Skip to main content

menu

Library • Museum • One Switch 100

One Switch Roots

PART One: One Switch Roots

The beginnings of electric one button games, electronic assistive technology, and one-switch gaming.

Accessible Gaming Controller

Possum Helps The Paralysed. Black and white still from a short 1960s film from Possum. The image is of a man in pyjamas lying in bed, looking towards an electric typewriter. White italic text overlays this scene, reading, Possum Helps the Paralysed.

Colin McDonnell playing an on-line one-switch game on a early 2000s PC.

Midway Table Tennis wall game. Glowing backlit scene of a woman in late 1960s clothing about to return a ball to a man on the other side of the table.

FRED 1972 stretched hexagonal computer in black. Simple control panel on front of switches and lights. Smiley face and coloured dots speckle the front panel. RCA printed on bottom. Black and White CRT RCA TV to right. Tape deck and cards. In back-ground two boards on window-shelf. Flexible Recreation and Education Device. And Can Computers be fun? Fred is for all ages. With pink smiley.

El Toro pinball being played using sip-puff in 1972 or 1973.

Drop Zone 4 view of the cabinet, with black and white monitor with three rows of sparsely positioned horizontal rectangles. Above bands of grey sky, to the left a score and bombs dropped indicator. At the top a blocky plane. The cabinet has a small button marked

Close up of two horses falling in Atari's 1975 arcade game Steeplechase.

Part One Rooms

1 The Birth of One Switch Games
2 POSM
3 Reaction Tester
4 Remote Controlled Wall Games
5 FRED
6 El Toro
7 Drop Zone 4
8 Steeplechase
9 Shooting Gallery and TV Powww!
10 Canyon Bomber
11 Handheld
12 Bowling
13 Air Attack
14 Team Play
15 Pre 1981 Electronic Assistive Technology
16 MAVIS

TV Powww! With TV presenter in late 70s US white jumpsuit with Quadradoodle graphics in the background.

Canyon Bomber arcade machine.

Bandai Incredible Hulk hand-held LED game.

Bowling being played by a young woman in a wheelchair, using a headwand.

Green blocky PETSCII graphics of Air Attack. A plane over a cityscape.

Team Player game variation instructions snippet from Atari VCS Space Invaders.

View of a 1912 Optophone device being worn by a blind man in London.

MAVUS computer being used by a young girl with help from her Mum.

OneSwitch home Up button