Controller Advice

[Garin]

Hi, I'm hoping some kind people will be able to provide me with some help...

My girlfriend has become quite keen on playing games (seems I corrupted her).
The problem is that she doesn't have use of her left hand. So I'm looking for one-handed solutions for games playing (we currently have a PS2 and a PC). The PS2 controller is usable one-handed as long as you can use the left analog stick, but becomes pretty impossible if you need to use the D-pad. So looking for something better. I know there is/was something called the ASCII grip which was a one-handed controller released for the PS. Anybody aware of anything else or have a controller they think might be better one-handed than the standard PS2 controller?

Have a similar problem with the PC when it comes to FPS games. My only real idea is to maybe find a trackball/mouse that has a fair number of programmable buttons on it. And program the buttons to do forward/backward movement and strafing.
Any recommendations ?

[mid]

Sounds like you want the bizarre Microsoft Strategic Commander thingy - metric ton of buttons, and you can push forward, back, left, right and twist. Only problem is that the normal one is designed to be used with the left hand, so you'd need to ask them if they do a right-handed model.

Barring that, most PC fancy joysticks twist as well, as well as having the hat controls for movement while pushing the analogue stick to look. Actually, thats probably better. Head to PC World, who usually have the best stock of them out, and see which one suits you. I think there was an analogue joystick for the Cube (made for Rogue Leader) that would be ok, and you could probably get a converter to the PS2 if you can't find anything suitable there.

[Adrock]

If i remember rightly Game were selling a joystick called the top gun summit or other. They had models for every console, could be worth a look.

[yashiro]

The ASCII grip is a brilliant one handed controller. It lacks the analogue sticks but dpad and buttons are all within easy reach.

If you have any trouble picking one up send me a pm and I'll help you out.

[Garin]

Thanks guys,

I've ordered an ASCII Grip so hopefully should make things a little easier on the PS2.

Still struggling a little as regards the PC though. I did take a look at Microsoft's Strategic Commander (Saitek also do something similar) but they are really meant to be used instead of the keyboard, not instead of a keyboard/mouse combo. Also looked at the joysticks, they are a partial solution especially those that allow twisting of the stick, but most of them suffer from the problem of not having very many buttons within easy reach. If you want to use it one handed, then as many buttons as possible need to be on the stick. And of course, theres the inherent problem of trying to play a FPS with a joystick of that type. The ideal solution I think is a mouse with more than 5 buttons, but not sure such a thing exists. My intellimouse has 5 buttons and I think its maybe 1 button short of being able to have all standard fps movement/firing on it.
Shall keep searching anyway.

[Yod@]

Oh, that's made me think of something - there's the Saitek GM1/GM2 mouse which has a 4-way hat switch on the side, and has programmable software which is VERY flexible.

http://www.dxmarket.com/saitek/products/H02.html

Downsides are that the hat switch is 4-way only (not 8-way, so no diagonals), and the mouse still only has a wheel and 3 other buttons, which may not be enough). Although you COULD program combinations of the buttons I guess....