Father’s experiment takes young son through gaming history
For the past six years, Andy Baio has conducted an experiment based on one simple question:
“What happens when a 21st-century kid plays through video game history in chronological order?”
Baio fondly remembers the games he grew up with and the way they shaped his childhood, and he wanted his newborn son, Eliot, to go through the same experience.
“I was lucky enough to be born into the golden age of arcade gaming, and played through each subsequent generation as I grew up,” Baio wrote. “I love games, and I genuinely wanted Eliot to love and appreciate them too.”
The Experiment
Baio began his experiment when Eliot was just four years old, starting him on a plug-and-play system that included classic arcade games from the late ’70s and early ’80s like Pac-man, Galaxian, and Dig Dug.
“Until the moment he picked up the joystick, part of me secretly dreaded he’d have no interest in it,” Baio wrote.
Fortunately, Eliot seemed to enjoy the games and was quickly beating his father’s high scores. After briefly upgrading to Atari 2600 games like Asteroids for a few months, Baio decided that Eliot was ready for the NES.
Eliot often sat in his father’s lap while they played, and the two took turns, Baio taking over for some of the more difficult parts.
At five years old, Baio switched his son to the Super Nintendo, playing games from the early ’90s like Super Mario World. They then moved on to the Nintendo 64, and Baio boasted that at age seven, Eliot had collected all 120 stars in Super Mario 64 (something yours truly didn’t accomplish until age 12).
The Results
Over the next few years, Baio and Eliot eventually made it to more modern games like Minecraft and the indy roguelike game Spelunky.
Baio says that his son has grown to enjoy difficult games that challenge players many years older and is “frighteningly good at them.” Spelunky creator Derek Yu believes Eliot is the youngest player to ever beat the game.
Baio says that some people might think his little experiment makes him a “monster.”
“That’s okay with me,” Baio wrote. “My son is amazing, he loves video games, and more than anything, he loves playing them with me.”
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