Do you remember RTX earlier this year? During that event, we brought along an amazing Veteran, Marcus Burleson who had suffered some serious injuries in the line of duty. Marc joined us for RTX as one of our Air Assaults. While he thoroughly enjoyed the event, it was somewhat bittersweet. Marc’s injuries prevented him from gaming with standard gaming controllers.
Marcus had previously worked with the folks from Warfighter Engaged to a custom controller rig that would get him back in action, but unfortunately one of the challenges with this types of game inputs is that changes can occur during the healing process can make these highly customized controllers uncomfortable to use. This is something that Warfighter Engaged founder Ken Jones knows all too well in his quest to get our wounded heroes back to gaming.
After meeting Marc at RTX and hearing his story, we knew Stack-Up needed to help. After consulting with Ken, and thanks to the numerous generous donations we’ve received over the year, we went to work gathering the parts needed to get Marcus up and gaming again. Once all of that was done, we once more turned to Ken and Warfighter Engaged who set to task creating Marcus a brand new custom adaptive Xbox One controller. Ken gave us a nice little write up explaining the process.
Marc’s injuries include right forearm and total left arm amputations. With these injuries, the use of a standard controller is not a realistic way for him to enjoy video games.
The adapted controller made for Marc by Warfighter Engaged is a complete restructuring of a standard controller. Every user input has been replaced with a more practical means for him to play. It is made in the form of a small stand with the inputs mounted on adjustable brackets or on the floor.
Since Marc still has use of both legs, they were used as input methods.
The adapted controller works as follows: Marc’s right nub will work a button panel with the ABXY, Menu, Home and Back buttons. Without a left arm, it would be difficult to reach over to the left to hit the d-pad, so it was also added to the right side button panel.
The right stick and R3 are table mounted in a raised joystick assembly. His right knee operates a pair of mounted paddles controlling his left trigger and bumper, and his right foot works a button pair on the floor with the right trigger and bumpers. Marc’s left foot will control a floor mounted Left joystick and L3 button. The main Xbox wireless controller board is housed in a box under the table. This box has a battery housing, sync button, USB connector and power indicator light.
Marcus is also into a bit of retro gaming so to make it even cooler we also helped him out with a SNES themed adaptive controller. This controller is designed with classic gaming in mind allowing Marc to play all of his old favorites! Take a look at the pic below.
Thanks again to Ken and Warfighter Engaged for all they do to help wounded vets get back into the game. We here at Stack-Up know all to well the power of video games. We are honored to be able to help in our small part to get Marcus back up and playing again!
If you’d like to make a donation that gets sent over to our troops, Stack-Up takes lightly used PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games and gear as well as cash donations. Please help us help these vets out here:
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