Question To collectors with kids

[Toktogul]

wow! hahaha!

there is a lot i need to learn! i cant even go to the parenting lesson starting today... im still in Japan until august ;(

[Frag Mortuus]

You may be lucky like I was with my first kid. When I told her "no", she actually listened. She wasn't a terribly curious kid. Now, she is old enough to know better, but still doesn't get into my stuff.

My son on the other hand, only wants to get into my electronics. The only system he can reach is the PS3, but he only touches the buttons which beep at him. Luckily my PC has a little slide mechanism that can cover the buttons. So, I slid it over the buttons and taped it so that he can't move it.

Right now I don't have a huge selection of games, maybe around 50 or so, the rest are digital. So, he doesn't pay them any mind. Also, the DVDs are hard to get off the shelf, so he can't really mess with them either.

The best advice is to try and teach them not to mess with the stuff. My philosophy is that if you teach them not to mess with stuff in your house, then you won't have to worry about them messing with stuff in others houses as well. This holds true with my daughter for sure, my son....not so much.

Just keep stuff out of their reach

[aaron]

i just cut my kids arms and legs off, limiting their mobility and thus my games have remained pristine ever since.

[Stark]

i just cut my kids arms and legs off, limiting their mobility and thus my games have remained pristine ever since.

How is torso boy anyway?

[prfsnl_gmr]

There is no need to amputate. Since my children's birth, I have simply administered a mild electic shock to them everytime they glance at anything related to video games. The results have been astounding! They hate me and my collection!

.....

In all seriousness, however, we are talking about video games. You should let your children play with them. If the results are a few torn case inserts, a few cracked discs, and children with a life-long appreciation of the medium, then you have done well. Moreover, if you teach your children to take care of their belongings - which you should do anyway - then they will take care of yours too.

Here is one story...My son loves cars and trucks, and he could say the word "truck" before he could say our names. I brought home a copy of Excitebots: Trick Racing last year - when he was almost two - and he loved the game so much, I handed him the case while I tested it. (It is a really fun game, BTW.) After playing through a few tracks, I noticed that he was staring wide-eyed at the screen and chewing on the case. The insert is now "drool-damaged" and there are teeth marks on the case. Nonetheless, and in my eyes at least, my copy of Excitebots is probably the most valuable game in my collection.

[bmoc]

I was super paranoid about this too before I became a dad. Luckily my dad builds cabinets for a living and I had him make me some shelving with doors that I put child locks on. That at least keeps the games safe.

I still have to keep a close eye on the kids to make sure they don't go crazy on the consoles and controllers. It was pretty hard to keep my 1st kid out of that stuff when he was a toddler. My 2nd is probably a month or two from walking and then the fun will start again!

The few times that I get to play video games with my kids around, I keep a spare controller nearby for them to button mash while I play. Typically this is usually an extra PSOne controller that I have laying around that I have no intention of using for any other purpose. Doing that seemed to help take the mystery out of what I was doing so they were less curious.

[aaron]

i just cut my kids arms and legs off, limiting their mobility and thus my games have remained pristine ever since.

How is torso boy anyway?

he's good. he is starting to be able to maneuver around the house by scraping his top teeth on the floor so we may have to put a stop that that too. need to stop and get pliers on the way home today.

[ninjainspandex]

my advice Pierre is to make to sure to always lock the babies cage when you go out for the evening. You really don't want it getting its snotty fingers all over your sega Saturn discs.

[KalessinDB]

can japanese megadrive/super famicom /famicom fit in those?

JP MD: Likely yes, but I can't say for sure as I don't own any. The size difference JP to US was negligible though, so I ssee no reason it wouldn't.
SFC: Yes
FC: Yes, ish. It's too big for Famicom games, but if you get a little clever with some self-stick rubber feet, you can make it work (I learned this buying the Famicom version of the Everdrive from Stone Age Gamer)

Really, with a little bit of ingenuity, some nippers and/or an xacto knife, you can make damn near any cartridge fit in them, more or less at least.