Nook Color. Root?

First of all, I just want to say hello. I found this forum today when I was investigating options for a nook color.

My mother in law purchased the nook color for her grandson. We had a sleepover a month ago and the nephew absolutely LOVED our Kindle Fire. He played Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds, etc for hours. She had asked me if I could install these games on the nook for her.

Now, I have very little experience in rooting. I have extensive experience with computers. I spent a few hours reading some posts and the stickies, but nothing I read gave me an absolute answer on which option to take when it comes to this.

Basically, all I want to do is install these games for him. When I got the nook, I updated the OS to 1.4.3 from 1.3. Now I think that may have been a mistake.

I do like the Amazon market on my Kindle. If that's possible to add that as well for the free games, that would be great too.

I have a 2gb microsd card to work with. Luckily I had a spare laying around.

I would also like it to still be able to get into the B&N market, so when new games come out, they can simply grab them, but it's not necessary.

Which option would be the best for me, since all I intend to do is install a few games and things such as YouTube for a little boy?

I thank you in advance.

-Flaskmaster

 

Thank you colchiro, you seem to be somewhat of a legend here

I'll check out some of the comments because I now have 1.4.3. I doubt there is much of a difference from the updates, but I want to be sure before I run thru the process.

I just hope that, by the end I can install apps and zip files without any issues.

I'll post my results.