Playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2/3/4 on the Mac mini
PlayStation emulators resurrect the games I played with my kids
It’s Father’s Day weekend and I guess I’m feeling a little wistful. My kids were born in the nineties which means my wife and I have been empty nesters for a few years now. The house has grown quiet of late, but twenty-five years ago it reverberated with the sound of my kids’ pleas for help beating their video games. I miss those days.
It started with PC games like Pajama Sam, and Putt-Putt, but it wasn’t long before console games took over. First, it was Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis, but that quickly gave way to the PlayStation 2. The PS2 was the peak of my dad video game career, helping my kids beat Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, SSX Tricky, and Ratchet & Clank. I’m sure they don’t remember but we had a lot of fun playing those games together.
Nothing lasts forever. My daughters grew tired of video games and my son moved on to playing Call of Duty with his friends on Xbox. After that, I largely retired from playing video games. But the one game series I miss is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Infinitely re-playable, with easily understood game mechanics that could be chained together to produce spectacular combinations.
