Comment by scarface74 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scarface74 | Hacker News Reader

I can only use one hand. I use to play video games all of the time but once game controllers started requiring two hands and shoulder buttons, I couldn't play most games. I could play some games with fighting controllers (https://www.amazon.com/HORI-Fighting-Commander-Officially-Li...)

I also tried one of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Playstation-handed-Dragon-cont... - but could never get the hang of it.

I might try this. My son is very into video games and I would love to play with him again. The only games that I played with him when he was younger were fighting games like Tekken and Soul Calibur and a few simple beat em up games but the games he plays now are too complicated to play with one hand.

EDIT:

I'm still trying to figure out after watching the videos, how this works with one hand. They showed a guy who had cerebral palsy that affected his right side but they never went into details about how he adapts it.

Maybe they were just expecting the target market to know about assistive technologies? I've never used any so I don't know anything about them.

Fwiw, I'm mid build of a controller for a friend with one hand.

I'm riffing off the Ben Heck design https://www.benheck.com/controllers/ but I'm mounting the entire xbox controller on a $15 joystick and then wiring the analog 3dof sensor from the joystick into the xbox controller. So, with one hand, you have access to one origina thumbstick and tilt the entire controller to actuate the other thumbstick.

I've been eagerly awaiting this device from xbox. While it is great, it's just a breakout box, you still need to setup your inputs.

As a side note, are you aware of the class of devices such as the xim4 or the Venom X which comes with a mouse & nunchuck?

https://www.amazon.com/Tuact-Venom-Controller-Windows-PlaySt... (works with xbox)

The "main" control pad doesn't seem like necessarily the most important thing: the most important thing is that on the back of the controller, there's a whole row of ports that you can use to plug in standard assitive devices into (buttons, pedals, sticks, whatever) to act as controller inputs. The idea is that it should be as flexible as possible to adapt to everyone's needs. I'm sure you would be able to find a solution for the games you want to play.

To hopefully give some encouragement: you can for sure play all modern games on a game controller with only a single hand, but it might take time to learn how to do so. There is a speed runner (who holds at least one world record) that has a disability preventing him from using more than one hand when gaming, and he regularly used modern controllers. You can see his Twitter here: https://mobile.twitter.com/halfcoordinated and can easily look up recordings of him playing (with a camera focused on his hand) at games done quick. I recommend his Vanquish run.

Consider PC gaming. Lots of games work perfectly well with just the mouse.

And there are lots of options in mouse selection, MMO mice can have dozens of buttons, the Roccat Nyth even allows replacing of the side-buttons with custom molds.

Also MMO keyboards / controllers and one-handed keyboards (like the Maltron)

I couldn't bring myself to pay $479 for a keyboard and then have to relearn how to type after spending close to forty years typing with one hand on a regular QWERTY keyboard. Last time I checked, I can type at about 50 wpm but since most of my typing is coding, as long as my typing speed can keep up with my thinking speed (with autocomplete), it's not the bottleneck.

This is my favorite keyboard:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VRC6U2C/ref=oh_aui_sear...

I can reach from the Q to the P with one hand and can touch type on it.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/xbox-adaptive-control...

That goes into the things you can plug in to the back and usb, looks really flexible

Ive done 3D printing for Able Gamers, a group looking to help provide assistive technology to those in need. I recommend check them out and if you have a 3d printer and want to help, send them an email.

check out thingiverse.com for freely available designs.

http://www.ablegamers.org/

You don't mention which hand so I'll assume left (everything is made for right handers apparently)

A few comments below suggest an mmo mouse. I found a left hand version "Razer Naga left handed mmo ergonomic mouse", however I can't find where to buy it. Right handed MMO mice are more common and have different thumb setups. "Razer Naga Hex V2" is a good example.

Given a mouse you use an adapter to play on Xbox[1]

Looking at game pads I found "Fang Gamepad by Ideazon" which is ambidextrous. Unfortunately I can't vouch for console compatibility which limits gaming to mostly PC. [1][https://dotesports.com/hardware/news/best-xbox-one-keyboard-...]

Out of interest, have you heard of or tried this thing you can 3d print for the Switch? https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/8/16/16155858/3...

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