Got fed up with cheap assed controls. I used to own (WAY back) one of the Logitech 'Immersion' force feedback mice. It basically had a bunch of vibration modes for when you hovered, clicked etc. Was fucking awesome and I'm bummed that the tech never caught on. That mouse died a long time ago. (I literally rubbed the bottom off of it from use and went though several teflon tape revisions to keep it running. Eventually they stopped supporting drivers for it and OSes no longer played nice with the vibration, so it was pointless to go on.) Since then I've been a cheap fucker about mice. Never more than 30 bones or so. (The Immersion mouse was 90 bux in 1999 dollars.)
Anywho, Woot had a deal the other day on a movie tie in mouse that also happened to be a high end gaming mouse. Twas the Razer Tron edition mouse. Does up to 5600dpi and has a bunch of lil buttons on the side and LIGHTS UP and MAKES A TRON LIGHT CYCLE WOOSH SOUND WHEN IT'S PLUGGED IN OR YOU BOOT YER 'PUTER.
It's badass. Anyway, Woot had it for 30 bones. It's listed everywhere at between 99 and 130, so I consider it an awesome dealio.
I'm also historically a mousing surface snob. I bought one of the first Everglide mouse pads. (Everglide was the first specialty gaming mouse pad joint.
I wore it out by eventually rubbing the surface smooth. Was a good pad though. Lasted four years or so. Then I boughted the Everglide Giganta, which was lolxboxhuge version of the original. That lasted about the same amount of time.
The most recent one was a Razer eXactmat, which is a huge aluminum bodied monstrosity with a thinner plastic coating. It worked about as well, cost more, and lasted half as long maybe. One benefit was that both sides had the surface on it, so in the end I got about the same four years or so.
Before Xmas I said fuck it. I'm not going the pussy store bought route anymore. I wanted to figure out what the best possible mousing surface was. It needed to be really strong, really reflective to a beam of light but at the same time reflect in a
course way, and really really smooth when you slide something across it. I didn't wanna be able to rub the surface off again.
What the hell is as smooth as glass but still reflects light in a really sorta bumpy way? Motherfucking carbon fiber bitches, that's what. So I poked around and saw that they actually already make carbon fiber mouse pads. Or so they say. Most of them were actually a shitty piece of plastic with a shitty piece of "carbon fiber look" vinyl on 'em.
Fucking lame. So after digging I found some real ones. They were all 8 inches by 6 or 7 and cost sixty bux or more. And they were all really thin. Also fucking lame.
I knew I could do better. So I just started looking for carbon fiber plates. There was a joint selling 12x12 inch, 4mm thick plates for fifty bones. Cheaper than the designed-as-a-mousepad versions and about the same price as the "Pro" gaming mouse pads from Razer. (Which are still great but I wanted to go hard fucking core yo.)
So I got my friggin' carbon fiber plate that came with warnings about using machine tools to cut it and I got my friggin' pimpass mouse that glows and goes FREEOWER when you turn it on. Here's pics -
Moral of the story is get a friggin' 12 inch carbon fiber plate to use for your mouse if you like big mouse pads that will prolly never wear out. Got the mouse today, but been using the pad for a couple-few weeks and there aren't even any little micro scratches on it yet.
I've already shown ya'll my pimpass microswitch keyboard (Classic 104 Black) from Unicomp that goes CLICKY CLICKY CLACKY so I won't belabor you with more pics, but assume that my opinion on it is just as high if not higher than ever. Soon Imma buy a second one and a bag of new switches and stick them on a shelf just in case the company ever goes under. Nothing in the world like a steel framed Model M keyboard updated with the latest tech.
Show me yer friggin' mouse/controller/keyboard/awesomesauce please.
The Free Talk Live BBS
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Topic: Video Games, The Hardware Edition. (Read 1824 times)