the players are cheapish, it's the games that will cost you the real money. has he sampled all the free games available on the internet ? you play these using a web browser.

As a father of 19-year old and 18-year old I recommend to buy some great adventure books instead.
Jules Verne, Jack London and many others.

Video game player IS an de-socializer, a tool for stupefing and mind numbing, time waster.

Children should play outside of the house instead of spending hours on mental garbage - just look at the content of the most popular video games.

It is as bad as a Playboy would be for 7 year olds.

Buy him an old school original Nintendo. Nothing beats the classics.

Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Price: $0.00

Did I just get insulted by an 8 year old?

Don't by the anti-game fuddy-duddys. Your kid will game at friends'houses, he will get together with multiple buds for gaming, this is a tsunami force desire that will overwhelm your suspicions unless you live far out in the woods in isolation from people and electricity.

What you can do is limit gaming. At my house, the limits were these: no gaming on school nights, otherwise homework gets rushed through to get to gaming, which, by the way, is completely b*tchin'. On weekends, there is a correlation between gaming time and reading time, at eight it was 1/2 hour reading = 1 hour gaming; then it became 1:1 somewhere around 10 or 11 years of age. Now, my fifteen year old is too busy with sports and friends to spend more than a couple of hours a week gaming and it is always with friends. No big whoop.

All the gaming platforms are cheap if you think about the hours of complete enjoyment they deliver. Just my opinion.

The new game sets are coming out soon. See if you can get a used set and the games from someone looking to trade up. You should be able to get a good deal.

This one:

The TI99. Now that's Classic.

There are flots of stores specalizing in used/remanufactured sets, and secondhand games (no national chains, so far as I know); you can get a steep discount there. If you must buy new games, many of the consoles have last couple years' most successful titles available at discount; these are usually above-average games anyway.

Nintendo, and to a lesser extent PS1/2, tend to be the ones with games targeted to preteens.

A word from an old granny. Computer games are part of life for kids today. Why make your kid an oddball for a couple of hundred bucks? Unless the family budget simply can’t handle it, it’s really money well spent.

… and Griffin (my grandson’s name too), if all else fails, simply whisper it in your grandmother’s ear. Never fails.

Good points above. An 8 yr old probably doesn't need cutting edge so getting slightly outdated models is a good option. And it's the games that drive the cost up.
When Nintendo came out with Gamecube a friend of mine went to ebay and got a Nintendo 64 (the version being upgraded from)and about 40 games for $50.
Another option - if you have friends whose kids are 10 or over they are probably ready to get rid of the "baby" games so you might pick up a bunch of games that way.

Griffin -

I have an 8 year old son as well. *LOVES* the video games. Tell your cheapskate dad to pick up a Sony Playstation 2 (~ $180) and by _used_ video games which is where the real cost comes in ($50 new, $7 to $15 used). If you can find a used Playstation 2, so much the better.

Griffin -- These games are big timewasters. A video gameplayer was one of the few items we denied our son. Shocking, I know, but it hardly made him a social pariah. He whined and pouted off-and-on for years and, yes, he did do end-runs around his parents at Halo marathons organized by his friends. But now that he's at college, he doesn't have the habit like his friends do, and he's actually thanked us for holding firm. It can be done.

Melissa, Your college age kid thanked you for holding firm. Wow! You really must be some kind of mother.

Tell your dad that you need this instead Gas is only a couple of bucks per gallon.

I would agree with AWW. Find something, anything, used on EBay.

Get him one of the "Civilization" games for the computer. You'll play it more than him. You can pound on the continentals with the Anglosphere. I bought Civilization III a few years ago, but Civ 4 just came out.

Civilzation may be a bit heavy for the average 8 yr old, but when I was 12 it was addictive. (Hint: Exploit the invention of the railroad mercilessly.)

I cannot believe in a post about inexpensive videogames on a blog populated by conservatives who have a deep respect for tradition, we have gone 18 comments into this thread without anybody mentioning Nintendo Tecmo Super Bowl.

Andrew's right: The classics have much to teach us.

Buy him a BB gun instead.

I was never much into gaming, but I did recently buy myself the Atari Flashback 2. I got the older model for my brother. It's inferior in several ways, but I've found the gameplay on the the AF2 frustrating so far. I think I'd be happier with a NES on a chip system than the Atari though. MAME could do this for me, but I wanted a console.

You can go with the soon to replaced playstation 2 or Xbox. You should be able to find it pretty cheap. Then, you don't even have to buy games. A co-worker of mine uses a service called gamefy.com. It's basically netflix for video games.

1) I've actually thanked my parents for holding firm on certain things in my youth.
2) I tried getting Orrin into Civilization, but he hates it because you can have Communism as a viable economy.
3) MAME is awesome, but it can be hard to get ROMs for since mame.dk got shut down.
4) Griffin, tell your dad to look for a used Nintendo Gamecube. If he waits until the new Nintendo Revolution system comes out, he will be able to pick up the Gamecube real cheap plus lots of games. Also Nintendo has more games designed for children, as opposed to the X-Box which is aimed at beer-swilling fratboys like your ogre of a father.

Griffen:

Listen to Bryan. Nintendo Game Cube is best by far. And Andrew strongly recommends NHL 2006 for endless hours of fun. If your dad tries to tell you that would be unpatriotic, tell him he can be the Zamboni driver.

Griffin:

Tell your dad you want a BB gun, slingshot and a boomerang.

Griffen:

I agree with my dad for once, but Mario Power Tennis and Mario Superstar Baseball are also terrific. Hey, when are you guys coming up here?

Andrew

So, from what I'm hearing--I can tell the little stinker that the old Nintendo 64 that his cousins gave him is just fine, as long as we get some games for it, and our rules limiting use to two hours on weekends are reasonable?

How about that and a Gameboy, twerp?

Sure, keep the Nintendo 64. It will go great with his hi fi and black and white TV. C'mon, Scrooge, just dip into your private social security account and get the Game Cube.

The rule is very reasonable. Watching you try and enforce it will give us hours of mirth.

Andrew:

When Canada freezes over.

I found Civilization for $1 at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store but I can't figure out how to play it.

Get a Nintendo GameCube. The games are much more children friendly and you can pick up used games pretty easily. Plus, the Madden Football and the baseball ones are really good.

My son loved the old Nintendo 64 until it died, but as time goes by, these are harder to find. I don't like Gameboys because it is harder to control usage and I can't stand the slack jawed look of kids playing these things anywhere, anytime. However, when you have to go do something, and they'd rather not be there, it does keep them busy. But, please, don't bring it to church.

No GameCube during the week and a limit on the weekend is a good rule of thumb. Plus, nothing strikes fear in the heart of a 7 year old (my son) like the threat of losing that precious gaming time.

Buttercup:

It is a good rule of thumb. And, of course, Griffin has the ideal role model to teach him to exercise discipline and restraint in the use of computers, etc.

Just like to second that, as noted above, Nintendo seems to have more young kid games (i.e. rated E) than the others. And yes game use must be controlled but I feel ok if the kid is spending 1 hour playing Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon (where you build and control cities/farms with people like animals) or Pikman (very mild alien game) instead of Duke Nukem or
Doom or whatever the latest all death game is.

AllenS:

He'll put his eye out!

Hey, Griffin, let me know what kind of game box you get so I can send you a driving wheel. It's never to early to learn to love the automobile! My little monkeys were driving virtual semis down Lake Shore Drive at 90 MPH by the time they were three.

Sorry, OJ, I completely misread your e-mail. I can't help because She Who Is Perfect In All Ways has forbidden game boxes in the house. Even I can't have one.

I've still got my old Civilization player's guide "Rome on 640K a Day" around here somewhere.

I used to spend hours every weekend, during the early 80s, playing the original Civilization board game with my friends.

Then, '94 - '95 were "The Years of Sid Miers' Civilization", where I played maybe twenty hours a week.
As one might expect, I got pretty good at it.

Gideon is correct, at least for the first version: Railroads are key. Put them in every hex.

However, although I've noted the newer versions coming out with interest and nostalgia, I haven't picked 'em up, nor played since '95.

The wisdom of middle age has revealed this to me:
Videogames are a (very pleasurable) waste of time. Even the strategy ones, although those do teach, as well.

They should be lumped in with television-watching time, and an umbrella weekly limit set.