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?

Comments

Flight Simulators

[beders]

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

Arcade Games

[TheRedHorse]

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.

Re:Arcade Games

[Quarters]

The button was made separate to allow for the player to have a very fast rate of fire. You can't move a joystick and repeatedly press your thumb on a top button as efficiently as you can move the stick with one hand and slap the button with your other hand.

Your thumb would get very tired very quickly, too. Zaxxon did it that way, yes, but it did not require the frenetic firing rate of most arcade games.

Which games?

[iainl]

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.

It may seem ironic or moronic...

[DarkGreenNight]

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.