Pick a key - any key, just not the 'any' key

April 21, 2005 3:19 PM

One key games. Retro Remakes, a reverse-engineer gaming siteand One Switch, an accessibility site, have launched a competition for the best game that can be played with a single key. There's still time to enter, and some entries have already been posted to the forums.
posted by Sparx (11 comments total)

A better link that's solely entries received
posted by Sparx at 3:26 PM on April 21, 2005

That one game in Wario Ware - where you had to time your use of a stick to poke blocks through onto your opponent's side - now that was fun. Surprisingly deep gameplay from an extremely simple single-button (per player) game.

The basic problem with single-button input is that you are more or less limited to controlling the timing of something. Most of the projects on that site so far seem to use the timing mechanism at face value, to directly control something in the game. The game I mentioned above, however, effectively used the player's timing input as a device for choosing what their move was going to be, which led to gameplay on both reflex and tactical levels.
posted by jeffj at 3:58 PM on April 21, 2005

The first game I ever coded -- back in about 1981, I think, in high school, on an Apple II -- was a single button game. Stick figures on top of a building, rapidly randomly variable windspeed indicators vertical and horizontal, press the spacebar to hock a loogie at passersby at street level when winds seemed most favorable. Two ways to score, by distance and accuracy. Forget gravitational physics in HalfLife 2. I was way ahead of the 3-person shooter curve, baby!

And even at that tender age, it was clear what a bastard I was later to become.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:39 PM on April 21, 2005

It seems like there are two versions of this -- one where your game is only allowed to pay attention to the state of a button, and worse, where it's only allowed to notice key presses. (So holding down does nothing.) I wonder how many people will accidentally enter the second when they could have entered the first.

(But alas, I won't find out, since the games seem to be under Windows.)
posted by Aknaton at 6:48 PM on April 21, 2005

We Will (Chuck) Rock You is like Flash Flash Revolution but with only one key and a quarter of the fun.
posted by mikeweeney at 6:49 PM on April 21, 2005

And no sense of rhythm.

One-button Pitfall has a lot of charm, though. I'll be checking back with this competition.
posted by Simon! at 8:04 PM on April 21, 2005

The next board I join, my username is going to be Wee Target.
posted by BoringPostcards at 8:18 PM on April 21, 2005

The best one button game is definetly SFcave

So simple, so elegent, so addictive!
posted by afu at 2:49 AM on April 22, 2005 [1 favorite]

I tried that game out- I figure it was supposed to be a two player competition but I tried controlling both lines at the same time anyway. It was ridiculously hard, but also a lot of fun!
posted by mikeweeney at 5:23 AM on April 22, 2005

mikeweeney, I flashflashhateyou for linking that. I'm hoping the caffeine I've just consumed is a viable excuse for my complete lack of rythm on that game.
posted by BrotherCaine at 7:46 AM on April 22, 2005

Uo Poko could effectively be translated into a 'one button' game. Currently (in MAME) it requires the use of the joystick and is controlled by simply pulling down on the stick.

It's one of my favorite games. You really start to feel kinetically linked to the digital "plunger" mechanism.

I imagine that you could control the amount of force applied to the plunger by simply holding down the button for various periods of time.

Very fun game.
posted by mr.curmudgeon at 8:01 AM on April 22, 2005