Custom Flashlight Controller

[Scoots]

How hard do you think this would be to make....a custom "flashlight" controller, that when shown on various parts of your screen would illuminate dark areas in a game, like in a Resident Evil type game, say. Maybe a gun controller in one hand and a flashlight in the other?

[Gamereviewgod]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding here, but wouldn't it just be easier to increase the birightness on the TV????

[Scoots]

Yeah, you're misunderstanding. I'm saying make a game where the room is pitch dark until you shine the flashlight controller on some portion of it. Make it an actual feature of the game.

[Gamereviewgod]

Ah, gotcha....Silent Hill had this feature so you could see in darker areas I beleive. It's been done, but I think alot of game makers use the dark to increase atmosphere which is why it's not included.

[Arcade Antics]

Ah, gotcha....Silent Hill had this feature so you could see in darker areas I beleive. It's been done, but I think alot of game makers use the dark to increase atmosphere which is why it's not included.

Scoots is asking about a flashlight controller though, not just a flashlight feature like in Silent Hill, or even 2600 Haunted House.

He's suggesting that you shine a flashlight (controller) at the screen to see things that would otherwise be hidden in the darkness. I don't believe any gaming companies have attempted the actual flashlight yet, but I like the idea. :)

[chadtower]

Man, I hope players of that game have arms/shoulders in excellent condition... my arms would be really heavy after a few minutes of that.

[Arcade Antics]

Man, I hope players of that game have arms/shoulders in excellent condition... my arms would be really heavy after a few minutes of that.

LOL But what a workout! I get the same effect from playing the light gun games "John Woo Style."

[bargora]

Since light-gun games have been around for home systems since at least 1984 (Duck Hunt), I'm sure that this feature could be easily implemented using the same technology. :)

Using it well so that it's more than just a gimmick would probably be the hardest part. Plus, if you're using one hand to point the flashlight, it could make it hard to use the controller with tht other hand to decapitate/dismember/disembowel the zombie revealed lurching toward you in the feeble glow of your flashlight...Unless you had a light gun in one hand and the flashlight in the other! Or maybe you'd have one of those cool gun-mounted flashlights like you see on TV or in the movies.

[Scoots]

Plus, if you're using one hand to point the flashlight, it could make it hard to use the controller with tht other hand to shoot/decapitate/dismember/disembowel the zombie revealed lurching toward you in the feeble glow of your flashlight...

Exactly. Use that to create drama though. Have a feature where you have to remember to "change batteries" in your flashlight every so often (or just put real batteries in it) and use that to add drama. While RE and similar games can scare some people, generally you are being "guided" into the scary stuff. With a flashlight you're left to stumble on it just as you would "in the real world."

[chadtower]

Buh, what I find scarier than any game is "overuse of quotation marks".

LOL

[Scoots]

I think you're "real cool."

[Anonymous]

I think it would be a cool idea. The thing about flashlights though, is that you can change the angle of them, and that wouldn't come across very well in the game, unless you had a controller that had a more sophisticated sensor.

[bargora]

I suppose it could also make sense to have the game set up so that when your flashlight beam reaches the edge of the screen, your view turns toward that direction (either free-look or changing the facing of your character).

[Scoots]

Wait till you hear my idea for SimGarageDoorOpener 2K3.

[davidbrit2]

Okay, it's a cool idea, but there's one technical problem with implementing it like a traditional light gun. Light guns need a fairly bright spot on the screen to see the electron gun's position. Shining the flashlight on a dark screen wouldn't do a whole lot of good, since the controller wouldn't be able to see the screen anyway. Light guns get around this by doing a white screen flash when you pull the trigger, but a flashlight controller would require almost constantly knowing where it's pointing. You'd have a strobe light effect from your TV, in other words. The other way to do it would be the method Sega uses for their projection screen light gun games. They have an array of infrared sensors along the top and bottom edges to find the position, since projection screens can't be read using the gun scanning method anyway. You could make a little array of sensors that rest on the TV like with the Power Glove, but the effort required for constructing such a controller would probably far outweigh the usefulness.