It's all in the mind

Matthew JC. Powell remembers the simple years of gaming.

Remember back in the old days, when computer games were things you controlled with a joystick that could identify eight – count them, eight – unique directions?

Or if they were really complicated you used a paddle or a trackball?

And to shoot things, you pushed the one and only red button on the side?

Didn’t life seem simpler then?

The first time I saw a Nintendo 64 controller, with its multitude of buttons and switches, I was intimidated.

The Playstation 2 controller literally scared me – there are buttons on that thing whose function I still don’t understand, and I’m not sure I want to know.

And these are among the simpler controllers out there at the moment.

Thankfully, the past couple of years have seen a return to a simpler time, with developers attempting to find easier ways to interact between humans and software, without sacrificing the immersive experience of control.

It’s a well-intentioned effort, aimed at those of us with a mere 10 digits hanging off of our hands and the intellectual capacity to employ perhaps four of them at a time.

Nintendo’s Wii uses motion-sensing technology.

This is smart, but of course the range of entertainments in which motion alone is sufficient is limited. Likewise the hottest gaming platform of 2008 – the iPhone – uses a combination of motion sensing and touchscreen for interaction.

Works nicely, but it’s pretty basic.

(Sidenote: Missile Command on the iPhone is so much more fun than it ever was with a trackball that it’s just not comparable. But if the highest achievement of a 21st-century gaming device is that it’s an improvement on something that came out in 1980, then the progress of technology has to be questioned.)


Meanwhile a number of companies – including the venerable Mattel – are about to introduce gaming devices you control with your mind.

That’s right: use the Force.

Imagine it: you enter a virtual arena filled with opponents ripe for the kill.

Using pure visualisation techniques you control your multiple heavily armed appendages, fighting off enemies while defending your own virtual life and working towards your goal of rescuing the virtual maiden in the virtual tower, who then rewards you in her special virtual way. It’s like The Matrix, only fun.

Well, don’t get carried away. So far two of the games using “mind control” have been demonstrated.

One of them involved wearing a headset while you play a game, concentrating on an on-screen glyph.

The more you concentrate, the better you can see your opponents – which you then blast with your conventional, buttoned controller.

Ironically, the opponents are zombies whose purpose (as everyone knows) is to feast on brains.

I don’t know what happens to the player should they succeed.

The other one — Mattel’s Mind Flex — also asks the player to concentrate.

Sufficient concentration causes a fan to rotate, which in turn raises a small foam ball on the stream of air.

Your task is to guide the ball through a series of hoops.

Yep, that’s done with manual controls.

Now, I have to admit my knowledge of neuro-physiognomy is limited to perhaps the third-grade level, but I’m pretty sure that’s got nothing to do with brainwaves and more to do with simple capacitance.

To raise the ball you don’t need to be focused on the ball – in fact you probably shouldn’t.

Instead, imagine that you don’t want the ball to rise – falsehood causes your brain to light up with electrical activity, so the ball will rise. These guys do know their irony.

When someone comes up with a true “mind-controlled” game – one in which the actions of your virtual character are guided by your conscious intent – let me know.

Until then, I’ll be focusing on sleep.


Matthew JC. Powell wants to know what the red button does.

Warn him on mjcp@me.com