For those of you interested in one-switch / one-button games, please take a ride over to the SpecialEffect GameBase Gamma IV forum post (you may now breathe).
Out of the 154 games entered I've managed to track down less than half. Wonder if we'll ever see them all. I've played about 50 of these and have made mention of my initial thoughts. No surprises: Some are great, some are not.
For your convenience I've listed the ones I think are best at the top. And my personal favourites so far (from the ones publicly available) are: Dracula Cha-Cha, Half-PI'D Mini-Golf; High High Rockets; Pax Britannica and Wheelchair Curling. Expect to see some reviews here and over at the GameBase switch area soon.
Some days I feel like I'm falling to bits. I'm training to run the London Marathon this April the 25th. Did I realise how far 26 miles / 42 km was when I agreed? Yes I did in a car. Anyway, imagine a man puffing like a steam-train in the cold air, head the colour of a beetroot, repeatedly putting his iPod headphones back in because they keep falling out, running not very fast up and down the hills of Billericay. That's me quite a lot these days.
I'm doing it to fill in for a runner who dropped out for the wonderful charity SpecialEffect. They are doing fantastic things, including:
The Star Gaze project aiming to bring eye-gaze technology to people who may just be coming out of a coma in hospital so that they can very quickly communicate with their families.
The Game for Helen project that is bringing a highly inclusive games room to the children and young adult's hospices Helen and Douglas House with the hope that this work will spread far and wide.
So in short, please sponsor me! And please don't be put off from the big donors I've had already. Honestly, I would be very grateful for one pound or dollar or euro. It all helps raise cash for this fantastic charity and cause, and will give my beetroot headed running a big boost too.
Chuffed to bits that OneSwitch has received one of those top spots. Of course the accolade is massively down to the support of others. So big-fat-hearty thank yous to Retro Remakes (especially Oddbob, 9752AD and all the programmers who've written more accessible games in their competitions). Thank you to the IGDA GASIG and the many members there who have freely shared their knowledge and passion which has taught me much. Thank you to William Pilgrim for his amazing 4Noah utilities. Thank you to Graeme Singh and all other programmers making efforts above and beyond the mainstream to make games much more accessible to non-main-stream gamers.
Please do check out the other web-sites on the 7-128.com lists as there are many fantastic sites there. Also take a look at their special offer to pick up one of their highly accessible games: Inspector Cyndi in Newport - The Case of the Forgetful Sailor.
Quasimoto have just recently released their second analogue arcade stick, the Quaiscon Axis. This time, not only are there dual analogue sticks, but also analogue buttons. Of great interest is that the senstitivity of these can be adjusted when ordering. Console compatibility includes Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSone, Wii (classic controller games only) and PC and Mac.
This looks like a potential solution for a lot of players struggling with the small controls of a traditional joypad. Expect to see a SpecialEffect GameBase review soon.
Added to the Accessible Gaming Shop Large Controllers section.
The Kokoromi Gamma IV competition has reportedly garnered 154 new one-button games. Hell's bells that's a lot! I've no doubt that there will be some crackers in there as I've already played some excellent efforts. You can see glimpses at the TIG sorce forums.
Kokoromi are seeking sponsors to see this project through to completion cash-money wise. Although they aren't quite waving the accessibility in games flag, I think this is still a great endeavour deserving of support. Lashing them a few quid (aka $5) could really give them a boost.
They are also seeking hard-ware hackers to make interesting one-button things and stuff. I'll be watching this with one curious eye. The 10th of March 2010 should see much more revealed.
You have until Wednesday the 10th of February 12pm GMT to enter the Nanogames competition. To win 20 highly accessible games all you need do is e-mail me a brief line to be dropped into a virtual hat. Winners will be drawn and notified on Wednesday. Easy! Good luck!
Update: The competition is over, the names have been drawn by switch control, and 20 (actually 20 plus) lucky winners should now have their Nanogames! Huge-massive thanks to Dennis Asher. Good man!
How does £6.99 / $8.99 USD sound for a delivered Playstation joypad to Xbox 360 converter? Well Pretty Luna Shop at eBay (search on "PS2 to Xbox") in China have these and they work really well. You'll still need a wired Xbox 360 controller attached but it works great when I tested out with a Dragonplus one handed controller. I'm under the impression that this is a PS2 to PS3 adapter too although I've yet to test this out.
Added to the OneSwitch AGS adapters page.
