Hi Aaron,
I am so thankful that you wrote this opinion! I am a physical therapist/neuroscientist/entrepreneur who is now in the business of making and consulting on the development or modification of games for "ablegamers". I have held many focus groups and am currently beta testing a survey to learn more about the needs and wants of ablegamers. I am interested in both games for leisure and fun with the appropriate assistive (not frustration inducing) interface or controller, and games for the rehabilitation setting. I would really appreciate an opportunity to have a conversation with you to discuss ways of moving forward with this "cooperation from both sides" with cool heads! Kind regards! Sheryl

hi Aaron
i would like to give you some hope. i happen to know that there is a prototype game console being made. it was not mentioned that it was designed for the disabled but it could certainly do so. this is because they have design a system with controler comprised of 16 nodes that you place on your head (kind of like a hat). from there you contol most of the games functions through the use of Thought (brain waves). i have seen them use it a little bit and it seems to be a pretty solid prototype. However, they did not say how complex of a thought it could handle. all they showed was a virtual face that could express a mood when you thought about it (such as anger or sadness) and then a little part where they where asked to lift a boulder on the screen by thinking about it and it actually worked. bad part is, they say don't expect to see in stores for purchase for another 5-6 years. i saw this prototype on a miniseries on the discovery channel call Next Generation (i think, it has been a while since i last saw it)

this is just an error correction. the shows name was NextWorld and it showed on discovery channel.

Hi Aaron,

Even though I feel the same way you do and in fact I wrote Nintendo an email about a year ago about how sad I was because they clearly over looked the disabled community I've not heard anything from them which just tells me they could careless about how we feel.

I'm a paraplegic that has such bad muscle spasms I'm unable to use the Wii mote unless I'm strapped to the chair like a race car driver in his car. I watched my nephew play Marvel alliance 2 and he was sweating and looked like he was about to pop himself in the head with the controller, so there was no way I could do that. The main thing that really makes me mad is that they didn't make an alternative to it for instance, if you couldn't use the Wii mote you could use a standard controller, no it was either you use this or not at all and that really gets under my skin.

I've bought every Nintendo console to date except the Wii and it was for that reason only, that I was unable to use it safely.

The sad part about all this is people are blinded by money and rising to the top, and unfortunately they don't care who they step on to get there.

Hi Aaron

I just found something interesting in New Egg under game controlers called "OCZMSNIA
Neural Impulse Actuator" sounds like a ray gun and almost is.In shortVery fast and accurate reading of muscle jerks in the face
*eye muscle tracking
*alpha and beta channels are usable, but take a lot of practice and settings tweaking. Thats a quote from the page by the way I have Parkinsons and typing is realy hard.

Pros: I guess I am a bit of a nerd but the idea of controlling things, even a computer, with my mind has always appealed to me and this device allows me to do just that.
Cons: Hard to get used to. But, it's like any radically new experience, takes some time to get good at it.
Other Thoughts: Even if I couldn't play games with this, the bio feedback potential is simply amazing.{Quote from NE}

Im new to this web site so maby this is old hat but I was blown away by the concept Im thinking about trying one. Any input?

I wrote about the NIA as one of my first articles for this site, http://www.ablegamers.com/hard...uture.html

I was very upbeat about it and I couldn't wait for the product to be finalized. However, after having the product for over a year, I would caution anyone against buying it. There are so many flaws including, having no grounding directly to the units. This means that you'll have to make your own homemade grounding. One person even started putting the unit in their pants because their belt is rubber! The product only works as advertised in a clean and sterile environment with absolutely no other electrical appliances.

Please, please, please read the reviews online if you are absolutely dead set on buying this item. As a staff member of AbleGamers, I would not put the site name behind it.