Colorblindness and video games

[Limewater]

I know at least a couple of other regular posters have mentioned that they suffer some form of colorblindness (there are several types). I think it might be fun to mention different games where this has been an issue and affected your ability to play. JFE2 mentioned having a hard time seeing Great Tiger/Tiger Singh's jewel flash in the NES and Wii versions of Punchout!.

Here are some times where I have had trouble.

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages-- In one or both of these (I don't remember), there is a game where you have to try to hit a ball into some blue statues and not hit the red ones. I cannot easily distinguish the statues and thus had to play this game over and over until I won by luck.

I have not played Link's Awakening DX, but I am guessing it probably has a couple of similar issues. I could be wrong, though. I only played the monochrome version of that game.

Wario Ware Inc.-- There is a microgame that simply consists of a picture of a Gameboy Advance with some button combination indicated in red. I could not distinguish which buttons were red within the time limit. I only ever passed this microgame on dumb luck.

Guitar Hero series -- I just started playing these games because I got them for my wife after she had fun with Guitar Hero III at her brother's house. I have a hard time seeing the red dot indicating that I need to hit the red/second button/fret. Usually I'm OK, but this has occasionally caused me to miss notes because I simply did not see them. I'm going to get a component cable (I'm playing on a PS2 on composite on a small HDTV right now). Hopefully that will help.

Also, on Guitar Hero III (and probably the others as well), there have been a couple of times that I was supposed to hit the yellow button. The indicator on screen does not look yellow to me at all. I couldn't figure out which button I was supposed to hit, so I had to ask my wife. I don't like color codes.

Dr. Mario-- I can actually play this game, but I'm just pretty bad at it. I can very easily overlook the red viruses on the screen, and I occasionally have difficulty distinguishing the yellow and blue viruses and pill colors from each other. I'm not actually certain that the other two colors are yellow and blue.

Puzzle Quest games -- I have a hard time distinguishing a few of the colors on the playfield. Sometimes, I would think I was making a great move, and then discover that I had just lined up blue and purple or something (I don't remember which colors specifically messed me up).

There are probably others, but I don't remember off the top of my head.

[MrPopo]

Resonance of Fate uses a hex-based overworld map, and sometimes you have to unlock a colored hex using the appropriate colored item. A few people on the GameFAQs boards have been having problem with it.

[Ivo]

It's not quite as much as 1 in 10, but it is a unexpectedly large % of males that have color blindness. So this is actually something that should be considered by devs as males are the primary demographic for most games.

[yomomma1]

It's not quite as much as 1 in 10, but it is a unexpectedly large % of males that have color blindness. So this is actually something that should be considered by devs as males are the primary demographic for most games.

On some multiplayer games you can change the color of your teamates names to from green to Blue and Enemies from red to orange.

[Ivo]

On some multiplayer games you can change the color of your teamates names to from green to Blue and Enemies from red to orange.

I meant (but didn't write) that more devs should pay attention to it. I know some already consider this and implement small usability fixes - likewise for left-handed control options on some games.

In terms of PC games this could even be something implemented on a higher level through the OS or something like that.

Ivo.

[lisalover1]

It's not quite as much as 1 in 10, but it is a unexpectedly large % of males that have color blindness. So this is actually something that should be considered by devs as males are the primary demographic for most games.

[jeffro11]

I am also colorblind I have what they call Deuteranopia. It's a huge deficiency in the Red and Green department, basically I see yellow. All the time. There are many games that are VERY hard to play because of this. Games for example that say "move when the green light comes on, stay when red" is almost impossible for me to do. Anyways I digress... Welcome to the club!

[Limewater]

Games for example that say "move when the green light comes on, stay when red" is almost impossible for me to do.

What games do this? Most of the time I've encountered red lights and green lights in video games, they've been differentiated spatially or combined with other cues, like a voice saying, "Ready, Set, GO!"

[jeffro11]

Can't name any off the top of my head. Games are only the tip of the iceberg though, How about red and green icons denoting if something is available or enabled in software or websites...





What differences?

[Limewater]

Grrr....

I just encountered another game-breaking color-blindness issue. This time in Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril.

The third boss has, like, six different attacks, and she changes color to indicate which attack is coming. If you've played Battle Kid, you know that you pretty much HAVE to know what attack is coming at any given moment if you hope to survive. I may just be SOL here, because I have no idea how I'll be able to fake it through this battle.

Well, I guess at least there's a decent shot I can actually contact Sivak and suggest he avoid doing something similar in the upcoming sequel.