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Donkey Kong in the Classroom.


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Hey guys,

 

Have recently been given a Home Class at my school. This means that every morning for 15 minutes I have a class in the morning where I read notices, chat to the kids and generally form a rapport with the class. It's like a pastoral care thing.

 

I ran out of room in my garage and had a 60-in-1 cocktail that I could no longer fit. I thought to hell with it, I am bringing it into class. Loaded it into the boot of my car and took it in during the first couple of weeks of school. It has a 60-in-1 in it, but I've had it setup to boot straight to Donkey Kong as it has a 4-way stick and one button, so a lot of the games can't be played properly.

 

The kids have really taken to it. Home Class starts at 8:30 and there are kids in my classroom from 7:45 playing Donkey Kong. They all take turns and play 2-player using cocktail switching. Even kids who don't play gather around and watch. They all think the CRT screen is pretty awesome, many of them have never seen one running, as these are 14 year old kids.

 

Anyway there's been one boy who has been a bit of a problem child in the past and has had some behaviour issues. He's been steadily improving this year and has really taken to playing Donkey Kong. He comes in every morning, sits down and starts to practise. He has been watching high score videos at home and I've told him to download MAME to keep practising. I challenged him to beat my high score by the end of the year. My high score is pretty paltry, only 109 000 or so and he's well on the way. He cracked 40 000 today and posted up a score of just over 46 000. I told him that if he could get to Netherworld with his folks, he would be able to get the Donkey Kong pin for cracking 40 000. He reckons he's going to try and do it.

 

It has been fantastic to see him taking to the game, especially as he's a modern gamer kid. He plays all the FPS shooters and is currently hooked on the latest multiplayer craze, which is Fortnite. Despite this, he is still keen to play Donkey Kong every morning, when he could be playing Fortnite or PUBG on his iPad instead.

 

Aren't arcade games great :)

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Hey Pat,

 

This was a really great and inspirational story to read - thanks for sharing.

 

I congratulate you for thinking a bit 'outside' what is seemed to be the norm. A lot of people, particularly in government regulated schools, just go with the flow and keep it safe.

 

In comparison to the 'old days', education and even raising children has changed in so many ways. Capturing the interest and then engaging in a meaningful way is a challenge. Not to mention discipline, manners and respect. It's a tough one for educators. I love hearing stories like this - brilliant.

 

Hats off to you, thank you and great stuff mate!

 

P.s and of course, arcade love to you and the crew!

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Hey Pat,

 

This was a really great and inspirational story to read - thanks for sharing.

 

I congratulate you for thinking a bit 'outside' what is seemed to be the norm. A lot of people, particularly in government regulated schools, just go with the flow and keep it safe.

 

In comparison to the 'old days', education and even raising children has changed in so many ways. Capturing the interest and then engaging in a meaningful way is a challenge. Not to mention discipline, manners and respect. It's a tough one for educators. I love hearing stories like this - brilliant.

 

Hats off to you, thank you and great stuff mate!

 

P.s and of course, arcade love to you and the crew!

 

Thankfully, I don't teach at a State School, so we can get away with a lot more in the independent system. It's all about trying to engage the kids in a meaningful way, if I didn't have that as part of my job, there wouldn't be much point in doing it. I think back to my time at school and realise that I only ever liked one of my teachers, that's kind of sad in retrospect.

 

Thanks for the kind words :) I enabled a few more games on the machine this week and the kids are now getting into Frogger and Congo Bongo. To hell with Congo Bongo though, it's a bullshit game :)

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  • 1 month later...

To add a little more to this. I took in the Pandora's Box 2-player console that I bought off KJS and hooked it up to a 24 inch LCD monitor that I had lying around. The kids walked in this morning and there was instantly a crowd around the new machine. They simply couldn't believe it had 800+ games on it and one kid straight away asked me if it had Mortal Kombat. Sure enough, Mortal Kombat 1 was on there so we booted it up and played a few rounds. The kids were in stitches. They thought the early motion captured graphics were so lame and loved the dodgy sounds and voices.

 

I owned a few kids using Liu Kang (cheap flykicks and fireballs all the way) and then introduced them to Twinkle Star Sprites. They had a blast, never seen so many kids screaming, 'I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING,' while mashing buttons and laughing. I did my best to teach a few of them some tricks and then proceeded to destroy all challengers :) I then threw on Street Fighter III and laid the smackdown. All told, it was a blast.

 

I had about 10 kids asking me how much they cost and they were all amazed when I said between $150-$200 for the basic 2 player console. I think a few kids will be going home to ask their parents for one :)

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You`ve done a great service not only to the students but to the school as well. Keeping students engaged is one of the hardest things that any teacher takes years to master, throw in an interactive game and you are half way there, this will change the cohort of the class room and engage those that are not focused academically, the student interaction alone is an achievement congrats.
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  • 1 month later...

Well, this has now gone full scale. I've organised an out of school time excursion with my Home Class to go to 1UP Arcade. School and parent approved arcade gaming with 25 or so Year 9 kids :D

 

It's going to be a lot of fun, especially teaching some pinball tips and tricks. I aim to teach them a few basic tricks like post-passing and flipper holds. You know, the important education that they need for later in life. There's even some parents that are going to hang around for some games, much to the horror of their children. One mum emailed me to say that she's going to show her kid how it was done back in her day :lol

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A bit of a contrast from back in the day - my parents considered video game arcades to be unsavoury places and when we had school excursions to Skateway the video games were turned off or out of bounds. How times have changed.
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A bit of a contrast from back in the day - my parents considered video game arcades to be unsavoury places and when we had school excursions to Skateway the video games were turned off or out of bounds. How times have changed.

 

Hah, considering basically every boy in the class is obsessed with Fortnite (and even some of the girls) I'd say that retro games are more savoury than the stuff they currently play :)

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Gees I wish I had you as my teacher when I was at school haha

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Aussie Arcade

 

Haha, maybe, but I'm also a harsh marker and work my kids to the bone :) I always laugh at how much work I make them do, when I was a total slacker in school.

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