Hi Phil. try serching for Ben Underwood and vidio games and that might help.
he died though a few years ago but i hope this helps. from Mich.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Vlasak" <p...@pcsgames.net>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2011 10:30 AM
Subject: [Audyssey] When a blind man rocks
Hi Folks,
I searched for the article where the blind man beat the sighted on a video
game but couldn't fine it.
I did find this article from last year:
When a blind man rocks: Interview with Yohandy Rodriguez
April 20th, 2010
11:07 am ET
When you play Guitar Hero and Rock Band, you rely heavily on the rhythm of
the song and the overall flow, but if you turn on performance mode, where
the charts are hidden, you more times than not, will fail within seconds.
Now imagine having to play performance mode every single time you fired up
the game. For Yohandy Rodriguez, that is no hypothetical; that is his
reality.
As someone who has been blind from birth, Rodriguez never learned to rely
on his vision as a way to navigate through life or games.
"I was actually born prematurely," said Rodriguez. "Due to the fact my
lungs hadn't developed properly, it was necessary to put me in an
incubator and pump oxygen into it to keep me alive. This was obviously
successful, but due to too much oxygen intake at such an early age, I
became blind. I was born in 1985, and I actually remember gaming at a very
early age. I don't really know how I got started. All I know is everyone
around me was playing video games, and there was no reason why I shouldn't
be as well. So that's exactly what I did. I never considered my blindness
as a barrier for a second. I remember playing games like Super Mario 2 and
Donkey Kong Country quite clearly, and it was definitely a blast."
Rodriguez may have been able to play games like Mario and Donkey Kong
Country, but there are certain games that he is unable to play due to his
blindness.
According to a recent Rodriguez Tweet, Guitar Hero's menus can prove
problematic for blind gamers to navigate"Well, I was never able to beat
Super Mario or Donkey Kong [laughs], even though I did complete a few
levels through trial and error," said Rodriguez. "However, I did come
across fighting games, and suddenly things changed. I recall playing
Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 with my sighted cousin on a SNES and man was it fun.
All the attacks had distinctive sounds, kicks and punches all sounded
different and unique. It was such an awesome experience I begged my
parents to buy me a super Nintendo immediately. So they did, and the first
game I bought was a copy of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. I played that game
all day long and I eventually beat it on medium. then I beat it on the
hardest difficulty. Then after that I had to buy more fighting games so I
purchased Killer Instinct. I know I'm digressing a bit here so I'll get
back on track. I find games with 3D environments and shoot 'em ups the
hardest to play. It's quite easy to get lost in such large playing fields,
and often enough there's not enough audio to convey everything happening
on screen."
While it's not instantaneously known by Rodriguez whether or not he'll be
able to play a game when it first comes out, there are various indicators
that point him and other blind gamers in the right direction.
"There's actually a few blind gamers out there, not just me," said
Rodriguez. "We already know that games like Mortal Kombat VS. DC Universe
and Super Street Fighter IV are accessible since we've been buying
fighting games for years, and of course games like Guitar Hero and Rock
Band, but we actually love to experiment with different genres. One of my
blind friends bought Final Fantasy XIII when it came out and told everyone
how playable it ended up being for the blind, so another friend went and
got the game and can't shut up about it [laughs]. I'm eventually going to
purchase it as well and see what all the hype's about."
One of Yohandy Rodriguez's favorite types of games to play is the music
video game genre. Guitar Hero and Rock Band provide blind gamers such as
Rodriguez with a unique opportunity to actually learn to master a game
through listening to the subtle changes in the music itself.
Rock Band 2's simplified menu system has proven very accessible to blind
gamers"First and foremost, for rhythm games, I think it's more about the
music, and less about the visual aspect," said Rodriguez. "I don't have
much experience with Guitar Hero since I've only rented some of their
games, but I have purchased Rock Band games so I'll concentrate my efforts
on that particular title. First thing I like to do is listen to the song
I'm attempting to learn. An easy way of doing this is to go in practice
mode and highlight the full song for listening purposes. I do a lot of
guitar so I listen to all the various notes and chords to get an idea of
how it all sounds. What I usually do is if I play and the instrument is
hard to hear, I go into the sounds option and turn everything down except
for the instruments which I turn up all the way. Now whichever instrument
I play is isolated from the track. Even with these options, sometimes
there are notes that are still hard to hear, so as I practice a section, I
set the game to 90% speed. This completely eliminates the track and just
leaves the guitar stem and metronome. Problem solved. As to how I actually
learn the notes and chords. Well that's more difficult to explain. There
are rules for easier difficulties that have to be followed. I don't know
if you've checked the RBN documentation, but it actually explains quite a
few things about this. Expert is like literally playing what the musician
intended you to play. Harmonix doesn't chart notes randomly, so for
instance if you hear a note and it corresponds to yellow, and then a
higher note plays immediately after, it'll either be blue or orange
button. It really helps that Harmonix is always consistent with their
charting, so you won't have a particular chord charted to green and
yellow, and later on in the song charted to red and orange."
Memorization and pattern recognition play a huge role in Rodriguez's
gameplay efforts. To the surprise of many, Rodriguez can actually play
titles such as Rock Band at a level higher than most gamers with full
vision.
"I can't do something like Yngwie Malmsteen's "Caprici Di Diablo" since
trying to figure all that out by ear only is nightmarish, however I
recently learned to play Chop Suey, and Down with the Sickness on expert
guitar," Rodriguez said. "I can't get 100%, but I can at least play it and
have fun doing it. I can do guitar, bass, and vocals. Drums I'm hopeless
at [laughs]. I've a blind friend who can do drums just fine, but I never
quite got the hang of it. I'll keep trying though!"
Rodriguez claims that his admission to being a blind gamer often draws a
fair amount of shock from the internet community.
"Sometimes they're a bit shocked yeah," Rodriguez said. "I love going
online and telling people about my blindness at random just to hear their
reactions. Some think I'm lying, but there are always fun people to play
against that are understanding about it."
As mentioned earlier, Rodriguez certainly doesn't limit himself to games
that involve music. One of his favorite genres (and one that is most
accessible to blind gamers) is the fighting genre.
"I've been playing a bit of Street Fighter IV getting ready for Super
Street Fighter IV in a few weeks," said Rodriguez
"I've also been playing a bit of Heavy Rain."
If you'd like to learn more about blind gamers, or find out more about
what Yohandy Rodriguez is playing,
you can follow him on Twitter @musicman2004,
where he will often mention what companies develop games and applications
that are or are not
blind-user friendly.
http://www.examiner.com/music-video-games-in-national/when-a-blind-man-rocks-interview-with-yohandy-rodriguez
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