Parents and banned video-game related stories?

[Xeogred]

Was gonna post this in the "What console and game do you cherish the most, and why?" thread, but figured it might be funny enough for its own.

I was never allowed to have a Gameboy until the DS, when I was old enough and had the money to purchase one myself.

"Then you'll never ever stop playing games!" I'll never forget the Christmas when my uncle said he was going to get me a Gameboy pocket, but my dad told him no. I think my uncle did or already had at the time but my dad hid it for years. In fact yeah, I'm pretty sure I remember unwrapping it and all in front of tons of family, and my dad straight up took it away. I was allowed to use it for like two trips growing up but that was it until finally he handed it over, when it was irrelevant in a sense (generations behind). I literally had no involvement during the GBC/GBA era at all. I guess I probably could have bought one around this time since I had allowance/lawn money, but never did. I do specifically remember my dad telling me when I was growing up, if I could buy a Gameboy I could have one, but yeah haha.

It's a pretty strange and weird thing that just happened. I recall some fond memories of holding a friends GBA checking out Circle of the Moon once and random stuff like that, or being blown away by how awesome the Game Gear was and how many batteries it took.

I emulated a lot of the games throughout the years and that was fine, I just couldn't have mobile video games in my hands or else I was doomed.

Fast forward to now and everytime I go to my parents for laundry or whatever, they're like hundreds of levels in some different new iOS game all the time. My dad doesn't even care for PC's much and is all about the tablets and mobile everything, haha. How things change.

I guess my dad was pretty nuts anyways up about tons of things, but once I turned 18 he dropped the game and I was free at last. was a momma's boy though and got away with tons of stuff with her, she would have allowed the Gameboy, and yeah those M rated games she always let me buy tucked away real nicely next to my other games. Don't think he ever found out! Perfect Dark was the only exception since his best friend bought the game for me when it came out for my birthday or something and it was a huge deal, but yeah... I already had a lot of PSX M rated stuff, haha.

I wonder if I can sense some "they threw out games" stories ahead, I guess I can definitely say I'm glad my parents never went that far with it.

[SpoonyBard]

Only time I was ever close to being denied a game was when I was 14 and I bought a copy of Diablo 2 to replace a copy that cracked in the disc drive (although I hear you can fix those now with a candy cane and pennies). My father wanted to let me drive and I was too afraid of getting caught driving without a license to do it. In retrospect, i'm sure he was let down because I denied him the experience of teaching me how to drive. But he came down on me pretty hard that day after looking over the game and seeing the mature rating. It wasn't taken away, but it was somewhat close.

My "but i've been playing Mortal Kombat for years, and you've gawked at my fatalities" argument didn't really work.

I had a friend who was absolutely obsessed with video games as a kid. When he got a gameboy he would stay up all night (basically every night) playing. His parents would ban him from video games for X amount of days, and he'd just come over to my house to play. Watching him play Final Fantasy for 15 hours straight got pretty boring, but I couldn't help but appreciate the dedication.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I was gaming before the ESRB was really active. My parents seemed smart enough to realize that all the violence in games like Mortal Kombat was cheesy, campy, and stupid - not worth getting worked up about.

I was only allowed to play games on the weekends though, which was probably for the best.

[Damm64]

All i can remember is when i was like 13 i didn't have a good enough PC to play GTA and i go to downtown to rent a PC to play it, my parents see knew about the game and how "realistic and violent" it was and i was forbidden to keep playing... but i played a couple more times... and it was awesome... forbbiden games are the best

Funny they never said anything when i played Doom on my pc ON MY HOUSE.

[Retrodude]

Funny they never said anything when i played Doom on my pc ON MY HOUSE.

I remember when we got our first PC, they gave us a free copy of Doom with it. The 90's were awesome.

[SteveyMajors]

I was raised by my aunt and uncle, who were a bit up there in age, so they weren't really attentive to the content of the video games themselves. They gave me Mortal Kombat II for Christmas when I was 10 and I don't think they gave it a second thought. Most of their efforts went into making sure I didn't play games all day, which they had a lot of success with.

I was gaming before the ESRB was really active. My parents seemed smart enough to realize that all the violence in games like Mortal Kombat was cheesy, campy, and stupid - not worth getting worked up about.

Yeah. I remember playing MKII over my dad's and he watched me perform a fatality, and he said something like, "Now, you know you shouldn't do that in real life, right?" My dad didn't take the game too seriously.

[REPO Man]

There was a time when the only M-rated video game I could play was Mortal Kombat, though I did own Overblood for the PS1. But with that, I mostly just watched my uncle (who got me the game) play it when he came over to the house. It freaked me out a lot.

But games at the arcade were apparently different, since I could play violent games there.

[scarper]

My parents were hardcore believers in the ESRB system back in the day. If it was rated T, I was not allowed to have it until I turned 13. If it was rated M, then I should pretty much forget about it entirely. They also did the "no more than an hour a day" thing. But once I got the GBA SP, I would oftentimes sneak in some extra gameplay. Many hours of Metroid Zero Mission and Mario Kart were played late night under the covers. And they never caught me.

They kind of stopped caring about it all sometime during sophomore year of high school.

[jay_red]

The only time I can remember beind specifically told I could not play a game was the first GTA, I remember my Mom saying that I couldn't play it because it glorified killing cops or come crap like that. Remember, we are talking about the first GTA here, the top down one. Of course this made me want to play it more than anything haha. I didnt actually play any GTA game untill 3 I believe.

I remember an older story, my Step Dad took me to Toys r Us to get a SNES game, and I was debating between Super Punch Out, and Mortal Kombat III Ultimate. Not hard to figure out which one I picked haha. I got home, and I remember my Mom just seeming annoyed that I got Mortal Kombat, but I got to keep it and everything.

[Luke]

My Dad helped me find a copy of DEATH DUEL for the Genesis (which I still own cib) simply for the fact it was supposedly the most violent game ever. I think the response to the game may even have something to do with game ratings.

Funny story:

Gameboy was a huge no-no in my house. As with everything, I was not allowed to own one without permission. Well one of my friends sold me his, with DuckTales, Mario Land, and TMNT for $25.00usd. His parents would later find out which caused a ruckus. My parents found out I had a Gameboy, his parents wanted it back, but twelve year old Luke wasn't having it. "My parents can keep it until they think I'm responsible enough to own it, but I'm not giving it back. A deal is a deal". Luckily my Dad said, "The boy is right" and I got my Gameboy back in a few weeks.

But that isn't the funny part.

Before my parents knew I had the Gameboy, I had to play it in sneak mode. Couldn't get caught with it at any cost. Plus I was probably around twelve years old, so every thing I did was a bit sneaky.

Cut to a Sunday morning. I'm in my room, on the moon with Scrooge McDuck. I heard the door open, shut off the volume, threw the gameboy under the bed, and acted casual. Guilty, but casual.

My Mom walked in, knowing something is up, and she probably noticed I threw something under the bed. She gave me a strange look and said "Oh. I'm sorry, I should have knocked. I uh...um...you need to get ready for church soon".

So although my Mother thought I was bopping the bologna, I still got to beat Duck Tales. And it was worth it.