Many people with a disability play games despite difficulties in relation to access or quality of experience. Better access is needed, but there has been limited industry interest. For players with motor impairments the focus has been on the controller. Numerous solutions have been developed by third parties, but all are likely unsuitable for at least some users and there remains space for radically alternative angles. Informed by my experiences as a disabled gamer, concepts of affordance and control dimensionality are used to discuss the accessibility implications of controller design from the Magnavox Odyssey to the present. Notions of incidental body-controller fit and precarious accessibility are outlined. I subsequently draw on Lévy’s theory of collective intelligence and example games Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and Artemis Spaceship Bridge Commander to develop a model that uses asymmetrical roles and diverse input to fit individual abilities and thereby expand participation.

After the introduction of programmable sound generator integrated circuits (ICs) in the 8-bit video game hardware of the 1980s, the industry quickly moved on to more sophisticated sound generation methods such as frequency modulation (FM) synthesis and CD-quality audio file playback. Nevertheless, if once largely forgotten, the last decade has seen a significant and sustained revival of interest in the early video game sound technologies, and the rise of a vibrant ‘chiptunes’ community intent on exploring their distinctive musical possibilities. Developed by Rob Hassell between May 2017 and May 2018 as part of the BA (Hons) Music Technology programme at the University of Wolverhampton, SIDsynth is a multi-voice chiptunes synthesizer based around the use of obsolete MOS Technology 6581/8580 Sound Interface Device (SID) chips; a specialised IC originally found in the Commodore 64 computer. Despite the age of the SID chip, the SIDsynth draws heavily on contemporary developments and could arguably not have existed until relatively recently. Online marketplaces enable increasingly scarce and revered second-hand ICs to be sourced from individual sellers worldwide. Dedicated enthusiasts have made crucial but previously rarely accessible technical documentation freely available in online repositories such as SIDmusic and archive6502. Additionally, by using open source and low-cost Arduino microcontrollers to interface otherwise disparate elements (three SID ICs, contemporary computer hardware and a physical user interface), the project has been able to benefit from the Arduino platform’s extensive documentation and community expertise.