Blind teenager amazes with video game ability
Posted: Monday, July 25, 2005
LINCOLN (AP) -- Brice Mellen sure plays a mean pinball.
More precisely, the 17-year-old Mellen is a whiz at modern video games such as Mortal Kombat and Soul Caliber.
In that regard, Mellen isn't all the much different from any other kid his age.
Except for one thing: He's blind.
And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble.
"I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an extension of his body, directing the character on the screen to slice, chop, punch and kick his opponent.
"I can be beat."
Those bold enough to take him on this afternoon weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing Soul Caliber 2, their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated 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 due to Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as Space Invaders and Asteroid, on to the modern, and more bloody, 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. "It's beyond me."
Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7 years old.
"He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying. ... He's broken a lot of controllers."
When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs.
"I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get along very well."
Now they get along just fine, thank you.
While playing Soul Caliber 2, Mellen worked his way through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click when to start the game he wanted.
He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he was on his own. He didn't need any help.
"How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in place.
"You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off.
"That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood- spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen.
How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father.
"He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it was."
Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then some wise guy will come in and think he can easily dispatch the blind kid.
That attitude doesn't faze the unflappable Mellen.
"I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing backwards."
There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said.
He will be a senior in high school next year in Lincoln. After graduation, he said, he wants to go to college to study -- what else? -- video game design.
More precisely, the 17-year-old Mellen is a whiz at modern video games such as Mortal Kombat and Soul Caliber.
In that regard, Mellen isn't all the much different from any other kid his age.
Except for one thing: He's blind.
And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble.
"I can't say that I'm a superpro," he said, working the controller like an extension of his body, directing the character on the screen to slice, chop, punch and kick his opponent.
"I can be beat."
Those bold enough to take him on this afternoon weren't so lucky. One by one, while playing Soul Caliber 2, their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated 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 due to Leber's disease, Mellen honed his video game skills over the years through patient and not-so-patient playing, asking lots of questions and paying particular attention to audio cues. He worked his way up from games such as Space Invaders and Asteroid, on to the modern, and more bloody, 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. "It's beyond me."
Mellen knows this much: He started playing at home when he was about 7 years old.
"He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn't very good at first," said his father, Larry Mellen. "But he just kept on trying. ... He's broken a lot of controllers."
When the question of broken controllers comes up, Mellen flashes a smile and just shrugs.
"I used to have quite a temper," he said. "Me and controllers didn't get along very well."
Now they get along just fine, thank you.
While playing Soul Caliber 2, Mellen worked his way through the introductory screens with ease, knowing exactly what to click when to start the game he wanted.
He rarely asked for help. Once the game started he was on his own. He didn't need any help.
"How do I move?" an exasperated opponent, Ryan O'Banion, asked during a battle in which his character is frozen in place.
"You can't," Mellen answered before finishing him off.
"That's what happens. It's why I don't play him," O'Banion said after his blood- spattered character's corpse vanishes from the screen.
How Mellen became so good is a mystery to his father.
"He just sat there and he tried and tried until he got it right," Larry Mellen said. "He didn't ever complain to me or anyone about how hard it was."
Mellen hangs out any chance he gets at the DogTags Gaming Center in Lincoln, which opened last month. Every now and then some wise guy will come in and think he can easily dispatch the blind kid.
That attitude doesn't faze the unflappable Mellen.
"I'll challenge them, maybe. If I feel like a challenge," he said, displaying an infectious confidence. "I freak people out by playing facing backwards."
There's nothing he likes better than playing video games, Mellen said.
He will be a senior in high school next year in Lincoln. After graduation, he said, he wants to go to college to study -- what else? -- video game design.
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