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Why Should It Take Two Hands To Play Videogames?
Thanks to StatePaper.com for their article discussing a Nebraska radio talk show host's plans to create a one-handed game controller. The host, Mike Reed, "has learned to play many of the games using a controller with only one hand", following an accident which happened when "an acquaintance at a party pointed a loaded .410-caliber shotgun at Reed [and fired]", leaving him with very limited use of his right arm. He says that "many games are impossible to play one-handed", and has "designed a dual-motion game controller that consolidates all movement, button response and directional function into a one-handed video game controller", although he and his partners "haven't built a prototype yet." In the meantime, are there any existing console controllers that might work for those only using one hand?
There's a brain overload from the amount of jokes you can make from this...
Sticks designed for flight sims seems to have most if not all of the buttons accessable to one hand, though this tends to be the right hand (I am left handed and notice).
Remapping the keys and clamping it to a flat surface should help too.
I would have thought a gameboy would work, with the pad and buttons close together, I'm sure someone else with a better knowledge of them could suggest a few
Brocklesby Park Cricket Club
Many Arcade games could be easily modified to be used with one hand since they only featured a control stick and an action button. Simply put the button on top of the control stick, voila, a one handed controller.
But with modern day games, the closest you'd come to a one hand remote would be something like a remote control, because there are so many buttons on your Xbox/PS2/Gamecube controller.
A few years back Sony released a one handed controller for the PSOne. There is a catch with it, however. It does not feature one of the analog controllers, and would most likely not work for any game that required it. The other problem is that it is really designed for use with RPGs and is probably not suited to any other genre. I'd think that would be the case with most games out there, IMO.
I have no regrets, this is the only path.
My whole life has been "UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS"
As long as you choose to use an automatic, driving wheels with pedals aren't going to be just fine with one hand.
Super Monkey Ball (and, lets face it, gaming doesn't get much better than the mighty Expert 7) just demands one analogue pad and no buttons during play, so that isn't a problem. Same with its inspiration, Marble Madness.
Many, perhaps most, things on PC should be reasonably playable with the Microsoft Strategic Commander, as it has three analogue axes and a myriad of buttons. Flight sticks offer much the same.
There are always going to be some games that require both hands though, and that is probably only right. Basketball would be pretty difficult to play one-handed as well, but we don't get rid of that. Ensuring games are playable by as many as possible is a good thing, but as a designer you shouldn't break the game just to ensure this.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
The Belkin Speedpad might be an option: it has a dpad built in, a scroll wheel, and several mappable keys. It is for right-handers only, though, at this time.
Specs and Information on the SpeedPad.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
but with shooting games, like Time Crisis, you only need one hand (for the pistol) and one feet (for the pedal). Then, for PCs, there are roguelike games.
The truth is that (most) games are made for the people with two hands, not completely deaf and without any visual disability to discern objects in the screen. When (read if) 3d displays become the norm people with less than two eyes will have also problems with most games. And the same will happen for people with only one good ear when surround sound is important for a game.
There are games that can be played by almost anyone with some little tweaks, but it would be non-optimum for the sofware companies, unless the game is a complete hit or was designed that way from the beggining.
Yeah, like shifting all the work from two hands to one is going to improve that situation.
This may be an alright solution for a handful of simpler games, but most are too complex for the limitations of a single hand.
Much better off shifting the load to auxiliary devices for your feet, head, torso or those (experimental?) cameras that read your eye position.
Actually, I wouldn't mind the latter myself, as a fully capable two-handed gamer, so I can fly and shoot in different directions without dislocating my thumb (on the joystick 'hat' switch) in the heat of battle.
Oh, and *insert one-handed-web-browsing joke here*
Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
And just play DDR.
Actually...anyone remember the news stories about kids who used to play NES with their toes? They either were born without arms or lost them in accidents/illness.
In related news:
"TECMO INC. release one handed XBOX controller for Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball."
As I have said before I work in a computer game shop and just last week I had a chap come in who was disabled. We have several customers in wheelchairs but they all have full use of both hands but this chap was a first for me as he had had a stroke and was partially paralysed down his right side in addition to the problem that had put him in the chair in the first place.
:-)
Anyway, he asked exactly this question and I didn't have an answer for him but I did suggest he either ask slashdot or keep an eye out for suggestions of this sort. If he is reading this "Hi" by the way, looks like you made it to the right place
Anyway, it does seem like there should be a market for this sort of device, disabled people seem to be attracted to games machines, I guess it is more of an escape for them than it is for those of us with full use of our bodies. Roll on "Better than life"!
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
ASCIIWARE made a one handed controller for RPGs for the Super Famicom (SNES). Not sure if it ever made it state side. This is as close as I can find a picture for it. Sure, it's not in modern game system, but someone did make one at one point. Looking for this controller turned up at least another one-handed controller, one for the NES and one for Playstation. All of them appear to be made by ASCIIWARE.
A better answer to your question would be because we have two hands. What could you possibly want to do with the other one while you play a vid... wait don't answer that.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Because it's fucking easier to play with two hands. It's as simple as that. Why the hell would I want to use just one hand for gaming? It would make things extremely fiddily and difficult (in most cases). If you only have one hand, well, sorry, but as there aren't enough one handed people around, don't expect either input devices or games to change in your favour.
I can TYPE one-handed! Does that count?
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
How about a mouse?
STOP ROCK VIDEO
He's not expecting *all* input devices to change - he's just trying to make an alternative for those who can't use the standard variety, which is a fairly good cause, to my mind. He's also certainly not suggesting that everyone should play games one-handed; he just happens to be in that unusual situation himself and wants to find a workaround, so to speak. Show a little more sensitivity towards the handicapped in the future.
--- Bwah?
Wouldn't there need to be two different versions of this? I can't imagine being able to fit all the buttons and controls on a device that would work for either hand. Unfortunately that would greatly increase the cost of production.
Chika Chik-ah... do-e ow ow.
I used to play Cruisin' USA on the N64 one-handed... It wasn't really a game where you needed to brake, so I was content with Go and the Analog pad.
If there was gonna be a one handed controller, that's how I would design it... The thumb controller is analog (And can be pressed down like the Xbox's and the PS2's), the buttons are on the bottom, so it almost looks like you're holding a fishing rod... Something interesting to think about is that your tactile feedback and ability to touch something in detail decreases as you move out towards the pinky finger. Hold a glass or a small bottle, and use the pinky finger to touch something right next to it. It won't be a smooth controlled motion. On the other hand, the index finger moves very slowly and accurately. So near the bottom of this controller you'd need larger fatter buttons that can be easily pressed and are very textured, near the top you can have an analog trigger for the index finger, and 2-4 buttons for the other fingers. Then again, you can always have some buttons as pedals on the floor if it's convenient. I know someone who didn't like having a lot of important FPS buttons be very far away so he got pedals and used them for forward and backward movement. To get really complex, he could even have an analog "stick-shift" for his right arm for those who lack accute detail but could handle gross motor movement.
So that in effect gives us 1 analog, 1 trigger, 2-4 buttons + 2-3 buttons + 1 analog (and a button or two?) essentially replacing all the buttons of a controller. While it seems like an elaborate set-up, it could do what he likes.
Or, he could do what someone on my floor in the university did... He was born with a birth defect which left him with no arms (but hands at the end of his shoulders). He still played videogames, IIRC correctly he used one of those mega-huge Neo-Geo-styled arcade pads. I believe it had a steering wheel, and he may have used his mouth.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
My old manager at Circuit City had gotten his right arm cut off in a car accident. This was back before Xbox was even out. The PS2 we had on display came with a selection of demo games. Ever gotten your ass handed to you in hockey by a man with one hand? The only thing he had trouble with was in this Nintendo64 basketball game, in order to make a free throw you had to use both triggers and the stick at once. That messed him up, bad.
.cig - what you do after winning a good flame war
The development of a one handed controller could lead to an explosion of x-rated games.
I also think most traditional RPGs and Strategy games don't really require more than one hand.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Certainly is obvious people are responsible and intelligent enough to have firearms in their possession.
Here is a pic of a one-handed controller I own for the NES. It was supposely designed for RPGs. The idea was that you could draw a map with one hand and hold the controller in your other hand.
Picture of One Handed NES controller
indeed..
You can play the GBA-SP entirely one-handed with slower games like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
In fact, this has now become a "killer feature" for me, as it means I can eat or do other tedious things with one hand while playing the game with another. I will never buy a portable platform again that does not have this feature. I didn't realize how cool this was until I actually owned one, but it rocks.
Either hand can be used, but the left hand is easier. Either way, the thumb takes everything in front, and the index finger wraps around behind the screen for the triggers.
If you hand is too small to reach the opposing trigger easily, you may have to contort a little to get there. But for one (generally rarely used in this sort of game) button, that's not a bad price.
This has the virtue of A: Having a lot of pre-existing, commercial games that can already be played with one hand, and B: requiring no potentially expensive (either $$$ or time) modifications. The downside is that you still don't get twitch gaming, but with modern twitch games propensity for using a bazillion buttons, you might be better off playing old stuff from the era when one button worked.
I'm a disabled gamer, and I face no end of frustration when playing modern games. And that's with use of BOTH my hands.
The problem is that I brace the controller against a table, rather than hold it in a two handed grip -- therefore those ergonomically placed shoulder buttons and triggers are difficult for me to access quickly. Holding down R1 while manuvering and shooting in Resident Evil? No. Using triggers for gas/brake while flipping gears with buttons and steering? No. Playing Hunter: The Reckoning which requires use of both analogs, all face buttons and both triggers simultaneously? HELL no! How about fighting games which use six buttons? Forget it, unless you can find a controller which sticks L1 and R1 on the face (which thankfully I have, for the PS2 at least).
What's worse, it seems that game designers have been REMOVING button remap features lately. Often games will give you 'Type A', 'Type B' and 'Type C' controls -- all of which map critical features to hard to reach buttons, none of which you can customize to your liking. A few years back I could at least shuffle the less useful map button somewhere distant and the critical 'aim weapon' button to a face button...
But the absolute worst offender, and my favorite anecdote, was trying to play Goldeneye on the N64 at a party. The N64 had analogs, face buttons, shoulder buttons, AND the z-trigger on the BOTTOM of the controller. I had no hope in hell of properly playing, particualrly with 'shoot gun' being mapped to the z-trigger, so I asked if they had an ordinary flat control pad.
They did. And the ordinary flat SNES style control pad... had a z-trigger on the bottom, against all design common sense. That blew my mind, man.
I don't think designers have to to take the disabled into account, but it would be nice if some third party controller manufacturers did. It'd also be nice if the game coders didn't limit how customizable their controls were in-software. Those two things alone would solve all the problems.
well.. in theory anyway. i could never get the hang of it. looked cool though. made me feel like a cyborg.
1. Move all game input to one hand
2. Modify magical one hand controller for use by both hands, giving double the input of previous two hand controllers
3. Repeat until we go totally insane from trying to learn how to play games using new super-inputy controllers.
The problem is that controls aren't two-handed enough! Sure, if you're disabled it's great that you have options, but why force your body into a cramped and unnatural position to play a videogame? I've never seen a controller which actually takes advantage of humans having two arms, rather than seeing it as a burden that we dont just have ten fingers jutting out from the centers of our chests. Controllers suck ass, yes, but is that a reason to make them More limited?
That said, some controllers I use with only one hand just because the layout sucks to begin with.. god DAMN I havent yet used a truely good controller. (Though the PS2 controller is decent)
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Shouldn't the moron who shot the guy have to BE his one-handed controller for the rest of his life? He should have to just stand by the guy's videogame console 24/7 in case he wants to play something, and then hold and operate the controller as the victim beats him with an idiot stick on different parts of his body to signal which buttons to push.
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
Most real time strategy games only require use of the mouse. Though the keyboard can be useful occasionally, you can generally get through a game without ever using it.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Apparently this is some strange new usage of the word "accident" which I was previously unfamiliar with.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
What's frustrating to me as a one-handed gamer is that things could be made so much easier for the disabled if game makers were smarter designers. Designing things to be just a little more accessible than they are now is usually not rocket science, and can help a lot of people.
The one feature that I would most like to see would be allowing the controls to be remapped completely for all games. This includes the trigger buttons, which are often not remappable. I'd happily give up precise analog control of speed/shooting/whatever if it means I can play the game.
Hell, make it part of the OS, so I don't have to trust the game manufacturers. True Crime had remappable controls, but it was possible to remap the controller such that certain special moves could not be performed, even though every command had a button.
I had to read the title three times to understand it. I was convinced it was about Take-Two, the game company. I guess these kind of things are bound to happen when you capitalize every first letter of the words in a title.
Designing is only half the battle. Honestly, how many decent third party controllers have you used? While I wouldn't imagine it to be hard, I've never made one, but the third party controller crowd never seems to get things right, and if this guy's coming out of nowhere making a controller, I wouldn't expect much
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
Besides, there have already been 1 hand controllers put out. THis guy should do some damn research before mouthing off.
You are so caught up in your self righteous "if you don't have two good hads to play with, fuck you!"
Sheesh, what a bunch of bozos!
This is a disabled guy who wants to kick some pixel butt, and there are a good number more out there.
And have any of you thought about non-permanently disabled gamers? Like new fathers who want to bounce their infant on their knee (give mom a break), but get some gaming in at the same time.
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
My right hand was out of commission for a few months ("accident" involving a rottweiler...) and I found one hand and one foot is plenty to run a gamepad (PS2 mostly). At first my foot was rather clumsy so I held the controller backwards (direction controls on the right) with my good hand and used the big toe to handle the d-pad and analog stick. With one hand and one foot direction controls are actually very easy because you can move the gamepad around against your foot using the hand that's holding the pad and doing the buttons.
Later on I actually grew to prefer hitting the buttons with my toes (well big toe mostly) since it required less fine control (and worst case you just lock your toe and move the gamepad against it using your one hand that's holding the pad and handling the other half again). I was even able to hit all the shoulder buttons fine with my big toe using this method (again move the gamepad to help you reach), although multiple buttons at once was tougher. Anyway you hear stories of kids who can write with their feet, running half a gamepad with your hand moving it about the help is nothing.
I remember seeing a one handed SNES controller in a magazine back in the day. Of course, the manufacturer claimed it was for players who wanted one hand free to take notes and such. I guess it works, because there were a lot of RPGs in Japan for the SNES. That or a lot of porno games.
In reality, I think you could get away with a joystick and maybe one or two buttons. Basically an NES controller. You saw a lot of menu based games back then, now you know why. A) Confirm B) Cancel.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
Earthbound for the SNES was playable one handed, if you didn't mind reaching over and tapping the B button every so often to cancel a choice. For the most part, all you needed was the L button and the control pad. Was a great game to eat lunch and play at the same time.
Super Monkey Ball 1&2 on the GameCube both only require the use of the grey analogue pad. You may need something to brace the pad against, though - I tried playing one-handed once and having the pad flailing about makes detailed movements trickier. Some of the minigames work one-handed too... although you might have to headbutt the A button now and then. Did I also mention that they are fantastically good games?
On the PC, real-time strategy games like Age Of Empires should work using only the mouse IIRC. (If they don't, then they SHOULD.) Then there's Minesweeper, of course, but I'm sure the man in question won't be too impressed to hear that...
qntm.org
I think it is safe to assume that they weren't friends, and that they most definitely aren't now. I am a gun owner, and several of my friends are gun owners, and while I have gone shooting with some of them on occasion, it is generally the case that we don't use each other as the targets.
Best Slashdot comment ever
Organists regularly use their feet to control several devices at once. 32 keys, 2 to 5 analog expression pedals, several reversible and combination pistons. Some of the best organ music has very complicated pedal solos requiring one foot to hold one or two notes while the other foot plays a detached melody line. Others have pedal solos in which both feet work together to hit several keys a second. One of the best known examples is Bach's fugue in D minor, of course. Most people don't know that much of that is played by the feet!
...is there a Disabled Gamers Association?
It would be relatively simple to take a pedalboard (or an entire console) and turn it into a game controller. But the cost of the console itself would be prohibitive, unless some local church were to donate their discarded console.
Would you care to share any of them?
True story.
Though it's probably a little old for what he's looking for......
The NES Max was designed to be used with 2 small hands, or 1 big hand.
It was small enough that you could wrap your hand around it to get your thumb on the direction controls, and your fingers could reach the buttons.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
The standard R/C controller has two sticks, giving you four axis of control (throttle, rudder, elevator, aileron) ... absolutely requiring two hands, unless you limit yourself to one stick and therefore only two channels. (Which is fine for some gliders, but is very limiting.)
But people have made controllers where there's only one stick -- to access the other two channels, you rotate the stick and turn a small seperate knob on top of it. It's not as easy to use as the two stick version, but if you've only got one hand, it gets you back in the air.
(You use a tray to hold the transmitter, so you don't have to use your hands to carry it at all.)
I'd love to give a link to one of these, but can't seem to find one right now ...
Aha -- found one! here's a picture and here's the page with more info. Looks like this one only has three axis on that one stick, but that's enough for the important controls of a powered airplane, and perfect for most gliders.
There are actually a few NES one-handed controllers to display.
Quickshot XII: The Joysticks of the NES age had both buttons accessible and you could play games with one hand. Unfortunally, directional controls are a PAIN with joysticks in most games.
Game Handler: I've never seen one of these before, but it obviously seems custom-made for the purpose of one-handed gameplay. Interesting design.
ASCII Stick L5: Scroll down a bit and you'll see it. It's held in your hand sort of like a hand-fan.
One Handed: Scroll down about half way and to the controller with the caption: "Looks like a freaking droid from Star Wars". This is the controller I originally posted the picture about. It's held sort of like a stopwatch.
Cool, no?
indeed..
What the hell is it to you if some unfortunate handicapped person wants to enjoy a videogame?
First off, you're right. The one-handed videogame playing population is a small demographic. So lucky for your selfish self, the industry at large will not be changing it's games to accomodate the less fortunate. But, thankfully there are manufacturers who are trying to make the fully-functional world accessible to handicapped people (one-handed game controllers, cars you can drive without needing your feet, etc.)
Apparently, he already discovered a one-handed game controller at the party.
The analog controller for the Sega Saturn was made for one hand. It came with the game Nights, which required it.
For a game that really just requires 2 buttons (yes and no) and a control pad/stick (like most RPGs), a system like Earthbound's works well. You could either operate it two handed like normal, or use only your left hand, which has access to the control pad, the left shoulder button, and a button in the middle of the controller (select). You can map all the functions you need to those, but to date Earthbound is the only game that I've seen work well or at all with that configuration.
Apparently someone hasn't played Dance Dance Revolution. ;-)
IMO any company that doesn't include subtitles is just lazy. That's the first (well maybe second) option I look to enable when I play a game. My hearing is a little poor when it comes to speech (nothing that effects my life though), and I tend to watch lips to fill in the gaps. In video games this just doesn't work since you lose mouth movements. Between all the weird accents and bad acting they put into games, I miss like every fifth word, very frustrating.
It's very easy to add subtitles and there should be the option to enable it for speech (of whole sentences). Catchphrases/Exclamations are a different story, and aren't really necessary.
The worse are games that TRY to make the speech hard to understand (white noise, very soft, etc). Think of Myst, when you click on the talking books. Sure it adds ambience, but did anyone else find it fun playing it over and over again trying to figure out what they were saying. At least it wasn't critical to the storyline.
But it only takes one hand to jerk it and that is always a fun game.
p g
http://www.ultimatehandjob.com/CFNM/dormgirls.j
Earthbound (for the SNES) is completely playable with a normal SNES controller using just your left hand, and it's a great game to boot.
Would that work? I read about someone using a controller with thier toes but this might be a bit more ergonomic. Of course you have to hack your own interface...
Happy New Year
The PSX title Chrono Cross let you configure the controller so that you could play it with one hand on a normal PSX controller. Good times, good times...it was actually pretty comfortable.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
There used to be a one-handed PlayStation controller by ASCII; perhaps if they're bugged enough they'll release a USB model.
As for PC gaming, I would imagine that the best routine would be to obtain a japanese "keiboard" or cellphone-clone keyboard and use that. Most of them have integrated mice too.
"I think it is safe to assume that they weren't friends, and that they most definitely aren't now."
You're forgetting something: alchohol.
Here is the original digital controllerV iew=Hardware &ProductID=25&ProductName=ASCII+Grip+%2D+One%2DHan ded+Controller
& produ cts_id=3040&
http://www.agetec.com/products.asp?My
And here's teh new Analog one
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=22
Ah yes, the infamous Darwin equation:
Cd = log(Nf ** Sbac) / Nf,
where Nf is the number of firearms within 100 meters,
Sbac is the summation of the blood-alchohol content of all the people in 100 meters,
Then Cd is the Darwin coefficient, an estimation of the likelyhood of Natural selection playing itself out amongst the group.
Best Slashdot comment ever
For both you fucking idiots, it is ALCOHOL
If anybody has actually used a treadmill, its boring as hell. Running outside is interesting, because of the changes in locals, things going on around you, etc. But putting a TV (ugh) near the treadmill is as good as it generally gets.
There IS a machine at a gym I used to go to (I live far from there now) which had a touch-screen browser. Actually, there were two machines, a bicycle and a skier. The skier was ok, but I would prefer a treadmill. However, your time spent on the machine whips right by: I would find myself continuing the time just to finish reading the page I was on.
So ya, I can definitely see a big demand for a good one-handed controller.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
http://www.psillustrated.com/hr_glove.html
:p)
"fits like a glove (literally) and uses wrist movements for control. USES ONLY ONE HAND.(!)"
(I should comment here, but I can't think of anything
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Virtual valerie, perhaps?
Well, sorta anyways.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
They chose to implement L1 as a second "Yes" button, so as long as you never make mistakes, you can play 1-handed. It was most handy for playing while on the phone.
__CmdrTHAC0__
In Soviet Russia, Spanish Inquisition doesn't expect YOU!!