We’ve seen all kinds of gamecontrollerplushies, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen one that can actually be used to play video games. Adafruit’s Becky Stern built the soft controller using their Flora Arduino-compatible platform and some conductive thread and fabric.
Even though Becky’s design looks like a squishy, oversize NES controller, your computer will recognize the plushie as a USB keyboard, so you can use it with any keyboard-based game. If you’re handy with stitching, perhaps you can modify Becky’s guide and make a plushie of your favorite controller. It would probably take a long time to build a full keyboard plushie though.
Make a plush browser and head to Adafruit for the full guide and parts list.
The FretPen is a pen that doubles as a miniature guitar. Even if you can’t do much with one string and teensy frets, at least you can write and play a neat little tune with it.
The FretPen is also smartphone-connected. A small D-pad on the pen allows you to switch strings on the fly, which gives you the ability to play scale-like runs and rudimentary melodies.
The video below will show you some of what this pen can do.
A Kickstarter campaign will be launching on the 22nd, so if you are interested you can give them your email address to be notified when they’re ready to accept your pledges.
The pen is mightier than the sword, plus now it can play tunes.
Back at the end of 2012, I mentioned a company had created an interesting game controller for Android smartphones and small tablets called the PhoneJoy. The controller turned up on Kickstarter and raised about $70,000 within a few months to come to market. Now over a year after the controller hit Kickstarter, the PhoneJoy is finally shipping.
The controller is shipping to Kickstarter backers right now. If you didn’t back the Kickstarter campaign, but want your own PhoneJoy, the controller is available to pre-order for $79.90(USD) and will ship starting on April 8. It will later be available on Newegg, Amazon and other sites.
The controller is designed to slide apart and allow the phone to be placed between the two halves of the controller, and can work in either landscape or portrait modes. It works with most smartphones, regardless of size, and even can handle 7-inch tablets. It has dual analog sticks, a D-pad, and multiple buttons. When not in use, it folds down to be about the size of a typical wallet.
According to its maker, there are already hundreds of games which will work with the controller out of the box.
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When Valve unveiled its Steam Controller last year, I was quite skeptical about the value of its built-in touchscreen. It turns out many of Valve’s testers had the same opinion. This January, at the 2014 Steam Dev Days conference, the company announced that it was ditching the touchscreen for a more conventional button configuration.
In the video below, you’ll see Valve’s Eric Hope and John McCaskey talk about the evolution of the Steam Controller at Steam Dev Days. At around 23:35 into the video, Eric talks about the point when they realized that the touchscreen was not really that useful. See, Valve added a “ghost mode” that displayed an onscreen prompt showing you what part of the touchscreen you’re touching as soon as you touch it.
Ghost mode was a great feature. So great that Valve realized it rendered the controller’s screen – which Eric said was the most expensive part of the controller – pointless. Removing the touchscreen also allowed Valve to ditch the built-in rechargeable battery and switch to AA batteries, further driving the cost of the controller down.
Then at around 25:39 in the video Eric discusses why the ABXY corner buttons on the previous prototype also had to be scrapped. Valve labeled the face buttons A, B, X and Y to make them familiar to gamers, only to arrange the buttons in an unfamiliar layout. The result was a jarring experience for testers, who had a particularly hard time accepting the fact that the four ol’ buddies were split into two groups.
As Eric said in the video, the controller is still undergoing internal testing and is nowhere near its final form. They could bring the touchscreen back. They could also place the buttons a bit farther apart. You know what they say about people with big thumbs: they have trouble with cramped controllers.
Our favorite modder, Ben Heck, has come up with another cool creation. As he has done numerous times in the past, he has built a special controller to help the disabled to play video games. The modified gaming controller was requested by one of his viewers and as usual, he has delivered.
This accessibility controller lets gamers with use of only a single hand play PS4 games. All the buttons on the left side have been shifted and re-fitted on the right side, including the left analog stick, which was put on the back of the unit. Ben will reveal the build on an upcoming episode of his show, but the 40 second trailer here gives us a little tease.
This is going to make a lot of folks very happy. Keep an eye out on Element 14 for the full episode, which is expected to premiere later today.
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