Blind Video Gamer Wins Competition

Only still working link I can find to this story is at Globespot.com. Originally passed on from my girlfriend who found it at KCRA's website (a local news channel). From the associated press:

Blind Video Gamer Takes On All Comers
Blind Kid Plays A Mean 'Mortal Kombat'

POSTED: 6:58 am PDT July 28, 2005

LINCOLN, Neb. -- It's no exaggeration to say Brice Mellen is so good at video games, he can beat his opponents with his eyes closed.

Like most 17-year-olds, Mellen loves playing video games. But unlike most gamers, he's been blind since birth.

Mellen said he taught himself to play by memorizing joystick operations, asking lots of questions and paying close attention to audio cues.

His father said his son wasn't very good at first, "but he just kept on trying."

Mellen worked his way up from "Space Invaders" and "Asteroid" to such modern combat games as "Mortal Kombat."

He humbly says he can be beat. But there was no evidence of that at a gaming center in Lincoln.

One by one, he destroyed his opponents -- some of whom thought he would be an easy opponent because of his blindness.

Mellen said that when he goes to college, he wants to study video-game design.

All I can say is WOW. Glad to see that rather than wallowing in despair over his condition, he faced it head on and did what many would assume to be impossible.