My Two Sons

When we were in Philly, we stayed with our lovely friends Chrissie and Juan Carlos. While at their home, SOB discovered that Juan had a PS2 disk that contained a whole heap of old Sega Genesis games. And then he died and went to heaven.

We got back here to Atlanta on a Sunday, and by Wednesday of the same week he had procured a copy of said disk for himself. Now SOB has never been much of a gamer. I bought him a PS2 for Christmas a few years ago, and while he was glad to have it, it hadn't even been unpacked from the move. In fact, the thing only sees action when we go on vacation. But back in the days of his youth, things were a bit different. With no job, wife or kid to occupy his time, young SOB turned to video games.

He was a big fan of adventure role playing games. Legends of Zelda and the like. He had several games of this style for various game systems. While he was quite good at these types of games, in all his years there was one he was never able to defeat: Phantasy Star II. In the final battle, he was always overcome. It was this game, and this game alone, that compelled him to make his purchase.

Personally I was never a big fan of anything other than the Super Mario games. And Tetris, of course. (Who doesn't like Tetris?) Because of my lack of experience, I had no idea of the commitment these types of games require. He's been playing almost every day, and he's still a long way from the final battle.

Because he made it all the way to the end when he was a boy, he's not really interested in taking the time to re-figure out this game. To remedy this, he's found an online 'walk through' that was written by a cunning lad named the Spelunker. Since reading while playing is hard, he often requests that I read the walk through aloud to him as he plays. Which, as you can imagine, is exactly how I envisioned spending my last few evenings before the birth of our second child. He's even gone out and purchased new wireless controllers, so that he can sit more comfortably while he kills all the bad guys and 'levels up' all of his players. I have no idea what that means.

It amuses me to no end that Sam is also fascinated with this game. Usually SOB won't play when Sam is awake, but occasionally it happens. As soon as Sam sees daddy with a controller in hand, he must have one as well. He sits and stares at the screen and pushes the buttons as though he were playing. I know I posted this picture before, but I can't help it! The cuteness is too much for one woman to bear!

There are all kind of stories out there about dads playing video games with their kids, some good, some bad. When Sam is a little older (and we have a yard) I'm sure SOB will do other things with him, like play catch or teach him to ride a bike. But for now, they have Phantasy Star II. What more could a father and son want?