Topic: Computer games you can _comfortably_ play with one hand (Read 41909 times)

evernew · « **on:** 01 Jan 2009, 11:40 »

Hi peeps,

short story of my misery:
I had to abort a trip because I broke my collarbone.

So my left arm is in a plaster and if I use my left hand for anything, it hurts. I'm only writing this with both hands to get it done quicker.

Added to this pitiable situation comes the fact that my family is away on vacation and my car is in the shop getting fixed (not that I'd be able to drive it, probably).

So my predicament is this: Stuck in a house away from everything with no way to get out and only one good hand.
My question thus: What computer games could I play that only require one hand to be able to play?
Most strategy games fulfill this requirement somewhat but, for example, it's a lot easier to play WC3 if you have both hands to do army grouping etc.

Any action / platformer / whatever games? Any game at all, really. I'd be crawling up the walls here if I could use both hands - but then again, I wouldn't be in this situation if I could.

I don't have a Wii yet but have been thinking about getting one anyway. Are there games you can play with one hand on that?

sparksflyupward · « **Reply #1 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 14:28 »

Would highly recommend Peggle. Sounds to be what you're looking for, and there's a Steam demo.

Spluff · « **Reply #2 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 16:06 »

Many old platformers have this ability. Just bind shoot to something like the numpad 0, so you can press it with your pinky.

Most of the classic PC RPGs can be done using only a mouse.

TheFuriousWombat · « **Reply #3 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 16:12 »

PC RPGs indeed. Diablo and Diablo II are excellent examples of games that can easily be played with one hand for hours and hours and hours without any boredom ensuing.

Trollstormur · « **Reply #4 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 18:59 »

DUNGEONCRAWL, FUCK YEAH.

evernew · « **Reply #5 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 19:37 »

I've already played D1 and D2. Are there any more hack 'n slash games in the same vein? Other RPG games with a little more NPC interaction maybe?

Racing games used to be fine but now that there's handbrakes and nitro boost in pretty much all of them, it doesn't work properly.
Or it does but it's a hassle 'cause it is painful to sit my other hand down at the keyboard.

The platformer idea sounds good. Any favorites?

Trollstormur · « **Reply #6 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 20:01 »

the fallout series (except for the most recent one) can be comfortably played with just mouse.

or you can get one of these:

evernew · « **Reply #7 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 20:15 »

~~What is that called and how much is it?~~

It's called a Belkin N52TE SpeedPad, costs around 40-50 € and sadly, it is for the wrong hand. OR IS IT?

The year is 2009.
The world is in turmoil.
But one man
and his trusty gaming accessory
are going to change everything.
Watch an ordinary citizen with 60% lifting strength and limited mobility become
Hand Man.
In Cinemas August 23rd, 2009.

Melodic · « **Reply #8 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 22:16 »

A guy nodded a single-handed xbox 360 controller a few months back. Google it?

clockworkjames · « **Reply #9 on:** 01 Jan 2009, 23:38 »

Roll a healer in WoW. I heal with my drood when I am mega sleepy and friends insist I run an instance with them, lay in bed and point/click.

look out! Ninjas! · « **Reply #10 on:** 02 Jan 2009, 00:55 »

I can play F-Zero X on the '64 with my feet. Mario Kart too. Sure, I get my arse handed to me, but at least I can finish.

Try Civ 4. It's awesome and eats time like few other games.

PizzaSHARK · « **Reply #11 on:** 02 Jan 2009, 02:31 »

Quote from: evernew on 01 Jan 2009, 19:37

I've already played D1 and D2. Are there any more hack 'n slash games in the same vein? Other RPG games with a little more NPC interaction maybe?

Racing games used to be fine but now that there's handbrakes and nitro boost in pretty much all of them, it doesn't work properly.
Or it does but it's a hassle 'cause it is painful to sit my other hand down at the keyboard.

The platformer idea sounds good. Any favorites?

Baldur's Gate series. Planescape: Torment. Icewind Dale series.

And the Nostromo and its many clones are left-handed; doesn't help you much here.

Surgoshan · « **Reply #12 on:** 02 Jan 2009, 07:47 »

There are a whole lot of websites out there intended to be viewed one-handed. Some of them have games.

CardinalFang · « **Reply #13 on:** 02 Jan 2009, 09:36 »

Quote from: look out! Ninjas! on 02 Jan 2009, 00:55

Try Civ 4. It's awesome and eats time like few other games.

This.

It's turn based so having only one hand is not a problem. It is a great example of "Just-One-More-Turn-itis" and it's kept me up past my bedtime many times.

glyphic · « **Reply #14 on:** 02 Jan 2009, 13:51 »

FALLOUT 1 and 2. Get ready to stay indoors.

_Allan_ · « **Reply #15 on:** 02 Jan 2009, 14:52 »

Spore you can pretty much point-and-click

evernew · « **Reply #16 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 01:54 »

I was almost clocking when the first joke was cracked about content that was intended to be viewed single-handedly hyurk hyurk nyurk.

Have played F1 and F2 to death. Those games are AWESOME.
I'm now playing a lot of Audiosurf (even though technically you're supposed to play it with two hands, it sort of works with one) as well as flash games. Tower defense, mostly.

I missed out on the Civ4 sale. Maybe I'll have to *cough* find a copy that dropped from an electronic delivery truck. Or something.

Spluff · « **Reply #17 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 02:27 »

DEFCON

clockworkjames · « **Reply #18 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 03:13 »

Tetris

Surgoshan · « **Reply #19 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 06:09 »

Go out and get massive sympathy from girls, enabling you to get lots of dates.

DonInKansas · « **Reply #20 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 06:47 »

Quote from: Surgoshan on 02 Jan 2009, 07:47

There are a whole lot of websites out there intended to be viewed one-handed. Some of them have games.

This. A lot.

evernew · « **Reply #21 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 12:41 »

Quote from: Surgoshan on 03 Jan 2009, 06:09

Go out and get massive sympathy from girls, enabling you to get lots of dates.

I think I'm laying off ladies for a little while.
And for the massive sympathy, your ailment needs to be immediately visible.
Which it isn't.
(Unless I put my arm back into the sling which doesn't really help much.)
(I'll keep the sling for future uses towards that objective.)

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #22 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 14:18 »

Quote from: Spluff on 01 Jan 2009, 16:06

Most of the classic PC RPGs can be done using only a mouse.

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #23 on:** 03 Jan 2009, 20:55 »

I could bring up the Megatokyo joke about how some dating sims only require one hand or two hands to play, but that would be lame-

Damn I just did.

I want one of those gaming thingys that only require your brain to play. Like, they hook electrodes to your face and your head does all the combo breaking. =P

snalin · « **Reply #24 on:** 04 Jan 2009, 04:23 »

Cave Story with a bit of fancy button mapping. Since, you know, cave story is the shit.

evernew · « **Reply #25 on:** 04 Jan 2009, 07:38 »

So I have this backpack bandage now and it's not bad at all.
I can actually use my left hand better than before.
If I get a keyboard so I don't have to hunch over my laptop anymore and hook up my projector, this could actually save me from Death By Boredom.

This wasn't for nothing, though. I found (or re-found) a couple of great games I'll get to play now. Once I'm through with Peggle. DAMN YOU PEGGLE!

_Allan_ · « **Reply #26 on:** 04 Jan 2009, 14:15 »

should really play Spore ... frickin' FUN game

xlcomics · « **Reply #27 on:** 05 Jan 2009, 03:48 »

I cannot recommend the series "Strong Bad's Cool Games for Awesome People" on WiiWare. They are point and click adventures based on HomestarRunner.com and are played with the Wii remote in one hand.
They are completely unique and hillarious.

evernew · « **Reply #28 on:** 05 Jan 2009, 07:05 »

Then why can you not recommend them?

Inlander · « **Reply #29 on:** 06 Jan 2009, 03:20 »

No Leisure Suit Larry jokes yet? Disappointing!

evernew · « **Reply #30 on:** 06 Jan 2009, 06:05 »

I fucking love bean dip!
(Larry isn't that great to fap to. Maybe it's that.)

mishy · « **Reply #31 on:** 06 Jan 2009, 09:05 »

i think you might run into a painful situation if you play those kind of games meant to be played with one hand, because _the_other_hand_ is in a cast when it might want to be doing what the game expects it to be doing...

i think if you could get out of the house, you might be able to find some sympathetic hottie who might want to nurse you back to health, and take care of what that other hand could be doing...

evernew · « **Reply #32 on:** 06 Jan 2009, 09:25 »

It's great that you take such a hearty interest in my sexual fulfillment.
I've had a few ... err ... 'housecalls' so the urge isn't killing me. Yet.

Sadly, you cannot see from the outside that I'm injured because the sling my arm is in is tied around the back of my shoulders. So instead of the hottie going all "oh no poor boy" from 10 m away I'd have to go the rocky road of "ah bloo bloo my arm is killing me".

And finally - you're absolutely right, if one hand is ill-disposed due to injury and the other is keeping busy in the underworld, only freaks of nature would still be playing a game at the same time. Because you'd need three arms for that.

This topic has offishally officially derailed now.

mishy · « **Reply #33 on:** 06 Jan 2009, 10:26 »

i think the solution is obvious now. get a third hand.

evernew · « **Reply #34 on:** 06 Jan 2009, 14:43 »

Can I have yours?
No need to chop it off just yet, I wanna test the ... 'service quality' ... y'know, try before you buy.

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #35 on:** 06 Jan 2009, 21:11 »

Or train your feet to do Hadokens like those two retards from the Interwebs did. =P

evernew · « **Reply #36 on:** 07 Jan 2009, 03:38 »

Quote from: satsugaikaze on 06 Jan 2009, 21:11

Or train your feet to do Hadokens like those two retards from the Interwebs did. =P

What, there are only two retards on the Interwebs?
I want to live in your world.

Covetous · « **Reply #37 on:** 07 Jan 2009, 05:08 »

Every singel heroes of might and magic are great games possible to be played with only one hand.

mishy · « **Reply #38 on:** 07 Jan 2009, 07:58 »

holy moly. heroes of might and magic is what i played before i was sucked into WoW and subsequently became an *actual* gamer. (not that WoW makes me a gamer, but everything i did before that was turn-based cuz i was a sissy girly non-gamer. i'm pretty sure i still can't beat civ, tho... man i suck. i should just shut up now....)
i was actually afraid to suggest hm&m because i might embarrass myself. but since someone else suggested it (and i went and embarrassed myself anyway) i will totally second it!

evernew · « **Reply #39 on:** 07 Jan 2009, 09:41 »

HOMM was the first game for which I went to the computer store to play after school.
That's how cool it was and that's how cool I was.

My brother and I still play it. It's hilarious to see him craft his heroes and build his cities and sooner or later a forgotten enemy turns up with 3000 skeletons.

In other news, now that the swelling of my shoulder has decreased I can actually see and feel bone bits and pieces poking at the skin from inside.
I'm not supposed to move the arm at all.
So the original question remains valid and I am open to any and all suggestions regarding one-handed gaming.

JD · « **Reply #40 on:** 07 Jan 2009, 20:03 »

Ewwww injury details

Alex C · « **Reply #41 on:** 07 Jan 2009, 20:13 »

Since a lot of these are older games, you could easily get away with accessing many of the things that have been mentioned via gametap.

Inlander · « **Reply #42 on:** 08 Jan 2009, 04:43 »

Pretty much every real-time strategy game I've ever played could be played with one hand.

McTaggart · « **Reply #43 on:** 08 Jan 2009, 08:52 »

Technically I suppose you could, but speed, hotkeys and unit grouping are way too important to not use a keyboard.

Games you can play well with one hand I think are Eve Online if spreadsheets and logistics and playing markets are your thing, Diablo 2 if you've got thumb buttons on your mouse for scrolling through skills, Dungeon Siege since you can probably bind "pause game" to mouse 3 or whatever ad reduce it down to something sort of turn based as well as all the turn based games that you can find like Fallout 1 and 2, Heroes of Might and Magic, Age of Wonders (did anyone else play this? I really dug it).

Also maybe Freelancer if you have enough buttons on your mouse.

evernew · « **Reply #44 on:** 08 Jan 2009, 15:07 »

Eve Online sounds like my thing. I'll do the free trial at least.

Until I steal my brother's super-fancy gaming mouse, I have a standard Microsoft mouse with 4 or so buttons.

I can use the left hand somewhat but it's better if I don't have to move it over the keyboard.
So steering with WASD I can do but many games, e.g. Freelancer, aren't really playable without that. Targeting etc.

When I first tried Dungeon Siege I got bored after ~10 hours because I felt that the story wasn't going anywhere.
I bought Sacred from Steam recently. Hope that works.

Spluff · « **Reply #45 on:** 08 Jan 2009, 16:12 »

Be careful with Eve Online. There is a good chance your other arm will drop off from sheer boredom.

Zingoleb · « **Reply #46 on:** 09 Jan 2009, 01:07 »

www.spiderwebsoftware.com

Go for the Avernum series, it's pretty point 'n' click, though the amount of clicking to move around might drive you mad...I usually use the keypad for that.

snalin · « **Reply #47 on:** 09 Jan 2009, 10:41 »

Oh, yes, Avernum and Geneforge are the best rpg/adventure games out there period. Go for Avernum 1 first, since the stories are actually really interesting, and the three first games had the best gameplay by far. It will look kind of basic at first, but you will be amazed at how the world just keeps expanding and expanding. And it's really funny at points too.The keyboard helps a bit, especially when you get to larger battles (like a couple of demons that spawns their own horde at you), but it's not uncomfortable with the mouse. Just takes longer.

I didn't think there was anyone out there who had played any of these games other than me. They are the best, far better than any RPG games developed by the big studios. They are also fairly cheap and the demos are like 1/6th of the game, so you can play for free for a long time to decide if you want to pay for em.

bicostp · « **Reply #48 on:** 10 Jan 2009, 12:03 »

If you like racing games, there's always TrackMania. The only controls are Gas, Brake, Left, and Right. They're so basic you could play this game on an Atari 2600 joystick if you really wanted to. TrackMania Nations Forever is free, but United Forever adds more cars and environments.

Another game along the same lines is [ulr=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunts_(video_game)]Stunts[/url]. It's really old (so it will run on anything from a 486 up), but a lot of fun and it's free. At less than 2 MB it's a fast download and worth checking out. (Run it under DOSbox to get full SoundBlaster audio.)

evernew · « **Reply #49 on:** 11 Jan 2009, 12:16 »

I used to play Stunts on a 286 with 8 Megahurtz (12 with Turbo!) and it was the hottest stuff on the block.
Trackmania is fun but I already finished it. The next thing I'll try in racing games is Flatout 2 with better mapping so I use the thumb for handbrake and the pinky for nitro.

My therapy program so far is watching obscene amounts of TV shows and playing Sacred.
Once I get a USB keyboard so I don't have to hunch over the laptop for more complex games, I should be alright.
Tried playing Call of Duty on my brother's PC and cramped after about one hour. It was too soon.

After Sacred, I'll try out Commandos 2. From what I remember from the original Commandos, you could play it pretty well without a keyboard.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Computer games you can _comfortably_ play with one hand (Read 41909 times)

PizzaSHARK

xlcomics

mishy

mishy

mishy

Zingoleb