Oskar Karlsson and his dad, Andreas, had tried to create the perfect controller before. Oskar, a young Swedish boy and the oldest of his siblings, wanted to play games with them and his dad. But Oskar found it difficult to use a controller because of his spinal muscular atrophy — a condition which causes extreme weakness and wasting of his muscles.
"I like playing games because you can do anything," said Oskar. His dad elaborated: "In the physical world, his body tells him what he can and cannot do, but in the game world there are no limits."
With this in mind, Andreas Karlsson tried to build his own controllers to help his son play games, but the controllers never quite worked out. "They weren't very good," he says. So he contacted 8BitDo, a manufacturer and designer of game controllers, for advice. But he wasn't expecting an answer from the co-founder and chief designer himself, Weiling Li.
"As a designer I want to use my skills to allow more people to enter the world of gaming," Li said. "If we didn't help, there would be a lot of children like him that wouldn't have the chance to play games."
8BitDo managed to connect with the Karlssons to collaborate on a controller that would help kids like Oskar, which they're hoping to release to the world in 2022. It's already helped Oskar, who was given the several prototypes, before ending on the design which the eventual controller will be based on. "Before, I couldn't click R or the L, but now I can," he says.
His dad is happy, too: "Now there are no limits to what Oskar can do."
8BitDo is hoping to release their new controller later the year.
Comments 21
Looks a lot like their Lite controller. It's honestly one of my favorite controllers.
Edit: ah that's because it's based on that one!
I really love accessible controllers, like for example the Xbox Adaptvie Controller. More companies should make controllers like these. So everyone can play the games they want.
Accessible controllers are an interesting genre of gaming history. Anyone remember the UltraRacer 64, which was supposed to open up the N64 to one-handed players?
Hopefully the quality control is better than the average 8bitdo controller.
@bonjong23 honestly, I have multiple 8bitdo controllers. And they are some of the best third party controllers I've ever used.
While this is paid for by DHL as a brand exercize, in this case the ad money has been put to good use to designing and making a niche product that will be very useful and lifechanging for some people. I approve!
I feel that many users would require the same thing but with larger buttons so such fine motor control isn't needed? But this size and scale clearly works for this young man and I'm sure many more with limited movement but good fine control.
As an aside, this could also work for regularly-abled players (apologies if that's not the correct term) to play retro games with a 6 button layout rather than a diamond+ shoulder buttons.
And to echo others, 8BitDo make excellent quality controlelrs, I've not tried them all, but I've never been let down by them. I play 90% of my retro games on either RetroBit or 8BitDo controllers nowadays and barely use official pads.
@Rosalinho And the standard N64 controller was ahead of its time in being designed for people born with 3 arms! Extremely progressive
Seriously though, that sounds really cool, I'm glad it existed.
@DarthNocturnal I kind of love the low profile of having no sticks at all (makes it perfect for having it in a backpack or bag), but maybe I'll check that new version out
@DarthNocturnal Rock on! Thanks for pointing this out to me.The Lite was amazing and now with joysticks it’s just like a New 3DS.
The sort of story I just love to see. Anything that allows more children and adults to be involved with games is a great thing. I would love to see Nintendo become more involved with similar projects.
Well done to these guys I'm surprised controller diversity isn't more widespread
Honestly this is great, will make a world of difference to thousands of kids, and adults, who have struggled to hold a controller to be able to play
That's wonderful.
I have issues with fine motor skills due to dyspraxia so this may (or not) also help me, gonna have to keep an eye on this
@Rosalinho I've not used it but I remember seeing a magazine review of it back in the day.
I don't recall one-handed play being the intent of the controller (though it would be great if it could, and I'm not understanding it) but it looked like another of very strange controllers made during that time. I remember someone making another attempt at a "glove" controller, for PS1 and maybe N64 (because the Power Glove apparently didn't turn them away ).
@bluemage1989 The only one I recall hearing Nintendo make is a rather infamous one for the NES (having only sold for I think it was hundreds of dollars and only by special order, now a collector's item) which was primarily controlled with a straw (twisting for the D-pad, sucking and blowing for the A and B buttons).
You know, I'm a cynical person. But I'm deeply touched every time a company does things like this. Accessibility in entertainment can really improve some people's lives. Especially video games, since they're all about letting you feel like you have these amazing abilities and can go on adventures without limits. A lot of the time, the kids who need that kind of empowerment the most are excluded by the games' controls and design. I don't expect everyone to do the same, but it's so good when they do. It's good PR for the companies, of course, but it does make a difference to some kids and that's the bottom line for me.
I'm honestly much more inclined to buy an 8BitDo controller after reading this, so good for everyone.
@KingMike that was the only one i could remember off the top of my head but I think accessibility was an unintended consequence of the Wiimote as well though. Given Nintendo's history of outside of the box thinking when it comes to hardware design i think they would be well suited to the challenge of helping develop new ways to help those with disabilities enjoy games.
I’ve always though about how devastating it would be as a lover of video games to lose the ability to play them for whatever reason. Video games were an important part of my childhood and it makes me sad to think of how hard it would be for a child to face a physical limitation that makes gaming inaccessible to them. Accessibility in gaming is important for everyone and should be encouraged and celebrated.
@KingMike Supposedly one-handed control was the intent, but that's not to say it accomplished it well. I could be wrong, it's a long time ago, I barely remember it.
Yes, I used to own the glove controller for PlayStation! The same company also made one for N64. Both come up occasionally on eBay. The PlayStation one is actually worthwhile for those with two working hands as it makes pseudo-analogue movement possible on games that don't support it.
Hello,
I'm Oskars dad and I just wanted to pass my gratitude towards the whole 8BitDo team making this possible!
I also wanted to write that we, neither me nor 8BitDo, had any idea that DHL wanted to make a story about this together with BBC. It wasn't until we had tried like 3 to 4 prototypes they reached out.
I wrote to 8BitDo in May last year and actually received the first prototype of the gamepad within a month.. Really impressive tbh!... It wasn't until after the summer I believe that DHL got word of this project and they decided that they wanted to make a story about it as they were really moved by the true story.
8BitDo was really humble and asked if this was something me and Oskar was OK with - and that it was totally OK if we didn't want to do it.
But we instantly felt that it was a win win win win situation. I got the opportunity raise awareness about SMA, we can hopefully reach out to a lot of people with the same "situation" as my son, and hopefully also inspire other companies in the gaming world making more accessible gadgets available!
And I thought it would be an appropriate "thank you" towards 8BitDo for actually making this gamepad for my son – free of charge. Just the thought of them actually helping me and my son, two strangers from Sweden, it's so ... can't even find the right word for it.. I just love these guys! (I can also add that I have written to SEVERAL companies that makes gamepads/controllers, and 8BitDo is actually the first one that actually answered... everyone else just ignored me).
So yeah, even though this video is a commercial for DHL - i still believe that most people will see it as something else.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...