Audyssey; Games Accessible to the Blind Issue 49: 4th quarter, 2006 Edited by Ron Schamerhorn Fun, Friendship, Knowledge, Charity +++ Welcome Welcome to this issue of Audyssey. This magazine is dedicated to the discussion of games which, through accident or design, are accessible to the blind either with or without sighted assistance. Note: This magazine uses plus-signs as navigation markers. Three plus-signs are placed above any articles or sections. Within these sections, two plus-signs denote the start of a new sub-section. Smaller divisions are marked by a single plus-sign. This allows people to use their search capabilities to go quickly to the next division they are interested in. For instance, the "Letters" section is preceded by three plus-signs. Each letter within it has two plus-signs before it. Answers to letters have a single plus-sign before them. +++ Contents: Welcome From The Editor Letters A decades accessible gaming Phil's Funnies Here there be Dragons News From Game Developers Game Announcements and Reviews Contacting Us Distribution Information and Submission Policies +++ From the Editor Hello all. Here it is finally the holiday and 10th anniversary edition of Audyssey magazine. It certainly has taken longer then I had hoped originally to get things prepared, but I feel this has turned out to be a splendid issue for one and all. An advantage to this later release has been that the developer section is not only larger, including some new names, but also includes notices about holiday savings on some great accessible game titles. Now that the switch has fully been made from Yahoogroups for both the discussion and magazine only lists it's a good step forward for Audyssey. If you haven't checked out the site http://www.audyssey.org recently I'd encourage you to do so. It's now simple to view the archives and follow a particular thread of conversation even if you aren't subscribed to the main chatting list. Also as time goes on there will be other changes and improvements to the site and suggestions would be welcome. Thanks Raul for the time and effort on this undertaking. I've tried to put a lot of good information into this one, so I'll wish you all a wonderful and happy festive season! Catch you in the games and 2007! +++ Letters Here we will have some posts taken from the gamers list They are ones which I have found to be interesting or thought provoking. ++ Subject: [Audyssey] Audio Game Survey participants and play testers wanted Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 (by way of AudioGames.net, from MarkFrance) *quote* Hi I am looking for any blind or sighted people who are interested in audio games, as well as audio game developers, to participate in a short survey. Also I am currently developing a new survival horror audio game, if you are interested in play testing it, please let me know. The survey can be completed at: http://www.student.ljmu.ac.uk/cmpmfran Thanks : *quote end* Find more info on the AudioGames.net forum: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?id=925 Greets, Richard http://www.audiogames.net ++ Some of you may already have read the post about the questionnaire related to this, but here's the full story: ========== Audio Game Maker: game building environment for the blind The Bartiméus Accessibility foundation has announced the development of Audio Game Maker, an application which enables visually impaired people to make their own computer games. A first prototype of the application is scheduled to be released in Feburary of 2007. Audio Game Maker aims to increase the number of computer games for the visually impaired, since very few accessible computer games exist. Many visually impaired players want to create their own games but give up when confronted with programming difficulties and other technical issues. Creative players manage to modify existing games with their own recorded sounds in order to make 'new' games. Despite these efforts, there is a huge demand for an accessible tool that enables visually impaired people to make computer games. Audio Game Maker aims to be a solution for this problem by offering a simple and accessible game building environment. Audio Game Maker is part of project Game Accessibility, a series of activities conducted by the Bartiméus Accessibility foundation in order to improve the accessibility of computer games for players with impairments. Accessibility has been researching the accessibility of computer games over the past few years, and participated in the development of two games for the blind: Drive, an audio racing game, and Demor, a location-based audio-augmented reality game. For more information, please visit http://www.game-accessibility.com ========== Greets, Richard ++ HI all So far there are 2 accessible games around the theme of Christmas produced. Both of them are really nice games, but its sad that both of them feature the negative side of Santa Claus. These 2 games are Toy Robbery from L-Works, and Bobby's Revenge from BSC games. IN the one game the boy wants to kill Santa Claus, and in the other game the boy wants to steal Santa Claus' presents. Don't you think that children will learn to be naughty through these games? Say for instance a child is naughty and he doesn't deserve any presents for Christmas, by playing these games will it also teach him to do a similar thing towards the persons in his family, or friends who are Santa Claus? I think when developing games around the theme of Santa Claus, the focus should be shifted more positively. Like the suggestion I mentioned to Liam about the ape, protecting presents from harm. Its just upbuilding criticism I would like to share. A game can be developed for example where Santa Claus runs around, giving presents. You must be quick to catch him to get a present. Each time you catch him you get a present. A game could be developed where Santa Claus is riding on his sleigh, each time you catch him on his sleigh he gives you a present. It can also be a game where the sleigh goes from left to right and if you miss him, if he gets off the screen, then you loose the game. Just like Bobby's Revenge, but the focus is shifted more positively,each time you catch him on his sleigh you get a present; instead of trying to shoot him because you were naughty, not deserving a present. + Then what about the game "Santa Claus is Back" by Code Factory ( http://www.audiogames.net/db.php?action=view&id=santaclausisback) and "Giftanum" by XLStudios (not available anymore http://www.audiogames.net/db.php?action=view&id=temp75)? + Hi, Don't worry no one is going to moderate you for giving an honest opinion. I felt you expressed yourself quite well. Now, as to the games you have a point a majority of the time the Christmas games out there are negative in nature. I am not just talking accessible games, but mainstream games as well. Many times they have themes of robbing Santa, shooting Santa, or something else along those lines. I guess the reason is that mankind has a downright mean streak in us, and there is something fun about beating up on Saint Nick. As far as if it really effects how people in reality act, psychologists and interest groups have been arguing over that point for years. It seams if someone buys a violent game, and kills someone later the psychologists and others then want to blame the game or violent contents for persons x behavior. Personally, I disagree, and feel a person still has a choice, and if you do the crime pay the time. I am basing this on my own mental state, and that is not the general public. I love war games allot, but that doesn't mean I'd really like to take up arms and fight, or kill people for real. ++ Hi gamers, This is just a discussion thread about one of my favorite audio games, a little gem we like to call Shades of Doom. I've beaten it on all five difficulty levels (yes, even It's a good day to die), and throughout my experiences with the game I noticed some similarities between SOD and a few novels I've had the pleasure of reading. Fair warning, those who haven't beaten SOD may wish to skip this. I won't be spoiling the actual ending to the game but there may be some spoilers nonetheless. Perhaps the biggest thing I noticed was that, once the experiment is shut down, any enemies left in or outside the bosses' lair die instantly. This rang a bell in my mind that brought to mind a novel by Mr. Dean Koontz entitled _Midnight, which was a story about a research project seemingly similar to the one in SOD, though not conducted by the military. This experiment involved the injection of microcomputers into a living host's bloodstream, a nanobot that would enhance human mental power and enable them to change form pretty much at will. However either something went wrong with the experiment itself or the subjects' make-ups didn't agree with it. Those "converted" tended to regress to lower forms rather than evolve to higher ones, usually with deadly results. The mastermind behind this experiment was a man named Thomas Shaddock who, as a precaution in case one of his creatures turned against him, wore a small device that was perpetually linked to Son, the project's supercomputer. This device monitored Shaddock's pulse and would, if this signal were lost, transmit a message back to Son, which would in turn send a signal to the nanobots inside all the Converted Ones, triggering a chain reaction that killed them instantly. I would assume that the masterminds behind the experiment in SOD would have put a similar safety measure in place in case the experiment went wrong. That way a person would simply have to shut down the machine to prevent the outbreak from spreading. So here's the big question. What does everybody think? I posted this to GMA Games Talk a while back but the traffic over there seems to be extremely light these days. I guess we can call this the SOD Theories and Ideas thread, since that's basically what my intention was in creating it. + Ugh, that's scary! Speaking of mutant humans, and mutant dogs, I wonder how big they are. I picture mutant dogs to be smaller than mutant humans, since they require less ammo to subdue them, whereas mutant humans require a little more. I wonder if the boss is the biggest monster there is, or if it's the temporal disturbance? I picture the gelatinous blob to be the size of a Jell-O log, I wonder what it's shaped like? Yucko! Not to be getting off the subject, but I wonder sometimes about some rooms I go into while playing SOD, and there's an annoying noise like some equipment. I have to shoot it and blow it up just to concentrate. Plus, there's the fan room on level one, and if you shoot it while you're really close it can kill you. I just wait till I open the door at the end, and if a mutant human or dog comes, I'll shoot, and it blows up the fan and possibly kills the monster. I'm not saying it always works, but it shuts the fan up. Plus, I don't understand the part of level one that has an opening in the floor. Why is there a hole in the floor? I know that if you pull the sewer cover on level five, then there'll be a hole in the floor, and you'll hear the water sound on level six which means you're close to the sewage system. Also, why does the crate on level three have a gelatinous blob? Why can't it have other equipment, like weapons, ammunition, or maybe a proximity or timed mine? ++ Hi Brandon, I think to constructively discuss this matter we need to come up with a common definition for accessible and playable. One does not necessarily mean the other is true. To me personally accessible means that I can grab that PS2 game, pop it in the machine, I can play it without having someone tell me what sound x means, use the menus without having to memorise them, or have to have someone teach me the menus. In other words the day I buy the game I can play it without sighted help. To me playable means it might be accessible but even if it is not 100% accessible I can memorise the menus, sounds, and so forth and one day be able to play it on my own after I memorise the game. Let's play the game of assume for a second. Let's assume we whiped out your memory of how the menus are laid out and what all the sounds mean for a given game. Ok, how are you going to access those menus. Will you fumble around relearning those menus on your own,or ask a sighted person to tell you the layout, because at that very second they are usable, but not accessible since you don't have those menus memorised. In fact, one wonders how you learned them in the first place. You can't tell me you baught your PS2 and the first day automaticly without training knew every single menu by memory. You had to have some trial and error, and perhaps some outside help to learn them. + Brandon wrote: I don't mean this as an argument, but I consider the games in which the menus can be memorized to be just as accessible as the ones with spoken menus. Sure it takes a bit longer for that accessibility to happen, but that doesn't change the fact that we can pretty much play these games completely. Just my thoughts. + The above thread went on for a few days on list, and it's always an interesting discussion to see the variety of points of view when it comes to the word accessible, and what it means to different people. +++ A Decade's Accessible Gaming: An Old Editor's Anniversary Observations By Michael Feir I find it hard to believe that ten years have now passed since I published the very first Audyssey Magazine during July of 1996. It's a lot easier to swallow when considered in terms of accessible games progress. We've come a very long way indeed. Text was the only medium that was widely known about when it came to computerized fun for blind people. There were a few relatively crude sound-based games around which served more to agonize the player with untapped possibilities than anything else. If only they were in stereo sound! If only more sounds could be played at a time! If only. I was deeply involved in two epic games. My yearning for adventure and randomness was being well served by Fallthru. I could get lost for hours in its vast territory filled with dungeons, peasants, warriors and demons. Jigsaw also held me in its brilliant story of history, morality and destiny. Each of these games had a profound influence on me and I can only hope that these older text-based games are not passed by entirely by newcomers in favor of the auditory games we have now. At this point, things are certainly in very good shape. We have a multitude of sound-based games covering pretty much all genres. Sports games are still by far the most rare. One of the most exciting areas that has just started to be explored is the possibility of real-time strategy games. Galaxy Rangers certainly demonstrates that such games are possible using sound. The final level in GMA Games's GMA Tank Commander also offers a rudimentary real-time strategy experience. I very much look forward to future attempts in that area. The sidescroller genre could certainly stand further exploration. That type of game just lends itself beautifully to being translated into stereo sound. The ground work has now been done in pretty much every genre of accessible game. I believe we've reached a critical mass of accessible games. This should mean that there is at least one accessible game of interest to any potential blind gamer. We've particularly seen growth in the puzzle genre lately. Another very positive development has been an increase in the number of free accessible games available. I was absolutely astounded when Topspeed2 emerged as the first multi-player racing game. I was certain that a commercial developer would come through for all those salivating racing fans first. Not only can people race each other but they can also race against computer-controlled cars. The folks at Playing in the Dark certainly cheered up a whole lot of us with their product late last year. Spoonbill Software has also cranked out a variety of puzzle and card games. The quality and attention to detail is very commendable indeed. Even a non-card/puzzle fan like myself can appreciate these games for the labors of love they clearly are. Jim Kitchen has been pumping out free games since the very beginning and has produced some real treasures over the years. My personal favorite is his version of Pong. Who would have thought that such a simple game could be so very addictive. I believe it is vital to the success of all commercial developers that a number of completely free full games are made available. This allows less fortunate people an entry point into accessible gaming and may encourage some to try commercial demos and potentially make the necessary investment. This is particularly the case with such high unemployment and low awareness of what access technology can do to enrich the personal lives of blind people. Games make an excellent way of learning about and getting comfortable with computers. I'm surprised that interactive fiction, largely produced as freeware, hasn't been used more by educators and/or those wishing to promote reading or Braille. Most text adventures ought to work flawlessly with a Braille display and I can't think of a more tempting way to get youngsters to read than letting them be an active part in the story. Despite the difficulties posed, I very much hope we also see an increase in companies taking All inPlay's approach of designing games with graphics and sound so that blind and sighted people can play. This area holds a lot of promise for building bridges. Terraformers garnered accessible gaming an immense awareness boost. I hope Pin Interactive is working on further titles. The fact that All inPlay has survived for as long as it has speaks eloquently of the steady demand for accessible games. Personally, I hope they eventually take a stab at a multi-player action game as they originally intended. They've certainly got the community building part down solidly. Clearly, the next big frontier for accessible gaming is multi-player sound-based action/strategy games. Board games playable over the Internet will likely appear relatively soon seeing as VipGamesZone and All inPlay have laid the groundwork there. It will be interesting to see how successful results divide up between free and commercial products. As to more intense action-oriented games, they could emerge from pretty much any of the better established companies. It is most unfortunate that BSC Games had to give up on its initial attempt in this untapped sphere of gaming experience. Actually completing such a game, even a comparatively simple one, will take extreme effort, skill and dedication. However, there's definitely a growing hunger for such experiences and I have every confidence that successful developers will be rewarded if pricing is kept reasonable. Piracy is unfortunately always going to be a serious issue for commercial accessible game companies. One danger which I very much hope can be avoided is the erosion of the rights of legitimate purchasers of games. Some developers still give registration keys which you can use on any computer. This is basically the equivalent of purchasing a game in a store. You get a full copy which you can transfer and keep backup copies of as you please. As long as you have the registration key, you're all set. It doesn't matter what happens to the company. The game you bought is yours forever. These days, more companies are using online registration. This forces purchasers to decide which computer they want to have the game playable on. Most developers are quite willing to make special arrangements in such circumstances as long as the customer has established a degree of trust. However, there's also the issue of lost registration keys or unanticipated computer problems and upgrades. Either of these can suddenly render one's registration useless. Again, as long as developers come up with a reasonable approach, things ought to be fine. Should piracy increase drastically, I fear that the pendulum will swing too far towards product security and customers will in effect be paying to have a game only so long as things are fine with his/her computer. Shane R. Munro warned of this growing trend in the mainstream world of digital entertainment in a recent episode of Retrogaming Radio. Thankfully, we have the fact that compassion drives pretty much all accessible game developers. This should allow the consumer to come out on top. The trend towards having demos only be useable for a certain number of days is in my opinion a losing strategy. Producing a demo which remains functional but limits game play or time gives people more reason to keep demos on their computers and show them to others. These games which simply stop altogether after days or weeks are completely removed and do nothing for the developer besides prevent their users from getting a small amount of free entertainment. I offer my own circumstances as an example of what I mean here. As you read this, I'm likely either on my way to or enjoying a vacation at the Lake Joseph Centre. This is a resort specially set up for blind people. Assuming the week I've chosen is a busy one, there are likely to be something like fifty to a hundred blind or visually impaired people. There are plenty of opportunities for me to show accessible games. Rainy days, evenings where people don't choose to partake in scheduled events, etc, all present opportunities for me to set up my laptop and let people have a go at a game of interest to them. They may hear me play an accessible game and have their interest aroused. Blind people visiting other blind people might see a similar opportunity to let a guest try a demo they kept on their system. Word of mouth is a force powerful enough in the blind community to make or break businesses catering to its members' needs. Very slowly, a body of articles and coverage of accessible games is building up in the mainstream. Sites such as the BBC, CBC, NPR, Wired, and many others have published articles or broadcast segments of general interest shows about accessible games. There may very well eventually be a non-blind market for these games due to their sheer novelty. Demos can also be loaded and kept ready on computers belonging to schools, institutions, guide dog schools, access training centers, or the computers of new recipients of access technology. These make a fine introduction to accessible gaming as well as computers in general. I hope more developers choose to have less restrictive demos in future. In closing, I'll take this opportunity to wish all Audyssey readers new and old a very happy tenth anniversary this Summer. Please make certain that I can look back on another ten years by stepping up to the plate and contributing your talent to the community. Write articles and reviews. Produce audio reviews or demonstrations of your favorite games. Help developers make better games by taking opportunities to help test games in development. If you have a good acting voice and aren't afraid to use it, contact the various developers. They may have a use for you. I plan to keep being an ambassador for accessible games. I will contribute to, promote and represent the blind gaming community to the best of my ability for as long as I'm able. Ron has done a fantastic job keeping Audyssey going. Give him the materials and he'll continue to work his magic making a whole issue greater than the sum of its parts. That, afterall, is the editor's job. We can only work with what we're given or can bring to the table ourselves. If enough of us step up and do our part, we have a very fun future to look forward to. Michael Feir Creator and former Editor of Audyssey Magazine 1996-2004 E-mail: mfeir@cogeco.ca +++ Phil's Funnies A Day in the life of a game developer By Phil Vlasak + This was from awhile back but I'll bet while developing Sarah and the Castle of Witchcraft & Wizardry it might still be accurate *grin*. 6:00 wake up. quick trip to bathroom shower, get dressed, talk to wife, make coffee, eat breakfast. 7:00 walk dog, feed dog, walk dog again. 7:20 pour second cup of coffee, check email. 8:00 talk to wife, say goodbye as she leaves the house to go shopping. 8:15 pour third cup of coffee, finish reading and answering email. 8:30 answer phone, appointment with dentist tomorrow. 8:35 back to computer and finally check list of things to do in new game. 9:00 Write new function and compile program to test it out. 9:03 find new function doesn't work, so try changing it. 9:10 While testing function find another bug and add it to the list. 9:15 answer phone, driver to take me to dentist office. 9:20 back to computer room check new function where left off. 9:22 dog wants to go out again. 9:30 wash breakfast dishes and put them away. 9:45 bathroom break. 10:00 wife back from shopping, Braille can goods and put cold and frozen items in fridge. 10:30 dog throws up on bed, strip bed and put sheets in washing machine. 11:00 make bed with new sheets. 11:15 take blanket out to dry on line. 11:00 dog wants to walk again. 11:30 make lunch and talk to wife. 12:15 wash lunch dishes and take out garbage. 12:30 bring blanket in from line and put on bed. 12:45 check answering machine for customer call but turns out to be phone company that we don't use. 12:50 check email. 1:10 go on Internet and order sound effect cd's. 1:20 forget password to look at Amazon account. 2:00 after searching computer for password, go through procedure to get new password. 2:15 finish order and get ready to start programming again. 2:17 dog spots postal carrier delivering mail. 2:20 get mail and run it through scanner. 2:50 finish reading mail and shred junk mail. 3:00 check email and answer some messages. 3:15 dog needs to be walked. 3:30 get back to computer and start working on editing sound effect. 4:00 feed dog and walk dog again. 4:30 visit bathroom, prepare dinner and eat, talk to wife, wash dishes and take out garbage. 5:30 watch news on TV. 6:00 walk dog again. 6:15 get back to computer, back up work on second hard drive. 6:30 read email, answer messages. 6:45 take garbage bags out to street. 7:00 Check out new game on web, download game and try it out. 8:00 walk dog again. 8:15 turn on talking book machine and read another chapter with wife. 9:00 watch TV show with wife. 10:00 get back on computer, read email and answer messages. 10:20 try another version of game function but realize you are too tired to think straight. 10:30 make cup of tea, play another game to wake you up. 10:45 decide to stop programming for the day, leave computer room. 10:50 walk dog, lock doors for night. 11:00 watch news on TV. 11:30 visit bathroom, change clothes, go to bed with wife. 11:45 dog jumps on bed curls up and goes to sleep. +++ Here there be Dragons By Ron Schamerhorn The parchment makes a quiet yet distinct rustling sound as it's unrolled revealing the lay of the land. At first glance it is easy to identify the regions which are nearest your location. Over time these areas have become like old friends, familiar and always welcoming to you during your ongoing journey. The names you read written by a skilled cartographer's hand stand out among those you have heard talk of. Surprisingly there is a section with an all too well-known legend "Here There Be Dragons". I believe this to be an apt description of editing Audyssey. By no means am I trying to show any negative connotations with it. More so I view editing as embarking on an adventure, each publication having a rhythm and unique quality all it's own. To highlight this point I'll briefly mention about this issue. When putting it together, initially I was concerned with how many reviews and announcements I had to use in the section. Fortunately I had saved, and forgotten about a couple until they had been revisited when going through the magazine folder where I keep the submissions I receive. Obviously I was pleasantly surprised when I made this discovery, and as it turns out that part of the magazine developed quite well. One other item I have some worry about and it's two-fold is the editing itself. Primarily because, and my friends and family could back me on this claim, I was by no means the best student in English class. Naturally who would wish to put their name on something they wrote if it ended up being horrible? I know my grammer and such isn't the greatest at times, but I'm not ashamed either. I like thinking of my position as editing Audyssey, not writing the magazine. I do enjoy being creative in an article such as this or giving my opinions on a game in a review, and plan to keep doing just that. I try my best and take it with a few grains of salt. The second part has a good remmody and typically I don't worry about this as much. It's contributions for the next issue. It's a mantra "I never can have enough." Granted I think the ones I have been at the helm of have been good, as editor you can't help but ponder the question of "Will I get enough submissions for the next Audyssey?" Fate has up to this point been with me. I've felt each magazine was a worthwhile endeavour. And with written material from you, the reader, Audyssey will continue to flourish! On other fronts I've recently been playing Sryth, the age of Ikthean. It's a free [or optional membership at a fantastic price] online role playing game. To sum it up in a few words you create a character, equip him/her with various weapons, armour, magic items, and such. You then embark on adventures throughout Sryth. There are several cities and event adventures you can undertake. Like clearing the goblins from the caves near Hawklore, closing a Shadow Gate underneath a monistary, and even one involving a pumpkin patch. I've got two characters and have barely scratched the surface of this game, and it's being added to all the time. In the next mag I'm going to write a much more thorough review. I find it somewhat funny to look back and remember a time when I knew absolutely nothing about accessible games, not even text adventures! Now just a few years later the realm of gaming has expanded for me drastically. Including not only text adventures, but online play, audio games, multi-player and more. The possibility of how far this goes is only limited by the creativity of those excellent people we call developers. Long live the devs! And they should, even though not every game is up my alley, I'm only one person in an ever-growing community of players. What I may like someone else might not, so it balances out nicely. Perhaps one day I conceivably may write a game even. I do have an idea or two floating around. What I'm unsure about is both the learning curve and if programming would be of enough interest to me. I'm glad to have the express editions of VB and C# [freely available from Microsoft] and I suppose the next step is to boldly go and find some samples of code and/or novice books telling me how to program. Though to an extent one need not completely learn from the ground up as GMA's game engine can be licenced, not to mention of a couple other companies doing similar applications for future game creators. I've totally enjoyed being part of this expanding community over the past years. I'm ever ready to talk games with whoever and wherever I have such an opportunity. One will be forthcoming as I'll be getting a new Guide Dog early in 2007. I'll have to make up some cd's with Audyssey, some demo games to show others, and hopefully add new voices to the call of let the games begin. +++ News from developers ++ News from All In Play Nov 20, 2006 Greetings from All inPlay, Whether you're warming yourself by the fire or working on your tan in the land down under, we hope this finds you well and enjoying the start of this holiday season. We have some news that should further brighten your day. The All inPlay Holiday Sale is back! Right now, you can treat your best friends, your worst enemies, or even yourself, to a year of All inPlay games for the reduced price of $59.95 for a year's worth of play. Is there someone new you're dying to introduce to the All inPlay community? Maybe you'd like to surprise someone you haven't heard from in a while? We've made it easy with the All inPlay gift subscription. Here's how it works: Log into your All inPlay account and select the All inPlay Store link from your My Home page. Follow the instructions to purchase a gift membership. Send the lucky (or unlucky) recipient of your gift an email with the gift code you will receive upon purchase. You can either forward the special email we send you, or create your own. The recipient can then either log into an existing account or create a new account and redeem their gift. Important: Don't redeem the gift from your account, unless you're planning to give yourself a gift. It's that simple. If you have any problems during the process, you can give us a call at (413) 585-9690 between 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. U.S. eastern time and we'll be happy to help you. We hope you enjoy being a part of the All inPlay community as much as we enjoy bringing it to you. Cheers, The All inPlay Team + Nov 20, 2006 Hello everyone, On the 6th we bounced a new table layout by everyone. It received, overall, strong support. It incorporates several key features: 1. Practice tables with bots - In addition to their normal role, these tables can serve as a *fun* waiting room. If you're low on chips and no one is on a low-stakes table, you can hang here and have fun while waiting for someone else to show up. Then you two can move off to a table together. 2. Low chip-count friendly tables - For folks under 5k, there are 3 different types of low stakes tables, each with CAPs. These caps ensure a level playing field for people regardless of their chip-count. 3. Mid stakes - for people between high stakes and low stakes, the new 30-chip ante tables offer a safe place to play before competing with all those card sharks . 4. Tons of high stakes tables. 5. A speed for all players. So this new table layout is going beta. That means that it will be live on the server, but likely to change in the near future based on your input. We may need more of some tables, fewer of others, different caps, maybe a high stakes fixed-limit table or two, etc. Only testing it live will show us what changes are needed. So please check out the new tables and send in your feedback. Thanks! Paul and Jeremie Chief GoofBalls ++ News from Azabat Software Oct 1, 2006 Hi, Bowing to public pressure, I've produced a SAPI version of my accessible Backgammon and put it in the download section of my website: www.azabat.co.uk It's a commercial product and will sell for 10 pounds (18 US dollars) but you can download it and try it out a little for free then buy a registration code if you want to play the full game. I'd be grateful for comments and feedback. If it's successful I may do the same for some of my other games. Cheers, Steve + Hi All, Just to let people know that I've slashed 20% off the retail price of my games. Full details at www.azabat.co.uk Cheers, Steve ++ News from BSC Games Greetings Gamers, The holidays are here and discount savings are jingling over at BSC Games! Save 20% off of our popular titles troopanum 2.0, pipe 2 blast chamber, and hunter... offer expires December 15! Don't forget that you can conveniently order any of our games as a gift for a friend or family member by using our email a gift service. You can read more about our email a gift service when you go to place an order for any game. Happy holidays from bsc games. Visit us on the web at: http://www.BscGames.com ++ News from Draconis Entertainment Nov 28, 2006 Greetings gamers, We have lots of news to get through, so let's get started! Holiday Savings Throughout the month of December, Draconis Entertainment will be offering a variety of holiday savings. Check back at our site often to find out what's available at great low prices for that special someone on your Christmas list! new Free Game Old Man Stanley's back . and this time, he's decided to make a little extra money to offset the cost of rebuilding his house by playing Santa Claus at the local department store . But the stress of all the little brats and then having his house destroyed by a miniature wrecking ball has proven too much for him . when his assistant elf starts to mouth off . well, he just can't take it anymore! Draconis Entertainment wishes all a merry Christmas with the release of a modified version of our classic ESP WhoopAss game. You can download Christmas WhoopAss from the Freebies section of our Download Center. Bug Fixes We've updated ESP Pinball Xtreme to version 1.2.6. This version corrects some problems that could arise when registering or playing the demo version of the game under specific circumstances. We recommend that you download and install this update, but it is not absolutely necessary unless you experience problems with registration. ESP Pinball Xtreme V1.2.6 can be downloaded from our Download Center. Please install and varify that you have the latest version before requesting technical support for any of our titles. Up to date version numbers are listed in both the Products and Download Center sections of our web site. Keeping Up to Date with Draconis As development continues on several projects, we've made it easier to keep up with the news here at Draconis. In addition to a new and searchable format for our news archives, you may now subscribe to one of our two RSS news feeds. We are now offering a Draconis News feed, as well as a Cinema Citadel feed. Subscribe to these for instant notifications of when these sections of our site are updated. For an explanation of news feeds and how to use them, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed We recommend using Mozilla Firefox's Live Bookmarks for the easiest access to news feeds, but there are many other feed readers and browsers which also support this technology. To download Firefox, visit http://www.mozilla.com Sarah and the Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry Draconis Entertainment will be distributing the game, "Sarah and the Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry," for PCS Games. Se the PCS press release for more information on this new great title, from the creators of Ten Pin Alley and PacMan Talks. From everyone here at Draconis, we wish you a safe and festive holiday season. Draconis Entertainment "Feel the Power...wield the magic..." www.DraconisEntertainment.com www.DracoEnt.com + Nov 24, 2006 Greetings Gamers, It's the biggest shopping weekend of the year! And here at Draconis is no exception! We're please to announce the second of our series of holiday sales. Save 20% on our popular titles Alien Outback, DynaMan, and Pinball Party Pack, Vol. 1, from now until 12/December/2006. Happy holidays from Draconis Entertainment. Visit us on the web at http://www.draconisentertainment.com or http://www.dracoent.com + Nov 10, 2006 Greetings gamers, Just in time for the holidays! Check out the 20% savings at the Draconis Shop on our popular game titles ESP Pinball Classic, ESP Pinball Xtreme, and Monkey Business. This sale will only run until December 5, so don't delay! Visit us at www.DraconisEntertainment.com ++ News from Dragon Slayer Games Nov 26, 2006 Dear Gamers, If you don't know about this, I'd like to take the time to inform you about Dragon Slayer Games, my semi-new audio games development team. We started in December of 2005 and produced a few very simple games over the span of about 4 months. After a computer crash and a busy summer on my part, DSG closed for a while. Then in September or October of this year, we Reopened. I had been working on some bigger and more complex games for about a month before the launch of the website. Now, a month later, we have brought some interesting games to the accessible gaming comunity. We specialize in fantasy games(currently mostly rpgs). We have two rpgs out: Elemental Battle and Dragon Warrior. Each is set in a prehistoric/midievil time and both include battling to the top and improving your stats. The story, in short, for Dragon Warrior is: You are a well accomplished young fighter with the task of becoming the next Dragon Warrior. To do this, you must fight your way up the ranks in the arena of legends, until you become top ranked. All Dragon Warriors have dragons, so you can buy one of your own and train, feed, heal, work with, and bet on it! You can also buy potions and better your weaponry to help your chances at completing your quest. The story for Elemental Battle goes like this: Billions of years ago, the world was ruled by the people of the 4 elements: water, fire, earth, and wind. You, like any other elemental warrior, want to achieve top rank. To do this, you must kill other elements and elements of your own clan to achieve higher clan rank. You can bolster your attacks with weapons purchased from the weapon shop. There is also an armor shop, a magic shop, and a bakery. We also have a number of smaller games: Destroy the Castle, a realtime online Game. Dueling Swords, fight against your friend or the computer in strategic turnbased swordfights, and War, the classic card game of War designed for rainy days! We also have an audio game in development called Dangerous Waters. For more information, visit us at www.dragonslayergames.net. Have fun, Tommy ++ News from Kitchen's Inc Nov 2, 2006 Hi, I have put a new file up on my web site. File name wingcfs2.exe file size 86k bytes 70 new golf courses The file can be found on the free windows text to speech games page. BFN Jim Beer doesn't make you fat, it makes you lean. + Oct 20, 2006 Hi, I have put two new files up on my site. The files are winmbfs1.exe file size 74k bytes 18 new Monopoly boards which are: A christmas Carol, Broadway Musicals, Candy Land, Disney Parks, Disney, E T, Halloween Village, Its a Wonderful Life, los Vegas, North Pole, Pirates of the Caribbean, Princess Bride, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Simpsons, Spooky Town, Super Mario Brothers, The Wizard of Oz, Twilight Zone wingcfs1.exe file size 66k bytes 10 new golf courses which are: 3 of a kind, 69 on the mind, Exeter and Country Club rating 75, from the hood to the woods rating 65, gold coast country club, phils fans fun course rating 78, Pussle Club rating 73, spookie greens rating 66,Stepney Green mini hole rating 45,The Crazy Insanity rating 73 Both files can be found on my free windows text to speech games page. Enjoy and BFN Jim I have found that nothing written in fine print is ever good news. jim@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA ++ News from LWorks Nov 17, 2006 Here is the latest news from LWorks. Judgment Day release date announced: Our latest game Judgment day now has a definite release date. The game will be released December 8th. The game retails for $25 and more info as well as an audio demonstration can be found on the Judgment Day Page at http://www.l-works.net/judgmentday.php it is the year 2015, and the world is at war. This war has been the most catastrophic to humanity. Two powers are fighting for control. The allies and a group of nations calling themselves The Supreme Evil. Little is known about this group and it's motives, but one thing is clear. This group has advanced weaponry. Over several months, the Allies have been slowly destroyed by strange and lethal weaponry. The commander of the Supreme Evil known as Supreme Commander Ather has quickly dispatched several countrys in the span of a few months. In one last effort to retain any hope, the allies have gathered all their forces in one area. A defensive station was built, and plans were made to finally lay the Supreme evil to rest. However, this task may prove to be harder than one thinks, and this is where you come in. Your job is to fend off the group of The Supreme Evil's forces, as well as deal With supreme Commander Ather. You command the only allied defensive post left. Your job is to fend off the enemies. Compared to the Supreme evil, your weapons are primative. However, they can be effective. You are given a machine gun with unlimitted shells, a supply of rockets, and a small supply of sky clearing nukes. Your crew will do their best to keep the base undamaged. If there's no damage, they may even find time to replentish your nukes and rockets if you're running low. the game will include. . 10 levels of play plus a boss level where you get to take on Supreme commander Ather himself . 3 levels of difficulty . a trophy system allowing you to earn awards for performing certain tasks in the game . 4 unlockable bonus levels . an unlockable ending for collecting enough trophys . an unlockable ultra difficulty setting . online score support to post your scores to all bonus games and difficulty levels . and more! Preordering for Judgment Day: If for what ever reason you want to purchase the game earlier at a reduced price, this is totally possible. LWorks will start offering the ability to purchase a preordered version of Judgment Day from the store at some point this weekend. The benefit to buying earlier is that you will be the very first to receive a download of the game as soon as it is released. Beat the rush when it comes to downloading. Also, the game retails for $25, but if you buy early, we'll knock 20 percent off the normal purchase price. I understand there are some misgivings when it comes to preordering. Lworks will insure that on December 8, there is a completed and bug free copy of Judgment day for you to play. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write to liam@l-works.net. Liam Erven KC9KHY msn and Email: liam@liamerven.com homepage: http://www.liamerven.com ++ News from Mardy Productions Hello to all, I want to tell you about the newest Mardy-Production, a Computer-Game called Mississippi. Mississippi is a trading simulation which starts in 1770 in the wild west of good old America. One day you receive a letter, that your uncle who's living in America has died and bequeaths you his whole estate. That means 50 square meters of stockroom, 1000 dollars and 50 grain. After that you decide to jump at this chance. You leave your old home and emigrate to the new world. You have to buy and sell your goods, build kontors in several towns, build wagons, and earn money. If you are good enough at least you will be president of America. But, as in real life, there is good and bad news, some for yourself, some for all players. E.g. you can win a lot of money, or all your wagons could not leave your HQ and so you won't get goods for this round. You can play the game with 5 persons. And, that's a very interesting fact, you can play it with sighted people together. There is alot of music, and most of the news is spoken. The game itself is not self-voicing, so you need a screenreader to play it. We have tested it with Window-Eyes and JAWS and it works properly. If not, feel free to ask, and we will see what we can do in the code to solve problems. The game is shareware, so you can test it for yourself, if you will have fun with the game. You can download this game here: http://www.mar-dy.com Best regards Marco Mardy - Andrea Mackowiak Email: support@mar-dy.com www.mar-dy.com ++ News from PCs Games. Nov 28, 2006 It's finished! So hard to believe. You outline, and you record funny sounds, and you write and rewrite the code until it works, and edit and rewrite and stress and eat chocolates and rewrite and scream, "Will this game EVER be done????" And then one day it is. "No, no that's not possible. I'm not ready for it to be finished," you say. I wonder if this is how parents feel when their children go off to college? I've worked on the castle starting from the ground floor up to the top of the towers, and when I finished the Owlery it was done! I used wet toilet paper to simulate owl droppings. I dropped M and Ems in a glass fruit bowl to simulate giant hour glasses filled with Gems. I've used dry wood branches to simulate small animal bones. Now its in the hands of my beta testers and will soon be available for purchase! When I finished the public beta last December, I didn't realize it would take eleven months to make the changes and develop all the suggestions that came my way. But I did it. Sarah and the Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is very close to being released. I've removed most of the synthesized voice of Sarah and have replaced them with a human voice. I've fixed several bugs and added many features suggested by testers. The Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry transports Sarah into a world of corridors and secret passageways. she travels all through the floors searching for magical items, fighting creepy creatures knowing at any minute, disaster may strike. Take a trip to the Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry and pay a visit to the ghost's Deathday party in the dungeon, pop into the kitchen for a chat with the sometimes helpful Dobby; go out for a spot of spelunking in the chamber of secrets, gasp in awe at the speed of the golden snitch while flying above the Quidditch pitch; pick up plenty of coins to buy sweets at the sweet shop; spend some time in the library learning new spells; and finally, try to hide from the cranky caretaker. Always remember - the malevolent Dementors may not be what they seem! Sarah and the Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a fantasy castle game, is inspired by JK Rowling's books. I can not set a specific date for release but I am confident that it will be within the next two weeks, perfect for a Christmas gift. After the game is released you can download and try out the demo level and for $31.95 US, purchase a registration product key that will unlock all of the other levels of the castle. The game will be sold and Distributed by Draconis Entertainment from their shop web site. As an added bonus, for those reading this far, you will be the first to know about this special offer. Anyone purchasing the game from the day of release until the end of the 2006 year will be put into a raffle for a magic wand. This is the officially licensed Deluxe wand with light and sound. It is motion activated, has 3 magical movie sounds and lights up. A must have for any true fan! Requires two (2) AA batteries, included. You can find out what is in store at PCS Games by going to the PCS web site at: http://www.pcsgames.net If you have any questions, E-mail Phil Vlasak, phil@pcsgames.net We make games that tickle your ears. ++ News from Spoonbill Software Hi, Ian Humphreys from Spoonbill Software here. You are receiving this email because you have previously requested a Blind gamers game. This is to announce the release of Blind gamers Boggle 1.0 - BG Boggle for short. BG Boggle is the accessible version of the popular word game where you make as many words as you can from the sixteen letter cubes arranged in a four by four grid. It is suitable for both blind and visually impaired players, and like all Spoonbill games in the Blind gamers series, it is self-voicing. With BG Boggle, you can generate random games, or enter a game manually. Manual entry is useful if you are playing with a sighted friend who is using a regular Boggle set. You can also save your game to resume later. If you would like to try a copy of BG Boggle, just email me at: irhumph@omninet.net.au If you do not want to be informed of future Blind gamers releases, let me know and I will remove you from my mailing list. Regards Ian Humphreys Spoonbill Software Albany, Western Australia. ++ News From USA Games Entertainment Holiday News Nov. 29, 2006 Introduction Greetings gamers, There is allot happening for USA Games customers and supporters this holiday season. We have a couple of releases coming up as well as a completely new and improved web site going up. So read on to get the scoop. Star Trek Final Conflict At last after two years of development, testing, and many setbacks we are happy to announce STFC 1.0 is nearly complete and is ready for final release. As most of you know the code was lost for this title, but I managed to sort through my betas and found one stable enough to release to the general public. There will be a few miner bugs and snags in 1.0, but for the most part it is stable and ready to ship. All that really needs doing is finishing the users guide, rebuild the installer, and post it on the web site for download. As many of you may have heard this 1.0 final release will be released as free ware. There will be no charge for the full release, and among the changes is the full version of the game, support for DirectX 9.0C 2006, Microsoft .NET 2.0, and uses InnoSetup 5 for installation. Although, we know the game will be released between now and Christmas we aren't prepared to set a specific day and time. More information will be announced on the Audyssey mailing list, the USA Games mailing list, or our web site http://www.usagames.us when the announcement is ready to be given. Montezuma's Revenge I'm aware many of you will be interested in venturing in to temple 2. However, I've not been able to complete that level do to time. I do have plans to update Montezuma's Revenge with support for .NET Framework 2, a new manual, and other miner bug fixes, changes, and updates. More information will be announced as the release is nearer to completion. USA Games Web Site As mentioned before the USA Games web site http://www.usagames.us is undergoing a major upgrade. It is not certain when the new site is going to be launched, but we do intend to upgrade this month. Many of the new changes will include a slightly new look and feel to the web site. For those interested we have dropped the split frame view and have decided to switch to a more traditional table layout for our site navigation section. We feel not only is this a bit more accessible I am told the appearance of the site looks better by having two rows of organized links along the top and bottom of each page. In addition we will be adding more to our download center besides our own games. We will have links to download the latest Ubuntu Linux installation disks, links for other third party software, and we will eventually be putting up links to other places as well. This is likely to be an ongoing project through December, and probably on into 2007. However, when done USA Games will have more content, and be more than just a place holder for our games and projects. At this point we do not plan to discuss all the changes we will be doing to the site, but when it is launched we will certainly let you know. + Nov 9, 2006 [snipped from an earlier update] I know many of you are no doubt wondering what is happening with USA Games, how progress is going both in my personal and professional life. I intend to give a full progress report here on our projects, plans, and updates. As many of you know allot is going on in my personal life. For example, my wife and I are attempting to relocate, but haven't yet found anything that looks promising as far as our future housing. In addition, my wife has taken on some day classes to improve her education, and that has left me in charge of watching my two year old son for a larger amount of the day. The end result both activities have reduced my time to join in list discussions, and even less time to spend on USA Games ongoing development projects. Never-the-less work is still going forward, but at a much slower and reduced rate. General News Before I get into the news about our titles I would like to share some general news of what we at USA Games are doing to help speed up development time. In fact, we feel this will probably become our primary method or mode of development in the future. A couple of months back a woman brought in a laptop for my dad to repair. It was an Averatec 6200 notebook computer which was a 2004/2005 mottle. Pretty current all things considered. Apparently the woman's son had dropped the laptop breaking the 15 inch wide-screen display, and not to mention her family had totally trashed the Windows XP install. Well, after finding out how much it would cost to fully repair the laptop she decided to sell it to me for a fraction of what it was worth in working order, and went out and purchased a new system. Fine by me since I am able to repair the notebook myself saving myself huge savings in the process. Over this past week I have reformated the notebooks drive, installed Windows XP Pro, acquired the official drivers cd from Averatec for this laptop, and purchased some used parts off of Ebay to repair the laptop with. When done this laptop will become my portible development station for working on USA Games projects. Not to mention all the extras this system has. Here is a look at the laptop when it is fully restored to working order. My new laptop is an Averatec 6200 series notebook. It has a 2.4 Athelon XP processor, 512 MB ram, 60 GB hard drive, four USB 2.0 ports, 56K modem, both a wireless and standard network card, a dvd/cd burner, a firewire port, a touchpad, AC97 audio, and of course a 15 inch wide-screen display. One of the really cool things about this laptop is that there are buttons on the front of the unit which allows you to play dvd movies directly in the computer as a portable dvd movie player without having to boot in to Windows XP. Simply press eject on the drive, insert dvd, put it in, push play on the front of the unit and you have a 15 inch wide-screen portible dvd player. Pretty slick. In addition, to the hardware I am upgrading the software on the system mainly to my own personal taistes. The unit came with Windows XP Home, but I am putting on Windows XP Pro instead with service pack 2. I Am also placing on there Visual Studeo .NET 2005, Window Eyes 5.5, Microsoft Office, Goldwave 5, Quicken 2006, Nero 6, and will be multibooting the system with Ubuntu Linux 6.10. All and all once I am done reparing and restoring the system back in to working order this laptop is going to be my primary development computer. I have two other computers besides this new laptop, but my old laptop is starting to show it's age. I have given that one to my wife to use for her photos, games, and whatever and will use my new laptop for work and play. My desktop system is pretty close to the specs of the new laptop, but unfortunately it isn't very portible. I often used my desktop, since it was the better computer, for working on USA Games stuff, but I am away from home so much I never had the stuff with me when I was away. Now, with a laptop equal to , and actually better than my desktop PC I can take all the USA Games projects, real work, games, and anything else along wherever I go. Asteroids News As most of you know a couple of weeks ago I mentioned beginning an open source Asteroids project written in C#.NET to teach gamers the art of game programming using a classic Atari game as an example. This project is doing quite well. I have been working on a sample engine framework for the game in which all of you can use in your future game titles. In fact, I may use the new framework myself as I made sure to do strict error checking, and I am taking pains to be careful and debug the framework so that those of you newbies won't make to many mistakes based on my own blunders and or errors. As a result the new classes I wrote for the Asteroids game are better than my own framework files which I wrote a long long time ago without going back and making the changes I am doing now for Asteroids. What you will get with Asteroids is a set of classes that should be stable and a good starting point for writing new games. You will first get the USA Games Audio Class. This class file contains higher-end functions which will allow you to quickly open, close, position, etc up to 99 DirectX DirectSound buffers. In addition the Audio class allows you to load files in to speech buffers for speech playback to self-voice your games. Next you will get the USA Games Formula class. This class contains many common math formulas you will need to write games. Most of the functions thus far in this class are Algebra/Trig functions. This engine framework file is used to calculate a 2d trig based game. You will have calculations to calculate the distance between to objects, be able to calculate next x/y coordinates, calculate percentages, randonly select numbers, and other related type formulas and functions. You will also recieve the World class. The World class is a class containing a 2D array. In short a special structure which can be used to hold the location of every object or item in the game and can easily be accessed using the provided Encounter, Add, and Remove functions I put in to the class. This class is especially handy for drawing mazes like you might find in Montezuma's Revenge. In games like Asteroids the world class is an easy way to detect if your next x/y position will land you head long in to an Asteroid, blackhole, Star, or similar hazard. Over all, the framework being used in open source Asteroids can be used over and over again in new projects. What stuff that can't be used over again is a working example of what you might do to make your own next title. In addition, to code Asteroids is going to be a better-than-average clone of the classic arcade game. The sound effects and music are expected to be as cool as I can make them, and I am adding some other random elements like extra flying saucers, space worms, and other enemies and dangers which were not present in the 1979 classic. Thomas Ward President of USA Games Entertainment http://www.usagames.us ++ News From VIP Gameszone Nov 28, 2006 Dear friend! Hot Holiday gift from VIPgameszone (software for the blind and visually impaired people)! New game package "Super sport" is available for download now. There are 2 new games in this package. "Beach Volleyball" is a sports game. It will simulate Beach Volleyball with some restrictions. "Funny bowling" is not a simulator of real bowling. We've designed special rules for this game to make it more accessible and more fun. Each game has natural human voices and multiplayer features. Please visit to download and try these new games. http://vipgameszone.com Yours sincerely VIPgameszone team +++ Game Announcements and Reviews: Below are some of the new games available. Though an old treasure or two may be discussed also. It's noteworthy that in some cases it's only an announcement of a game, taken from the email list, and may not be a full review, or an official notice from the developer. Reviews of games will not appear in any particular order. The only exception to this will be when we have more than one review for a game. In this case, reviews will be placed consecutively so that it is easier to compare them. ++ Azabat software game reviews A Look at Azabat Software Games Commercially available from: www.azabat.co.uk All games fully accessible without sighted assistance Reviewed by Michael Feir When I returned from my week away at Lake Joseph this Summer, I was so well rested and rejuvenated that I couldn't sleep. Over in the UK, a large blindness convention called Sight Village had taken place during that week. I had followed the exciting launch of the free Thunder screen reader while on vacation but hadn't had time to investigate any other developments. I did so that insanely early morning with the help of Google and couldn't believe it when I stumbled across a site on the Web talking about an accessible version of Backgammon. Early in Audyssey's history, we had a contest running sponsored by an American woman who was an absolute Backgammon fanatic. Sadly, none of the developers known to us at the time produced an accessible version of that game. The contest eventually closed. My personal excitement at having at last found a developer who offered an accessible version of Backgammon was therefore tempered by my inability to contact her and share the terrific news. In 2005, Steve Crawford began working on accessible games. He has a very different target market and philosophy than the majority of current developers. Simply put, he's looking out for the absolute novice user who isn't necessarily up to complicated installation and registration. There are currently four collections of games designed to run straight off CDs that you just stick in your drive. No registration is required either. More skilful users may copy the games to their hard drives and keep their CDs ready as backup. In this era of increasingly tenuous game ownership where games are tied to the computers they're first installed on, this is an absolute breath of fresh air. Once you buy a collection of games, you actually own them! They're yours for life! If your current computer goes belly-up suddenly and you have to get a new one or reformat from scratch, you can just stick in the game collection CD and bleed off some of that stress playing Backgammon or Scrazabat. You don't have to worry about that registration key you failed to back up or convincing the developer that you genuinely need or deserve a fresh product code for your new/reformatted computer. Some developers charge fees for such replacement codes. To be fair about this, the developers who use more stringent security are quite reasonable in such matters where unusual circumstances exist. A short delay is likely all customers will have to worry about while their record is checked. One of the first things I did in my contact letter to him was to try to give him an idea of the lay of the land in terms of what such seemingly high prices and no copy protection would lead to. Even with very strong countermeasures, piracy is a definite problem in the accessible games industry. His response to this was quite surprising. We have here a very kind and thoughtful man who is genuinely determined to put the customer's rights and experience first. I fervently hope that the blind community at large rewards his generosity by purchasing his games legally rather than sharing them illegally. As a relative newcomer to accessible game development, he's been learning some unpleasant lessons over the past months that I have been in communication with him. He's eager for customer feedback and addresses issues quite quickly. I've already received several updates to the strategy games collection which I view as his absolute best work to date. If you're not impressed by his other offerings, be certain to read my remarks about the fourth volume. He has also lowered his prices by twenty percent. With the preamble out of the way, lets get right down to the games. Inserting an Azabat Software CD into your drive will normally bring up a fully self-voicing menu which lets you choose among the various games. I have to qualify that because some people might run into some trouble if their firewalls prevent programs from running each other without having first received permition. My laptop is protected by the Sunbelt Software firewall which behaves like that. The first time you run the menu and/or each of the games, you might want to keep your screen reader loaded so that you can deal with any firewall issues. None of the games access the Internet at all. Assuming normal running circumstances, you should disable your screen reader before inserting the CD. You won't need it until you've finished playing. The games all speak using the same easily understandable female voice. There's no way to alter the speed of that voice and this might prove annoying for more veteran gamers. However, having a slower voice can be a bit help to novices who normally wouldn't take the plunge and try playing games. All games use a number of standard keys. The f1 key is the gateway to a game's online help. Hitting f1 will cycle through one or more sections of instructions which are read aloud. The f12 key is always used to quit a game and return you to the menu of the collection of games being used. The f9 and f8 keys are used to start new one or two-player games respectively. Other keys are used as required. Everything is quite easy to grasp leaving people free to enjoy mastering the actual games rather than the interface. Even complete computer novices shouldn't find anything too taxing. Each of the four volumes has a particular theme. The first volume contains an assortment of games which are "easy to play". These are Blackjack, Yahtzee, Klondike and Connect Four. Right from the word "go", we run into one of the main concerns I have with what Mr. Crawford brings to the table. In many cases, you're paying for games which can easily be had from the Internet for free. Without even trying, I can point you to Jim Kitchen and Spoonbill Software where you can get excellent and even superior alternatives to three of the four games. I'll use Yahtzee as an unfortunate illustration of what I'm talking about here. The Azabat version is certainly done well. I didn't encounter any bugs. It is a single player game which plays the standard version of Yahtzee. There are minimal sound effects mainly consisting of dice rolling. Both versions offer easy interfaces although Azabat's interface is definitely more simplified. Jim Kitchen's version of Yahtzee offers the ability for multiple players and also offers the ability to play double and triple variants of Yahtzee. Other than the slightly simpler interface and much easier installation, it's hard to see experienced gamers being very happy having paid for Azabat's version of Yahtzee when it's compared with Jim Kitchen's free one. This same kind of thing holds true for other similar situations where free alternatives are out there. There are definitely people who will be served well by Azabat's hallmark simplicity. They just don't think they have the time it would take to learn to handle installations and other such things. It's also good to be able to use these games on anybody's computer and have no accessibility issues or security limitations to worry about whatsoever. As I said before, that is a major plus in my book. Schools, senior centers, and other places serving many blind or visually impaired clients should definitely consider purchasing these games. Also, keep in mind that some alternatives there are for totally blind people won't be as suitable for visually impaired people since they won't necessarily have graphics. Spoonbill Software definitely includes graphics. However, Jim Kitchen's games are made strictly for blind people. Therefore, if you're dealing with situations where there are sighted participants, Azabat Software's work may be better suited than others for you. Most collections have at least one game which hasn't been done by anybody else either as freeware or commercially. In the case of Volume I, that game is Connect Four. The game is quite well done and lets you play against the computer. I surmise that this was one of Mr. Crawford's first efforts at making board games accessible as it doesn't offer the ability to play a two-player game. Other than that shortcoming, I didn't find anything else to criticize about Connect Four. The interface is as simple as it gets. There aren't any sound effects except the sound of the counters being dropped into place. However, in this case, it's hard to think of other sounds which should have been there. Some background music may have been nice but that's about the only frill I can think of for this game which might have been included but wasn't. There are three levels of difficulty which adds some additional replay value to this title. Another bonus is that the difficulty automatically adjusts depending on whether you win or lose a game. This will doubtless be appreciated by novices who won't have to think about the difficulty level but should still be challenged according to their perceived ability. This one game certainly isn't worth the price of the whole collection. However, you can also buy single games at a lower price. People keenly interested in having an accessible version of Connect Four should consider buying it. It's too bad there's no two-player option. Due to this, others will likely find the bang not worth the buck. The theme of volume II is word games. You have six in that collection and five of them have no free alternatives. There are, of course, several Hangman versions available. Azabat's rendition is certainly no slouch coming with a large dictionary to draw words from. However, it offers absolutely nothing over other free renditions. Countdown is a simple game where you draw up to nine letters which can be either consonants or vowels and then try to find the longest word possible with those letters in as little time as possible. The computer will find numerous words and you can hear them after you've done your best. You can read over the letters with the left and right cursor keys. However, you can't either type in words you've thought of or rearrange the letters to find words. You have to do all that sort of work in your head. Another game in this collection, Numbercrunch, suffers from a similar kind of problem. You have to reach a target number by using other numbers. While you can review the numbers, you can't perform operations on them except in your own head. After you've done your best, the computer can let you hear a solution that it found using the numbers chosen. This lack of interactivity leaves the games feeling very thin. Target fairs a lot better as you can type in words as you find them. It also times you. Different levels of difficulty presents you with increasingly harder target numbers of words to reach. Wordsmiths ought to be pleased overall with this collection. You shouldn't run into repeat words very often at all and the games are put together well. However, there are no atmospheric bells and whistles. That's another aspect of Azabat games which veterans of other accessible offerings will likely find disappointing. Particularly with games like Backgammon or other games commonly played in social environments. A lot of room exists for creative sonic ambience, background music and so-on. Frills like that can lend a degree of weight to the player's overall experience. As a comparable example of this, check out GMA Games's free version of Minesweeper. The exact same game as you'll find in the next volume of Azabat games, but the presentation gives Mr. Greenwood's free version far greater urgency and class. Volume III is the grid games volume. It includes Sudocu, Memory, Battleship and UXB which is an accessible version of Minesweeper. This collection suffers the most from the "available for free" problem. Versions of all four games are available free on the Internet. As with the first volume, the free versions are as good or better than the Azabat versions. Again, I'll clarify that it isn't due to a lack of quality workmanship. It's more due to the makers of the freeware games caring very passionately about their creations and doing commercial-quality work. The version of Sudocu is certainly one of the better ones. It allows you to save puzzles and enter in your own puzzles or ones you find in newspapers. I had no difficulty at all using the interface and encountered no bugs at all. I just have no inclination or aptitude for actually solving those Sudocu puzzles. If this inclination were to strike me one day, I have Spoonbill's excellent free Sudocu, a free online version from Audiogames.net plus Draconis's offering as an alternative commercial offering. Other than Space Invaders-style games, I can't think of a game which has more quickly gone from being inaccessible to there being almost too many accessible versions out there to make any more commercially viable. There's a significant qualitative difference between the free and commercial Space Invaders style games. No such differentiation exists between free and commercial versions of Sudocu. It's the exact same game. The Battleship game is similarly on par with other free renditions of that game. You and the computer shoot three times in a row which somewhat changes the feel of the game. Also, you don't get to place your ships. That doesn't really make a bit of difference in the game but people who enjoy placing their ships might not feel that they've had a complete Battleship experience. The Minesweeper game is another brain-blasting logic game which I don't personally favor. Having said that, Steve offers all the bells and whistles like marking spots you're not certain about and other such features. The trouble is that GMA Games's David Greenwood has a freely available version which comes complete with sound effects and is just as easy to use. Jim Kitchen's Concentration version and Spoonbill's Sudocu are easily as good as Azabat's takes on the games and they don't cost a cent. With money being as tight as it is in the blind community, I find it very hard to imagine that many people couldn't just take the small amount of time and effort to learn how to install and play the free versions. Even the effort to find out about them is so minimal that all a complete novice needs to save quite a chunk of change is a friend or trainer with a little awareness, time, and patience. And now we move out into brighter territory. I have high hopes for the future of Azabat Software. This will no doubt surprise people who have read this far into my Azabat overview. Again and again, I've had to point out how free and often superior versions were available of much of Mr. Crawford's work. Keep in mind that we're talking about a man who came completely new into the whole area of accessible games. He simply wasn't aware about what others had already accomplished prior to his arrival. Also, his focus was on a very different target group who simply wouldn't be aware of the competition. However, I've saved the best for last as you'll now see. These hopes I have are founded largely on the excellent fourth volume which I'm about to dissect for you. The fourth volume consists of strategy games. It includes Backgammon, Dominos, Draughts also known as Checkers, and Scrazabat which is an accessible version of Scrabble. Talk about an impressive group of titles to nicely remedy the lack of good accessible computerized board games! This collection is where Mr. Crawford's talents and attention to detail shine through with a vengeance. There are no free or commercial alternatives to any of the four titles here and I've seen request after request for information on accessible versions of all of them. The only area of weakness is in the area of extra frills and presentation. You often find this in similar collections for sighted people. In Canadian dollars, you're basically paying just under a hundred dollars for a collection of four games when you throw in shipping. This is around $72 US according to Azabat's handy currency conversion options on its price list. Frankly, for that kind of money, I think people expect to get all the extras a developer can conceive of. The comparison between production values and prices of other very different accessible games is simply as unavoidable as it is somewhat unfair. Making an arcade game accessible entails an entirely different set of objectives and solutions to accessibility problems. As an example of how this kind of thing breaks down, you can buy four titles from GMA Games for $95 US. These four titles, for example, might be GMA Tank Commander, Shades of Doom, Lone Wolf and Pacman Talks. These are some of the top game titles out there. All four feature well-done sound work and lots of replay value. However, they are, by nature, pretty much exclusively attractive to blind people. Also, they have limited objectives. Small things such as the exact placement of tanks change from game to game of Tank Commander. However, the overall six missions don't change. Once you've beaten them, you're not going to encounter anything truly unique within a subsequent game. Lone Wolf doesn't suffer from this limitation as much since people can create new missions. However, the point basically holds true. You have fantastic presentation. Sounds and ambience put you right in the middle of what feels like an epic adventure when you're really caught up in the game. After you have completed the game once, going through it again just doesn't have the same kind of thrill. You'll have fun and fresh moments, but you've already had your cherry high. However, the action experience combined with the sound artistry leaves you feeling fairly compensated for your cash. These games exude that "larger than life" feel which leaves the gamer feeling satisfied. What you get with the Azabat strategy games collection are four very well done but basic versions of classic time-tested board games. There's just the one female voice at one unadjustable speed along with minimal sounds. All of them allow for one or two-player games between blind and/or sighted players. Those who are after flashy sounds and pulse-pounding excitement should definitely look elsewhere. There is no background music, alternative AI-driven players with different styles, internet play capability, etc. If you go in with the same high expectations that I had in terms of this sort of thing, you might find yourself pretty disappointed. Take a step back though and think things through as I had to. I promise it won't hurt. If you're into more thoughtful slower-paced endlessly fresh play, you have come to the right place. It's similar to purchasing an Infocom collection of text adventures or one of the new offerings from Malinche. Text adventures don't have the same endless replay value but offer a similar kind of thrill to avid readers and adventure-lovers. Outright game play which isn't propped up by sound and music artistry are what's on tap here. Azabat's strategy games collection gives those of us capable of making that mental leap a very rewarding experience which can be shared even with our sighted visitors. Often, our grandparents and elderly friends are left floundering about trying to grasp the basic fundamentals of modern computer entertainment. These same people, however, will be able to plunge right into a good game of Scrazabat, Backgammon, Checkers or Dominoes. What these games lack in frills, they can make up for in cultural significance and wide familiarity. Can you put a price on the value this might have to families with blind members? That, I think, is where Azabat games truly fill a niche which is largely untapped in the accessible games market other than somewhat by Allinplay's accessible card games. Lets start with Checkers or Draughts. You can easily examine the board, select and move pieces using the cursor and enter keys. There are six levels of difficulty to choose from as players become more experienced. I can't think of any way this game could have been done better. Everything you'd expect in an accessible game of Checkers is right there for you. I mean, would you really want noises of a children's party or cartoonish music playing in the background? Would it add a ton to the actual game play experience to have pieces sonically pounce on each other? You want the actual game of Checkers in an accessible form and that's exactly what you have. I picture a lot of parents, grandparents and children having quite a bit of fun with this game. I have similar thoughts for Dominoes. It offers a game of standard Dominoes for either one or two players. There are sounds for dominoes being mixed, placed, and for when you have to knock and pass your turn. The computer will give you lots of help. It tells you when there's only one possible move and offers the ability to get hints by pressing f2. You're also told when you or your opponent have three or fewer dominoes remaining. A simple old-fashioned game done in a simple straight-forward way. Your average senior citizen won't think it would be easier to make a physical leap over their apartment rooftop than making the mental leap to learn how to play a game of Dominoes with their blind relative. Scrazabat, an accessible version of Scrabble, is an absolute masterpiece. It offers one or two-player games, has basic thirty-thousand word and advanced hundred-thousand word dictionaries, can give recommendations to stuck single players, and can zoom in on parts of the board for those with some useable sight. Hard indeed to imagine how Scrabble could have been made more accessible. There is certainly room for improvement here in terms of atmospherics and options such as tournament facilities, optional time limits on moves, more than two players and other such additions common to versions of Scrabble for sighted computer users. However, these additions might be viewed as daunting for some novices. Changing between the basic and advanced dictionaries is done with the tab key. It's apparently possible to beet the computer player since it doesn't look ahead more than the current best move. Even English majors like me would be very hard-pressed to vanquish the computer though. It's quite easy to examine the board and look for more strategic options which take advantage of special squares. Finally, we've arrived at my personal favorite. Backgammon is done in about as perfect a manner as one could want in terms of accessibility. The points on the board are numbered sequentially from one to twenty-four. You use the left and right cursors to move between the points, the up and down cursor to select the die you want to use when it's possible to use either die in a location and the enter key to make a move. The space bar toggles between providing three types of info. It will inform you which die values are still useable during a move, where you or your opponent are vulnerable having only one piece on a point, and how many pieces each player still has on the board, on the bar, and born off. For me, Backgammon has just the right balance between luck and skill to make it absolutely fascinating. The only aspect to the basic game which isn't present is the doubling cube. I can see how Mr. Crawford, attempting to keep things as uncomplicated as possible for novices, reached his perfectly sensible conclusion not to include this. However, more experienced players and the kind of enthusiasts for the game that the woman who ran the contest in Audyssey was aren't going to like this lack of the ability to play for points. I can still hear her voice in my head going on about the doubling cube and how much it added to the game. For the sake of completeness, facilities for playing for stakes and keeping track of them should have been included. Along with differently focused AI players and background soundscapes suitable to the game, I can't think of anything else one would think should be included. It's a very nicely put together implementation which plays a good single-player game. The two-player capability provides for tremendous replay value and lets you share the fun with those who are interested whether they are blind, visually impaired or sighted. Well everyone, there you have it. I hope this helps you make an informed decision about Azabat Software's titles. While more experienced gamers like myself might wish Mr. Crawford had directed his efforts more towards games which hadn't already been done, newcomers to computers in general will hopefully enjoy this stepping stone he provides into the realm of accessible games. Advanced users who like word or strategy games should check out the second and fourth volumes as these are by far the most rewarding in terms of original games not done elsewhere. The fourth volume in particular offers enough replay value to be well worth its price assuming you're not too isolated from others and have people who'll enjoy playing against you. Even purchased for play against the computer alone, the fourth volume would make an excellent addition to a blind gamer's collection. Now that Mr. Crawford has been introduced to the larger accessible games market, he has a far clearer perspective. There's a lot of room for more original board games, turn-based games with random and strategic elements, etc if he chooses to pursue that route. These aims would certainly make good use of the skill he's demonstrated so far. Alternatively, he may have as yet untapped audio skills and surprise us all with a completely different kind of fun. Whatever the case, he comes out of his first year with, I suspect, all the really hard knocks behind him. I keenly look forward to seeing what he turns to next. Michael Feir Creator and former Editor of Audyssey Magazine 1996-2004 E-mail: mfeir@cogeco.ca ++ This came my way in an email awhile ago and it announces a free game created by Jose Alvarez. This version offers some interesting differences from the norm. Dear Ron Schamerhorn, I will like to publish the release of a free new game for blind persons in the next Audyssey magazine issue. The game is called Tiflo 21, and is an inclusive version of the popular blackjack card game. The game can be played either in English or spanish. The game contains graphics and is self voicing. The game is for Windows. For more information and to download the latest version of the game, please visit: http://www.manolo.net/tiflo21e.htm Thanks for your attention, Jose M. Alvarez www.manolo.net ++ Haunted Factory Review by ? *my apologies as there was no name included* Available commercially from Mithral Games for Windows http://www.klangogames.com Game fully playable with no sighted assistance Now for a more conventional Audyssey game review. I can still remember trying out "Change Reaction" back several years ago. Unfortunately, I was one of a small number of folks who actually found the game frustrating. I figured it was difficult to navigate quickly around the game board and move coins about on it. Subsequently, I'd thought about what it would be like if a traditional Tetris-style puzzle game could be invented. The only options I saw in doing this would be to have sound-emitting blocks continue to emit sound even once they reach the bottom of the game board, which would, needless to say, become odiously confusing. On the other hand, memory could be used in place of repeated sound. I wasn't sure how feasible this was until Mithril Games, based out of Poland, released just such a game this summer. In "Haunted Factory", you control an assembly line which transfers various types of packages. A package will start at the top of the screen and emit a specific sound. It will begin moving down toward the end of the conveyer belt which is the playing field. Your goal, as the assembly line superintendant, is to move the package to the particular column on the assembly line which you feel is most likely to help you earn large sums of money, which represent a player's score in the game. You accomplish this by pressing the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard. Like in "Tetris Worlds" for the Play Station 2 (which happens to be a personal favorite of my wife's), pressing the up arrow speeds up the motion of the conveyer belt, thus propelling the package toward the end, where it will sit temporarily. Not to worry, though. The people opposite you on the conveyer belt will only load one package onto the conveyer belt at a time. When a package reaches the bottom, one of two things will happen. If a package is in the same column or row which is identical in type to the package currently in play, the two will be wiped out and you will earn some money. If not, it will remain on the belt until a mate is found for it. As you can see, the game takes good memory and some deduction to be successful, as the game is billed by the designers. One must remember what types of packages are where on the conveyer belt. This can become disorienting at times, as the belt may be four, five, or six columns in width, and is seven rows deep. As if this were not enough, more difficult game modes equals a more diverse and wider range of packets and a wider conveyer belt. For instance, the trainee mode presents you with a four-column assembly line and six types of packages to transfer. On the "director" mode, the most difficult skill level I've unlocked, the line is six columns wide and you are responsible for fifteen, count 'em, fifteen different types of packages. I make no jokes when I speak of "different" types of packages. One error that Mithril Games made, in my not-so-professional opinion, is that to the untrained or inexperienced ear, the possibility is not entirely remote that one may confuse two or three package types with one another. One would have to play the game to understand my meaning. Suffice it to say that some packages do not sound diametrically different. I am only successful because my ears are trained to distinguish fine shades of sound quality. This may or may not be true for every user. This observance is neither in favor of or opposed to other users. I simply believe it is the one thing Mithril Games might have done a bit differently. As for unlocking difficulty settings, it is actually rather easy to accomplish. One need only earn one hundred dollars on any difficulty level except trainee to unlock a higher difficulty mode. On the other hand, this is no easy feat in manager mode, where you unlock director mode by earning one hundred dollars. To spice things up a bit, you have a Mr. Slate-esque foreman who's never shy about keeping you in line. Huh? Did.did you like that pun.was.was that funny? Naw, it sucked, I'm sorry. Your foreman doesn't have time for jokes, either, as you'll find out. Just brace yourself if you decide to quit in the middle of a game. Even directors aren't immune to managerial reprimand. Okay, so it's not all shards and heedless words and Dante's Inferno. There's always Bob the friendly ghost.or something. He's always one hundred percent behind you, and in front of you, and beside you. I mean, he's a spirit, so. Anyway, pause the game at some point and listen to his whacky stories. I haven't checked any of them out, but if any of you wish to, simply press the space bar for that. Press escape if you're bold enough to quit midstream. Menu navigation in "Haunted Factory" is a bit nonconventional. I surmise that part of this stems from the game's creation via the Klango development application, which is still undergoing changes and improvements, but may be available to beginning programmers in some months. One navigates the menu by pressing the left and right arrows to highlight a menu option and by pressing the enter key to select the highlighted option. The options are: beginning of work, tutorial, training department, best workers, and founders of the factory, with an option to the far right to exit. If you choose beginning of work, you will be asked to select a skill setting. To start, only trainee and stiff are available. The tutorial will unlock an audio lecture about game play. The training department opens a submenu, with introductory training, which is the same as the tutorial in the main menu, directions for use, which is a guide to the game's controls, a sound index, two options which describe various skill settings, and an option to return to the main menu, one which is found on every submenu. The best workers is fairly straightforward, listing high scores on the local machine. Founders of the factory is a credits option which introduces you to the game's creators. Or, you can exit altogether. I would rate this game at nine out of ten. I find myself confronted by the question whether one can really keep fifteen different package types in one's head at once, and whether some will not be confused by certain packages. Barring these two minor shortcomings, Haunted Factory serves as a stunning puzzler for VI gamers, and certainly worth a look for those who are interested. Gamers must be prepared to pay $22.90 for the game, however, This game certainly forces the mind through a pretty challenging regiment, and Mithril Games' staff is to be commended for a most brain-teasing trip onto the macabre side of puzzle gaming. ++ Fantasy Golf Course Hi Everyone, I've just started building a game on frappr maps. It's a fantasy golf course game where you create your own course by choosing one hole from 18 real courses. I have just created the space for people to come and play so this is the first invitation to come and try it out. Create a free account to join the map members and away you go. http://www.frappr.com/fantasygolfcourse Hope you'll help me build this fantasy golf game and make it a success. Please spread the word too if you will. I'm interested in the idea of maps as game facilities. Please share any other ideas for maps too. I'd be interested. cheers, Nick ++ CHILLINGHAM Commercially available from http://www.bavisoft.com Reviewed by JOHN SNOWLING SYNOPSIS You are Freddie. Your sister has been collecting information for a book. At some point, she goes missing. It is up to you to solve the clues and find her. REVIEW I enjoyed this game because it got you thinking. The first time I played this game I was stuck on a particular part for months until someone gave me a suggestion. With this game, you need to listen to the clues very closely. I also liked the attack scenes where you have to fight the witch, werewolf and vampire. The only down side to the game for me was the bug collecting, was a bit too repetitive. I would give this 8 out of 10 and can't wait for Chillingham 2. ++ GRISLY GULCH WESTERN EXTRAVAGANZA Commercially available from http://www.bavisoft.com Reviewed by JOHN SNOWLING SYNOPSIS You are in the town of Grisly Gulch. You can go to the saloon, play games, and do bounty missions for the marshal. REVIEW Out of the two games from Bavisoft, this was my favourite. It had plenty of twists and different story lines. I found the shooting effects very realistic. There were times during the robbery or shooting scenes nothing would happen for a couple of minutes then it would happen all at once. I'd give this 8 out of 10 as an audio game. ++ Online Hangman (from http://www.AudioGames.net) Net Systems Solutions have created two Hangman-games in Flash, which were made accessible for screen reader and keyboard users using different methods. Adobe (who recently took over Macromedia, the company that developed Flash) encourages screen reader users to try these games to see what people's reactions are to each of these versions. Please give these a try, with a screen reader of your choice or with just the keyboard, and let us know what you think. Response content will be shared for all to see on: http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/2006/08/two_accessible_flash_games_whi.html. Here are the links to the two versions of the game: Example 1.1: http://www.n-syst.com/hangman1.htm Example 1.2: http://www.n-syst.com/Hangman2.html Greets, Richard ++ Online poker sites Hi all, Yes, I brought this up some while ago, but I better tell you what sites I have tried. I have tried them with Window-Eyes, and not JAWS. www.partypoker.com With the help of the mouse keys I was able to sign up for a playMoney account. I had difficulties selecting play money or real money tables. Once I managed to select a table I could view the ongoing game. The cards are shown as text on the table,I dont think that your own cards are shown as text though. The cards are shown as 10C for ten of clubs, 8H for eight of hearts, and so on. There are hot keys for folding, calling, and raising. I was not able to take a seat at the table either. I clicked on every graphic but with no luck. Maybe it had to do with the fact that i was at a real money table. www.absolutepoker.com They have keyboard shortcuts for most functions but Window-Eyes crashed with their client, but it was some time since I tried it so maybe it will work better now. www.pokerstars.com has no keyboard access so it's not possible to use. Also, some of the installers are not accessible at all. I have tried a few more but with simular results. I really hope that someone else is interested in maybe testing and telling us how it goes. I have also written to most of them, but their interest is not that big. I have also posted to several online forums, and have recieved some comments but nothing that makes it possible to play as of yet. All the best and thanks, Christian ++ Popomundo Available online at www.popomundo.com Hey all; Just to let everyone know, I found this cool game, popomundo from www.popomundo.com If you like Hattrick, it kind of has the same stuff VIP, etc, but it's bands, and it's cool because unlike project rockstar [if anyone's played that before], you don't just create a band. You have two options. One, create a band. Be the actual band leader. Or, have your friends sign up and join a band that they create. Either way, your band needs members, and the members are actual players because in this game you have a character and the best one, it doesn't reset so all that hard work isn't lost at the end of the month. In fact, the creaters of this game, apparently to people on wikipedia are the same as Hattrick, and the summories of shows, concerts etc are, well, not all that detailed, but they put different messages in there so it's not just numbers, as the matches are detailed in hattrick. The reports that is. I've only seen one show, so I don't know. Perhaps they get even more detailed as you progress through and get more fame. So I like these two games both Hattrick and popomundo. Yeah I'm doing a bit of comparing here between the two games, the forum layout is the same, links are similar and the design of the popomundo website is easier to navigate than hattricks. So I play a character named Anthany Woodcock so if you search for me, cool. i'm in a band called Bandage as well, so you can look us both up. I say both because there's only two of us. So, if anyone wants to join, we have slots open, though I won't get into much detail here, just because I don't really wanna make this into a guide. See you in the Popo world! Orin ++ Games at asmodean.net Raul Gallegos's website containing various audio reviews I have an audio game page located at http://games.asmodean.net where I talk about my favorite games which are mostly for blind people. In this section under the game audio link there are many audio recordings of me playing my favorite games. These recordings feature me by myself for the most part but also occasionally feature my kids as well. Some are just games that I've played whether I win or not. In those I just talk about what ever comes to mind and maybe give a hint or three in the game. Others are actual audio walkthroughs. I have the first 17 stock missions of Lone Wolf available as well as walk throughs for Super Liam, and GMA Tank commander arcade mode. Of course the Shades of Doom walkthrough I did last year is still there. Second part. I'd like to tell the gaming community about my son Tristian who is now ten years old. He's been playing Troopanum from BSC games since he was 6 and has gotten better and better. In the summer of 2006 he beat the game for the first time. I believe Justin from BSC games said that Tristian is the youngest player he knows of who has beaten Troopanum 1.6. The game he won was also recorded and is featured at my games site. + Raul has been a member of the community for quite some time now, he possesses a good knowledge of a variety of games. I encourage people to take a look at the above mentioned section of Asmodean.net ++ Self Destruct Abandonware Hello all! OK, you can now download the game SelfDestruct here: http://robin24-server.dyndns.org/selfdest116abw_setup.exe Enjoy! Robin. ++ SHOW DOWN Freely available from pb-games Reviewed by JOHN SNOWLING SYNOPSIS This is the blind version of table tennis. You have to get the ball into your opponent's goal to score two points while if you hit the ball out of the table you give a point to your opponent. REVIEW At first when I downloaded this game, I couldn't play it for love or money. After I'd heard a review from the Blind Cool Tech website, I began to play the game and now get much enjoyment out of it. I'd rate this game as 7 out of 10 ++ Sound Voyager Commercially available from Nintendo Hi, A member of the AudioGames.net has submitted a nice review of SoundVoyager on GameFAQs.com. You can read it here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/review/R104724.html Greets, Richard http://www.audiogames.net ++ "Space Channel 5: Part 2" Reviewed by Bryan McGucken Game commercially available for the Play station 2 game console Fully playable with almost no sighted assistance In recent years, dancing simulations have enjoyed a good deal of success and trendiness in the gaming community. Games such as "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Bust a Groove" have enjoyed popularity with most gamers. I say most because, unfortunately, these games rely heavily on a player's ability to perform dance moves based on visual cues, such as arrows or the like. Obviously, blind gamers would have a difficult time playing such games without extensive sighted assistance, especially since rhythm and timing are crucial. One must have fast reflexes and good hand-eye coordination to play such games. It should come as a pleasant surprise, therefore, that AgeTec, who is also known for the "Armored Core" series of games, has produced a title for the Play station 2 game console that, with a few easily remedied exceptions, is fully playable with absolutely no sighted assistance. "Space Channel 5" only cost me $8.99 used at Gamestop in the summer of 2005, two years after it was released in North America. The game itself is actually a "special edition" which collects the original game released for the Sega Dreamcast in North America in June of 2000, itself not nearly as accessible, with Space Channel 5: Part 2, the subject of this article. As if this weren't enough, "Space Channel 5", unlike many dancing simulations, has an actual story line, albeit one which is, at times, on the campy side. In "Space Channel 5", you play Ulala, voiced by live action anime sensation Apollo Smile, just about the hippest fashion reporter this side of the Andromeda galaxy. Our scantily clad heroin is, as it turns out, also one heck of a dancer. To guide Ulala on her adventures are Fuse, played by Kerry Shale, who won't hesitate to crack the whip if Ulala's dancing starts to flounder, and Noise, played by Alan Marriott, always behind Ulala one hundred percent and with an encouraging word every now and then. Throughout her adventures Ulala will be joined by other goofy characters, and the player will alternately control these at various points during the adventure. In "Space Channel Five", the basic object is to have Ulala copy the dance moves of her opponents. This is done using the four directions on the directional pad of the Play station 2 controller, as well as the x and circle keys, located on the bottom and right-hand portion of the diamond formation of buttons on the right side of the controller, respectively. Throughout the game, instructions of an audio nature are given to the player about what buttons perform what functions. A dance sequence is performed, with the directions spoken aloud, followed by a magical noise, and the player repeats them. If she repeats all moves in a sequence without making one mistake, a doorbell style sound is played and the next sequence is started. If one or more mistakes are made in a sequence, a buzzing noise is played, and the next sequence is initiated. If enough mistakes are made, the player's game is over and she must choose to continue, restart the level, or exit. She can do this in any event by pausing the game to bring up the menu. For instance, when the player hears choo in a given sequence, he can have Ulala perform that move by pressing the x button on the controller. When the player hears hey, she presses the circle button. So, for instance, if the player hears the sequence "left, right, left, right, choo, choo, choo" she would repeat it with the sequence "left, right, left, right, x, x, x". That's not all, however. One has to perform these moves in the exact same rhythm as they are performed by the opponent. The game makes use of syncopation in many cases to challenge the player at repeating the rhythm. Syncopation involves notes or sounds not exactly played on the beat. Sometimes the rhythm can be oblique, in other words. Additionally, Ulala has the chance to jam out on an electric guitar, play the drums in a jazz number, and shout it out with Space Michael, played by a man who never quite grew up. Then again, how many of the Jacksons ever grew up? As an example, Ulala is challenged by rival reporter from channel 42 Pudding, played by Larissa Murray, to a test of dueling guitars. Ulala must mimic Pudding's licks, and the player helps her accomplish this by pressing down on the directional pad in the same rhythm as that of Pudding. Suffice it to say it takes a while to take Pudding down. The same rules apply to Ulala's dueling drums test with Pine, or Texas as she will later be known, and her shout-it-out contest with Space Michael. There is one small issue in the game that is actually easily worked around. The game, divided into six levels, or "reports" as the game refers to them, has a few sections which would require visual acuity to play. Generally, the rhythm sequences are spoken aloud, as are other additional instructions, for the benefit of the player, who then repeats them on the controller. In two parts of report five, however, the player is required, at least in part, to perform sequences based on visual cues. These can be avoided by pausing the game, holding down the R1 and R2 keys, and pressing, in order, circle, triangle, and square keys. Triangle and square are located top and left on the diamond formation, respectively. Resume game play, and Ulala will perform the moves herself without input from the gamer. For those who are not satisfied with this, a walkthrough of these sections is forthcoming. Note that the visual elements occur in the first section of Report Five and the last one, where one must distinguish the real president from the fakes. The game has two modes, campaign mode and challenge mode. The campaign mode is the default menu choice when the game starts. It is called "1 player game", although the menus are not spoken aloud. Press down on the directional pad twice to reach "1 player Ulala's dance", a challenge mode in which the player must complete a set number of rhythm sequences without making a single mistake. The campaign mode is more liberal in its margin for error, but not by much. There is also an optional settings submenu, for which interested players should seek sighted assistance. To access the main menu, players should wait until they hear the phrase "ladies and gentlemen, this is space channel five", and then press start. There is some introductory audio at the beginning that may be heard or skipped by pressing start. In the challenge mode, instructions are given because different dance moves are performed that yet use some of the same buttons from the story mode. Our story begins with Ulala delivering a report about an unidentified dance troop. The troop turns out to be working for President Purge, who's bitter about who-knows-what, but by golly he's gonna teach those humans how to boogie! Yes, that's right kiddies, you have to dance President Purge to death! As the game progresses, Ulala meets and interacts with many different friends and foes, and some of the latter become her allies when she defeats them in dancing tests. President Purge will develop a ballistic groove gun, which he plans to use for universal domination. Ulala's not about to let him pull it off. It's just too bad that the more she slugs it out with Purge, the stronger he seems to become. The game ends with a final showdown between Ulala and Purge and, you willing, she'll put him out of the galaxy's misery once and for all. Okay, not really. You actually have to play through six reports twice to win altogether. Your progress is automatically saved if you have a memory card. To continue from the last report you ended on, select the story mode, wait a few seconds, and press left on the directional pad once to highlight the last report you left off on. It will be useful to have a sighted friend calibrate the game to automatically save progress to the memory card when you play the game for the very first time. Think you can dance, dance, dance your way to glory and into the hearts of the galaxy's biggest Ulala groupies? If so, you'll see a whacky ending where strange midgets parade across the screen to the unique, unparalleled stylings of musical sensation Danny Ishio? Naw, I don't know who that is either, but "This is My Happiness" is a really upbeat tune. In the interest of full disclosure, SC5 has a fairly high learning curve, especially if you're not a musician, even an amateur one like I am. Even I had to work through a few sections of the game a few times myself to get the hang of it. The game is brilliantly designed, and receives high praise, a ten out of ten from me. There are even some quasi-ethical sections in the game as well. For example, President Purge uses his kidnap victim, President Peace, as a human shield during report four. The catch is that the gamer must perform the opposite moves of her opponent to avoid hurting President Peace. For example, "left, right, left, right" would be followed by the user inputting "right, left, right, left". Folks, this game has something for everyone. I'd highly recommend this game to anyone who's always wanted to try a dancing simulation or likes a good, heartfelt story line. In the end, there's one life lesson to be gleaned from the game: never give up, no matter how hopeless things may seem. The music is, all around, upbeat and catchy, even though some of it makes me feel like I'm stuck in the seventies. The plot twists are unexpected in many cases, at least the first time one plays the game. The game has some replay value, although once you've played through the game, you've done all the move sequences you'll ever perform, since they aren't random. This might prove an interesting innovation if a sequel is released, as is currently rumored and hinted at by the game's designer. Even considering this, the game is still a challenge for me even now, and most of you will agree, I think. The game is rated T for suggestive themes, but who's gonna notice? Okay, I guess some of you will. *grin* The voice acting is goofy at times in the anime sense, but well-done. All in all, if one can look past the sometimes stilted dialogue, this game is definitely worth a look by novices and hardcore gamers alike. ++ 3D SNAKE Freely available from pb-games Reviewed by John Snowling SYNOPSIS In this game, you have to pick up as many pieces of fruit as possible. The only slight problem is that you have to avoid hitting the walls otherwise, you will be destroyed. REVIEW This game is based on a mobile phone version that sighted players play. In the sighted version, I am led to understand that every time you pick up fruit or items you grow. In this one, however, you move faster and as some of the fruits are close to walls, you have to get the fruit without touching any walls. I like this game because it does get very tense as it gets faster. I'd rate this one 9 out of 10. Thanks to Pb-games for inventing this one. ++ Trade Wars®: Tournament Newsletter from Sylien EntertainmentSylien Game Club and you're welcome to take a look by clicking on this link: http://www.syliengameclub.com To celebrate our reaching this milestone, we've decided to give away some free or reduced price Trade Wars®: Tournament registrations. Registration keys would be handed out when we reach our next big milestone, which is when the product is close to completion. This is a way to hold a registered copy at reduced price (or totally free if you have your own TW2002 License key). It is a limited time offer as we'll want this place to be dynamic and catering to the member's whims. >Check out our new site and let us know how we've done! >Sylien Game Club Team TWT Development news Right now, Sylien is involved in creating a brand new video that will show how Trade Wars®: Tournament will be played, full with graphics and drama (ta-da!). It will be posted first on the < http://www.syliengameclub.com web site to get some advice and guidance from the registered members, afterwards we will probably distribute it throughout the Internet to see what other people might think of this "old" game remade. Sound cool? Wait 'till you see the game layout! We are planning on releasing a first version of the game as soon as the first quarter of 2007. If we can get it out sooner, we will, but we want to make sure the game works, is fun, and worth your valuable time to play. I'm sure you will want to get in there and run a server or play a game with new graphics and a brand new interface, just as we do, ASAP. >After our initial work is done, we'll strive to provide options that you've >never seen associated with Trade Wars® before, like wireless/handheld >device access to games, a 2D MMOG casual aspect where you get to play around with an Avatar inside StarDock (a famous Trade Wars space station), and play Sylien-hosted ranked Tournament games as well. Lots of good stuff. But these will take a few months to develop after the first bit is released. The good news is that even though this product is commercial, we managed to keep Trade Wars®: Tournament play and hosting of games FREE. You would only pay for added value items, upgrades and services. Cool no? Thought you might like it. Other products On other news, you should be aware that Sylien Entertainment is not a one-trick poney. Trade Wars®: Tournament is just the first product of a series of products we have designed and have planned for release next year and beyond. Plus, if we have sufficient input from the community through great game design ideas, proposals and a good success with this initial product, we might even develop several other games within the next 12 months. We have an original 3D MMOG in the pipeline as well as another completely free to play and totally accessible product designed. We're also tinkering with a few other great ideas for the future. The question we're asking ourselves is whether or not YOU will be involved in our journey to success? How? As a player? Or as a designer, programmer, artist, storywriter, partner? Everything is possible through the Sylien Game Club and the other resources where you can connect with Sylien Entertainment. Speak with you again next month where we will give you development news and perhaps even show you a few things from Trade Wars®: Tournament development as it unfolds. Stay tuned. Sylvain Rochon Sylien Entertainment information guru + From an earlier post regarding the Trade Wars, and the survey is still available to fill out if you are interested. Oct 14, 2006 This message is being sent to you on behalf of EIS Online the developers and owners of Trade Wars 2002. Dear Trade Wars fan, As we approach the 20th anniversary of the original release of Trade Wars (December, 1986), I am pleased to announce that I have reached an agreement With Sylien Entertainment to develop a long-overdue graphical remake of this classic game. But before we can proceed, we need your help. Because Trade Wars is 20 years old, I have lost touch with all but a small percentage of its fanbase. Unless we can reach out to this fanbase and prove that interest in Trade Wars still exists, we will be unable to secure the funding necessary to complete this project. To accomplish this, we are running a small survey to estimate the number of people who have played or hosted Trade Wars over the years. By answering this one-question survey, you will enable us to demonstrate the great potential of a new Trade Wars project. Nothing else will be required of you, but if you choose, you may request to receive a monthly Trade Wars newsletter with updates on our progress. And if you really want to help out, you can complete an optional, more extensive survey. We would love to learn more about your experience with Trade Wars. The survey is located at http://www.sylien.com/survey.php For this effort to succeed, I need you to forward this email to anyone who might be in contact with a past Trade Wars player or game host. Most of them have been away from the game for many years, and this is our only hope of reaching them. Thank you for helping us to update this classic game for a new generation of gamers! John Pritchett, EIS jpritch@eisonline.com ++ Top Speed 2 Please download the new Cars from the Vehicles folder. They are: Ambulance.zip, Plane.zip, Prop.zip and Train.zip. Here's a reminder on how to get to my ftp: Ftp Site: djc.my-net-space.net Username: PlayingInTheDark Password: racing +Remember no passive mode on DJC's ftp, and it can also be accessed using internet explorer. +++ Contacting Us All material for inclusion in upcoming issues of Audyssey should be sent to me at the following address: Ron Schamerhorn 1180 Dorval Dr. #303 Oakville On L6M 3G1 [905]-842-1933 Or if you would rather email your contribution to me: blindwonder@cogeco.ca or editor@audyssey.org and to chat find me at rschamerhorn@hotmail.com for Windows/MSN messenger only, no email to this one please. +++ Distribution Information and Submission Policies This magazine is published on a quarterly basis, each issue appearing no earlier than the fifteenth of the publication month for its quarter. All submissions to be published in an issue must be in my possession a minimum of two days before the issue is published. I use MS-Word to produce Audyssey, and can therefore accept submissions in pretty much any format. They may be sent either on a 3.5-inch floppy disk, or via e-mail to: blindwonder@cogeco.ca or editor@audyssey.org Please write articles and letters about games or game-related topics which interest you. They will likely interest me, and your fellow readers. This magazine should and can be a highly interesting and qualitative look at accessible gaming. To insure that high quality is maintained, I'll need your written contributions. I reserve the right to unilaterally make changes to submissions if I deem it necessary to improve them grammatically or enhance their understand ability. I will never make changes which will alter the spirit of a submission. All submissions must be in English. However, people need not be great writers to have their work appear in Audyssey. Many of our community come from different countries. Others are quite young. Where possible, I try to preserve their different styles of expression. The richness that this adds to the Audyssey experience far outweighs any benefits gained from having everything in prose so perfect as to be devoid of life. Audyssey is a community and magazine built on the need for blind people to have fun. There are no formal structural requirements for submissions. Within reason, they may be as long as necessary. Game reviews should all clearly state who created the game being examined, where it can be obtained, whether it can be played without sighted assistance, and any system requirements or other critical information. Although profanity is by no means banned, it should not be used gratuitously. Submissions not published in a current issue will be reserved for possible use in future issues if appropriate. * Those who are on the Audyssey discussion list should be aware that I often put materials from the list in the "Letters" section if I feel that they warrant it. Anything posted to this discussion list that in some way stands out from the common and often lively ongoing discourse will be considered fair game for publishing unless it contains the author's wish that it not be published. From now on, this is official policy of the Audyssey community. This magazine is free in its electronic form, and will always remain so. I'm writing this magazine as much for my own interest as for everyone else's. Your articles, reviews, and letters, as well as any games you might care to send me, are what I'm after. Send any games, articles, letters, or reviews via E-mail, or on a cd or 3.5-inch disk in a self- addressed mailer if you want your media returned to you. Please only send shareware or freeware games. It is illegal to send commercial games unless you are their creator or have obtained permission to do so. By sending me games, you will do several things: first, and most obviously, you will earn my gratitude. You will also insure that the games you send me are made available to my readership as a whole. If you can, I recommend that you send e-mail. I can send and receive attachments with ease. This way, no money will be wasted sending me a game I already have, and you'll get my reply more quickly. You are responsible for shipping costs. That means, either use a disk mailer which has your address on it, and is either free matter for the blind, or is properly stamped. I can and will gladly spare time to share games and my knowledge of them, but cannot currently spare money above what I spend hunting for new games. I encourage all my readers to give my magazine to whoever they think will appreciate it. Up-load it onto web pages and bulletin board systems. Copy it on disk for people, or print it out for sighted people who may find it of value. The larger our community gets, the more self-sustaining it will become. Due to Audyssey now having it's own official domain http://www.audyssey.org is where you can go to sign up for either of the two lists. The magazine only list is just that. Extremely low traffic as all that comes through it is issues as they are published. The second list is the discussion list. This list can often be rather high traffic as topics come up. Sometimes it's an announcement of a new game title or discovery, and other times it can be discussing issues about gaming. The former lists at Yahoo groups are going to be shortly discontinued. The discussion list itself has been deleted. The archives are still viewable and can be located from the Audyssey.org website. The magazine only list Audysub-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Will also be deleted from the Yahoogroups site. I hope by including the above information that this transfer to our own lists goes without any snags. The discussion list has changed problem free and all is set up for the magazine only distribution list as well. I feel this is a step forward for the community as a whole. All are welcome as long as they respect their fellow community members and keep in mind that the topic of the list is supposed to be games. Other topics are allowed within reason as long as they don't begin to monopolize the list traffic for too long. Newcomers should be advised that traffic is frequently fairly heavy. Anyone participating in the discussion list will have issues of Audyssey automatically sent to them via E-mail. Representatives from all major developers of games for the blind are actively participating on the list. There are two moderators keeping things civil and orderly. Be certain to read the Audyssey Community Charter as all list members are expected to follow its rules. If you want an active role in shaping the future of accessible games, this is where you can dive right in. To subscribe to this discussion list, go to the Audyssey.org site and follow the links. Stan Bobbitt has made Audyssey Magazine available in HTML format for easy on-line browsing. To take advantage of this, you are invited to visit our home-page. People can easily and quickly navigate through the various articles and reviews, and directly download or visit the sites of the games that interest them. This will be of especial benefit for sighted people who wish to make use of Audyssey and/or join the growing community surrounding it. The Audyssey community thanks Mr. Bobbitt for his continued efforts on its behalf in this matter. Darren Duff also provides a home for Audyssey. http://www.angelfire.com/music4/duffstuff/audyssey.html Where the issues can be read, downloaded individually or one zip file of all the issues. Thanks Darren! Another location to find Audyssey current and back issues is http://www.audiogames.net/page.php?pagefile=audyssey Thanks to Richard and those at Audio-games! We extend our gratitude to Kelly Sapergia who has provided a place for all the issues of the magazine. . You can find them at www.ksapergia.net/audyssey.html