SpecialEffect's GameBase is turning up some really nice one-switch games just lately. Turns out that DJ Hero 2 has a one-button playable "Beginner" option. The guy playing with his foot, Isaac, has a way in. For those unable to access in that way, I'm guessing a one-switch hack would be pretty easy to do.
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.
The Enabling Devices love-in continues, after I discovered their switch accessible Guitar Hero rig (via Dave Banes Access newsletter). There's a good YouTube video here, showing off how it can be used.
Alternatives to this come from RJ Cooper or going the D.I.Y. route as followed by the kit used at AbleGames 2009. Rock Band is also a possible alternative for D.I.Y. hacks, although as of yet, it's not so good for one-switch players, lacking Guitar Hero's one-button playable mode.
UPDATE: Enabling Devices have uploaded another short video, where a user named Ben, is interviewed about his experience using the adapted Guitar Hero set-up.
What's really rubbish about both Guitar Hero and Rock Band is that they force you to use their dedicated lumpy controllers. Why not allow people to use the Joypad if they want to? Especially as this flexibility opens up a massive range of alternative access controllers that people might already have paid out for.
I do like the Strokes. I like alternative access to popular video games even more. Found this fantastic video via the Accessible GameBase. Which is where I've pinched this from:
"EyeGuitar was developed by Matthew Smalley and supervised by Stephen Vickers and Howell Istance. It utilises the Snap Clutch framework written and developed by De Montfort University, UK and University of Tampere, Finland. Strings on Speed is an Open Source Guitar Hero clone: Centre for Computational Intelligence, De Montfort University."
