Button Remapping for the Disabled Gamer

Chuck Bittner, A.K.A. AskACapper, is a disabled gamer and comedian. He started an online petition to get video game developers to offer custom button remapping in their video games so he and other gamers like him can enjoy them.

He is a quadriplegic comedian, in a wheel chair, and due to his condition, he has no control over his fingers. Therefore, in order to play a video game he must use his face to control not only the joysticks, but the buttons as well. Due to his disability, many games are unplayable with the current button layouts.

Remapping is the ability to move button assignments on a controller to any button of the gamer's choice. Even though many games come with multiple preset control layouts, this may not be enough in the case of gamers like Chuck. Full custom remapping is necessary in order to cater for disabled gamers. No longer should they need to choose from a group of preset layouts when in essence they could be able to choose whatever suits them best.

If you haven't done so already please support this great, and often overlooked, cause by signing the petition and following the Facebook Page!

Random Mario Cake

I found this cake in a shop the other day and I have to say that I've picked out the cake for my birthday next month...

Submitted by: Myself, Diesel - MancalaZonk mod

If you would like to submit a picture or

video email it to b0r3d@live.ie

Game Length

So lately it seems a lot of games, especially action and first-person shooter games, are getting shorter. Sub-10-hour campaigns are quickly becoming the norm, and while multiplayer modes are making their way into just about every title hitting shelves nowadays, they’re also becoming a go-to excuse to cut down single-player content.

Purchasing a game that’s over in the same afternoon you brought it home usually can’t be described as anything but a rip-off, and players routinely have that reaction. So it’s interesting that developers still try to sneak out these malnourished packages and pretend they’re going to fly with the target market. However there are many games that, even with a relatively short campaign mode, contain content of a quality that would make you jizz your pants. So it would seem the new emphasis on length over quality reeks of high school essay requirements, where word count is more crucial than writing ability.

There’s no added value to a game when you’re made watch the same dull animations over and over again, or repeat boring and mindless tasks. So the question becomes one of which is better: a game sliced to its essence and lasts only a few hours, or an adventure that pushes into the 30- or 40-hour mark, but with lots of filler in between?

Apparently, a game that lasts eight hours is now a failure, and not worth paying full price for, no matter how good it is. In my opinion, judging a game based solely on its hour count is just... depressing.

Top 5... Video Game Clichés

5: The Final Boss Rematch

You beat the lad once, twice, or maybe even three times but still the persistent mongrel comes back for more. Only this time... it's personal!

4: Now, Are You A Boy Or A Girl?

They all say that video game characters are constantly developing more human-like emotions, yet, after all this so-called evolution, they still have the cheek to ask you what's between your legs... Ignorant bastards, the lot of them!

Kiss Controller

Kiss Controller is a game input device that controls the direction and speed of a bowling ball while users are kissing.

Artist Hye Yeon Nam has put her video game where her mouth is, literally, with the creation of a new bowling game that's controlled only by passionate (and awkward) French kissing. Kissing is an intimate behavior that could easily be developed into a game device. It has not yet been proposed in the game industry (I wonder why?).

Obviously the creator doesn't have a huge understanding of the gaming market; I mean how many gamers actually have someone who is willing to kiss them? I foresee the 'adult' game producers lining up to do something with this.

Verdict: Buy It!(If you have a girlfriend)

The Life of a Stormtrooper

Not technically a gaming picture but it was too funny not to post on the blog. Besides most people that like video games should get it...

Submitted by: Harry Fenton

If you would like to submit a picture or

video email it to b0r3d@live.ie

TI-Nspire - The Gaming Calculator!

Recently a team of developers from "omnimaga" have ported a modified version of the classic fps shooter "Doom" to the TI-Nspire and have plans to release a fully functioning version to the public soon.

The actual version is called nDoom, which is a modified edition of the original that is designed to work on less powerful machines. While you may not expect such a device to have enough graphical power to truly pull this off, this whole thing is definitely a case of "you've got to see it to believe it."

Oh and I nearly forgot, the calculator can now connect to the INTERNET! Well a type of internet, at least, called Global CALCnet 2.2. While 'local' CALCnet 2.2 allows between two to two million calculators to connect in local-area networks, Global CALCnet can link multiple CALCnet networks across the internet, and can even offer internet-based services to calculators, such as connections to Internet Relay Chat and other chat protocols, and even multi-player games such as Scorched-Earth are currently in the works.

Sure it may cost around $100 but wouldn't it be worth it to get a calculator that allows you to play games in class...