tinyurl.com/bzsva -> news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050727/ap_on_hi_te/games_blind_gamer_1
In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age. And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln ga ming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble. "I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like a n extension of his body. One by one, while pl aying "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated, eviscer ated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego. "I'm getting bored," Mellen said in jest as he won game after game. Blind since birth when his optic nerve didn't connect because of Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patie nt and not-so-patient playing, memorizing key joystick operations and mo ves in certain games, asking lots of questions and paying particular att ention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as "Space Inv aders" and "Asteroid," onto the modern combat games. "I guess I don't know how I do it, really," Mellen said, as he continued playing while facing away from the screen. Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7 "He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his f ather, Larry Mellen. When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs. While playing "Soul Caliber 2," Mellen worked his way through the introdu ctory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click to start the game he wanted. an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a b attle in which his character is frozen in place. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood-spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen. "He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry M ellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it w as." Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Linco ln, which opened last month. Every now and then someone will come in and think he can easily beat the blind kid. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displa ying an infectious confidence. There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said. After graduation, he plans to take a year off because he wants a break from school. When he does go to college, Mellen wants to study what else?
Blind since birth due to Leber's Disease, Brice Mellen of Lincoln, Ne b, demonstrates Friday, July 22, 2005, at DogTags Gaming Center in Linc oln, his mastery of video games. Mellen, who will be a senior in high sc hool this fall, wants to go to college to study video game design.
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