Right/left hand dominant?

AUSyTyIN

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First off, I'm quasi ambidextrous, so keep that in mind. But when I play games that you can switch your dominant hand, I play with either set of controls (never right or left only). For example, on my Star Wars Trilogy it's basically a joystick that you hold with either hand. Since you can shoot as fast as you pull the trigger, my hand gets tired, and I switch to the other hand. My wife and friends seem to be in shock that I can do this.

The same holds true on my Heavy Barrel, although I just hit the buttons on the outside depending on what side I'm playing on if playing two player (to give more room between me and the other player).

I know I can't be the only one out there who can play like this. So speak up if you can play equally well with either hand.
 
I'm the same way....I guess from playing guitar and piano for years, the hand independence helps greatly.
 
The only two joystick games that I play with my right hand (and I am right handed) are Sinistar and Berzerk. I also play Millipede/Tempest CT that way since the trackball/spinner is on the right side. All other games I play left handed because that's the way they are usually set up on the control panel.
 
I'm a lefty, so I play every game left-handed if the option to do so exists. The exception is flight stick games. I play those right-handed (probably because of the way Tron is set up).

My weirdest one is how I play Warlords. I criss-cross my hands, so that the spinner is in my left hand and the catch button is in my right.
 
I can do that to. I am ambidextrous.
But i can do anything equally with either hand.
I am a dentist and i used to practice 2 days a week left handed and 3 days a week right handed.
1 office was set up left handed and the other office was right handed.
All sports i can do left or right, baseball, golf.
But i am left handed for writing.
 
Games like Heavy Barrel I go left hand joystick, right hand buttons. Games with flight stick and trigger I go right hand joystick. It's like when I was training with my firearms for the Department of Corrections. I am a right hand dominant pistol shooter but a left hand dominant shotgun and assault rifle shooter.

When I was little I cut my right middle finger off at the top knuckle so I was in a full arm cast for a long time. This was during school when we were learning to write so I, out of necessity, am also slightly ambidextrous. (note...they saved my finger by the way so I don't look funny when giving people the bird...lol).
 
I write and throw right handed (ease and strength), but am ambidextrous. My brain does somethings naturally lefty and something righty. I open cans left handed (with right handed can openers no less), as an example.

I can beat the Twin Galaxies record on Point Blank Right handed with ease, and on most days I can do it Left Handed as well.

Over the years I have started to do more things right handed, as that is how the world seems to be set up (writing being the biggest example), but I can do anything with either and almost all things equally as well.
 
Im left handed, and right handers probably dont know how many things are actually designed for rightys. I, for some reason, still cant use my circular saw with my right hand, and so it seems to blow the sawdust into my face, for example. It seems many tools are designed to exhaust out the side that we leftys like to put our faces on.
I actually took my lawn edger apart and rebuilt it backwards to make it easier for me, but my arm still now sometimes touches the hot exhaust

Ooooooooo the humanity!!!

Im handicapped!!!!!!!
 
Im left handed, and right handers probably dont know how many things are actually designed for rightys. I, for some reason, still cant use my circular saw with my right hand, and so it seems to blow the sawdust into my face, for example. It seems many tools are designed to exhaust out the side that we leftys like to put our faces on.
I actually took my lawn edger apart and rebuilt it backwards to make it easier for me, but my arm still now sometimes touches the hot exhaust

Ooooooooo the humanity!!!

Im handicapped!!!!!!!

It sucks being a left handed shooter. I had to sell a really cool bullpup rifle because it ejected shells right into my face.
 
I'm right handed, but on games that have the stick in the center and buttons on both sides (like Gaplus), I often switch during the game.
 
we gotta be careful which way we call a game... or which way is "right" or not...

i think most games were designed for righties, in such a way that the more precise control, if there is one, is in the right hand...

so in galaga: stick in the left, because you have to time your shots precisely with the right

burgertime? (UR is ambidextrous but cocktail is joystick on the right) and thats how we play it... you want that ms. pac control using the joystick in the right hand, but fire (pepper, or salt as my girlfriend calls it, "its white") is in the left hand because its not as critical


i'd like to compile a list of all games that were ambidextrous but in some configuration forced one way or the other (burgertime ct is the only one that comes to mind at the moment, dig dug cabaret is ambidextrous but offset toward the joystick on the right...)

take it to modern fighters... i don't think i could handle all those buttons with my left hand (not like i can with my right hand either, i suck at fighting games)
- gwarble
 
I eat and write lefty....and righty for everything else - sports, guitar, games, etc.

Seems like there is a higher percentage of folks here who are ambidextrous in some way, than I would have thought. Or at least, a lot of them showed up in this thread. It's probably a skewed sampling.

:rolleyes:
 
I write right handed - as that's how i was taught. Athletically i'm naturally left handed, however, most things i can do equally well with either hand, but left is more comfortable. I'm definitely left eye dominant, and i prefer to shoot left handed.
My guess is that i'm truly left handed, but was forced to learn with my weak hand, which made me learn to use both.
 
i'm about 50%, but possibly more right. which i weird, cause everything else i am left handed on. game wise, i play pacman and satan's hollow left handed, as well as any of the multi williams games (that aren't dual stick). all my other games i play right handed. as well as my atari, which has joysticks that are oriented for right handed players.
 
I'm right-handed, and a VERY experienced Galaga player, which means lefthand on the stick and righthand on the trigger, but when I play Super Zaxxon, during the parts of the game that require super-precision flying, it's righthand on the stick and either middle finger or index finger on the stick's trigger. Middle finger can fire faster, but hand has less precision flying ability than when the index finger is on the trigger, so I switch up fingers depending on where I am on what stage. Also, in the tunnel Galaga-style flying and firing serves you better, so I switch to lefthand on the stick and righthand on the fire button for that and the Dragon sequence.
 
i'd like to compile a list of all games that were ambidextrous but in some configuration forced one way or the other (burgertime ct is the only one that comes to mind at the moment, dig dug cabaret is ambidextrous but offset toward the joystick on the right...)

Kick/Kickman is another game like that: the upright is ambidextrous, but the cocktail forces you to spin with the right hand... and I just can't play it like that!
 
I eat and write lefty....and righty for everything else - sports, guitar, games, etc.

Seems like there is a higher percentage of folks here who are ambidextrous in some way, than I would have thought. Or at least, a lot of them showed up in this thread. It's probably a skewed sampling.

:rolleyes:

There are a LOT of people who've trained their off hand to do this or that (especially natural left handers), but only 1 in 100 are naturally ambidextrous.

It's really not that hard to do a lot of things with your off hand. You just have to train yourself to do it. I'm not sure I'd really call that true ambidexterity though. If you really think about it, video games (usually) don't take that much finesse. Compare that to writing or drawing, which take a lot of fine motor skills. Writing in cursive with your off hand would be much better test.

A dentist who can practice with both hands strikes me as pretty impressive. Someone buttons their shirt with their off hand? Not so much.
 
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