A few months ago I was contacted by Jane asking about a Dream-Gamer unit for her son Callum. We talked about various possibilities and eventually we decided to try a mini-joystick to access his PlayStation 2.

Mark built the mini-joystick and we sent it for Callum to try. Today Jane sent me some comments:

After a few years of trying to find ways for our son Callum to play the PlayStation with the help of Dream-Gamer we have succeeded in our challenge and have an extremely happy gamer in the house, who can now compete with his dad and friends.

Callum has always loved cars and wanted to play rally games etc, but he found it very hard to keep the car on the road or even go in a straight line, as all the controls we tried were too fast or too sensitive.

I first contacted Mike from Dream-Racer in June to ask if I bought an item could I return it if it was not right for my son.  He instantly came back and said that we could trial some of the equipment to see which would be suitable!  We tried a couple of things, but unfortunately for Callum it was still very hard for him to be accurate.  I advised Mike from Dream-Racer and with his help and extreme patience, I explained that Callum had Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome, which has the mannerisms of Athetoid Cerebral Palsy (with a few extra habits added).  After hearing that Callum could use a remote control car quite accurately, he suggested trying the mini-mouse and advised me how to set it up. 

As you will see from the photos, we have set up the mini-joystick with 2 switches, the green one for go (forwards) and the red one for stop (reverse) the mouse is the steering.  It is so easy for Callum to use, he has been playing rally games and other road games, which all work with the system as it is all connected through a hand set for PlayStation, which has been specially made by Dream-gamer to use their Gamer equipment.

I cannot thank Mike from Dream-Racer enough, if it wasn't for him, I don't think we would have accomplished Callum's dream of being able to use the PlayStation.

Thank you Dream-Racer.

Jane & Dean Arnold & of course Callum

These are a few pictures of Callum using the Dream-Gamer mini-joystick.

Introducing the new guys: Cowley and Mongo the gorilla.

Cowley sings one of the most well know of children's songs "Old McDonald had a farm". Whilst he's singing his ears and mouth move in time with the music.

Mongo also sings a well know song "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands", As Mongo sings his mouth moves and, as you would expect, he claps his hands.

We'll adapt Cowley and Mongo in the same way as all the switch adapted Dream-Toys on our site. Essentially, each toy is turned-on and off by pressing the in-built switch in the toy's hand or foot or by pressing an external switch connected through the lead we attach to the toy.

These two toys are sure to be a bundle of fun.

We'll upload videos to Google as soon as possible but if you would like to see videos of the other Dream-Toys now, click on this link.

Mike

These are the links to the switch adapted musical toys we currently have available. They are all are loaded onto Google Video:

Links to switch adapted Christmas 2008 toys:

• Christmas Storytime bear
• Hip Hop Randy Christmas bear
• Goober (coming soon)

Links to all other switch adapted Dream-Toys:

• Arnold the snoring pig
• Allie G
• Sharpie
• Dunkster
• Sprout
• Nurserytime bear

We plan to add a few more toys to the range over the next few week. Have fun.

Mike

This week we've been busy switch adapting Christmas toys. So far, we've switch adapted all of the Hip Hop Randy bears as well as the Storytime bears; Guber is scheduled to arrive next week.

Mark has videoed the three Christmas toys as well as "Arnold the snoring pig", "Allie G" and "Sharpie" - the three we added recently. They will all be available for viewing on Google Video next week. I'll post a link from the Dream-Racer web site and this blog as soon as they are viewable.

Sunday, September 7th marks the start of Autumn Fair at the NEC, Birmingham. We are using the opportunity to look for new toys we could switch adapt. High on our list are music systems, robots and bubble machines but could be me writing my own wish list ...

Mike