LINCOLN, Nebraska -- Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as Mortal Kombat. In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age. Except for one thing: He's blind.
And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble. "I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an extension of his body. "I can be beat." Those bold enough to challenge him weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing Soul Caliber 2, their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego. "I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game after game.
Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video-game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and moves in certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as Space Invaders and Asteroid, on to the modern combat games. "I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as he continued playing while facing away from the screen. "It's beyond me."
Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7. "He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying.... He's broken a lot of controllers." When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs. "I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get along very well." Now they get along just fine.
While playing Soul Caliber 2, Mellen worked his way through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click to start the game he wanted. He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he didn't need any help. "How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in place. "You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off. "That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen.
How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father. "He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it was." Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then someone will come in and think he can easily beat the blind kid. That attitude doesn't faze Mellen. "I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing backwards." There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said.
He will be a senior in high school next year. After graduation, he plans to take a year off because he wants a break from school. When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study -- what else? -- video-game design.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,68333,00.html
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um there is a thread like this already
next time use search button before postin ok
roger, i mentioned the story in a convo a while back and it seemed noone I've talked to then or since had heard of it, but point noted......
its cool man it was a good story, if u have an odd news or something post it on this thread :)Originally Posted by soulxtc
hehe
I'm blind and have play mk since 1992 here, still play new mk games fine, hella fun
also love killer instinct[not gold]
Awsom that he wants to go into vidio game design.
yeah. just goes to show the power of the human spirit...........the only limits to ones potential are those u place on oneself.............
I would seriously kick his ass in Pac-Man and possibly Donkey Kong.
I thinks i could beat him at eyetoy:play :P
Rest in peace mother
16.1.2006
You will always be with me.
I was tryin to be nice, but yeah I think I could kick his ass in hopefully more than one game.....and pac man at the very least, if I couldn't then i just have to turn down the volume and cheat against the little bastard................ha ha ha
or put peanut butter on his controls or possibly unplug his controller.
I bet with work he could kick everyone's ass at Pacman. You may or may not know it but with enough practice one can go undefeated in Pacman. The ghosts follow patterns.
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