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Gaming With a Headmouse?
seanbhoy writes "Do you have any information on games that can be played by myself? I am disabled from the neck down, and use a headmouse to access the Internet, etc. To get an idea of my disability, I have almost the same injuries that Christopher Reeve had. Can you point me in the direction of similar would-be gamers and computer users? Also do you have any information on games that may work with the headmouse I use?"
I had a bad reaction to a drug, causing my whole face to stretch in one direction. Not being in control of your body is not fun at all. As long as we have such little understanding of ourselves, stuff like that could happen.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
I wonder how well voice command gaming would work? See here for one example.
Meh.
BTW, Many similarly disabled people have rich sex lives. I hope you never have to experience catastrophic injury firsthand. Be thankful for what you have.
Do you have any idea how offensive that is?
/. stereotype: geeks with no social grace or tact.
You're proof of the standard
Games like maniac mansion, day of the tentacle, escape from monkey island. They don't have any quick-reflex types of interaction with the game, but do require a mouse. They are very story oriented though, and the mouse is used in a "point on the word to complete the sentence" type of interface. An example is a classic, clicking on "use", then selecting the "hamster" icon, then selecting the microwave from the picture window.
Anyway, if you're already using a head mouse, that seems to be completely within the means of appropriate uses.
Another type of game that doesn't get a lot of attention these days are moos, or muds. Text-based massive multiplayer games are totally possible to play with a head mouse, especially with a lot of mud clients having lots of point-and-click scripting abilities, to lessen the need for typing even more.
There were some really good text-based games that can usually be found laying around these days. "Bureaucracy" and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" were incredibly entertaining for their day, and still are if you can suspend needing to see pretty graphics.
But ultimately, I have no experience with headmice at all. I'm just making these suggestions that it's not necessarily the limitation of being able to get to every button, but that its the limitation of getting to those buttons _quickly_ that is the problem here, for games. As such, some role-playing games might work, especially something like Final Fantasy Tactics, or similar games, that could be played through emulation on a non-console game system.
Here's a person so highly sympathetic to other people who are disabled that he doesn't fetishize our greater physical abilities above their lesser. In fact he is already so beyond the merely physical that, far from the traditional pity for the disabled, he admires their equality (and perhaps superiority) in the field that really interests him: the mind. While you are still so mired in pity or other fetishistic discrimination of the disabled that you attack him. Unfortunately, your disability discriminates against you in the world of the mind, where we are indeed all headed. Fortunately, your disability is easier to transcend, merely by opening your mind to people like the poster to whom you replied. Post again when you're feeling better.
--
make install -not war
Let me just start out by saying, this is one of those posts that makes you step back and realize there's a niche that needs to be filled, that falls outside of one's own personal paradigm. I felt so dumb, not even knowing what a headmouse was.
With much thanks to the person who posted an example of a headmouse, from a tech perspective, I can think of it sort of like a touchpad or normal mouse (aka, movement of a cursor and possible right/left click). The website said it had a common USB interface... the machine must see it as a normal mouse.
Which brings me to my suggestion. One of my favorite games on the Amiga was some "walker" something or other... you actually had to control it with two controllers. One joystick controlled the walking machine, the other the cursor on the screen, a shooting type of targeter. What made this game so fun to play wasn't the fact that you needed two joysticks (and literally two hands) to play, but the fact that you could play it with someone else, simultaneously!
In other words, you controlled this StarWars 2 legged at-at thing, and one guy got to let it move and the other controlled it's gun/targeter/whatever.
Is the option to play with someone else available? It could be interesting! Play a FPS where you control the mouse and someone else controls the keyboard... a new level of gameplay, and the best part... you don't have to even modify exsisting games.
I'm not trying to be cruel or anything but I remember having a great time with that old Amiga "walker" game (if someone can remember the real name, I'd appreciate it). I actually remember having to use a D-pad style joystick in my left hand then a "stick" style joystick under my right leg, to control the game. It was actually easier (and more fun) to play with two people!
To sum up a long and boring post: just because most modern games are designed with one person, or two people "competing" doesn't mean you can't have a good time using the game in a non-traditional cooperative mode. I've always personally enjoyed cooperative games more than competitive. (But that's just me.)
FLR
I have not used one myself, but as I understand it, head mouse selections are made by hovering on the spot you want to select for a second. You configure it to read a pause of a certain length over an active spot to be a "click."
This means a slower response time, which makes "twitch-based" shooters a bit of a challenge, but then again, for somebody who has as many challenges to overcome as the author of this question, it might not be beyond the bounds of reason.
Personally, I'm rooting for big advancements in non-invasive brain interaction systems. Many of us are living longer, so the chances of all of us spending part of our lives partially or completely disabled continues to climb. Computer games might offer a great way to push the envelope in this field. Were I a gaming programmer or a biofeedback specialist, I would be awfully tempted to write a grant proposal for a project along these lines, and see if some University wanted to fund it.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
It's a matter of care. A dyslexic bloke I know generates very coherent documentation, emails etc - especially when compared to his peers. Why? He *knows* he has limitations and checks everything he writes three times. His peers just bang out their emails etc and hit "send" with no editing/spell checking etc, because they are not aware of their imperfections.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Obviously puzzles are often mouse-only and do not require fast reaction times. I guess there are plenty of Myst-type games; I dont remember very well, but aren't most the old LucasArt games (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Sam and Max, Grim Fandango) mouse-only?
For starters, maybe you could try the online classics at FASCO-CS: Crimson Room and Viridian Room. Maybe you could manage puzzles like Hapland too.
Having humor about one's disability is an ability, not a disability.
dude...
Absolutely unbelievable game series, mouse-driven
OK... After having read WAY down in this thread with the intent of moderating it, wading through all the trolls and offtopics and irrelevants, I gave up. I'll mod somewhere else... This thread desperately needs some guidance and relevance that a few +/- 1's aren't going to provide.
I'm sorry that the technology necessary to enjoy PC games isn't quite there yet for the disabled, and I cannot personally say I know of any games particularly suited or designed for a headmouse. I'm pretty good at video games, but I damn sure need every finger and movement I can get... Some games require so many potential movements on so many different axis or inputs... My keyboard is barely enough! I hate it, but I would recommend looking into some legacy games (if you haven't played it, even though the graphics aren't new hotness, it doesn't necessarily suck just b/c it's old) like King's Quest/Space Quest or perhaps the original Final Fantasy (I played it again for the 4th or 5th time last year), or perhaps a turn-based strategy game of some kind where reaction time isn't so important? Vis-a-vis Master of Orion, Civilization, etc? I admit to not knowing much about headmice beyond the basics (i.e., i don't know how configurable they are or what range of input the average user has available), but I'm sure there must be something.
Also, you people keep mentioning the implants while completely forgetting to bring up the neural/aural (read: EKG) helmet that was effectively tested at about the same time with a nearly identical set of results as the implants. The EKG can sense the same brainwave pattern shifts that were used to control the cursor via implant. Maybe the same level of precision won't be available as via true implant (at first, or perhaps maybe never) due to bandwidth limitations (imagine trying to connect your fiber-line by leaving an unterminated end pointing at a microscope lens a few feet away... The fundamental limitations of wireless as opposed to wired.) But one day in what I believe will be the not-too-distant future, the interfaces will be there, wired or not, for you to be able to enjoy your computing experience as much as I do. It may even happen that one day, children born with crippling disabilities may even be better off in the virtual world than the rest of us b/c their brain (if they receive such implants for either input or total immersion) will not worry so much about developing neural pathways for physical activities, but for more mental ones.
I hope the steady march of technology does right for you soon; I've been certain this technology was coming within my lifetime, and since the release of the new researech I'm even more certain it will be in the next 10 - 15 years, and hopefully the surgerical techniques to help you will be here even sooner.
Can _ANYBODY_ say something relevant and list a few ideas for games compatible with a headmouse?
"Inveniemus Viam Aut Faciemus" 'We will find a way... Or we will make one!' --Hannibal of Carthage
Plus, their list of supported games is a fantastic guide to all of the sweet point-and-click adventure games that you never heard of. There were probably twice as many that I *hadn't* played, and I was pretty hooked on those games as a kid. :)