As OneSwitch winds up shop for the year, here's four pressie links all wrapped up and ready to pop under your virtual Christmas tree. You may open them early if you like...
The Bundle of Wrong is a great concept. Pay what you like, then get the okay to download all of Rob Fearon's games. These include the wonderful "SYNSO: Championship Edition" with one-switch play compatibility.
What would your money buy? Firstly, some hugely fun and massively colourful games, some with a brilliant range of accessibility options. Secondly, you could also treat it as a donation towards his totally free "Fish Fish Bang Bang" demo and "The Ambiomat" one-switch art toy, in the hope that he'll carry on with this type of work. Thirdly, Rob's recovering from Pneumonia, and any donation would surely put a smile on his face.
Rob has made a massive difference to the world of accessible gaming, through the support of RetroRemakes and beyond. Please consider supporting one of the biggest advocates of accessible gaming at Bag Full of Wrong.
If you're thinking of lashing out on an iPad, here's a couple of useful links to mooch through before you do: Accessible GameBase review and Kate Aherne's iPad posts. If you're looking for a portable machine to play good one-switch games on, this isn't it though.
Ha! I loved The Max Headroom Show. This was the last from the first series, first shown on Channel 4 in 1985. I'd so love to get a chance to watch that original UK series again. Max always makes me smile.
I've an enormous amount of respect for the work and knowledge of Gavin Philips in the field of accessibility. You may have heard of him through his work on the amazing AbleGames event run by Assistive Technology Partners. His brand new web-site reveals links to more brilliant resources he's been behind, including...
...a grin-inducing "Combat Chair" using dual Nerf guns (fire foam darts), a D.I.Y. accessibility switch guide that's super cheap to build, an eye controlled wheelchair and more besides. Superb.
Katamari Damacy, game designer, Keita Takahashi, has been commissioned to create an avant-garde playground in Nottingham.
He has designed it for people of all ages, including dogs. I loved Katamari Damacy's style and bonkers music, and really like some of his designs here, but... If Nottingham Council truly want the best playground ever, then why no designs for wheelchair users too? Via: www.twitter.com/jonbeilin
I'm jealous. I spent an hour clearing our drive way of snow earlier today. Being pulled about on an accessible sledge (i.e. an inflatable dingy, wrapped up snug) looks like so much more fun.
Many thanks to Annette Patmore for permission to repost this lovely picture of her daughter Sophie. Great idea!
$20 buys you a full version of the Gary J Lucken art work above with a chunk of profits being donated to various charities including SpecialEffect. They're limited edition so get in there quick if you like it.
The video above shows the hurdles event in Kinect Sports made accessible to players who are blind, using a technique called real time sensory substitution. Using video analysis, visual cues that indicate when to jump are detected and then translated into vibrotactile cues provided with a Wii remote, which should allow someone who is blind to play this game without visual feedback.
I can see this system greatly assisting some learning disabled players in getting the timing of jumps right too. Fantastic stuff, with so many possibilities.
If you are looking for some accessible gaming present ideas for Christmas, the AbleGamers Foundation have a very useful 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. They've cherry-picked a range of accessible video games, the fantastic Trabasack lap-tray/bag, a great iPad mount and a number of accessible gaming controllers. Well worth a look.
