SpecialEffect's accessible GameBase

Hi,

I just found this website today, fantastic resource!

I have an 8 year old with severe cerebral palsy, and he's learning to use a joystick at school. I'd like to get him one to play games on his computer at home (he currently plays with two switches, so it's a bit limited and slow-going for him), but the special joysticks are so incredibly expensive - €400 or more here in France! I saw a picture of a simple looking joystick in this post, and after a bit of googling I found this arcade joystick.

My question is, does anyone know if this USB joystick works like a normal mouse? Could my son use it for any program that works with a mouse, or is it only for use with the bundled games?

Thanks for any help on this issue :-)

I used to have one of these back in the 80's to play games on a ZX Spectrum!
Those things are really durable. The 80's version had the two large buttons at the front but both had the same function, unlike a mouse. In effect there's only one firebutton; the two buttons are for left or right handed use. Looks like this new version has 4 buttons.

From what I can tell it works like a normal joystick, and therefore work with any game that supports joysticks, but it should be possible to make it emulate a mouse using JoyToKey ( http://joytokey.webs.com/ ).

Thanks for the info Graeme! This remake does appear to be sturdy, and the big buttons may even remove the need to have a switch plugged in at the same time (for clicking). Apparently you can program all four buttons for software that allows them, but I doubt my son will need/be able to use them all. I think the click the stick makes when you move it would provide good sensory feedback too (most of the special needs joysticks we've tried are smooth and silent).

I hadn't heard of the JoyToKey software, it definitely looks interesting. Some of my son's existing switch accessible games and software has joystick support, but it would be great if we could turn the joystick into a mouse replacement for other games.

If you have problems with JoyToKey I could make a simple program that would allow a joystick to control the mouse pointer and button clicks. Just let me know if/when you'd like me to do this.

Thanks Graeme, I appreciate that! I've ordered the joystick now, waiting for it to arrive so we can test it out. I'll post an update once we've had a bit of time to fiddle with it.

Cheers, and have a great day!

Wow - interesting that JoyToKey is being updated again. Good find, Graeme. You can get a free version from here to turn USB joysticks into Mice:

http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/2/I/JoyToKey/JoyToKey.htm

So we've had the joystick for a little while now, and I can say that it's really great for such a small budget! It's fantastic in combination with the JoyToKey software. For now we just use the free version that One Switch linked to, we created a simple profile and just minimise it to the system tray when we turn the computer on.

We're using the joystick with an external switch, which was a bit tricky to figure out because the switch interface uses joystick emulation (so there were times where the switch worked but the joystick didn't, and vice versa). We've got that sorted now (by setting up game controllers in the control panel), and as long as both devices are plugged in before the machine is turned on, everything seems to work nicely.

This joystick is much stiffer than a special needs one, but it doesn't need to move far to be activated. We use it with Clicker 5, Clicker Paint, and some online games and kid's websites. I've set up Firefox with big icons and a simplified home page using the Speed Dial plugin, which is great for young kids.

Thank you for your help guys, now my son is learning to use his computer in ways he couldn't when limited to two switches. This is very exciting for him, and now he takes his computer and joystick to school every day.

That's fantastic news - really glad you you got things working so well!

Yes, great news - and Speed Dial is a new one on me. Great find!

For some more on-line games, I recommend having a look here:

http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/2011/09/free-online-switch-activities.html

http://www.specialeffect-games.org.uk/1games.php (sneak preview for the future)

and of course...

http://www.gamebase.info/magazine/category/19675

http://www.gamebase.info/magazine/category/18534

If you find anything else interesting or that is a big hit with your son, please feel free to share here for others.

Best wishes,

Barrie
SpecialEffect Technical Specialist

Yeah he seems to really like Speed Dial, it's easy to see and click on the screenshots for each website - I changed the colours and fonts and things, so it's more visually appealing for a kid.

Thanks a lot for all the links, I'll be sure to go through those pages to check out the different games!

All this is getting me interested in learning to make some age-appropriate mouse/joystick/switch games. I used Flash for animation back in uni, maybe that could be a way in... Or maybe the GameSalad Creator for Mac/iOS (could make apps that use whole iPhone/iPad screen like a switch, like the Rat on a Scooter game).

Or you could try MMF2: http://www.clickteam.com - it's easy to use.
The flash plug-in allows you to make a web-based game like those Barrie linked to.

Alternative to using JoyToKey:

http://atzitznet.no-ip.org/Joy2Mouse3/index.html

Hey, just found these forums last night when I was looking for people using different kinds of games technologies, you might also want to have a look at something called XPadder. You can use all different kinds of joysticks and input devices and remap their buttons to keyboard strokes etc. Not sure if there's a free version anymore, but it's not that expensive these days =)

Many thanks. I'd recommend taking a look here too: Various Remapping Software.