Can anyone recommend a good mail-in service that will repair/resurface DVDs or Game Cube disks? [more inside]
posted by cgk on Dec 21, 2007 - 7 answers

We have a family GameCube and the kids want a dance game. Apparently Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix will be unavailable in North America for several months, and when I go to Best Buy and look at all of the stuff I feel old and confused. Could you suggest a good GC compatible dance pad (that I could pick up retail) as well as DDR-type titles for the GC so my kids can get happy? Thanks --chris
posted by cgk on Jan 26, 2006 - 15 answers

For starters, thanks to everyone who responded to my question about taking the gaming system plunge. It was exceptionally helpful to my wife and I: now have the GameCube and accessories hidden safely for next week.

I was wondering if you have suggestions for titles that would be suitable for a first grade girl. The boys are easy, but our daughter likes painting/drawing and character/puzzle games like Spirit (about the animated horse movie) that are based more on helping. Harvest Moon was suggested, but I can't tell if that is too old for her and I can't get a good fix on the plot line. Any suggestions from the community would be much appreciated, thanks!
posted by cgk on Dec 17, 2004 - 15 answers

Well, the time appears to have finally come. With my kids starting to cross over the 10 threshold I am on the verge of caving in on the gaming console issue. As a kid who wanted an Atari 2600 but got a TI-99/4a it took me a while to realize that gaming consoles are now pretty much part of the background recreation matrix/social experience of kids and not an extravagant extra. Anyway, they get good grades and I wound up working for a while as a game programmer and it did not kill me.

So parenting aside, I was wondering if anyone could suggest some good sources of information on the three major platforms (XBox, GameCube, PS2). The kids told me that their friends mostly have PS2s and that they like the GameCube, but I just want to make sure that, say, in February the next generation of platform hardware won't come out and they stop production of titles for what we get. FWIW their tastes are Backyard sports games, Civilization 3, and Hobbit/Harry Potter type games -- but they remind me that playing those and Zaxxon on the family PC do not a gaming system make. Oh, and there any must-have accessories that we should take care of up front? Cheers.
posted by cgk on Dec 6, 2004 - 26 answers