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Keyboards, Pads, Mice, and Gadgets. https://forum.dead-donkey.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=6746	Page 1 of 1

Author:

spudthedestroyer [ Tue Dec 14, 2004 10:52 pm ]

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Keyboards, Pads, Mice, and Gadgets.

Thought a thread was warranted, since everyone loves gadgets. First up I'll talk about this cool little device I got called the Nostromo n52 (cool on two counts, its cool, and its named after the ship in Alien

). Some of you will have seen it before, or think they have since this is the second iteration of this excellent 'pad'. It really isn't as much a pad as it is a customisable keyboard. I was searching for a while to find a decent input device, looking particularly at programmable keyboards. Unfortunately there wasn't really one that I was looking for, then I saw rave reviews about the Nostromo n52
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductP ... _Id=157024

Now this is a gamers thing, if your not into games, skip ahead, if you are read on. As you can see from the official homepage if you clicked, its bloody popular:

Quote:

Due to the overwhelming popularity of this product, we are temporarily out of stock. Please check back soon.

Its infact one of Belkin's proudest products and rightly so. Its really well made. What you have is 3 rows of keys, 14 in total, a mouse scroller, a red action button (missles go! :lol:

) a nice dpad, and then a 15th key down below these. All of these keys are programmable and customisable, and on top of that, you have four layers of slections (normal, red, green, and blue shift - toggle or shift selection).

Now this thing is well made, the 'grip' or more accurately rest is adjustable for chinese midgets or fat americans, and you just rest your hand over it. Naturally your fingures go over the arrowed keys, 3.7.8.9 so these are normally your up, down and strafe. I got it just before HL2, and its great, particularly when I now press a key and it goes straight to my weapon, no more clumsily having to switch with the mouse scroller or hit 4 three times. Particuarly useful is the thumb key, 15, which in rome total war I have set as hault and cancel fire at will... so its useful for archers. No more nailing all the people in the back of the heads when you send your troops into charge.

The real use for this, and where it really shines in FPS. In the reviews I was reading, they upped their kill counts significantly, i'm not that into online gaming but if you are, and you find yourselves reaching round the keyboard then this might help.

Similarly if you play games that involve hestitations looking for keys, or are just pissed off with the keyboard then this might be worth looking at.

The price is decent. Try ebay if your getting skanked!

The major downside is if your a lefty, you don't have one :mrgreen:

But who cares about you right? lol, no i think they maybe doing a left handed one, but I'm not sure how people have adapted, most lefties I know use the normal mouse setup anyway.

Here are some reviews:
http://www.extremereviews.net/data.php? ... ype=review (I don't really agree with the cons, the only buttons that are 'hard to press' are the red and 15, but that's quite good, since fatal controls you want just out of the way of the reach (ie. nuke :lol:

) )
http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=453 (mac compatible? I dunno, guess it is 9/10 here)
http://www.computingondemand.com/review ... age1.shtml
http://www.gruntville.com/reviews/misc/belkin_n52/ *very detailed, very cool review

Will post more gadgets later, feel free to rave/slate your own

Author:

spudthedestroyer [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:49 am ]

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oh boy, oh boy! Geeks all hail...

Psykopat wrote:

What appears to be a Russian design company has on their website a keyboard in which the keys are using OLED
to display what function the keys represent. The product is Art. Lebedev Studio's Optimus Keyboard.
The uses of this could be amazing. They have pictures of layouts for Photoshop and Quake, as well as a QWERTY
and Russian.
Here's hoping that this will make it to a production model and not just a design model.

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus

Damn that thing looks sweet

Author:	antropomorphic [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:29 am ]
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here's my programmable indestructible gamers thing it's also kinda a keyboard since you plug your keyboard in he back & the stick in your ps2port

Author:	spudthedestroyer [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:13 pm ]
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I bet its cool for emulation and retro games, but i can't imagine using it for Rome: Total War

Author:	PC_Arcade [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:19 pm ]
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I've got an X-arcade, although I never use it since getting the Arcade cab. That keyboard looks cool as fuck, but I bet it's hideous to type on, the keys aren't concave at all

Author:	antropomorphic [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:20 pm ]
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the manual says it can be set to analogue as well,but I haven't tried it yet since I'm more into MAME & old console emulators but there's nothing better for MAME than this(It's made from original arcade hardware with lifelong guarantee )

Author:

PC_Arcade [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:28 pm ]

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antropomorphic personific wrote:

the manual says it can be set to analogue as well,but I haven't tried it yet since I'm more into MAME & old console emulators

Analogue EMULATION - it's digital, but will be full on analogue if set

Quote:

but there's nothing better for MAME than this(It's made from original arcade hardware with lifelong guarantee :wink:

)

mmm, I beg to differ on that score depending on which games you play in mame, the X-arcade is too sloppy for fighting and shmups and the t-sticks or happ sticks piss all over from a great hight for those games. It's VERY good as an all rounder, but if you play specific types more there are MUCH better sticks for MAME.

Besides when you've used MAME in a cab it's VERY hard to go back to a PC and X-arcade

Author:	spudthedestroyer [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:45 pm ]
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get out of my thread you crusty mame-jihadists I've never been a big mame fan, i tend to complete a game and move on, only to go back and dabble on the great ones. Its weird i love games, but i prefer more epic and engrossing ones than something you turn on for a quick play... never been a huge fan of arcade games for that reason.

Author:	PC_Arcade [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:01 pm ]
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S'cos you're too young. If you grew up when Arcades ruled gaming you'd understand

Author:	antropomorphic [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:56 pm ]
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when I was a kid,I put everything I had in arcademachines I even remember that ugly wooden Asteroids case

Author:

antropomorphic [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:58 pm ]

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spudthedestroyer wrote:

I've never been a big mame fan, i tend to complete a game and move on,

If it's something difficult you wnat,I suggest you trie the arcade version of Ghosts 'n Goblins

I dare you to finish that one on 1 credit :wink:

you wont be moving on for a long time :mrgreen:

Author:	spudthedestroyer [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:01 pm ]
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You think? I don't think it has much at all to do with that, as i know lots of people my age and much younger that have arcade boxes. Even it was applicable, surely that doesn't make sense at all the way i look at it, by that logic i should still be playing spectrums, amigas, ibm compatibles,etc. or whatever was the trend at the time? I'm not sure its anything to do with age at all, its the type of disposable play, not the actual concept of playing mame games. Never enjoyed it. All to do with engaging gameplay, story and interaction. MAME was largely about getting high score (as to feed in more money)... i just don't find that very fun or engaging. I loathe arcade gaming for this reason, they are all about really short score crapping, where as i prefer adventure, strategy, co-operative or domination style gaming models which are largely attainable beyond breif flutters in an arcade environment. Mame seems more suited to mobile phones these days, and i don't play games on portables for exactly the same reason.

Author:	killingjokezzz [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:13 pm ]
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I remember when the first Asteroids and Space Invaders boxes started to appear. They were that rare initially that you couldn't get near the bastards. So I never bothered and stuck to playing pool instead. That was instead of going to college mind.

Author:	antropomorphic [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:09 am ]
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hey,I understand the new generation of gamers don't like this anymore,have always enjoyed strategy & rpg as well,but arcade ....ahhh it's prolly as pc arcade said before;I practically grew up in the arcade and it's a completely different style of gaming,nothing to do with story or interaction,it's about reflexes,sweat running down your back as you get a cramp in your leg from standing up all the time,adrenaline,smoke,heat,... it's a completely different concept from homegaming in our lazy chair with a slice of pizza on my lap btw,I still have a speccy emulator running as well then again...I must be old

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