Gaming With a Headmouse? 487
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?"
Quality Suggestions? (Score:5, Funny)
You might be disappointed by the quality of the suggestions you get to your question, since most Slashdotters are disabled from the neck up.
Re:Quality Suggestions? (Score:5, Interesting)
Back on topic. What about problem solving walking through environments a la MYST and the like? Or boardgames on Yahoo [yahoo.com].
Re:Quality Suggestions? (Score:3, Informative)
I'll second that. ScummVM rules. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Quality Suggestions? (Score:3, Informative)
Website is here [quadpuck.com]
DUCK HUNT!!!!1 (Score:5, Informative)
Java Duckhunt (Score:4, Funny)
Re:DUCK HUNT!!!!1 (Score:4, Informative)
I use the KDE based knights GUI interface on top of gnuchess. It can also hook you up online with a plethora of chess clubs for online matches.
Should be no problem for a head mouse since its more thinking than interaction. Chess isn't for everyone though.
knights source and packages are at:
knights.sourceforge.net
Alpha Centauri is the king of turned based strategy games in my book. It does need some keyboard interaction, though being turned based you can take your time making moves. Other problem is the AI's are a little weak once you master the game and of course its Windows based and not free.
Yeti Sports (Score:4, Informative)
otherwise, maybe some of the text based adventure games, or even something like the old Trade Wars on Telnet, or webified versions.
These are meant to be safe suggestions, as I imagine that things that require fancy key combos and timing might be frustrating
Tradewars 2002 [eisonline.com]
Official Site [tradewars.com]
Trade Wars was/is an excellent strategy type game. (old style graphics, tho)
Re:DUCK HUNT!!!!1 (Score:5, Informative)
You mentioned virtual NES but I think you are limiting yourself unnecessarily to games that require the lightgun.
Reading up a bit, a headmouse (4-directional movement) could be combined with a sip/puff stick (two switches). Compare the NES controller: A D-Pad, an A button, and a B button. Most games marginally use the start/select buttons, if at all.
As long as its possible to map the movement of the headmouse to a button, it seems that any game which requires two buttons and a directional pad would be playable.
In addition, there is always the MAME project. In addition to many games that are mostly mouse based (the lightgun gams, and trackball/spinner games such as arkanoid, etc), many games use only a joystick and less than two buttons.
And there is always the old Atari with paddles. Two-way movement (mouse) with one button. Gameboy games as well.
I've got to ask (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm assuming the postere typed their own question.
Re:I've got to ask (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I've got to ask (Score:4, Informative)
The colour iPod would be a *perfect* device to run Dasher on -- we have a one-dimensional mode that means the scroll wheel would be giving us entirely enough movement information. The problem for us is that it's a completely closed development environment, though.
Last time I checked, there wasn't a Linux port for the colour iPod. As soon as one shows up with reasonable C library/graphics toolkit support, I'll look into making a Dasher port to it.
- C.
Re:I've got to ask (Score:5, Funny)
It's ironic that the guy who can't type at all has better typing skills than the guy who can.
Not really (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not really (Score:4, Interesting)
alultcay taht pceie of slnbiigbrcs is a nicloennssl cctoelolin of fuuenrclade, its ceaacltuld to bnaacle spsouped gnentiiuy wtih rluiudiocs bnfurefoy to mzmiaixe the orncnccure of hrtaliiy.
notice that piece isn't quite is readable, i dounbt anyone skipped through that without having to stop and rearange letter, that cos they are more randomised, don't reflect the sylables of the proper word, and they are more obscure words, so you don't know in advance what they are likely to be.
Re:I've got to ask (Score:2)
Try neverwinter (Score:4, Informative)
Similarly, if you like this style of rpgs I believe baldur's gate two should work well also, its turn based, and mouse controlled. I think you can also set it to autopause on turns.
Re:Try neverwinter (Score:5, Informative)
Try Online Game Sites (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Can you click? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Can you click? (Score:4, Insightful)
This means a slower response time, which makes "twitch-based" shooters a bit of a challenge, but then again, for somebody who has as many challenges to overcome as the author of this question, it might not be beyond the bounds of reason.
Personally, I'm rooting for big advancements in non-invasive brain interaction systems. Many of us are living longer, so the chances of all of us spending part of our lives partially or completely disabled continues to climb. Computer games might offer a great way to push the envelope in this field. Were I a gaming programmer or a biofeedback specialist, I would be awfully tempted to write a grant proposal for a project along these lines, and see if some University wanted to fund it.
wait... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:wait... (Score:4, Funny)
Yep. The boss level is really hard.
obligatory bash.org quote (Score:3, Funny)
Re:wait... (Score:5, Funny)
And the only way to win is not to play.
Headmouse (Score:5, Interesting)
nethack (Score:3, Informative)
I'd guess that you would want one of the graphical interfaces, but even the text version should be doable with just a little bit of help.
A text-based game with over twenty years of development behind it . .
hawk
DDR (Score:5, Funny)
Re:DDR (Score:5, Informative)
Headmouse not used like a normal mouse? (Score:4, Informative)
And if so, wouldn't games like Civilization be good?
Medical School (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.medschool.pitt.edu/
Good luck.
Re:Medical School (Score:2)
Re:Medical School (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Medical School (Score:5, Funny)
Plenty of games... (Score:5, Informative)
and you're not going to want a first person shooter - too much need for quick reaction times.
A turn-based game would do the trick. Start off small and addictive with that evil NetHack (nethack.org) and in ten or twelve years time when you're done work on the Total War series - Medieval and Rome are both bonza games and not necessarily reliant on twitchy relfexes... but start off with Shogun (www.totalwar.com).
Best of luck. Enjoy.
Re:Plenty of games... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:nethack (Score:2)
Perhaps I read it wrong - I figured a head-mounted mouse thingie was a hunt 'n' peck arrangement so was thinking about keys you could take your own time to depress. My bad.
mmmm, robots.
Bio Feedback? (Score:3, Interesting)
Frozen Bubble! (Score:3, Interesting)
mod parent up (Score:2)
I would hope to see very few if any (Score:2, Informative)
Having a disability is not a funny thing.
Believe me...
Re:I would hope to see very few if any (Score:2)
Having a disability is not a funny thing.
Believe me...
Humor impairment... tragic disability.
Re:I would hope to see very few if any (Score:2)
Re:I would hope to see very few if any (Score:5, Insightful)
Having humor about one's disability is an ability, not a disability.
Hmm (Score:2)
Besides games, I hope you know about and are using Dasher or something like it for typing.
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dashe
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Well (Score:3, Informative)
If software, really you're probably going to be looking at non twitch turn based stuff. As I don't know which genres you're into or what sort of PC you have, I can't really recommend anything.
Freelook (Score:4, Informative)
http://freelook.org/
It appears you can join the forum and post questions to a group which will probably have lots of good answers to your questions. By the way, the technology is pretty interesting: it appears to only require a cheap webcam and some sort of target, which can as simple a small white paper patch on the user's cap, or under poor lighting conditions, an LED or small light source.
Nethack (Score:2)
Text adventures with Dasher for text input (Score:3, Informative)
limitations? (Score:2)
Try asking the guys at PDXLAN.com (Score:3, Informative)
I've seen Counter-Strike work
You may try asking a question on their site forums [pdxlan.com]. Chances are they'll have a good answer for you, or know how to contact the people that do use headmice.
Best of luck
Voice command gaming? (Score:2, Insightful)
Cribbage, and any other card games. (Score:2)
There's an awful lot of places you can play against the computer, and if you are fast enough moving the cards around with the headmouse you could compete against other players on the internet. (I'd mention the MSN Gaming Zone [msn.com] except that this is Slashdot, and I'd be lynched)
A Few Thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
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!
Poker? (Score:3, Informative)
I like www.pokerroom.com, as its java based and the action in the "play money" area is actually pretty good. Don't get sucked in to putting your cash online though. Too many bots and cheaters.
seriously consider lucasarts' back catalog (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyway, if you're already using a head mouse, that seems to be completely within
Broken Sword? (Score:2)
Simple point-and-click game like above suggestions - and I found them fun enough. They also make you think a bit - but aren't as annoyingly tricky as other similar games (IMO).
Popcap games (Score:3, Informative)
Astropop and Bejeweled 2 are the most worthwhile 40 bucks I have EVER spent on games (each is 20 dollars, but you can also get a free trial version or play online for free).
Re:Popcap games (Score:2)
How about mind games? (Score:3, Interesting)
Your mind is a greater computer than we can ever create with our current technology. It is also capable of far higher planes of entertainment than we are used to.
Being restricted in your body movement does not restrict you from exploring the depths of your mind. You could try playing these "MindGames (TM)" by yourself. What I'm referring to is exploring "higher planes of consciousness", as Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc) call it, and "trips", as druggies (no offence intended) call it.
These elevated states of consciousness are achievable through meditation and trancendental techniques (lots of Google results when I looked) and to a certain extent (with obvious side effects) through psychotropic drugs. In my experience, these techniques really result in peace and tranquility, at the very least ..... and what's more, you don't need anything more than your mind to play them.
Just wanted to offer an out of the box suggestion which I thought might help....Good luck.
Hmmmm (Score:2)
How fast can you click? (Score:2, Interesting)
ScummVM (Score:2)
Have you tried a good text-based game? (Score:3, Interesting)
Game-head-mouse (Score:2)
I prefer head games with a traditional mouse.
The one and only game! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The one and only game! (Score:5, Insightful)
dude...
Nethack, liquid wars etc (Score:2)
Depending on how the mouse works then games like neverwinternights that are realtime/with the option to pause and issue commands should be playable as well...
Sports Simulation Games (Score:2)
If you like sports, there are a number of managment-style games out there that are mostly mouse driven and don't require quick reflexes.
The games that my company puts out are used by the blind due to our taking care with the interface to keep it accessable. You should find them easy to navigate.
You can download demos from out products here: http://www.sportsmogul.com/
Do a Google for "sports simulation" to bring up a whole list of other companies.
If you hate sports
Ideas... (Score:3, Insightful)
With much thanks to the person who posted an example of a headmouse, from a tech perspective, I can think of it sort of like a touchpad or normal mouse (aka, movement of a cursor and possible right/left click). The website said it had a common USB interface... the machine must see it as a normal mouse.
Which brings me to my suggestion. One of my favorite games on the Amiga was some "walker" something or other... you actually had to control it with two controllers. One joystick controlled the walking machine, the other the cursor on the screen, a shooting type of targeter. What made this game so fun to play wasn't the fact that you needed two joysticks (and literally two hands) to play, but the fact that you could play it with someone else, simultaneously!
In other words, you controlled this StarWars 2 legged at-at thing, and one guy got to let it move and the other controlled it's gun/targeter/whatever.
Is the option to play with someone else available? It could be interesting! Play a FPS where you control the mouse and someone else controls the keyboard... a new level of gameplay, and the best part... you don't have to even modify exsisting games.
I'm not trying to be cruel or anything but I remember having a great time with that old Amiga "walker" game (if someone can remember the real name, I'd appreciate it). I actually remember having to use a D-pad style joystick in my left hand then a "stick" style joystick under my right leg, to control the game. It was actually easier (and more fun) to play with two people!
To sum up a long and boring post: just because most modern games are designed with one person, or two people "competing" doesn't mean you can't have a good time using the game in a non-traditional cooperative mode. I've always personally enjoyed cooperative games more than competitive. (But that's just me.)
Here's a good list... (Score:5, Informative)
That being said:
Activision's Total War series
Any game of the Civilization series
If someone codes a set of keypresses for you, games on emulated systems (Final Fantasy titles on NES/SNES/PSX for instance, or turn-based games on a GBA emulator like Advance Wars) would likely be doable.
Some of the older MAME titles - not fighting titles like Soul Calibur, but scrollers like R-Type - could be mapped to your headmouse incredibly easily.
You might be able to convince someone to code you a custom interface to use EQ, WoW, or FFXI if you're interested in them; most of the hotkeys are fairly straightforward and could be bound to a wheel-type mouse interface pretty easily.
Steer clear of FPS play, as you'd need (at least) fingers capable of WASD to do them.
If all else fails, there's always games like Go, Chess, and the like to be played out on Yahoo Games or elsewhere. Yeah, they're somewhat old school, but it's always possible to find a game.
Oh, and I did mention a lot of "someone would have to code up the interface", but for most of them it's just remapping joystick axes/hotkeys to certain mouse movements.
Happy gaming!
I have a headmouse: Here's the lowdown. (Score:5, Informative)
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!
An affordable headmouse: TrackIR (Score:2)
Resources for accessible games (Score:3, Informative)
Switch Gaming [oneswitch.org.uk]: They sell hardware and have game reviews for PC, console, and emulated classics. Sounds like just what you're looking for.
3 excellent games (Score:2)
Alien Sky from Kraisoft [kraisoft.com]. Awesome Galaga remix.
The last suggestion is Swarm from Reflexive Entertainment, again. The only reservation that I have with Swarm is that there are very fine sudden movements required of a much different kind than the first two suggestions. Try it.
RPG and Turn-Based Strategy Games (Score:3, Informative)
Look into Jagged Alliance 2 also, another turn based combat game. I don't think you need to really use the keyboard for anything except entering the initial activation code for your IMP merc, and that game is loads of fun.
The Fallout and Jagged Alliance 2 combat engines would be well suited because they are totally turn based by nature. However, by setting auto-pause on the BG/IWD games you can get the same effect. I suppose I should mention Fallout Tactics also which can be played in turn based mode just like Fallout1&2.
You could probably also play Neverwinter Nights just with a mouse, although playing online is 90% of the fun, and it would be hard to type/chat with other players with just a mouse. If you could manage to let them know its hard for you to type you could probably get in with some adventurers who would work with you.
I'm not even mentioning trivial games like card games, etc, because I tend to like action oriented games with guns, lasers, magic, etc, but I play a lot of turn based strategy games (most of them listed above) because I like the somewhat slower pace and how they give you time to think before each move.
My wife suggests a bunch of Flash games like on shockwave.com or gameblast.com. and from the amount of time she spends playing them I suppose that is the other side of the gaming coin. You'd have to be pretty good with your mouse to play some of these, because they are click fests, but OTOH the only controls are the mouse.
Other turn based games are Civilization, Heroes of Might and Magic, Alpha Centauri, X-Com UFO Defense. Some of the older ones like X-Com run great using DOSBox and its not too hard to set up a shortcut or something to get them started.
I'd recommend setting up a way to at least invoke the [Esc] key with your head mouse so if you get stuck in a text entry box you can try and exit from it. I'm not sure what their capabilities are, but you need a couple keystrokes mapped like for Quicksave/Quickload, Enter, Esc, stuff like that.
Good luck and happy gaming!
Also... puzzles (Score:3, Insightful)
For starters, maybe you could try the online classics at FASCO-CS [fasco-csc.com]: Crimson Room and Viridian Room. Maybe you could manage puzzles like Hapland [foon.co.uk] too.
Notes from Another Headmouse User (Score:5, Informative)
If you do play games that require a few keyboard commands, check out Game Commander [gamecommander.com]. 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 [the19thfloor.net] if you have other questions. I've seen other disability-related questions posted on
I'll try my best to help (Score:5, Interesting)
Text copied from here [orin.com]
It does seem rather powerful, especially if it can be combined with voice recognition. Although voice recognition isn't perfect it could certainly be good enough to mimic the button pushes we make when playing a game.
It probably won't be as fast though. So you probably want a game that isn't twitch based. Lets review the categories.
1) MMORPG. Although this isn't twitch based I'm reluctant to recommend it. I don't mean to be insensitive, but I believe that you will meet a lot of insensitive impatient people who will only hurt your self esteem. I don't know the average age of an MMORPG player. All I know is that many act like 12 year olds. Maybe if you find trade skilling rewarding. You could be a very good trade skiller, I'm sure. In fact, if you enjoy trade skilling then you can build your character to the highest levels and people want to do business with you. This category is different than the two below, because there is social interatction here. And if you want more of that, then this might be your choice.
2) Turn based strategy. Civilisation... Oh the memories... I'd really have to recommend this genre. This is one of my all time game genres. And you can play it at any speed you like. You invest a lot of time in the strategy and you can ask a unit to do something which will take many turns. This means that later in the game it will do tons of stuff, that is really interesting to you, the player, but you won't actually be doing much pointing and clicking. Whatever else games you play, you should try to do this too. It is just too much fun to not do. To round it up, whether you win this or not _only_ depends on your thinking. Nothing else. You will be as good a player as a non handicapped person. It might take longer. But what the hey.
3) Real time strategy. This is another one of my favorite genres. Although this really can be as much twitching as a first person shooter, you can normally set the speed to anything you like. You might find that this really gets your adrenalin pump going. I know it does for me.
4) First person shooters. This might not work when you play with a random person from the Internet. But you could get a group going with the same type of problem as you. All that matters is that everyone is about similarly fast. This could be a lot of fun, _and_ it could also be super rewarding if you can organize and build a community and make friends. I currently play an MMORPG right now, and the part that is the most rewarding for me is to organize events and try to help people have fun. The game itself is secondary. You might want to look at games such as Ghost Recon which is more "suspense" and "one shot one kill" rather than the Quake "circle/strafe" "rocket jump" game play.
5) Someone else mentioned Myst. Myst and other puzzle games might be good for you. It isn't for me, but many like it. Maybe you are one of them.
And finally, good luck finding the game that is for you. I love it when I have a new game.
Here are some games (Score:3, Interesting)
Here are some games
* LOTS of RPGs - (good ones that are involving http://www.agdinteractive.com/)
* Chess, shogi, other board games
* card games
* Plenty of net games available (like bejeweled)
* some arcade plane fighting games like galactica, Raiden I & II & II, starfox
* puzzle games like boulderdash, rockford
Also recommend installing software that allows you to "turbo-fire" your mouse. That way you can play games where you have click very fast! On top of that we installed stuff like sticky mouse buttons.
He can play old school games like DOOM and DOOM II, Wolf3D. Forward, backward, left, right, strafe button, fire, swap weapon. That's all he uses. You can do this with some new FPS (but your game play will be pretty limited)
We also installed a media player for him! Keeps him entertained.
Check out www.liberatedgames.com. They have a fair few commerical games which have been released to the public for free.
My favourites on that site which I think you will like include
Flight of the Amazon Queen (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=3
Civ 2 (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=5
Beneath a Steel Sky (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=3
Treasure Island Dizzy (http://www.liberatedgames.com/game.php?game_id=8
RPGs (Score:3, Interesting)
My all-time second favorite RPG, Fallout, by default goes into turns when you enter combat. Other times it's real-time, but I don't think that should be a problem. It's also heavily mouse-based (and maybe can be played using only the mouse--it's been a while so I don't remember). Its successor, Fallout 2, is also a very worthy game and uses the same interface.
My #1 all-time favorite RPG is Planescape: Torment. The NPC interaction and storyline are better than anything else I've seen before or since. I think it's always real-time, but pausable at will with the space bar.
Re:A bit jealous, strangely (Score:2, Insightful)
You're proof of the standard
I've been through worse. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A bit jealous, strangely (Score:2, Funny)
C'mon, with a username of "Eunuch" he sounds worse off than the first guy.
I am a eunuch. (Score:2)
Re:A bit jealous, strangely (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow (Score:2)
Re:A bit jealous, strangely (Score:2)
How? (Score:2)
Re:A bit jealous, strangely (Score:3, Funny)
Jon Katz? (Score:2)
Re:A bit jealous, strangely (Score:3, Interesting)
Jerk (Score:2, Insightful)
BTW, Many similarly disabled people have rich sex lives [newmobility.com]. I hope you never have to experience catastrophic injury firsthand. Be thankful for what you have.
Re:Jerk (Score:2, Insightful)
> firsthand. Be thankful for what you have.
Sucks to be presumptuous like you are then. For what it's worth I have. And I am.
It's why I find near every joke about it funny too, the only thing that annoys me is shits like you who tell me I can't laugh at it. I laugh at my situation and have to have sensitivity for those who think I shouldn't. How backwards can you get.
Re:How about Gaming with a Titmouse? (Score:2, Funny)
> Finally, gamer grrlz would have an advantage!!!
Yeah, and 90% of the slashdot community.
Re:Some games I play that might be good for you (Score:2, Informative)
Extra free games are added on a regular basis, and they've got a downloadable demo.
Re:The end of one-handed typing (Score:2)
Re:World of Warcraft (Score:4, Interesting)