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?"

Comments

I've got to ask

[digitalgimpus]

What is the perfered method of typing for someone with that disorder?

I'm assuming the postere typed their own question.

Re:I've got to ask

[stuffman64]

Probably with Dasher". Definately worth checking out, even if you are not disabled.

Can you click?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you have a way to click? If you can move your head relatively fast I would imagine that you'd be pretty good at any FPS since you pretty much aim by looking...

Re:Can you click?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're forgetting the directional movement.

IMO lightgun games are a safe bet, the imput device is a lightgun with one trigger, if run through a nintendo/sega/amiga/whatever emulator, the mouse x and y axis can probably be substituted for a lightgun.

I would also recommend all the LucasArts adventure games, like Day of The Tentacle, the Indiana Jones series, Sam & Max, the Monkey Island series (excellent), Full Throttle, and the list goes on.

There are tons of games that require nothing more than mouse input wich should be able to function with your headmouse as long as you have a means to 'click' (like a jaw button?), most roleplaying games and strategy games should work.

I'd recommend you to stay away from Massively Multiplayer Online games though, these will allow you to participate in a virtual world with thousands upon thousands of players playing simultaneously, the world will evolve as time passes.
However, such games are extremely addictive, especially in your situation where you can step inside a virtual world and suddenly make your character walk (assuming they can be ordered to move to a location marked by a click of the mouse like in NWN), where your character suddenly isn't limited by a disability.
Also, these games are rented rather than bought, you will be required to pay a monthly fee.

There have been cases of real life suicides as a consequence of malicious players stealing other players characters, characters wich they have spent years shaping.
Since you are even more likely to be consumed by such a game than the average player, due to your ability limiting your choices of other things to devote yourself to, I strongly advise against the Massively Multiplayer Online genre.

Good luck, I hope you will find plenty of games to keep you occupied and happy.

Headmouse

[nbert]

How precise are those btw? As you might have noticed many strategy (turn) based games don't require much speed and accuracy.

Bio Feedback?

[ebbyfish]

I don't know if this would work, but you may want to look at http://wilddivine.com/. It works on Bio feedback (no joystick), maybe they can help you out.

Frozen Bubble!

[Mr. Jaggers]

I think Frozen Bubble could be modified to be playable with left-right panning and a click type movement. It may already be possible. My wife *loves* that game; it has tetris-like addictivity. The developer is a nice guy too...

How about mind games?

[GillBates0]

Not recommending psychedelic drugs or anything of that nature here, but:

Your mind is a greater computer than we can ever create with our current technology. It is also capable of far higher planes of entertainment than we are used to.

Being restricted in your body movement does not restrict you from exploring the depths of your mind. You could try playing these "MindGames (TM)" by yourself. What I'm referring to is exploring "higher planes of consciousness", as Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc) call it, and "trips", as druggies (no offence intended) call it.

These elevated states of consciousness are achievable through meditation and trancendental techniques (lots of Google results when I looked) and to a certain extent (with obvious side effects) through psychotropic drugs. In my experience, these techniques really result in peace and tranquility, at the very least ..... and what's more, you don't need anything more than your mind to play them.

Just wanted to offer an out of the box suggestion which I thought might help....Good luck.

How fast can you click?

[Ponzicar]

How quickly can you click with a headmouse, and is right clicking as easy as left clicking? Diablo 1 or Diablo 2 may be possibilities, assuming that fairly rapid clicking is not a problem. Diablo 1 has a bit of a slower pace, and with both games you can access just about everything, including the main menu and inventory, using only the mouse.

Have you tried a good text-based game?

[Keebler71]

I would highly recommend some all-text adventure games. I have extremely fond memories of the Zork series, Planetfall and the like. They do not require fast reflexes but are still challenging, fun and addictive. Most of the common commands can be abbreviated to a single letter ("n" for "north", "i" for "inventory", "l" for "look" etc...) and I imagine that your user-interface is tuned for text anyway. Oh, and the games can be downloaded for free from infocom's site. And of course, full solutions abound on the net should you get stuck. Enjoy!

Re:A bit jealous, strangely

[Doc Ruby]

You are the one who is truly sick, sadly like too many others. The poster admires the quadriplegic for their transcendence of the body, which the poster also seeks, and finds us all equally tending towards. You are the one haunted by violent imagery, associating disability with punishment.

Re:World of Warcraft

[Southpaw018]

Agreed. If you can manipulate a web browser with your headmouse, you can play WoW...albeit slowly, but the game's an absolute blast. You're welcome in my guild if you'd like to join. I'll send you an email with further information.

Re:Quality Suggestions?

[Mantorp]

Very funny!

Back on topic. What about problem solving walking through environments a la MYST and the like? Or boardgames on Yahoo.

I'll try my best to help

[3770]

I didn't know what a head mouse was so I did a little research:

HeadMouse® Extreme replaces a standard computer mouse for people who cannot use their hands. It operates from the top of a computer monitor, laptop computer, or augmentative communication device, and measures the user's head movements. The wireless sensing technology employs infrared light to track a small disposable target that is placed on the user's forehead or glasses. HeadMouse Extreme provides a wide field-of-view and superior precision, supporting even graphics-intensive applications like drawing and computer aided design.

When used with mouse button software, such as Origin Instruments' Dragger(TM), mouse clicks are performed by positioning the pointer and dwelling for a selectable period of time. Alternately, selections can be performed using an adaptive switch, such as the Origin Instruments Sip/Puff Switch, or even through use of speech recognition software. HeadMouse Extreme also comes with a built-in infrared receiver that provides optional

Text copied from here

It does seem rather powerful, especially if it can be combined with voice recognition. Although voice recognition isn't perfect it could certainly be good enough to mimic the button pushes we make when playing a game.

It probably won't be as fast though. So you probably want a game that isn't twitch based. Lets review the categories.

1) MMORPG. Although this isn't twitch based I'm reluctant to recommend it. I don't mean to be insensitive, but I believe that you will meet a lot of insensitive impatient people who will only hurt your self esteem. I don't know the average age of an MMORPG player. All I know is that many act like 12 year olds. Maybe if you find trade skilling rewarding. You could be a very good trade skiller, I'm sure. In fact, if you enjoy trade skilling then you can build your character to the highest levels and people want to do business with you. This category is different than the two below, because there is social interatction here. And if you want more of that, then this might be your choice.

2) Turn based strategy. Civilisation... Oh the memories... I'd really have to recommend this genre. This is one of my all time game genres. And you can play it at any speed you like. You invest a lot of time in the strategy and you can ask a unit to do something which will take many turns. This means that later in the game it will do tons of stuff, that is really interesting to you, the player, but you won't actually be doing much pointing and clicking. Whatever else games you play, you should try to do this too. It is just too much fun to not do. To round it up, whether you win this or not _only_ depends on your thinking. Nothing else. You will be as good a player as a non handicapped person. It might take longer. But what the hey.

3) Real time strategy. This is another one of my favorite genres. Although this really can be as much twitching as a first person shooter, you can normally set the speed to anything you like. You might find that this really gets your adrenalin pump going. I know it does for me.

4) First person shooters. This might not work when you play with a random person from the Internet. But you could get a group going with the same type of problem as you. All that matters is that everyone is about similarly fast. This could be a lot of fun, _and_ it could also be super rewarding if you can organize and build a community and make friends. I currently play an MMORPG right now, and the part that is the most rewarding for me is to organize events and try to help people have fun. The game itself is secondary. You might want to look at games such as Ghost Recon which is more "suspense" and "one shot one kill" rather than the Quake "circle/strafe" "rocket jump" game play.

5) Someone else mentioned Myst. Myst and other puzzle games might be good for you. It isn't for me, but many like it. Maybe you are one of them.

And finally, good luck finding the game that is for you. I love it when I have a new game.

Great subject, Great cauise! Few suggestions

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

Forgive me, i dont know exactly what limitations you have or how it would effect the design of a controller tailored to your needs... BUT I am almost certain a controller can be tailored to your needs.

You can buy many arcade controller devices from arcade parts manufacturers like the very legendary maker of high quality parts, http://www.happcontrols.com/

Coming from the street fighter community, guys are always making their own controllers. I did just that myself recently. Often what happens is users will take circuit board from a cheap 3rd party controller such as "madcatz" and simply wire up the arcade buttons to the boards, thus building their own fancy arcade controller.

I'm almost certain there is a way to do something similar for you. Infact i'm sure that a few talented techs could easily rig something up for you that would interface with a console gaming system and a PC as well.

I have heard of head mouse units. And again, i have complete confidence that one could be built for you, and tailored to your needs.

I'm not sure if i'm being much help but I'm just very confident that you can find a solution. Like i said, tailoring a controller for your needs would be quite easy with a few techs on the job because rigging up controllers isnt difficult at all, the only trick is when you have to use an existing board to interface your custom controls to. Figuring out the wiring etc. But again, i'm so certain someone could dismantle a PC controller and a mouse and have something working for you rather quickly and easily.

There's probably some more capable folks here on slashdot that may be up for the challenge that could or have already shared their insights. Perhaps they're willing to lend their expertise too.

Re:Not really

[ayjay29]

>>A dyslexic bloke I know generates very coherent documentation, emails etc

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy,
it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist
and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset
can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed
ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. ceehiro

That'll fcuk the splelchekcer

Here are some games

[Kentsusai]

Got a friend in a similar situation.

Here are some games
* LOTS of RPGs - (good ones that are involving http://www.agdinteractive.com/)
* Chess, shogi, other board games
* card games
* Plenty of net games available (like bejeweled)
* some arcade plane fighting games like galactica, Raiden I & II & II, starfox
* puzzle games like boulderdash, rockford

Also recommend installing software that allows you to "turbo-fire" your mouse. That way you can play games where you have click very fast! On top of that we installed stuff like sticky mouse buttons.

He can play old school games like DOOM and DOOM II, Wolf3D. Forward, backward, left, right, strafe button, fire, swap weapon. That's all he uses. You can do this with some new FPS (but your game play will be pretty limited)

We also installed a media player for him! Keeps him entertained.

Check out www.liberatedgames.com. They have a fair few commerical games which have been released to the public for free.
My favourites on that site which I think you will like include
Flight of the Amazon Queen (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=31 )
Civ 2 (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=50 ) [BTW check out FreeCiv and Wesnoth! TWO GOOD STRATEGY GAMES YOU CAN PLAY WITH JUST A MOUSE! Wesnoth has a great story line! Well developed game! Online gameplay!]
Beneath a Steel Sky (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=30 )
Treasure Island Dizzy (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=81 ) [This one is a platformer, but if you get the hang of your headmouse you can play this without a prob! My friend does :-] )

Igo

[unkokue]

Chess is fine, but Go is a game with a lot more options. If you don't play internet go, you should start, I consider it the best of the traditional/non-twitch games.

Re:CRIPPLE FIGHT!!!!

[hairyfeet]

I agree.At least I got the stones to post on my sig and let the bad karma fall where it may.In answer to the disabled gentleman,I hated when I was stuck in a wheelchair after a bike wreck and think you are an inspiration to have overcome your limitations the way you have.As far as games go,I have played many flash games that worked well mouse only and perhaps if the smart guys here would stop being jerks for a minute maybe one could offer to alter a gameboy emu as there were a bunch of great games on that system and with it only needing two action buttons it would probably be easy to switch over to mouse only.

Re:Not really

[Oktober Sunset]

that only works with words that we can assume we know the meaning to, and also notice that the 'randomised' words in that text only have the letter displaced by one of 2 places, look at university, the n and i are still at the front, s i and t are at the end and v e and r are still in the middle, the letters are still grouped with the rest of the letters of that sylable. same with research, the letters are grouped so they make similar sylables to the correctly written word.

alultcay taht pceie of slnbiigbrcs is a nicloennssl cctoelolin of fuuenrclade, its ceaacltuld to bnaacle spsouped gnentiiuy wtih rluiudiocs bnfurefoy to mzmiaixe the orncnccure of hrtaliiy.

notice that piece isn't quite is readable, i dounbt anyone skipped through that without having to stop and rearange letter, that cos they are more randomised, don't reflect the sylables of the proper word, and they are more obscure words, so you don't know in advance what they are likely to be.

Re:Not really

[al_fruitbat]

Hfolelupy yluol dvoicisr the utturnh - the irccoernt psmeire rieels eerillnty uopn sctnneees ctssiinnog selloy of spmile ricttresed lteetr wdros. A centrecod errofft to cuntsorct celmpox pyyasllliobc wdros elaisey perdocus grebibsih.

Magic The Gathering Online

[Bryan Ischo]

I like Magic The Gathering Online. It's an online multiplayer version of the Magic The Gathering card game. This is a strategic card game that is alot of fun to play. The interface to the game is very simple, and you wouldn't need a keyboard to play it *at all*, all you need to be able to do is point and click, and right-click, and possibly click-and-drag. However without the ability to type you wouldn't be able to say "good luck" and "good game" to your opponenets, which wouldn't interfere with your gameplay but other players who don't know your circumstances may unfortunately come to the conclusion that you are an unfriendly person. If you do have the ability to type just a little bit, even if slowly, that would help immensely with the social aspect of the game.

It's not a traditional "video game" in the sense that it's not an action-based game, but you get to play against real people, meaning that the challenge level is always pretty high, and it really can be a very fun game to play. And like I mentioned there can be social aspects to it as well which are nice. I've met some nice people from all over the world on there.

I would recommend starting out with "league" play, which is a relatively cheap way to learn how to play and to get alot of playing time on a pretty even playing field.

Oh yeah there is a free preview available too, which allows you to play only with a limited set of card decks against other people who are playing the preview, but it will help you to know whether or not you can handle the interface to the game, and whether or not you enjoy it.

You can download MTGOL at:

http://mtgoinstall.wizards.com/installers/mtgodl 2. exe

RPGs

[Khelder]

A lot of RPGs are real-time, which I think would probably make them pretty tough, but not all are.

My all-time second favorite RPG, Fallout, by default goes into turns when you enter combat. Other times it's real-time, but I don't think that should be a problem. It's also heavily mouse-based (and maybe can be played using only the mouse--it's been a while so I don't remember). Its successor, Fallout 2, is also a very worthy game and uses the same interface.

My #1 all-time favorite RPG is Planescape: Torment. The NPC interaction and storyline are better than anything else I've seen before or since. I think it's always real-time, but pausable at will with the space bar.