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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?"
You might be disappointed by the quality of the suggestions you get to your question, since most Slashdotters are disabled from the neck up.
Yeah, seriously. Use VirtuNes or the like, and have the zapper set up thru the mouse. I work in a facility with people that have your situation. Using the same setup, I had some of the guys playing Operation Wolf and Lazer Invasion in no time. Good luck!
Note that this isn't an endorsement for either site - I don't know what kind of extra junk they install when you install their games, for example - but these type of games meant for the "casual gamer" usually work with minimal input, and the people who play them certainly seem to like them.
How precise are those btw? As you might have noticed many strategy (turn) based games don't require much speed and accuracy.
I don't read replies by ACs.
I have no idea what a headmouse is or how it is used, but I'm guessing playing DDR with it on the highest setting will eventually make your head fall off...
http://www.medschool.pitt.edu/
Good luck.
http://www.busyweather.com/
**Disclaimer: I've not researched this at all, consider this post merely a brainfart!**
You did not say what hardware/software you are using so I don't know if this is any use but if you're running Windows (and I assume that your hardware just emulates a standard mouse anyway), here's a few ideas.
Most RTS games can be played mouse only so you should be OK with anything Command-And-Conquer-esque. I'm not sure how quickly/accurately you can move a cursor but you can adjust the speed of most RTS games to suit. Turn-based strategy games would be good too, and you can play both types online.
There are loads of online games (cards/board games etc.) which you only need a mouse to play. If you have an onscreen keyboard you will be able to chat as well.
Most FPS games will likely be out of the question as you generally require a keyboard AND mouse to play. Having said that, the original Doom/Wolfenstein games can be played without a keyboard.
Also, try to find out if there's a disabled gamers group either online or near you. I would imagine there must be SOMEONE out there in a similar situation to you, so maybe they can be more helpful than me!
Good luck!
If ignorance is bliss, knock the smile off my face.
I use a headmouse sometimes to reduce hand-strain. (I can't even use a mouse with my main writing hand anymore, because of the unbearable pain.) My headmouse is one of the Naturalpoint models (http://www.naturalpoint.com/). Their TrackIR product is designed with gamers in mind. They list a number of games that work well with the headmouse on their website. Also, they have forums (http://forums.naturalpoint.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb .cgi) where you can find a lot of discussion of headmouse gaming.
I find that some games work better than others. I like using it for strategy games, for example. It's not so good for games like Star Wars Galaxies, where you have to push the mouse left and *leave* it there, to turn left. With a headmouse, this results in you tipping further and further left, until you can't go any further (or turning your avatar back right, if you want to straighten your head back up). D'oh! With pretty much all games, you will probably have to recenter it frequently, regardless of how well they get along with the headmouse.
Another thing that complements a headmouse is the wonderful Shoot program (http://clans.gameclubcentral.com/shoot/). It's a free voice recognition program intended for use with games. Because it's intended for use with a very small vocabulary, the performance is vastly superior to what you'd get from Dragon, and the overhead is much smaller, to boot. It's designed so you can assemble different profiles for all of your favorite games, and it works surprisingly well.
The last thing I recommend is to keep an eye on the Game Accessibility SIG (http://www.igda.org/accessibility/) of the IGDA. They're dedicated to spreading awareness of accessibility needs in mainstream games and sharing methods for making accessibility easy.
Good luck!
I've been skimming this thread and I didn't see many replies from other users with disabilities. I also use a type of headmouse because of a neuromuscular disability. I've had this type of setup since I was 16 (I'm 31 now and work as an attorney). I've always been a gamer and I tend to gravitate towards games that don't require twitch reflexes. I'm a big RPG fan and most of these are mouse-driven. Check out some of the classics like Baldur's Gate or Planescape. Planescape is especially brilliant. A more recent game I really enjoyed was Freedom Force, a rpg/strategy game that is also mouse-driven. Does your headmouse allow you to hook up separate switches for the left and right mouse buttons? These switches work really well if you have limited movement.
/. and the quality of the responses tends to run the gamut from troll to somewhat helpful. I hope other users with disabilities will see this and offer more ideas.
If you do play games that require a few keyboard commands, check out Game Commander. It allows you to program voice commands for games. It has a pretty customizable interface and you can even program macros.
If you have an on-screen keyboard, you can always go old-skool with text adventures from Infocom.
Stop by my blog if you have other questions. I've seen other disability-related questions posted on
dude...