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Solutions for the Left (and Single) Handed Gamer?
1eyedhive asks: "After seeing some interest in the Programming
for the Single-Handed article a few weeks back, I became interested in applying some of these solutions to gaming. There are very few ambidextrous (let alone left-handed) apparatuses that provide the functionality required for decent FPS/RTS gaming. Any ideas on a solution, or at least a helpful fix that won't break the bank? A little background: I have hemiparisis (partial use of my right arm/hand/leg/foot), as such, I depend almost 100% on my left hand to do everything, from programming to gaming, I have enough use of my right hand to operate 2 arrow keys at a time, but the rest must fall on my left hand or feet (including the mouse)."
was able to be played with just the left hand. It would have to be the left because the directional pad is on the left, but everything could be accomplished with just two extra buttons (L and select) as you could with the 5 buttons for the other hand (a,b,x,y,r).
While earthbound isnt a FPS it might be something to check out for ideas on ways to merge buttons efficintly.
i would suguest the microsoft wheel mouse optical i beleive it is. its a corded optical mouse and was the first unihand optical.. it has 5 buttons (programable) and a scroll wheel. im a left handed gamer and i can play fps' with my friends and keep up and then some with this mouse and using the arrow keys (ocassionaly i use ctrl and num0 for a few buttons but they arnt needed) this mouse if you can hit 2 arrow keys at once with your right hand would solve your neeeds as you have 5 buttons you can map to keys at your disposal for just about anything!
PC games are a hassle.
They assume a player has a keyboard and a mouse and sometimes make him switch between them way too much or use both at the same time.
Console games, on the other hand, are much simpler since the controller is the only input device most users have.
Console games played on a PC let you remap the keys to fit your hands. Yes, they can be much simpler than their PC (and more modern) counterparts, but don't overlook them just because of that.
I'm sure you can find many many console games in whatever genre you're looking for.
P.S. in the Atari days, most games (those using the joystick) could be played perfectly well with one hand - remember the sticks with the fire button on top?
The Belkin Nostromo is a keypad with throttle wheel and D-pad all designed to sit under your left hand.
Or, for a joystick, the Saitek Cyborg Evo is a completely ambidexterous joystick. With the use of thumbscrews, you can adjust a huge amount, even down to the tilt of the top buttons so they're tilted for left handed, not right handed orientation.
I hurt my left wrist, the so I had trouble using the keyboard to move in FPSes (A, S, D, and W). I could move left, or right, or forwards or backwards but not both at the same time because it hurt (no diagonals).
So my solution was this: I mapped my mouse wheel (when clicked) to move me forwards, so my left hand only had to handle left/right/backwards which I could do, and I could move my whole hand to do some things that required other keys (although I had a lot of keys mapped in that area for convience/speed).
So by doing something like this, you should be able to use your left hand to aim/move forwards, and your right hand to do the other stuff. You could even probably get/rig up foot pedals that you could use to serve as keys or do the strafing for you. And get a mouse with lots of buttons so you can map them to things so you can depend even MORE on your good hand. Just don't injure it, or you're in DEEP trouble.
PS: Note to those who want to try my idea: I am now ADDICTED to using the mouse wheel to move forwards, and have a VERY hard time using my left hand for all movement. Despite the fact that my wrist is fine now (not perfect, largely due to Half-Life :), I STILL use this setup, because I became so used to it. Maybe one day I'll break my habit and get my mouse wheel back to use for other things.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
There's a config around to let people play with one hand only when playing wolfenstein enemy territory. The config was made by a guy called Iffy, he has an excellent help and how-to wolfenstein site at http://planetwolfenstein.com/4newbies/
Good try, fucky!
Oh wait... it wasn't.
I too am single. And my right hand is busy. I appreciate your suggestions.
And as another poster said, Earthbound was designed so that you could play the game with your left hand only(control pad, L, and select buttons,) though some functions were a bit quicker to access with the buttons on the right side. Keep in mind that Earthbound was on the level of Dragon Warrior when it came to gameplay style; this would be impossible with any game more action-oriented than that.
As far as PC games go, I think there are specialized controllers for RTS and FPS games on ThinkGeek; that might be a better solution than a keyboard. Or perhaps the one-handed PSOne controller combined with a PS-PC adaptor (of which there are many out there, Lik-Sang has a wide array of them) would help.
You could also take up DDR. No need for hands in that game.
Oddly enough, it sounds like you might be able to hand some (but not all) console gaming system, especially the older ones. My best friend was born with a birth defect - his right hand is a lump with little nubs for fingers. However, with most console controllers, the fine control is done with the left hand (either d-pad or analog stick), and the right hand presses a single button at a time. If you have enough control over your right side for that, you should be all set. If you can't do it with your thumb as normal, you can put the controller on your lap and use the base of your thumb (like my friend does) or whatever else works without pushing other unintended buttons.
The exceptions - some games for the newer systems required you to hit shoulder buttons on the right side. For some games/systems, you can remap the buttons. For some, you don't need to react so fast, so you have time to change grip to do that.
On a Dreamcast, you can actually get away with playing with the controller on your lap, and pull the right trigger by pushing the controller into your leg at the proper angle - not a great fix, but adequate if it's a game where you don't need that button very often. I think you could get away with the same trick on an SNES, but probably not a PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. You might also be able to do it on a Gameboy Advance or GBA SP, but you may have trouble holding the system because it's so small.
You'll have lots of trouble with fighting games, but RPGs should be a piece of cake - generally they don't use the right shoulder buttons for anything critical, and almost none of the RPGs have things so time-critical that you can't change grip if you have to use one of those buttons.
I've come across exceptionally few games that use the right analog stick. Only Hunter: The Reckoning comes to mind.
You know, my strategy is to put my mouse on that other side of my keyboard.
If righty-designed equipment is harder to use sometimes, its more than compensated for by the fact that the Vast Left Handed Conspiracy, of which I am a card carrying member, has convinced the righties of the world that we're more highly developed life forms than they.
You, for one, should welcome your new left handed overlords, and design more left handed video game paraphernalia.
Upstairs Dog, Downstairs People.
I've heard of people putting a trackball on the floor, with the buttons modified to be pedals. You will have to expiriment, but I think you could find something that will work.
I'd look at chord keyboards too, they allow you to simulate a full keyboard with just a few buttons. They are not popular because they are hard to learn, but for you they could be the ticket.
Headsets have been made. Moving, twisting, and bobbing the head can all be mapped to controlls. I'm not aware of anything commercial, but you can rig something up.
Voice recignition is getting better all the time. Hard to apply to games, but if you can find a system that works, you might addapt it to some part of the game.
The other option is get invovled in some open source games and mention your disability. Do this right and you will fastenate the programers (or you could be one...) enough that they will re-do the interface just for you. Hard to do right, but if you can make your defects interesting it will work wonders.
For comercial stuff you might find something under the Americans with Disabilities act that will help, but the requirement that work must be in reason may not work with you. You can check it out though.
oy, i game strictly on the PC and currently have a MS optical 5 button (wired) and a saitek cyborg 3D stick and it still isn't enough.
Logistical Chaos Officer http://www.slagg.org - LAN Gaming in Sarasota FL,USA
Well, I use a mouse with the left hand (a non-contoured symmetrical mouse) and I have found great success with the Thrustmaster Tactical board under the right hand. While the board is contoured for use with a left hand (the designers assume you are going to use the mouse with your right) it still functions really well. The nice thing about it, is the keys are arranged in a much more ergonomic manner, so extended games of unreal or counter strike wont give your hand a cramp from trying to use a keyboard that was never designed for gaming. the board has over 40 buttons on it, and all can be individualy configured. I am not sure if those things are still around or not but they are handy if you can snag one.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
sounds like you are fucked. I'd take up reading.
Hello,
:) But most people are able to control it quite well. Of course I also support keyboard control for the second player.
The way I do mouse movement in my current game(http://www.holepit.com/) is to make everything mouse controlled. It takes quite a bit of work to design your game in this way though. Depending on the game you may not be able to do it.
I have the characters follow where the mouse pointer is. So the movement of the character is kind of passive. You do not have to constantly tell it to go forwards. It always goes forwards depending on where the mouse is. Any of the buttons on the mouse will activate the characters special move. It sounds like a very simple control mechanism, and it is
Also on most of todays mice you have a wheel as well. Many also have an extra two buttons. These can all be put to good use. However they should not be required as many people still use old or simple mice with one or two buttons.
Another gaming mechanism not using your hands is the good old dance mat. Put it on the ground and use your feet! A good game for this is pydance! You could probably hook it up to give keyboard events, allthough I haven't done it.
For example with quake 3 style games, a mat and a mouse could control the game quite well. Using the mouse as is, and the mat to side step and select weapons.
If like in my game holepit people made an effort to support control by single hand input devices it can be done.
The atari style joysticks can be controlled with one hand. They were quite amazing in their simplicity, yet a lot of the games on the atari managed to have great gameplay with such a simple controller.
Having to use two hands for input has probabbly raised the dexterity of gamers. But for casual gamers their fine motor skills, and two hand coordination is not so good. Was talking to a fitness instructor who did some reasearch comparing game players to non game players. He found that the non game players generally had better full body control, but the gamers had much better fine motor skills. So having the ability to use one hand allows people who don't play with computers all day to play with a higher level of skill.
Have fun!
ps. if you want to try out an early version of my game to see how the mouse control works email me at me AT holepit.com
I put the mouse under my left hand.. bind shoot to left click (well, right click, really... I do have my mouse commands flipped, being a lefty and all.) and alt fire/use/whatever the second most used function is to my left button. the middle mouse button is reload.. unless the game utilizes alt-fire AND action keys, in which case, action is the middle button.
my right hand goes on the d-pad. 5 moves forward, 2 backward, and 1 and 3 are for strafing. 0 is jump, . is duck (or walk), enter is set to 'walk' (really run command.. always use auto-run) 4 and 6are either previous and next weapon, or toggle between inventory, and the big plus button uses items.
- is map, menu, whatever. * is zoom. / drops whatever I'm holding. and most used chat binds (or chat menus) go on 7,8,9.
and thats my config for lefties! I think it works incredibly well.
I have been using this configuration ever since Quake 1 Team Fortress. Though ideally, I use it with two hands, but occasionally when I am eating... and stuff... I can easily switch to one hand and place with decent effectiveness. :D
:D
;)
This requires a 5 buttoned mouse. I recommend the Microsoft IntelliEye Optical mouse, for it can be used with either hand. (Unlike its Explorer counterpart.)
Basically, my primary movement buttons are:
Mouse1 - forward
Mouse2 - backward
Then, normally I use my keyboard for the rest, but if I'm playing one handed:
Mouse3 - duck
Mouse_up - jump
Mouse_down - whatever else you need?
Mouse4 - attack1
Mouse5 - attack2
And that works out really well for me. Well, I don't play at optimum skill level with one hand, but that's probably because I never forced myself to really get used to this. Normally, I use:
Mouse1 - forward
Mouse2 - backward
CTRL (left) - attack1
ALT (left) - attack2
a - side step left
s - side step right
z - jump
x - crouch
q - last weapon
space - use
and the rest is rather arbitrary.
I find that with this mouse+keyboard combination, I tend to have more agility freedom than most
- shazow
Try this link:
http://www.research.att.com/projects/ShortStep/
Maybe that would help? You'd move about the game's level with the mouse, and use the foot controls to open up a can of kickass on the Hell Knights who ain't gonna let you get to that Megasphere without a fight.
If you're a southpaw, get a leftie board here:
http://www.research.att.com/projects/ShortStep/
(Disclaimer: I don't use those products, and no one is paying me to recommend them.)
This post made with the Dvorak layout.
"Friends don't let friends use QWERTY"
I only have one hand. I type at ~60 wpm. I play games (to completion) and regularly beat two handed friends, etc. It could be worse. You've had full use of your hand for years, there are many who are worse off. Now go and try do something that is actually relatively tricky one handed. Like golf. Have fun.
This is a little late, but I just picked up Super Monkey Ball. The game only uses 1 analog stick, no buttons. Steven Hawking could play this game.
The developers make sure you can play most of them with one hand.
(Joke blatantly stolen from MegaTokyo)
I'm left-handed, but I got so used to using a mouse right-handed that it's actually my preferred means of playing. But for joysticks, I need to use my left hand, and Saitek joysticks have worked beautifully. They follow actual standards, so they work fine with Linux, too.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
The PS2 DVD remote has all the controller buttons (even L3 and R3 I think) on its face, plus a d-pad. It's not as good as an analogue controller, obviously, but you could play RPG, turn-based strategy, or puzzle games with it, I imagine.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
Agetec made ASCII Grip - One-Handed Controller for Playstation.