2006-02-20 16:29:57

Hi,

Sander and I of AudioGames.net will be going to this year's GDC conference in San Jos

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2006-02-20 17:30:37

my name is aaron, i am 13, i live in england.
i have been blind for as long as i can remember, however, not since birth, however about 2 weeks later.
I think the first ever game i played was tekken for the playstation. then it was the amusement arcades, the pinball machines, the fighting games there, and then the side scrollers. and then more consol games. and i still do play consol games (mostly things like soul caliber, and the shooters where you just aim and fire -- normally the monsters come right at you)
and now i also play audiogames, and top speed 2, etc.
i would really wana play the 3d games out there, especially beatdown: fists of vengence which is a "3d" version of an old school fighting-type side-scrolling game. this might sound confusing.
the gaming indestry is very large, and of course has a lot of companies. however these companies are making too many 3d games, i'd rather they'd make games more like final fight, with an option in the "options" menu to turn off the blind mode, so the sighted can play it in 3d. and in the menues and things, they could either use sapi, or voice acters. they could record sapi with the recording equipment they use and use it in the game. the "real" voice samples will also be the same.
i dont really know what else to say, so to wrap this up, i really, really, really love games, no matter what they are.
kind reguards,
aaron.

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2006-02-20 18:43:51

i'm parham doostdar and am from iran . i'm 17 years old and i've been blind since when i can remember (not since birth though, i became blind 8 months afterwards.). the first sentence of my introduction might sound like arron's, but actually it changes from this part. my brothers liked play-stations or atari (or however it's spelled) at my time. they bought games and i tryed to play it. games like, EA sport's fifa game, konami's soccer games, mortal combat, crash, thumb rider (or maybe something else, since i can't remember it exactly). in PC games, i've tryed prince of persia "the sands of time", fifa again, konami again, need for speed most wanted and no need to mention that i couldn't do anything in playing "call of duty 2". i've liked to play like sighted people, play with sighted people, and be like, "my score was this"! i mean i have something to say, you know? but i never got this chanse... but i'm hopeful i will. but in these games, i became successful in playing mortal combat and tekken4. i know a friend who could play prince of persia, but i can't and couldn't.

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2006-02-20 21:21:11

hello


my name is shaf. i am i blind 13 year old kid from the u.k. i am totally blind a play all the games like top spead 2 and monty, but we need more games accessible!
my email address is:

[email protected]


thanks


shaf

2006-02-20 21:23:21

My name is Bryan Peterson. I'll be twenty-six this year and I've been blind my whole life. Even so, since earliest childhood I've been exposed to video games, from the old Atari 2600 my brother used to own (I own one even to this day), to the Nintendo Entertainment System we got when I was nine. That was followed by my first handheld gaming system, the original Game Boy, and then by the Super Nintendo, Play Station and now Game Cube. As for the types of games I enjoy playing, I've always loved RPG's such as Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. Though I enjoyed playing these games with sighted asistance, I can't come close to describing the satisfaction I felt after completing my first audio game, Grizzly Gulch Western Extravaganza, totally on my own without sighted help. Even so, I wanted more. I wanted to see more games along the lines of what I was used to. I would still love to see an audio RPG, even one as simple as the original Legend of Zelda or Dragon Warrior. Being a longtime fan of Nintendo's Metroid franchise, I would also love to see a similar audio game, though I understand that the creation of a Metroid style audio game could be somewhat problematic due to the fact that you often have to jump to platforms high above or far below you and there would need to be some sort of cue to tell you where it was and whether or not you could make the jump.
  Perhaps it's just my deep affection for the mindlessly entertaining library found on the Atari 2600, but I would also love to see more of those types of games. PCS Games' Pac-Man Talks was an excellent game and I've often thought how cool it would be to play games like Frogger, Adventure and Pitfall totally independently. My greatest interest though is in seeing more accessible RPG's, even if they have to start out really simple. There are a sufficiently small number of such games that I'm sure many blind gamers would welcome even a simple, Legend of Zelda or Dragon Warrior I style RPG.

But wait, what's that? A transport! Saved am I! Hark, over here! Hey nonny non, please help!

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2006-02-21 00:20:04 (edited by tomi 2006-02-21 00:51:02)

hey there!

My name is Thomas G

Regards:

tomi

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2006-02-21 00:33:11

hello,
My name is Chaman and i am 14 years old I was blind since birth and when i began using the computers it was really anoying because my brother use to play games such as grand theft auto white city and al those and i just wished and kept on asking myself why can i not play games. and then when someone introduce me to audio games i was very happy and then i thought the audio games comunity and the amount of games it offers is just tiny.
I would just like to see more 3D games devoloped so a blind and a parshally sited with a sited person can play and a blind person doesn't have to always look for someone blind to play with.
I hope the gaming industry grows bigger as the sited world of games.

Thank you

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2006-02-21 05:20:03

Craig, British, currently 22

Started losing my sight around 15/16 years old, had nothing useful by about 18/19.

I've played games since before I can even remember, starting on the Spectrum. The earliest system I have major memories of was the Atari ST, and my old loves on there were Silent Service 2 (submarine game) and the old classic Carrier Command. I played games for as long as I was able, and loved games that make you think on your feet. I adored the X-Com games, up to Interceptor which I did like but less so, enjoying their depth. I also loved Master of Orion 2, Lords of the Realm 2 and Alpha Centauri, as well as the much older Ascendancy. For action I liked Freespace 1 & 2, enjoyed Tachyon: The Fringe, and also enjoyed Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. I also had a soft spot for Diablo 2, and still own both Warcraft 2 with the Beyond the Dark Portal add on and all Command and Conquer RTS games up to Red Alert 2. I was also a big fan of Mechwarrior 2, although I didn't buy MW3 because I was having graphics card issues under 3d acceleration. I did buy MW4, but by then my sight was such that I wasn't able to play it effectively.

Whilst I enjoy the accessible Lone Wolf submarine game, I miss the feel of sub games like Silent Service 2 and Seawolf. The interface in Lone Wolf makes excellent use of 3d sound, and I believe the developer did a great job with it, I just find it too easy to remain hidden compared to SS2 or Seawolf where you're constantly on edge not knowing quite if you'll be detected. This is a type of game I'd very much like to play the "mainstream" incarnations of.

I understand that many games would be difficult to make "accessible", in some cases nigh on impossible, but I'd like to see some imagination put in to try and find games which can be made accessible rather than simply not realising how easy or hard a given game would be. From my sighted experiences I believe it would have been possible to make Starfleet Command 3 accessible, quite possibly the original Homeworld, and FPS games could include features as proven by Audio Quake. I know FPS levels would often be too complicated for blind players with areas to jump and other obstacles, but if audio playability is included at some level and a map editor is available then I'm sure people will design maps and possibly even whole campaigns specifically designed to allow blind players to enjoy the game independently.

I'd also like to add that making a game accessible won't just convince blind players to buy it, many of us have friends who play games and would love the chance to play against them in multiplayer modes.

Compared to the effort already put in for the various components of the games being created these days I don't think it would be too hard to include speech in the game using the SAPI SDK available from Microsoft, no recording is necessary just use the SAPI TTS (text to speech) system to say anything you deem relevant.

As someone who never really thought about people who were blind before my own sight loss I understand it can be awkward to see how these things could be achieved. I feel the best approach is to assume it can be achieved and to try and think in terms of solutions rather than problems, only declaring it impossible if you simply can't come up with a solution for a major issue.

I have great respect for the mainstream developers, having sampled the work of many of them over the years, and hope to be able to do so again some day.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

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2006-02-21 16:07:06

Hello.

I am Luke Hewitt, resident in England and I

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2006-02-21 20:17:56

Hi
I'm Mark, aged 29 from england. I've been blind since birth but have never been a big fan of shoot-me-up games. I've always liked sports management games and strategic/puzzle games.
On the PC with sighted assistance I've played EA Sports total club manager for Soccer and International cricket captain. I also like Risk 2, Airport Tycoon and other similr games.

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2006-02-22 18:36:29

Hello.

I am J

Languages don't influence the way we think, but they still have a world and worth in themselves. Celebrate your mother tongue, the world is a diverse place.

2006-02-23 19:45:27

Hello, my name is Andr

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2006-02-24 16:00:41

My name is Tyler and I a from the U.S.  I have been interested in audio games ever since I tried outGMA Tank Commander.  Now, I am hooked!

My favoriteaudio game is Lone Wolf.  I also like the PCS games seletions.  Myiea or he indstry is to inlude a voicing option in  game's 'Options' sren which would alo change the sounds to distinguishthem.

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men."

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2006-02-27 11:25:20

Hi. My name is Luke Yelavich, and I am 23, from Sydney, Australia. I am partially sighted, but can't really explain how much sight I actually have.

My first introduction to video games was when I was only 8 or so years old, at a friend's place. They had a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) with a couple of games, Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. I wasn't really a fan of Zelda, and have never really been a fan of RPG games in general, but Super Mario Bros got me hooked into the platform/side scrolling games for life.

I then desired a Nintendo for my next birthday, but after some shopping around,
my parents decided that a Sega Master System might be better, due to having better graphics. I have been a Sega person ever since.

I would have to say that my two most favourite game genres are 1 on 1 fighting games, such as the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat series, and 2D platform/side
scrolling games such as the Sonic series on Master System and Megadrive consoles. I also enjoy the odd racing game here and there, such as a couple of the Need
for Speed games.

I found out about audio games approximately 4 years ago, and have tried various
games that have come out over that time. I am sorry to say, that for me at least, the gameplay compared to mainstream visual games doesn't even come close. This is no reflection on the developers of the games, as they put in many hours of work to make the games what they are. I think that it has something to do with how I have been able to enjoy the ritchness and beauty of well designed game levels and backgrounds in many a visual game, and am still expecting to hear something more detailed when I play any audio game. While such depth of level scenery may not entirely be possible with audio, I do feel that more could be done to enritch the game experience, and gameplay of audio ames. Such things as making controls react the same audibly as their visual counterparts.

My personal wish is for a fighting game, like Street Fighter, with online multi-player capability, with such modes as tournaments, an all out every man for himself arena mode, etc. It would be nice for other totally blind people to enjoy a
genre of gaming that has been so popular for many years amongst their sighted peers, and would personally like to experience a fighting game in an audio only manner. Till then, I will happily enjoy the various fighting games I have for my Megadrive, Mega 32X, and Mega CD which I obtained second hand, and still play to
this day.

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2006-03-12 17:36:10

Submissions now closed!

Thanks for all of you who submitted their stories and experiences! Since the deadline for the CD is tonight, you can't submit any more stories.

Greets,

Richard

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