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)...

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.

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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