So I ran a Video Game Station at a Cub Scout Daycamp Last Week

And I thought I'd share with you guys some of the highlights. I was asked back in January to run this station as BSA recently added a Video Games Activity Pin/Belt Loop for Cub Scouts. The Requirements pretty much boiled down to Understand the ESRB Ratings and Play some Video Games.

So I took back to camp the following Systems:

Sega Genesis + Sega CD + 32X
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast
Nintendo Gamecube.

I chose these because one of the requirements was to play games you've never played before, so I figured these kids probably never played any of these retro systems before. Also I needed systems I could have a lot of kids on so the Saturn and Gamecube handled that role nicely.

But I figured you guys would get a good laugh out of some of the kids reactions to these systems, so here's the highlights. Keep in mind these are kids between the ages of 5-10:

• Because I had my Dreamcast hooked up to a VGA monitor some of the kids thought it was a PC. When I started it up for the one group one kid said at the Attract Mode for Daytona USA "Wow, PC gaming really is better..."
• When one of our last groups was leaving on Friday, one kid's Dad said "Well maybe we'll get you an Xbox or a Playstation for your Birthday coming up." and the kid pulled his Dad over to the one station and said "No I don't want those, I want one of these!" and pointed at my Dreamcast.
• The favorite team for X-Men vs Street Fighter was Juggernaut and Juggernaut.
• More kids liked X-Men vs Street Fighter on the Saturn than Marvel vs Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast.
• Kids actually enjoyed playing Sega Touring Car Championship on the Saturn
• Most kids didn't seem to care about the difference in graphics between the Dreamcast and the 32X when they were sitting next to each other playing.
• For one requirement they needed to do a basic comparison of 2 systems so I did the Dreamcast and PS2 and let them point out the differences. More kids felt the Dreamcast was a better system due to it having 4 controller ports and the VMU's.

Overall these were the favorite games for each system:

Genesis/CD/32X:
-Gunstar Heroes
-Virtua Racing Deluxe
-Virtua Fighter

Saturn:
Fighter's Megamix
X-men vs Street Fighter
Saturn Bomberman
Sega Touring Car Championship
Guardian Heroes

Dreamcast:
Daytona USA
Soul Calibur
Sonic Adventure 2
Marvel vs Capcom 2

Gamecube:
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Mariokart Double Dash

So I thought you guys might get a good chuckle out of all this. Has anyone else here done something similar?

That sounds so fun!

Are you a high ranked scout? That sounded like a great experience. You get rep.

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Originally Posted by zetastrike

Are you a high ranked scout? That sounded like a great experience. You get rep.

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Well I was Life Rank when I was a Youth, which is the highest before Eagle. But I've been registered as an Assistant Scoutmaster for years now.

got any pics of your set up ?

and i love how they reacted to the dreamcast

funny you bring up sega touring car i recently bougth that on fleabay

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Originally Posted by KitsuneNight

got any pics of your set up ?

and i love how they reacted to the dreamcast

funny you bring up sega touring car i recently bougth that on fleabay

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No, I didn't think to take any pictures. But the set up was like this. On one long table we had a CRT TV and a CRT VGA monitor with the Dreamcast and Genesis/CD/32X hooked up. On another table we had a larger CRT TV with the Gamecube hooked up, and in the back we had the Saturn hooked up to a Projector projecting onto the wall so people could see when we needed to use Saturn Bomberman for larger groups.

Props to you for continuing to be so engaged!

I made it to Eagle Scout just under the deadline of my 18th birthday and it is something I continue to be very proud of.

That's awesome. We had scout camp for my little boy last week, too, but I didn't hear anything about a video game booth (believe me, I would if there were - he's more addicted than I am). That's so cool of you to allow them to earn their video game belt loops.

Glad to know Daytona still has a magnetic effect on kids.

I help with a youth group...which means I keep some of them occupied and not running around by bringing video games. I used to take my 360 and annihilate all comers at guitar hero or I'd drag out my playseat racing setup and have them play Forza. Both generally went over pretty well. But my 360 RROD'd after a few years, and I've been too pissed to pick up another.

So instead I take a couple GameCubes. Every year we take a trip that involves staying at a hotel for a weekend. I stay in an adjoining room to some of the boys and hook up the Cubes to both TV's for 8 player Double Dash. I usually take Smash Bros, but don't play it much, because there's one game that trumps it even with older kids....Digimon Rumble Arena 2. My favorite thing to do is load up the cannery level, pick Gatomon, and do nothing but hypnotize everybody and push them or toss them into the canning machine.

Another GC game that gets requested is Ribbit King. I don't even take Toadstool Tour because of it. The one rule of Ribbit King is that a first timer always has to play as the referee character, because he's very...fabulous.

Last fall, my church held a "guys video game night" one Saturday. You were supposed to bring your console to the youth room, hook it up, and just have fun.

I had just purchased my first flash cart, the SNES Powerpack, and I was itching to try it out with a crowd. I made sure it was loaded with plenty of 2-player games, and brought it in a backpack.

It was a small group, mostly teens who showed up, with 360's in tow (as to be expected).

I borrowed an 20" lcd tv from another room, and began to quietly setup in a corner of the room, that had a leather couch to chill on. Once I pulled the SNES out, and started to hook it up, the reactions from the teens were quite mixed:

"What the heck is that?

"Whoa! You brought a Super Nintendo! You are cool because Super Nintendo is cool, and you brought Super Nintendo!"

(Young adult high fives me) "Nice!"

"Is that a real game system? Iv'e never seen it before."

They started to notice that I hadn't produced any games yet, as I was setting up. "Where are the games?", several kept asking. "I will show you in a moment", I kept calmly replying.
The flash cart came out, and more puzzled looks. Then I turn the system on, and some of the more tech savvy kids start to grin, and nod their heads as they piece together what is in front of them. "This cart is doing exactly what it looks like it's doing guys", I say as I choose Turtles In Time, and hold up the second controller for someone to take it.

Once the music from TMNT starts playing, some of the boys over at the "Halo IV Station" look over their shoulder, clearly perplexed at what is going on in the corner of the room. "That's a baby game!", one of them chides. I just laugh.

The night was awesome, I had a co-op partner at all times, no matter what game was chosen, everyone would just want TMNT again.

Eventually the teens all went to play some modified form of hide-and-seek in the darkened hallways of the church. I stayed behind with the few adults, and showed them some of the other games I had on the cart. The event organizer, a young adult himself, thrilled to watching me boot up Lufia II upon request, one of his favorites.

Overall, a great time, and I would love to do something like this again. I think it would be awesome to bring a setup to a Starbucks, and just start playing, wait for others to start watching, and offer them a controller.

Last weekend, I went to my sisters house, and brought my Genesis with my Everdrive MD V3, and played with my 3 nephews. They got a real kick out of it. Toejam And Earl, and The Adventures Of Batman And Robin were a big hit with them.

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Originally Posted by Obviously

Glad to know Daytona still has a magnetic effect on kids.

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daytona usa is justa timeless classic
you dont need fancy graphics just good game play daytona just proves it

ditto for virtua racing

Trekkies you making us proud man.

^Your a good man, Trekkies Brown.

anybody noticed yet that mr brown aged yet another year ?
and the sun is still the same in a relative way