| « Second game review, Bop It Ultimate | UPDATES! » |
My ever first podcast - demonstrating games for the blind
yo yo! some time back, over twitter when me and a few blind pals of mine
were discussing about games that are specially made for blind ppl to
play, quite a number of my twitter followers actually express some
interests/curiousities in the fact that how are blind ppl going to play for
example, car racing games, war games,multiplayer card games sports games etc
just only by hand ear coordination? well, over these 10 years, yours truly,
prior to recently starting to play certain games on the wii, i have actually
been quite involved with games that are specially made for blind ppl to pass
time, compete amongst themselves, or even playing over the internet with
friends and fellow gamers from around the world. a lot of these games are
programmed by some very young blind programmers themselves.
almost all of the games that are accessible for the blind that are out there
today are actually only audio based. that means, the screen is totally blank
or simply a logo of the company that made that game will be always on the
screen staring back at u if u were to have the ability to stare at the
screen which means, if u can see la haha!
responding to several requests by my followers on twitter, i actually took
some time to record a little podcast of sorts to try to introduce the world
of gaming to u guys from a blind person's prospective. enjoying a game just
by listening to and responding to sounds/audio queues alone sounds kind of
impossible to most of u i know but i will try my best to convince u all on
that haha.
anybody who wants to try out these games will have to put on
earphones/headphones and make sure that they do not have their left/right
positions reversed, as the world of stereo sound is really very important in
the world of gaming when seeing is not going to help u. whenever it comes to
aiming,walking towards a particular object bla bla, the player will have to
listen carefully to the position of the sound/object that they are targeting
or aiming towards. let me give some examples.
in a maize game, u are walking down a coridor and u suddenly hear and echo
of your own foot steps on your right, this simply means that there is an
opening to the right and u have an option to go rightwards.
in GMA Game's tank commander, which u are a tank commander commanding a tank
through various missions to achieve different objectives and goals to
complete the game, u are heading forward, u suddenly hear a sound of another
tank which is most of the time an enemy tank slightly to the left of u in
your earphones, so the naturally thing u will do if u 1 2 destroy that enemy
tank is to steer left until u get the sound of the enemy tank in the centre
of your hearing from there u can shoot at it with several weapons that u
possess. of course, the enemy tank will try to kill u also la but with
usually more feebal weapons la haha but what the computer enemy lack in
weaponery power, they do hugely outnumber me!
the 2 above mentioned games are actually 2 of my personal favourites, but
they do cost some money to purchase though haha, but to me, it's definitely
well worth the 30-40 usd.
there are really many many many more different kinds of game out there. some
i have to admit, are really very kiddish and don't need any skill to play
de, but some are really tough and complex also. and of course, there are
also some so so only games which i personally still won't write them off
la because i still play them when i am really bored, 1 2 exercise my ears a
bit, or just 1 to find something to do to past time. these games i call them
pass time games. these games are definitely quite simple in terms of
learning how to play, key strokes needed to play, and most important of all,
these games are usually free of charge!
ok la without further ado, below is a file that u can download to listen me
first play my 2 favourite games to let u all have a feel of the sound
effects and how action packed these games can be, and purposely dieing to
let u all here how is it like, and then after that, i'll be introducing and
talking more in detail about 2 of the pass time games that my twitter
followers have downloaded and tried playing before. u can get the 2 free
pass time games that will be featured in this podcast of mine from this website:
http://www.l-works.net/free.php u can actually get a quite up to date and extensive list of accessible games
for the blind on
http://www.audiogames.net
but i would not advise u to go straight there and randomly select a game at
random to try try la because some of the games there are really super
childish and needless of any skill to play and i don't 1 2 ruin the
impression of something still so new to all of u just because u guys picked
the wrong game to try out. , and some are really too complicated for newbies
of audio games.
if u like what u hear, and 1 to hear me talk/demo more games, please do let
me know k? but no promises la k. if i got time to spare i surely will do it
de.
this is my first time trying to do podcast la, so please forgive me for my
lao ya and old microphone that i'm using to record this podcast and also
some little hitches here and there throughout this podcast k? looking
forward to your comments and questions. either leave a comment here for me,
or Follow me on twitter at
http://twitter.com/KelWL/
enjoy!
Click on the following link to download the file.
9 comments
But these blind games really build up our listening abilities. At first, really can be quite luan to hear multiple sounds at one go, but slowly and more times at these games, you will be familiarise with them - things get easier!
http://www.l-works.net/free.php
For first timer at the above link, can try the duck hunt (easiest I feel coz is only moving in semicircle). Next would be egg hunt (my highest score currently is 44). Just imagine yourself in a rainforest or Jurong Bird Park ba. lol.
Paiseh, the Great Toy Robbery at the moment i only got 7 points. lol. I still have problem at the lockpick, coz don't know how to maneovure the keys. hehe :P
Actually quite fun to play, so do give it a try for those who haven't play yet! haha.
*One thing very important thing is must use headphone/earpiece. (e.g If you hear sounds locate at your right earpiece much more, then move to the right.) Without the headphone, our ears can't really identify the 'right or left', coz the sounds will just be dispersed through your audio system.
And how to decide whether you are moving in the correct direction, you have to observe the loudness of the sounds. The louder it is, the right direction you are heading (well, except those 'enemies', then you have to avoid la!).
For instructions, you need to refer to 'readme' file notepad (prior to installation of the game). that's to get you familiarise with the buttons involved and what's the game like.
WL, i think your action packed games are thrilling (can sense the excitement from your recording) but for us need a lot of adaptation. haha. talking about games leh, your blog post can be 1 page lor, so not difficult to know you are a frequent gamer :P
And yes, my Great Toy Robbery gotten 125 points liao! hehe.
Cheers
Wah super long blog from you. I so far just tried 2 games. First game is Egg Hunt now my highest score is 45 still learning. It does help my hearing alot after playing.
The 2nd game I played just once but seems no instruction really dunno how to go about with it score no points haha. Will try the rest later.
Cheers
Comment feed for this post