One-switch Accessible Dance Dance Revolution

The rough video above demonstrates an off-the-shelf solution for C-SID owners for one-switch dance gaming. The video would have been a lot more fun if you'd seen someone pogo-ing on a single pressure mat to play, but I wasn't going to put myself up for public ridicule. I don't dance if I can possibly help it. It's not a good thing to witness...

Anyway, the solution is to use 3x Stereo headphones splitters/2-into-1 adapters and 3x 3.5mm patch leads (stereo or mono both work) available from the likes of Maplin.

The game is Konami's Dancing Stage Fever on PS2, and demo'ed with old-fart music that I quite like on Easy first then Difficult second. Great features are contrast control options and the ability to play a song through no matter how many arrows you miss. This then enables the game to be played by anyone where you simply try to better your own best score, or that of a group. 

Low Force / Pressure PS3 Joystick

The video above showcases a very light pressure joystick being used alongside some switches to play Gran Turismo 5. This uses a LEPMIS PS3-SAP interface with the Low Throw Low Force Analogue Joystick and switches. This set-up could work equally well with the Ultra Light switches from Marblesoft.

Something Special

Updated info on Something Special cribbed from the SpecialEffect Accessible GameBase: "To celebrate the 100th episode of children's Makaton based television show, Something Special, the BBC launched a fantastic accessible on-line area.

It includes UK signing, symbols, songs, art activities, stories and of course games.

Almost all of the games work nicely in a cause and effect manner. Some are switch accessible, some for the keyboard, some eye-toy like for using the web-cam and some point and click accessible. That covers all the main input devices so far as I can see.

The most accessible of these games are in the Something Special: Out and About section, being Balloon Pop, Spotty Bag, Dress Up Mr Tumble and Tumble Faces.

Hugely recommended for very young kids, and anyone with an interest in Makaton, which is a reduced version of British Sign Language created to support learning disabled people.

Update: For anyone interested in the creation of the Something Special games and their highly accessible nature take a look at the following links:

BBC Internet Blog overview and design principles plus senior designer Ian Hamilton's own page on this work."
 

Skoog Skores

The latest free upgrade (1.30) to the Skoog musical instrument brings "Skores" to life. Within this new feature, you can select a song from a drop down menu, then play guided by a flow of coloured shapes. It works really well in practice and will help a lot of musicians who find traditional music scores far too difficult.

Excitingly, I hear rumours of a one-side to play musical Skores in the works. Can't wait to see and try that out.

All I Want for Christmas...

...actually, I might pass on these for the moment, thanks. Via "this isn't happiness".

SpecialEffect at REPLAY 2011

Replay was an exhausting ear-blistering pleasure. It was a privilege to run the SpecialEffect stand populated mostly with games using simplified control methods mostly from my personal geek-a-tronic stash. So what did we have?




1. A dance mat game using alternative controllers. These included single-switch play and a "pogo-dance-mat". In the end,  Dancing Stage Fever on a standard TV just couldn't compete with DDR:UK's real coin-op dance machines positioned opposite, so the slightly shoddy Gottlieb Pinball and very brilliant Destruction Derby took the slack.


2. A one-point or one-press to play game. Shenmue Duck races raised some grins. I guess not everyone was expecting bow-tie wearing ducks. We played so that if you got a top three place, you won a prize. Including 1989 Nintendo bubble-gum. Tasty. That got swapped at times with Tekken 6 that got bashed within an inch of its life. Amazing how tough those accessibility switches are. Thought the table would collapse at one stage.


3. Atari Ms.Pac-Man played against a single ghost (there's normally four coming after you) using a one-handed ASCII Grip controller. Other times I ran Cookie Monster Munch using the Kids Controller. Googly. Star Trigon got an outing here too.

4. Vectrex Minestorm. Quite a few people were left very confused by this. I had a single switch on a Flexi mount. Some people thought the Flexi was a joystick and were wiggling it about.  Others thought the switch was a steering wheel. Later I put a switch on a Trabasack. Some people started to wiggle the Trabasack thinking it was some kind of motion sensitive controller. Nope. It's a one-switch game. Just play!


5. Pure one-switch games: Fotonica and Space Invaders. Both went down pretty well. People found Space Invaders very hard with just one-switch, so after a while I turned off the Space Invaders shooting at you. Wished I'd had the bass thump in effect, but it was loud enough there I guess. Ears took a few days to return to normal.


6. The un-game "Doodle-City" in Atari's I, Robot. This was to show off a free-play and no pressure area of a game. Atari did it first here with their art-toy. When this wasn't running, Uo Poko was up showing off a super-colourful multi-player one-switch playable game.


Most popular of our games was Tekken 6 for sure. And no red-ring of death for the Xbox nor melted Vectrex I was happy to see. On the stand I met some great people, such as the two Andy's from Ovine of Whacka Monty fame, Nintendisco and Mark of the inspirational Games Britannia. I was also chuffed to bits with the inclusion of "A Brief History of Accessible Gaming" in the Replay magazine available at the show.


Away from the SpecialEffect stand, tireless volunteer James Harkness beavered away getting a hugely enjoyable after-show party sorted with proceeds going to SpecialEffect and GamesAid.


And self-indulgently, I loved Blackpool's five miles of illuminations and was plenty impressed by the tower. Games I most enjoyed playing were mentalist Bishi Bashi Special, laser-disk Astron Belt and Badlands (one-switch), Pole Position whilst throwing bugs and glitches at me and the brilliant range of pinball machines. So huge thanks to the organisers Dave, Matt and Gordon and all others that supported us at Replay. Nice one.
 

50 Words for Snow

Thanks to Michelle Hinn for pointing me to a place to listen to Kate Bush's absorbing and relaxing "50 Words For Snow" LP. Wonderful.

Guest Post: "Video Games: Time-Waster or Educational Tool?"

"The first thing you notice when you enter a typical college dorm room is the mess, but what's the second thing you notice? If you answered the game consoles on a pedestal above the mess, you're right. After all, college students spend an average of almost two hours per day playing video games, a pretty big commitment when you remember they have classes, clubs, reading online, jobs, and social lives to see to. Parents and profs have long scoffed at this hobby, seeing it as a time-waster of the highest order, but new research suggests gaming might actually help college students make the grade.


Higher-Level Thinking and Multitasking Skills

College students have always had to be multitaskers, switching their brains from math to English to chemistry in the time span of a few hours, but technology has made multitasking even more important for today's college student. Today, students take online classes for college, and even offline classes have digital components. Students are asked to do more outside of class, such as completing virtual labs, blogging, and participating in online discussions. When they encounter this environment, video game players are at an advantage. A 2009 report found video games can help students improve their critical thinking skills. Gamers are used to multitasking and using the same higher-order thinking they need to solve chemistry problems to figure out how to successfully meet games' challenges. Just like college students must balance their virtual discussions with in-person learning objectives, gamers must stay on top of their health points, weapons, mission objectives, and allies.

Subject Application

Not only do video games help college students cultivate the general skills they need for college success, they also help students gain subject-specific knowledge. While not every subject can work well as a game, video games' captivating story lines and role-playing scenarios help students get engaged in ways no lecture can. An obvious connection can be made between video games and the narratives of literature and history, math and science can also reap benefits from this engaging medium. In fact, NASA has encouraged video game developers to create educational games to teach math and science.

"Wait a minute," you may be saying. "We had video games when I was in school too, and they were boring with a capital 'B.'" You're probably right. However, today's educational game-makers know how to use the right ratio of fun, challenge, and education to engage and motivate students, all while teaching them about the subject at hand. Part of the reason today's educational video games are so successful is simply the fact they use better visual and auditory stimuli, elements today's students thrive on. They're also successful because students enjoy being challenged and competing to accomplish a goal. Consider Geology Explorer and Virtual Cell, both science games put out by North Dakota State University. While they may not let students blow up enemies or trade game items, they encourage students to get involved in science by making them an active part of learning tasks.

Learning Disabilities

While most of the literature still advises parents of very young children to keep them away from games and television that could impact their growth, on the flipside studies show older students can use video games to overcome learning disabilities. According to the International Society for Technology in Education, video games can help people with learning disabilities because they allow students to work at their own ability levels, challenging them just enough that they grow but not so much that they give up. Video games also don't get annoyed when a student doesn't get it. If a student gets it wrong 100 times, the computer will be persistent. Sometimes it's just that persistence and consistency that learning-disabled college students need.

While it's unlikely you'll find an educational video game in a college student's Xbox, it's not unlikely you'll find that student more engaged in history or English because he can experience it as a game rather than a lecture. While video games probably won't be replacing conventional college education any time soon, they will likely be augmenting it from here on. Current gamers might already be ahead of the crowd."

Guest post by Marina Salsbury. Marina planned on becoming a teacher since high school, but found her way instead into online writing after college. She writes around the Web about everything from education to exercise. Image by Ruberman Rodriguez.

Earth is Beautiful

International Space Station Earth Fly Over Time Lapse View from Michael König. Via Tommy Seilheimer.

One Press Games

At this years REPLAY stand, I wanted to show off a fun one-press game. I've played such games before, like the one-press version of Frogger, which to be honest is not huge fun. The mini-game of duck racing in Shenmue, although pure luck, is fun.

A single press of a single switch rolls an adapted electronic die. The number that appears is the duck that is selected by an assistant taking charge of the extra controls and the race started (with a second press if desired). People had a lot of fun with it. There aren't enough bow-tie racing ducks in the world I decided.

Sushi Cat

Sushi Cat is Pachinko, Peggle and a very hungry cat all rolled into one. Reviewed over at the Accessible GameBase, this is a great point and click game that doesn't require fast reactions (at least in the early levels I played). For a faster more action-packed version, try Sushi Cat 2. Both are fun and as cute as Uo Poko.

Remember Remember the 5th of November

Tekken 6

Just time for a last little bit of info on the SpecialEffect stand at REPLAY will be that Tekken 6 will be on show for one-switch or two-switch play. Brilliant thing about Tekken 6 is the practice areas, difficulty adjustment and the fact that two-player games can be set-up with just one or two buttons.

One-Switch Pinball

Won't deny it, I'm really looking forward to playing on some of the 50+ pinball machines up for play at REPLAY this weekend. I wasn't planning on running a pinball rig on the SpecialEffect stand, but I can for anyone who asks if they really want to, thanks to our new 4 into 1 box. 

It works with a switch used to activate both flippers and the plunger all in one, and should work on the vast majority of console pinball games. For much more on accessible pinball click on one of the pictures above.

Press the Switch

"...remember it’s really important to give your student time to respond… that means waiting. How long you wait depends on the student. How long might it take for a student with complex needs to process what you are asking them to do? How long for them to work out what is required? Sit on your hands for a couple of minutes and see if the student responds".

Such good advice when supporting switch users from Ian Bean at SENICT, where you can read the rest of this post.