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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
In related news:
"TECMO INC. release one handed XBOX controller for Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball."
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!
I can TYPE one-handed! Does that count?
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
How about a mouse?
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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.
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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.
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.
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
Apparently this is some strange new usage of the word "accident" which I was previously unfamiliar with.
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My original message: I can eat or do other tedious things with one hand while playing the game with another.
Sexy Pant's reply: I bet it rocks your penis too!
I wouldn't say that qualifies as a "tedious thing".
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.
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.
The analog controller for the Sega Saturn was made for one hand. It came with the game Nights, which required it.
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...
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