's (6 and 4 months) setup with a NES, Ouya, and a Wii... now all I have to do is wait for them to be interested in video games.

I was thinking of picking up a already modded wii that has the classics on it, then a set of old school controllers for it. Sounds like most of you are in agreement there.

I'm a tech guy that now works in a software company, I've modded hardware and loaded roms onto things before, but generally the ui is pretty horrific, so it would be a lot more complicated for the 4 year old than just sticking a disc in to play a game.

How's the wii u hold up to 1 year olds throwing the controller? It seems like it would be more fragile and expensive than a traditional controller.

The switch seems like the exact opposite of what I need. The last thing I need is to be unable to find the bloody console because someone carried it into their room and now it's buried under a pile of stuffed animals.

WonkoTheSane wrote: I'm a tech guy that now works in a software company, I've modded hardware and loaded roms onto things before, but generally the ui is pretty horrific, so it would be a lot more complicated for the 4 year old than just sticking a disc in to play a game.

RetroPi has a pretty great UI. Not entirely different than what is on the NES Classic. Once you copy the ROMs initially (seriously as simple as plugging in a flash drive, nothing more) having the kid select them is super easy.

That's good to hear!

I have a setup on the DS that is great if you can read well, but doesn't help you otherwise..

Anyone offering kits for a nice looking Pi kit with an hdmi connector and good solid ports to plug controllers into?

What about those retro all in one consoles? The type that play 50 old Atari games and so forth? One stick and a button might be easier for little kids.

Gearheadotaku wrote: What about those retro all in one consoles? The type that play 50 old Atari games and so forth? One stick and a button might be easier for little kids.

Yeah, we used to have a few of those. One was Atari 2600 stuff, one was old arcade games, I want to say one was Sega Genesis stuff.

For the OP, I'd say troll Craigslist for a used Wii with a pile of games. It's almost 3 generations old at this point, so it should be dirt cheap.

The new Switch will offer much of what the Wii did but with the ability to be more fun for adults.

The Wii gets my vote. We have a 7yr old and (x3)3yr olds and have had a Wii for about 8yrs. We've replaced one Wii because my oldest jammed the disk reader, and have 1 out of our 4 remotes die. The remotes get carried and thrown around a lot and seems to take abuse relatively well. We have also found games that toddler and grandparents can enjoy.

+1 for Pi/Emulation Station/RetroPie

Also, the retro NES thing seems to be unobtanium at the moment, but I stumbled upon pretty much the exact same concept except Sega Genesis at Target the other day. $50, 80 games, 2 controllers, plug and play.

Downside though: no Vectorman, and 6 button controllers.

I'm probably going the emulator route with Super Nintendo.

Any of you guys have a recommendation about a rPi3 setup to get going on on this side of the pond? Looks like the new Pi kits don't even require soldering to get rolling, that's kinda cool. I've been wanting to get play with a Pi for a while anyway, so it seems like this might be a good excuse :)

For kids, Wii hands down. Here's why:

-You can get them dirt cheap right now

-Has some great games for it (along with a lot of shovelware)

-Backwards compatible with the GameCube

And the best part...

-You can mod it VERY easily to play tons of old consoles

On the last part, I've modded 5-6 of these now. It's very easy to do. What it does is allow you to install the "Homebrew Channel", which becomes a launch zone for console emulators. On mine, I have the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Sega SG1000, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Colecovision, TurboGrafx 16/PC Engine, and some arcade games. Getting roms can be tricky, but they are out there. If you want to learn more, go here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Main_Page

Only thing is that you need to get some "Classic Controllers" for it to play the games. They are like $20/ea.

Of course, you can do the emulation thing with a Raspberry Pie running RetroPie or a HTPC, but neither will be able to play GameCube or Wii games natively.

WonkoTheSane wrote: Any of you guys have a recommendation about a rPi3 setup to get going on on this side of the pond? Looks like the new Pi kits don't even require soldering to get rolling, that's kinda cool. I've been wanting to get play with a Pi for a while anyway, so it seems like this might be a good excuse :)

I have never soldered on a Pi...? I have a Pi B+ (retired), 2 Pi2s (webserver & kodi) and a Pi3 (garageputer)

Any of these kits will work

I never buy a full kit because I always have some of the other components laying around (SD card, HDMI cable, Network Cable, USB, etc.)

You'll need to acquire some USB or Bluetooth game controllers, but there are tons to choose from. The whole OS/software setup is pretty plug and play. You can check the option to share on the network then hop on your computer and load ROMs remotely.

Maybe I'm confusing it with the earlier arduinos...

I did look at Amazon, I was just making sure I wasn't missing some awesome niche pi place before getting it in two days.

WonkoTheSane wrote: Maybe I'm confusing it with the earlier arduinos... I did look at Amazon, I was just making sure I wasn't missing some awesome niche pi place before getting it in two days.

Boards and prices are the same pretty much everywhere. For cool tinkery stuff, Adafruit is a great option, but for what you are doing, Amazon is certainly the easy button.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/12/one-upping-the-nes-classic-edition-with-the-raspberry-pi-3-and-retropie/

Having played with my two boy from the time they were little until I couldn't keep up, I would say cruise craigslist and ebay for NES and/or Super Nintendo. Easy to find and cheap with a lot of games you can play together. And the best part all games are cartridge based so young fingers can't screw them up like a game CD.