Newest Quake 'Productivity Tool' -- The CLAW

W. Starlight writes: "LinuxWorld Australia has a good article about a new type of PC game gadget called the CLAW (claw.com.au). The CLAW simply plugs into your keyboard port and has nine programmable buttons to make playing 3D shooters games like Quake easier. Also, the CLAW needs no device drivers or other software to work, hence it is operating system independent. The review has photos of the CLAW being used with a mouse to play Quake. I can't wait to try it myself!" From the number of people who sent this in, this must be second only to the Fountain of Youth among objects of untapped desire.

Comments

Do they do a Left Handed version?

[GC]

I have enough trouble having to position a mouse on the other side of the keyboard everytime some right-handed person comes and sits down at my PC.

I doubt they will do a left handed version of the Claw, (that will fit the Right hand, mouse in Left)...

Re:Do they do a Left Handed version?

[evil_one]

It says in the article that they don't have a left handed version, but are considering one.
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Why not just use the keypad?

[Speare]

When I play First Person Shooter games, I remap all the commands I need to the numeric keypad area. Then, with LEFT hand on the keypad (keyboard moved leftward), and RIGHT hand on the mouse, I have all the controls I need without hand motion.

I started this with the first Descent, but it works for Hexen II or others, too.

• / = run forward
• * = flare or torch
• 7,9 = roll left, roll right (Descent)
  7,9 = turn left, turn right (others)
• 8,4,6,2 = slew/strafe forward, left, right, backward
• 1,3 = inventory left, inventory right
• -,+ = slew up, down (Descent) -,+ = mapped to specific weapons (others)
• Enter = jump
• 0 = lay bomb, tripwire or mine
• . = crouch

There, now I don't need to spend money on a gadget that only has nine programmable keys.

Re:Why not just use the keypad?

[Accipiter]

When people look at my mapped keys for First person shooters, they're like "What the hell?!", but I've designed it for maximum efficiency.

Move Forward: Left Shift

Move Backward: Z

Strafe Left: Left CTRL

Strafe Right: Left ALT

Crouch: A

Run On/Off: X

Jump: Space

Fire/Attack: Left Mouse Button

Zoom: Right Mouse Button

In addition, I use the mouse to steer my character.

All of these keys are in one area of the keyboard, and are all easily accessable to the left hand while I steer/aim with the mouse using my right hand.

I started using this combination when I was playing Half Life, after many years of simply using the arrow keys with no mouse. That worked for wolfenstein and Doom, but not the real 3D games. My new style took a lot of getting used to, but it works well - especially for snipers. It's very efficient, and I kick ass in a game of Quake III. :)

-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

Neat, but...

[OnanTheBarbarian]

My problem with those "moulded perfectly to your grip" sort of products is that they don't fit anyone with unusually shaped hands (long/short, wide/thin). So your fingers wind up (in my case, having long fingers) sitting all curled up, well outside those cool ergonomic grooves.

They should just send the buttons, the circuitry, and the clay.

MS Strtegic Commander

[cdrudge]

I personally prefer my MS Strategic Commander. Its features include both X and Y axis, plus left and right rotation. Each axis or rotation is fully programmable. On top, it has 8 programmable buttons. Also, there are 3 buttons for the thumb to press that can select a subset of the 6 main buttons on top, for a total of 26 programmable buttons. All this for about the same price. The only down side is that it is for windows...for now.

Re:MS Strtegic Commander

[Saige]

I know the big problem with the strategic commander for a lot of people here is that it's by M$ and therefore only for Windows. But I would suggest people get working on making a driver for it, because it is quite useful - and seems to be tons better than this device. As pointed out by cdrugde, the thing moves in the x and y directions, plus twist, and then has all those buttons on top of it. And it's useful for many games - already used it on Diablo II with some success, and just about any game that makes use of the keyboard can be adapted to it.

It took me the weekend to get used to it for Quake - at first I was having a lot of trouble moving around. So I used the time to finally beat Quake 2 on single player, and in the process, got the hang of it, and am already better than I ever was with the keyboard.

Now I just need to find a good way to keep it stuck in one place on the desk - it's not quite heavy enough to handle the movement of a game of CTF without sliding a little. Going to try some sticky tack on it, see if that does it.
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Only Left Handed?

[istartedi]

Why did they do this only left handed? I mean, the original designer was probably a lefty, but certainly he realised that most... oh, wait. They're in Australia where everything is upside down, so lefties must be the majority.

Eenie meenie miney moe
Stupid voters have to go.
Inca dinca dinca do
I can do it, why can't you?

Chording Keyboard

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

When Douglas Englebart invented the mouse back in the late 60s, he also invented the chording keyboard. The idea was a lot like this claw, one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard and no need to take either hand off its designated input device.

For some reason, the chording keyboard never really took off. Perhaps because it is a little complex to start using, there is no 'hunt-and-peck' way to use a chording keyboard. You've only got five buttons and you have to remember which combination of simultaneous button presses will generate the characters you want to type.

One really good thing about chording keyboards is that because there is so little hand movement required to operate them, they are far more ergonomic than regular keyboards.

I read the article and there is no mention of chording on the claw, but it sounds like it is programmable enough that it shouldn't require any other than new software.

Now, if only it had a USB connector so I could use it on my HP workstation in the office.

Ahem...

[Fervent]

Take a look at this and this.

Not OS-independent, but a hell of a lot more swankier. Plus, it wouldn't take much effort to craft some rudimentary drivers in Linux.