One of the things I hear over and over again is the need for games that blind and visually impaired children can play. So, I'm always on the lookout for accessible toys, puzzles, and games. Hey, its a tough job, but some one's got to do it.
I've found one of the "funnest" games to hit the streets in years: Bopit ®. Not only does it encourage camaraderie and competition with its passing options and score-keeping abilities, but this game is one of the few I've seen on the general market that is completely accessible. Bopit is available at nearly any store that carries toys.
No Visual Interface:
Bopit is a large chunk of plastic that's roughly tubular and about a foot long. It has a twist handle at the top, a couple of pads to bop toward the middle (kind of like a drumhead), and a pull-tab at the bottom. This contraption yells commands at you, and you respond by either pulling, twisting, or bopping. Bopit is multi-colored, but it doesn't have high color contrast. It contains absolutely no visual interface, so a blind child has no disadvantage at all in playing the game.
How to Play:
The one thing Bopit doesn't have is accessible instructions. You can go a long way playing it without knowing all its features, but just for the record, here is how it works.
To start the game, give it a bop. Before bopping, though, you can pull to pick which kind of game to play. You can pull multiple times to select various methods for playing the game. What's so interesting and ultimately accessible about this thing is how each pull of the tab gives a different sound to indicate the kind of game you'll play. The sounds are a ratchet, a drum, and a whistle.
The ratchet sound goes rhaaaat and sounds like you got the wrong answer on a yesterday's game show. Bopping the unit after pulling to get the ratchet sound gives you a game that produces only sounds instead of voice commands to match. It gives a ratchet sound for twist, a drum for bop, and a whistle for pull. Give the tab another tug, and you'll get a whistle sound. Bopping it after the whistle sound gives you single- player mode with verbal commands. Another good pull on the thing gets you a drum sound. When in this mode, Bopit adds the "pass it" command to its other commands. When you hear, "pass it," you pass it to your neighbor. As many people as you want can play.
Remember Simon?
Bopit reminds me a lot of the old Simon ®; a game where there where four squares on the corners of a board and each square made a different sound. Simon plays a note, and you have to match it with one of the corners of the board that produces that sound. Simon then plays that sound and adds another. You hit the corners of the board for both the first and second sound. Simon then gives you another note, and you have to match all the notes again. This continues until you miss a note.
Instead of hitting corners of a square board to match what the game tells you to do, Bopit gives you some physical exercise. Bopit says, "twist it," and you grab the top of the contraption and give it a good quick twist. Then the thing might say, "bopit," and you have to give one of the drum pads a good healthy bop. Next it might say, "twist it," or "pull it," and you grab that part of this confabulation of plastic and do what you can to follow its crazy instructions.
Of course, each time you follow one of its demands for a pull, twist, or bop, the pace gets just a little faster! Pretty soon you're pulling, bopping, and twisting to a nightmare pace. Don't even try it if someone is talking to you: serious concentration is needed for playing with this little devil. Two of my friends just about got into a shouting match over whether the other, who was not taking a turn, was just plain talking or yelling! I find myself telling people to shush while I try to rack up points! It is, in short, addictive.
The Agony of Defeat:
When you finally miss a command or are just too slow to keep up the pace, Bopit yells in agony and makes a series of sounds. These sounds are your score. A whistle stands for a hundred points, the ratchet is for ten, and the drum sound is for one point. Bopit gives your score right after it yells its pangs of agony over your missing the pattern. But, you and your friends and family are so noisy yelling your own pangs you can easily miss your score. Whoever designed this thing had the blind person in mind when she came up with this jewel, because it comes with its very own review mode! Yes, just give the bugger a twist, and it repeats your score. My daughter and I have begun communicating with a twist to show high score!
Bopit has gone wild. There are people holding Bopit competitions all over the country, and you hear about it in the news, from friends and from coworkers. I asked my wife to see if she could find a Bopit at Toys R Us, ® and my daughter said, "You mean one of those cool things you twist and bop," hitting her leg as she pantomimed playing the silly thing. It seems everyone but me had already heard about Bopit.
Serious Fun:
With serious Bopit players, everyone has his own opinion of proper hand and bop techniques. There are the sitters, the palmers, and the leggers. You won't catch the sitters in any position other than in a chair, with Bopit positioned horizontally in readiness for a quick bop with the knee or upper thigh. The palmers, on the other hand, hold Bopit vertically with one hand covering both the twist and bop (with the fingers for the twist and the palm for the bop). The other hand goes to the bottom and handles all the pulling requirements of the game. The leggers are probably the more showy of this bunch. They stand and slap their thigh for the bops. While everyone is pretty passionate about the specific Bopit technique they use, it's hard to make a convincing case about the merits of your technique unless you're top dog on the score!
This article by Larry Skutchan is reprinted from APH Technology Update (September 1999).
USB Bopit Download
bopit, the only game where you relish someone telling you what to do. But wouldn't it be much funnier to have someone more familiar shouting the commands,
say yourself, or your mom, rather than the pre-programmed bossy, prefect-type? By simply plugging your bopit Download into your PC using the
supplied USB port and accessing the bopit site, you can download new sounds and alternative voices for your bopit, or even create your own customised
commands with the included microphone.
More challenging than any of its predecessors, bopit Download has 15 levels and a three times elevated high score, making sure it'll get that adrenalin
pumping as you Flick It, Twist It, bopit, Pull It and Spin It.
The central bopit Button is set to make life a bit more complex. It has dual sides, one green and one red. So when you bellow 'bopit' this may well be qualified with a colour, so you can't just slap it indiscriminately.
You can also decide whether to play Bop-It through your hi-fi to really get everyone going with a raucous group game, or plug in your headphones and
keep the clamour to yourself. It's a whole new game, and now it's programmable!
Click this link to purchase the USB Bopit Download from I Want One Of Those Ltd.
Fans of the popular Bop It game may be delighted to know that a newer version has arrived. Simply called "Bop It", the new edition goes back to the game's roots with the original three command design. A new "yell it" command adds a new twist while playing the game for longer periods of time will unlock new skill levels.
Click this link to purchase the newer Bop It from Amazon.com.
