Gaming Accessibility and Custom Figure Modeling

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host Steve Megatron Phillips. Joining me

in this endeavor into geekdom is TFG1 Mike. Hello,

I am here. He almost set ahead of British. Hello,

I'm here. Hello, I am here. You gotta do that

in your Boston accent. Anyways. So they smart

stay far apart Where my car keys? That's right.

They inhabit yards except. They're talking about

their their khakis not their car keys I saw that

meme and it was like yeah, this is what it sounds

like to you what it means for them Yeah You just

ruined my car keys All right, so today we're

gonna talk about Accessibility for gamers, which

we saw our podcasting friend Steve sailor post

and We're gonna talk about custom figures and

specifically how Batman the animated series is

more or less making comeback in various forms

Yes So our good buddy Steve sailor from this

week in geek this week geek net I've always wanted

to have Steve on to talk about this because He

is the blind gamer. He is a blind gamer. I also

have visual issues I mentioned on a I guess we

can mention this here since it'll be out anyway

We have launched a new show called studio 2009

you and I have and we'll talk about that at the

end of the podcast But the point is on there.

I mentioned my visual issues or on the episode

of the pullback We just I don't know whatever

Point is I was born with what they call optic

atrophy with nystagmatism and optic atrophy is

nerve damage LASIK like it's it's nerve damage

to the you know, the optic nerve There's nothing

there. I like glasses will work and I've had

glasses before and I need to get glasses again

But there is nothing No LASIK. No, no surgery

can fix The blindness that I have now I can see

it's just I can't see far away kind of stuff

like Perfect example is if I'm if I'm in the

car with my wife and We're two blocks away from

a stop sign. I can see that it's red Can see

that it's the stop sign? Rectangle octagon whatever

shape it is But I can't actually read st. Op

on the sign until I get much much closer Yeah,

that's that's quite a bummer actually I'm not

that bad I do have depth perception issues To

where I had to get glasses because I could not

I couldn't tell if I was going to hit something

or not Specifically when I was driving and also

I can I for the most part even with glasses.

I can't read the road signs Until I'm like right

up on them as far as like street signs or like

if if it's a stop sign I obviously know by the

shape and the color and I say blurry words if

I struggle hard enough with my sight I can read

it, but the point is I I still have to have glasses

to see it and It used to have great eyesight

and it depends on the day but But yeah, I can

relate but he's yeah, he's definitely like uber

blind We don't mean that in a bad way no, no,

but I mean like I get his his issue of things

a little bit more accessible and especially in

gaming Yeah, because there's a lot going on on

the screen, and even for me, where I don't necessarily

need the glasses, I mean, I'm nearsighted, so

being right up on my monitor, I can read everything.

Now, after a while, there comes a point where

I need to wear my glasses, or I will have issues

seeing because I have to struggle too much to

read it, and especially when I play games, I

forget to blink, and the glasses kind of help.

To regulate my eyes so that they aren't as stressed

as they would be Yep So no, I mean I totally

get it like gaming is is one of those things

where if you're gonna be playing You kind of

need to be able to see everything and a lot of

it's either reading or hand -eye coordination

or making you see something that's very small

On your screen Yep Now for me hand -eye coordination

In the 80s, that's why we played video games

and that's why we play video games today, too

But I would play games all the time I had Some

kick -ass hand -eye coordination even though

I still had to sit like almost in front of the

television to be able to see it And it just it's

one of those things where these game companies

need to Be mindful of everybody's Limitations

and improve upon their games to fit if they want

to reach the most wide audience Games need to

be able to be accessible for everybody not just

Regular people with 2020 or 2050 vision or whatever,

you know, whatever you want to call it kind of

thing Yeah, and I mean even none not even talking

about visual but having as far as the The controllers

are concerned like I know you have a disability

that doesn't allow you to play modern gaming

I For that I can do PC. Yeah, I can do PC gaming,

but I can't do modern controllers much at all

basically For those who haven't listened to this

podcast in the last almost seven years I was

born with a mild cases for rupalsi this also

goes into effect of why I have the optic atrophy

with nystigmatism because When I was and I know

this is gonna sound gross even though I'm not

gonna try to make it gross When I was growing

inside my mother when she was pregnant with me

A piece of my brain did not form. So I'm actually

missing a piece of my brain. I only found this

out a year ago. It's called the corpus column.

It's basically the thing in the back of your

head that links your left and right hemispheres.

I don't have it. Apparently if it doesn't form

within like, I think week 17 or 18 or something

like that, it never does. And I was basically

born broken. I have the cerebral palsy, which

affects the right side of my body. And basically,

as a kid, I had to teach myself to play video

games one -handed. It's actually the one physical

skill I actually, you know, really tout over

for myself because I can take an NES controller,

I can take a Sega Genesis controller, I can take

a Super Nintendo controller, I can palm it in

my left hand, use my thumb for the buttons and

use either my pinky or my ring finger for the

d -pad. And that only works if the controller

is not, you know... Giant Xbox original controller.

Oh my god, but that Xbox controller was like

I have a big head left hand That thing is like

three times the size of my hand. I couldn't even

the original Xbox controller was atrocious It

was actually difficult for somebody that's able

-bodied to use as well Which is why I enjoy when

they switch to the other style that they came

up with for the Xbox 3 16 Xbox one I actually

rather like that design Now that being said,

I grew up on Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo

and Game Boy and things like that, so those controllers

weren't too bad either. Funny thing is, on Altered

Geek about two years ago, an article came out

about July 2018 that Microsoft had created a

new adaptive controller which puts players back

in the game basically it's a hundred dollar adaptive

controller that lets you plug in the gadgets

that you need oh wow so now i don't know if this

ever got released that's the other thing which

i'm i'm digging into right now it does look like

it exists but unfortunately you can only get

it on ebay it looks like so it must not have

lived very long although Um, no, you can still

get it from Microsoft store. Um, yeah, so I don't

know for like 160, $200, but Microsoft sells

it for a hundred bucks. Um, and it says that

you can create a custom controller experience

that is uniquely yours designed primarily to

meet the needs of gamers with limited mobility.

The Xbox adaptive controller features large programmable

buttons and connects to external switches, buttons,

mounts, and joysticks. to help make gaming more

accessible requires external devices for gameplay,

which they sold out all that separate. But so

basically, you can create a custom controller

that is special to you. And that's very cool.

It's a lot of large programmable buttons connects

to. all kinds of different things. And it works

for Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs because everything

that works for Xbox One works for Windows 10.

Windows, exactly. So there is an option in that

sense. It does have the D -pad on there and it

has your settings and your start box and then

a couple other buttons. And then it's got the

two gargantuan buttons that you can... Program

everything every which way that you need to So

it's it's it's rather Interesting how they they

got this this device And it allows people that

can't play games to be able to do it and it fits

across your lap But ultimately if you're unable

to hold that little tiny controller with buttons

and you need it for this stuff It's it's honestly

a good way to go But no, I thought that bringing

this up we should bring that up and So basically

what Steve is trying to do And he actually made

all all over the internet like vice .com and

things Which is awesome to to bring attention

to that He says, when I started, I thought being

blind was just my niche, differentiating myself

from other gaming channels. At first, my channel

was just about how I sucked at video games. That

was the comedy of it. But he was invited to a

conference by Ubisoft and was on a panel with

other people talking about it. And then he says

he realized that he wasn't that he sucked at

games. It was the game sucked for me. Right.

And he said that. So he kind of gives it. entertaining

and educational looks into the world of visual

impairment and You know kind of has it more or

less as a jumping -off point For for the bigger

talk on it And and he's not wrong. I mean games

are pretty much made for like even me I'm not

like my hands. I I have like these intense pain

in my hands Right time to time and it makes it

very difficult for me to even Play a game for

very long like I can't anything more than like

45 minutes on a controller and my hands are just

dying and and so like I think I have like some

kind of a chronic like arthritis or something

in my hands and that's it's not really a disability

it's just I mean it kind of turns into one but

it's not inherently one that I had so I kind

of get where You know how how older consoles

were you know a little bit easier? Despite the

fact that They weren't disabled friendly Right

yeah exactly But Yeah, he says he's got the involuntary

eye movement which makes it hard for his eyes

to focus Which he has the the glasses to help

with that But yeah, I mean it's I totally resonate

with that. I mean, it's even though I don't suffer

physically from it I Can definitely see we're

bringing awareness to it to allow people to even

be able to get in that entry of it is a good

idea Absolutely So what are you some of your

thoughts on it? I mean, yeah, like, you know,

you were saying about the the you know your eyes

and how he was saying about his with what what

he has to do for me. I have because of the I

don't know if it's because of the object, I have

to at revere what it's because of. But my eyes,

I don't actually see them doing this. But if

you look at me close enough, my eyeballs will

just be shaking all over the place. And for me,

I have total center vision with my right eye.

My right eye is my dominant eye. My left eye,

I have like maybe 0 .5 % center vision, it's

all peripheral. So if I'm standing here in my

room, looking at the wall, that's what my right

eye sees. My left eye can move all the way over

to the left. I can see my nightstand, what I

have on my nightstand and my closet without actually

turning my head to the left. The problem with

my right eye having it be the dominant eye is

I have zero Peripheral like I have to actually

turn my head to the right to be able to see stuff

on my right side Because I have no peripheral

vision in that it's so so weird and I'm glad

that Steve is tough Steve Saylor is talking about

this stuff because Everybody has something everybody

whether it's blindness, whether it's whatever,

I'm glad he's bringing awareness to this. I hope

it keeps up. I hope he can spread his message

as far as and wide as possible because game companies

need to know this, not just Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation,

Microsoft, but like the game developers need

to know this. So that way they can still work

on the awesome games that they want to create

but also incorporate things for visually impaired

people Yeah, and I totally agree with you I think

that this this is something that's kind of long

overdue as far as gamers are concerned because

even in this article it says that You know, there's

a large population of That kind of suffers from

this disability a disability According to able

gamers foundation there are 33 million disabled

gamers in America alone so I mean by by him bringing

you know the The notice to it and and there there

usually are a few people that that do things

like this It's it's still nice to see it Right

just as a goodwill thing even But you can find

out more about their their charity able gamers

org if you're looking for more information on

that And they use the hashtag so everyone can

game Absolutely, so speaking of things that they

kind of traverse into the gaming field and Kind

of fitting into custom capabilities for people

Batman the animated series is kind of making

its own comeback in in not only comic form but

There's a person online that's been making custom

figures using the animated series to make some

of the other Batman properties such as the 1989

movie and returns Yes, this is from Zillow 1984

if I'm saying that Instagram name wrong, I am

sorry He doesn't just make it isn't just the

the animated series figures it's I mean that's

mainly what it is, but Basically, he's doing

them in the style of 89 and they look really

really cool very very cool actually like I mean

you look at the Batman and and Joker one he basically

has the Batman 89 Batman logo and then the bottom

it has the animated series part of it and Joker's

face looks just like Mark Hamill, but he's dressed

as Jack Nicholson's character same thing with

with Batman looks like the Kevin Conroy Batman

except it's in the black 89 suit So it's very,

very cool. I think all of these look really,

really interesting. He actually does a before

and after shot on Instagram of what the Catwoman

BTIS figure looks like. So her gray with the

black gloves and all of that. And he turns that

into the Michelle Pfeiffer version. He did Nightwing

from Nightwing and Batgirl from Batman and Robin.

Well, what's funny is he uses the He uses the

figures that are the 20th anniversary ones Mm

-hmm Or the you know, whatever the DC collectibles

ones are where they're fully detailed And he

he actually redid quite a few different people

he's done poison ivy like totally did a head

swap Recreation with the better hair with the

color accuracy and the face is color accurate

He's done the Nightwing from it for the like

Batman and Robin And Batgirl from that he's done,

you know, the majority of the the bat films out

of those He's got a Ninja Turtle with like an

April O 'Neil Yep He's even got You know the

the Catwoman from the long Halloween. He's got

like before -and -after photos of like the Joker

being painted The 89 Batman one I think is is

pretty awesome actually And then he's got almost

kind of a you know, the Michael Keaton face drawn

on it Yeah, which which is immensely cool and

he's also got a lot of the other kind of You

know the Joker's trio make -em -laugh episode

the Rat Pack Mm -hmm, which is funny to me actually

But no, I mean it's really cool to see the amount

of work and effort that goes into these these

figurines and That some of it is custom -made

Specifically so that they're they're fully detailed

Yeah, absolutely and it is super cool I Really

dig a lot of his designs like They're really

nice Yeah, and in like even like the the poison

ivy thing like he sells the heads oh Very cool.

Yeah, so you can swap them out and in some of

the other figures so Yeah, definitely somebody

you should check out. I'm gonna link that in

the show notes, so you'd be able to to check

it out I really want to see I mean granted a

lot of his stuff is very very detailed compared

to the the master Figures that we get presented

originally He has a lot more detail and makes

them look a lot more show accurate which is again

It's you have an individual carving it instead

of a machine mass producing so it's going to

look better But That being said Custom figures

are actually something that that have always

interested me In more ways than one Like the

Beast Wars figures a long time ago they they

used to have They used to have It was on unicorn

calm they had this thing called alterations for

transformers figures and Used to look at him

because people would remake And I don't know

if they still have this section. I'll have to

check but they they used to have All of these

these transformers on there that People would

custom rebuild such as like Beast Wars Megatron

from From Beast Wars and he's the dragon Mm -hmm

They they completely rebuilt him so that the

wings are accurate and so that you could actually

make him so he Could wrap up and turn into the

Beast Machines version. Oh Wow, very cool. Yeah,

and I always wanted to duplicate that but I was

never good enough at it and they made optimal

Megatron on there and Repainted rampage and you

know done a lot of these other custom jobs to

the figures. And so I was always trying to duplicate

some of it and I never got that good enough to

do it. But I always enjoyed it. I actually did,

during the original years of Geekcast Radio,

we did a pull bag where I made a custom Batman

Beyond Return of the Joker figure. Which I still

have because I did try and sell it on eBay at

one point but nobody bought it. And I was like,

eh, it's probably because it's custom and nobody

wants custom, they want the actual. But it took

a Nightwing figure, sanded down the Nightwing

crest on the chest. And after smoothing it out,

I popped the head and replaced it with one of

those, the Joker figures that they made from

Justice League Unlimited. yeah and I swapped

out the head and then I shaved down the hair

and then painted it over and it looks like Batman

Beyond Joker which was a lot of fun to do yeah

it was I remember you doing that very cool yep

and and so like now I I got bored a couple weeks

ago and I rebuilt well I took an old Hot Wheel

Matchbox car and I repainted it to look like

my old 80s truck, which I did a surprisingly

good job at it. There's there's some aspects

where I could be nitpicky on the paint because

nonetheless my hand not very steady, but I didn't

have the right shaped bristle to do some of the

finer details. But I basically because they don't

make the 89 S15 GMC vehicle. So I bought a Hot

Wheel car and a Johnny Lightning car, which actually

that one's more accurate, but I bought them of

the 91 GMC Sonoma Cyclone. And it looks pretty

close, but there's some aspects that are different.

The boys actually had a late 80s, early 90s Dodge

Dakota Matchbox car. And the paint was flaking.

It was red it had like the the rally package

thing in the back where it's got like the The

roll bar things and the the the bed of the truck

that that have the lights on the top Over right

now. I cut those out and then I repainted the

whole thing to look like my truck in it It actually

surprisingly it has the boxy feel that I was

looking for it has the the stuck -out bumpers

and then it It's got it actually has like shocks

in this thing which was surprising Because none

of the hot wheels have shocks in them And this

was like before hot wheels owned matchbox So

I had a lot of fun painting this thing and then

I was able to push it down it's it looks good

now I still want to write the words GMC where

they're supposed to go but I can't get my hand

steady enough to write it with Paintbrush without

having to repaint the black. So I just right

don't But I I subtly hinted it at Hot Wheels

on Twitter. I was like, hey look what I made

Like I think you should make a GM CS 15 and make

it look like this and then I posted a picture

of my truck with it, but They liked it if they

ever do great, but I doubt it. I just right I

was like purposely Hey, let's see if this happens,

you know, yeah, exactly You don't know if you

don't ask and maybe it'll put a thought like

maybe we should make the 89 s15 Yep But yeah,

so I it Customizing figures from time to time

or customizing toys is something I rather enjoy

Yeah, I wish I had that level of talent I don't

I'm not talented. I just cuz they in all honesty,

they'd look like hot garbage when you're up close,

but the Hot Wheel car, I was somewhat impressed.

The Joker, I kind of botched part of the face

because I had to repaint a decent chunk of it

to make it kind of uniform with the return of

the Joker aesthetic. But I guess I wonder, and

this is kind of a question for the for the listeners

on this, do you, one, I mean, question one, do

you suffer from any accessibility issues for

gaming? And if you do, let us know what it is

so we can bring that up on the next episode.

And then as far as comeback, or not comeback,

but as far as custom figures are concerned. Have

you ever bought custom figures or made your own

custom figures? I would be interested to know

that and if you have you have send us some pictures

because I Would be very interested in seeing

what level of complexity you've managed to tackle

Yes, that would be very cool to know I have not

bought any custom figures I Don't know I just

I Have this Problem now? Where? Problem? Yes,

problem. Where I'm kind of over the whole toy

thing except for one piece of it only because

they're easy to collect and I don't have to catch

them all but I like catching the ones that I

like from the franchises that I like and I don't

know like regular action figures take up too

much room. And if you have too many of these

things, they take up too much room as well. However,

I just can't get away from fun because they just

the level of detail that these these artists

put into them, the level of detail any artist

puts into any toy. I absolutely appreciate. But

I have never like. You take Neil TV's Mr. Neil's

cell shaded illustration of me and. you know,

you take it to Hasbro or whoever, you know, sure,

I'd love to have a custom figure of myself, but

I've never actually wanted a custom figure of

say, like your Batman Beyond Return of the Joker.

Because I'm just like, I can watch the movie.

I don't know, like I understand why people want

them and like them and enjoy them. And that's

great. I absolutely there's a lot of customizers

out there that I love and respect. It's just

it's not one of those things for me, I guess

No, I totally get it though. Yeah And besides

if you watch that one big bang theory episode

customization for yourself is very expensive.

Oh, yeah. Yeah $500 for a little five inch figures

of yourselves But it's the Star Trek Mego style.

I don't care Yeah, I wouldn't pay that But you

know, but yeah, yeah I I would I I'm not gonna

lie if I could find a way to make custom action

figures of myself Probably would I Know that

it's possible. I don't know if I want to tackle

it But yeah, I mean I would be interested in

seeing if anybody's actually done any of this

And if they can send an email feedback at GeekCastRadio

.com or just leave it on the social media for

either GeekCastRadio or AlteredGeek, that would

be awesome because I would love to see it. Yeah,

absolutely. And how it came out. Now, other custom

things that I kind of dig into are graphics.

So when I don't want to buy vector art from somewhere,

I teach myself how to remake it. Hey, that's

good. At least you're not stealing it. No, I'm

not stealing it, but it looks identical. So you

could infer that it's stolen, if you so choose,

but it's not. I just taught myself how to do

it, and then it's no longer an issue. Exactly

because if you teach yourself a new skill you

can then hone that skill and You know go forward

with it. Yeah, so so for instance if you haven't

noticed by now why haven't you but Geekcastradio

.com is going through a gradual refit as it were

and the logo has totally changed the style has

changed a lot of the podcasts are getting a new

look for the the podcast art and There's a little

bit of uniformity because at the bottom they're

gonna say the gcrn down at the bottom but for

the rest of it, they're gonna be very custom

and I've been teaching myself new skills new

how to make things how to Replicate things that

I've seen so like I taught myself Photoshop for

the most part as well as neon text and neon graphics

and That kind of 80s aesthetic, almost transformer

-ish, but not. So I've had a lot of fun doing

that. The funny thing is, is on the Geekcast

Radio podcast art, the microphone that's on there,

I actually saw one similar, and I made some tweaks

to the design, but I essentially made that from

scratch. Right based on the concept of another

one. I saw but again free and then I I did the

same thing with like tune cast and studio 2009

Yes That one the the microphone was custom. I

did that the television screen That's there.

I made that from scratch as well. That was the

one I was pertaining to with the custom art Yep,

I looked at one. I made it. I think mine's better

And then the the controller Which is there in

the art? Yep. I made that from scratch as well

Very cool So it's got the d -pad. It even says

geek cast radio network It's got start select

and everything glows on it neon and I figured

you know, why not? Let's see if I can do it and

I pulled it off That's sorry. It's like I surprise

myself not to some conceited or anything, but

It was you know what? Yeah, and it is an accomplishment

because again The 11 12 13 years you've been

doing this, you know, you've grown each time

with like the graphics you're doing now compared

to the graphics you were doing in like year two

or year three of the network totally different

totally more refined you know oh yeah it's it's

it's so weird to go back and look at the old

stuff that i came up with and then look at the

modern stuff and i i just it i cringe looking

at some of the old stuff But I remember like

what I learned along the process. So like as

I revamp things, I changed the look, I changed

the style, I changed the, you know, just pretty

much everything. More so because I get bored,

but every now and again, I'll do I do like a

mass revamp like what I'm doing right now. So

even while this is being recorded. Even though

it's the beginning of the week. I came up with

a new Style for the pull bag and I'm sure by

the end of the week. I'll have figured out another

art as well There you go, but yeah, so I mean

that's that's pretty much the episode this week

Yeah, I'll say this and I'll send you this so

you can Add the new stuff to it or you might

have the original original. I don't know. You

probably do You always keep all your original

files It's funny because every now and then when

I do share stuff online Not that I don't share

stuff online, but when my memories pop up Certain

times of the year, obviously this is we're recording

this June 1st, 2000 2020, and it's our 11 -year

anniversary at GCRN. Well, guess what pops up

in my memories? The logo image from year one

to year 10. And I'm like, oh my God, look at

all these different logos and look how far Steve

has come in his logo design because, wow, some

of these I really dug back then. Next to year

11 now, my favorite still is year seven's main

GCRN logo. um but yeah oh boy yeah yeah i i just

and that's great and funny enough i looked at

the old art altered geek logos and i was like

oh wow it's changed quite a bit so but yeah i

think that about rounds it up this week so how

can the good people get a hold of you Let's see

Twitter at TFG when Mike you can find me on Facebook

at TFG to Mike I'm on Instagram, but I don't

really use Instagram like I should I guess I

Only have it because of certain creators that

I follow that are on it So there's the hat I

Don't know Works for me I'm I can be found at

SCP -21, so until next time, get altered, get

geeky with the Altered Geeks.