Modding Game Controllers For Greater Grip

japala writes "Fast-paced videogames require a steady hand and great reflexes, it's generally agreed. But some game controllers and pads just don't seem to fit in your hand, and sometimes they slip and slide, making you miss the action. So Metku.net has tried coating videogame controllers with chemical rubber - it seems to improve grip, and possibly even your score."

Comments

my game controller is QWERTY

[krog]

because my game is nethack!

grip

[zoloto]

So Mektu.net has tried coating videogame controllers with chemical rubber - it seems to improve grip, and possibly even your score.

My girl improved her grip without the rubber so I don't know wha.. wait.

This is a game controller? Eh *tries to recover* who said love wasn't a game?

--zo

Re:grip

[BadMrMojo]

My girl improved her grip without the rubber so I don't know wha.. wait.

This is a game controller? Eh *tries to recover* who said love wasn't a game?

So that would make "your girl" the controller?

Yeah, sounds about right.

Re:grip

[Hatta]

So Mektu.net has tried coating videogame controllers with chemical rubber - it seems to improve grip, and possibly even your score.

Yeah, so imagine that... latex helps you score.

delicious!

[Tebriel]

They should have coated it in rich creamery butter. If nothing else, it would have been more delicious.

Greater grip?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd wager that most net-aware geeks with broadband access have already developed an extraordinary grip thanks in large part to non-gaming computer entertainment. Hell, I've seen geeks who have forearm imbalances like a tennis player! Trust me, geeks are finding ways to develop impressive gripping endurance.

Oooerr Matron!

[Aardpig]

But some game controllers and pads just don't seem to fit in your hand, and sometimes they slip and slide, making you miss the action.

Damn, coffee all over my keyboard. I curse my British upbringing...

Re:Oooerr Matron!

[mpaon]

there's this country to the north of the Indian Ocean; the people who live there are called "Indians" for some as-yet unknown reason.

Article Text

[Anonymous Coward]

Intro

Again, the similar kind of problem that I had with the ShinyShuttle article. Mod or a Review? In the end, a stock product gets to be something different than what it was when we started, so I think that it justifies this to be a modding article. :)

Not so long time ago, one of our forum members suggested for me to take a look at the product we are about to test in this article; Plasti Dip. Article title says Super Grip but that just felt a good name for the article and have nothing to do with the Plasti Dip Internation's Super Grip product that is mainly used for fabrics. Anyway, in this modding article we will see what these rubber coating products can offer for modders, gamers and DIY people in general. As Corpes0 from our forum told us, Airsoft enthusiasts have been using similar products to improve grip on their airsoft guns. It should be only natural for this stuff to work on computer input devices too. Read on and see how it turned out.

The product

Spray or not to spray?

Plasti Dip can be bought in two different forms/containers; Liquid and Spray. Both of them are available in different colors though not all retailers stock all of them.

Colors available are:

Black Red Blue Yellow White Clear / Transparent

The store that I visited had Clear in spray and Black, Blue and Red as liquid. I ended up choosing one spray can (clear) and one can of liquid rubber coating for this article. Price for the products were around 15 euros for each can.

Dangerous?

"Haitallinen" = Harmfull, "Erittäin helposti syttyvä" = Extremely flammable and finally "Ympäristölle haitallinen" = Danger to environment. Fish swimming with backstrokes should be a pretty clear sign that these products are dangerous if not handled properly. In fact so dangerous that they can't be sended via regular post. As always, I don't take responsibility if you manage to harm yourself with these chemicals so read the label carefully and follow the instructions to the letter.

First test

Dipping

As a first test subject I decided to use a regular adjustable wrench. This is one of the targets that these rubber coating products are meant for. Non-slip handle will make the tool easier and safer to use. Just take a piece of string or wire and dip the item inside the can so that all the areas you want to get covered are submerged. You could use for example a brush to apply the coating to the item.

Result

After at least four hours of drying you get a smooth and rubbery finish on the tool. The coat isn't too thick but you can build up the thickness but dipping the tool to the can several times. Surface feels, well, rubber and it makes the handle and the tool very comfortable to use. A good result with metallic tool, what about input devices made out of plastic?

...and possibly even your score

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean your score for volatile hydrocarbons circulating through your bloodstream?

You there, fill it up with petroleum distillate and re-vulcanize my joystick, post haste.

Better solution...underclocking

[nebaz]

It seems that overclocking the chips are all the rage these days, but I was excellent at Wolfenstein 3D when it first came out, because my computer ran at 20 Mhz and the minimum recommended speed was 25 Mhz. Slowing down the processor turns a real time game into a turn based game.

Now having said that, since overclocking requires massive cooling effects, would underclocking require that there be an external heat source? Or by underclocking, will an endothermic reaction occur, giving you a free air conditioner. Hmmm. I'll have to do some investigating here...

Re:Better solution...underclocking

[poot_rootbeer]

Slowing down the processor turns a real time game into a turn based game.

Perhaps this used to be true years ago, but modern systems use a real-time clock to determine game timing. Underclocking will reduce the number of instructions executed per second, but will not change the length of a second itself.

Re:Better solution...underclocking

[stratjakt]

Why can't I underclock? Why wont mobo mfg's allow this?

I can set the FSB on my gigabyte board to moronic levels, like 300.. Theres no safeguards for how high I can go. There's always a limit, and that limit is usually low enough that it makes overclocking a fruitless endeavor. But there's no limit on how slow it could go.

Why cant I drop it to 100 from 133? I don't always need my 3.06 ghz P4, and the temp-controlled "varies" from 4000 rpm to 4800 rpm, that is from annoyinly loud to slightly-more-annoyingly loud.

I'll have a 400mhz effective FSB instead of 533. And so what? I have a 2.0ghz celeron with a 400mhz fsb and it performs all my day-to-day functions as well as the 3.06 p4.

A modest underclock and it would run cooler, quieter, and in turn, last longer. Same for the video card. If jacking the GPU clock by 5% (a negligable performance boost in real life) increases the heat by like 50% or more, then lowering it by 5% (a negligable performance loss) should decrease the heat dramatically. Which it does, the 9800 non-pro is much cooler than the pro, and both are the same card with the non-pro clocked just slightly lower.

I'd like to run that 3.06 at about 2ghz. Plenty of speed for gaming and watching porn. I'll jack it up only when I have something big to compile.

I'm not the only one, there's a huge quiet-computer movement about, could be the next big "niche" market.. Perhaps bigger than the "enthusiasts who know nothing about what they're doing" market who desire an FSB setting that goes from 133-300+change.

Re:Better solution...underclocking

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Mentioning porn and jacking it up. I can't figure out if this is a serious post or not...

Re:Better solution...underclocking

[typobox43]

I've had to underclock a few computers before so they didn't overheat or undergo other weird problems. Not to mention that underclocking notebook computers can often save precious battery power.

Re:Better solution...underclocking

[Lawbeefaroni]

No reason? Anything? Underclocking PDAs and notebooks results in longer battery life. Most come with utilities (aka power management) that include underclocking as a power saver.

Less of use to the consumer, but still done, underclocking chips by manufacturers allow them to keep supplies of various lines of chips at demand levels.

There may be some stability gains. There are certainly power consumption decreases.

But most of all, someone might want to overclock...because they can.

I see they call you Gigahertz. You might want to try underclocking to see what kind of stability gains you get.

"slip and slide"

[hal2814]

I've used a wide variety of controllers from the old 2600 to newer X-Box controllers and have never once had the controlled "slip" out of my hand. Maybe the people having this problem need to put away the Doritos while gaming.

I could see a rubber coating as potentially more comfortable but even that will not be true if you're playing for long stretches of time as the rubber is more likely to wear a blister on your hand (as did a wrech that I dipped in similar stuff a few years ago that I used for automotive work).

Re:"slip and slide"

[dykofone]

It kinda reminds me of the way my less game savvy parents or cousins would first use a Nintendo controller, by whipping it back and forth in whatever direction they were trying to go. For them, added grip would be quite usefull.

For the most part though the "steady-hand" the submitter mentions comes from, surprise, not moving your hands, it's the fingers that are doing all the work. Expert typists can hit 100 wpm without rubber coated keys or race car style 5-point body restraint systems. It's a zen thing.

Re:"slip and slide"

[Lawbeefaroni]

Shhhhhh...

The rubber coating is actually meant for those bastards that insist on throwing the controllers when they've had their ass kicked in multiplayer game. You know the kind,
"What the hell? Fuck that, I pressed pass...I PRESSED PASS!!!!"
*controller zings by plasma screen as I cringe*

"OH, COME ON!!!! I was JUMPING!!!!"
*controller sends cat screeching into the other room*

With enough coating it will be more like,
"Bullshit, I COUNTERED!!!"
*controller is thrown to the floor, bounces up and hits the guy in the face*

And I imagine a few saved TV screens, scratched pieces of wood furniature, etc.

Hyperhydrosis

[DoubleDownOnEleven]

This used to be a big problem for me. I have hyperhydrosis, which essentially makes my hands sweat more than normal. My hand would literally slide right off the joystick in the middle of intense Descent 2 battles.

Nowadays I use just a keyboard and mouse for my games, as I got tired of dealing with a joystick. A product like this just might make me switch back.

Re:Hyperhydrosis

[stratjakt]

This "product" isn't new, you can get it at Home Depot or any other hardware store, and have been able to do so for at least 20 years, because I remember dipping some wrenches in it years ago.

It's called plasti-dip or something. It's a can of liquid (its just rubber cement with some additives for all I can tell), you dip your tools into it, it hardens and there you go, rubbery grips.

They also sell industrial strength paper towels and high powered wet-vacs, in which you might be interested.

This is the lamest "modding" article ever posted on slashdot. It's about as clever and new as spray painting your case.

Lame article

[stratjakt]

You can buy a can of that rubber stuff at home depot. You dip your (all metal or grips worn off) tools into it and it coats it.

You hardly need to be a hardcore modder to do this. If you had sense, you'd get a roll of the grip tape skaters use and it'd be cheaper and faster.

Has anyone ever had a problem with the controller flying out of their hands?

Re:Video game controllers aren't...

[Maradine]

Dude, this is slashdot, do you think . . .

Hell, it's too easy. I'm just not going to touch it. Never mind.

Yeah Right!

[michaelzhao]

I highly doubt this could improve anybody's Counter-Strike or Unreal score. When you suck, you suck. A game controller coated in rubber isn't going to help you. It's going to give n008s another excuse to suck. Sure it wouldn't hurt, but I'm sure it wouldn't make much of a difference.

its not the grip....

[psycht]

aside from the (previously mentioned) dick jokes, I don't think grip is really key here. The main issue I've always had is accuracy in movement.

This is why I prefer to play PC games with an optical mouse. The accuracy of my mouse is far greater than any other game contoller i've used in the past or present. Also, i can cusomize my mouse movement & acceleration in more detail than a controller.

~~o ~o Slippery When Wet ~o ~~o

[Vampyre_Dark]

Stop pounding off to DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball, and you will find the controller doesn't slip out of your hands as much.

Controllers don't need rubber grips

[Savet Hegar]

Game players need to learn to relax their hold on the controller. The tighter you hold the controller, the sweatier your palms and fingers get. I've played games for hours on end (yes, on many different systems) and have never had a problem hitting the right buttons.

Of course....when you're playing Socom and silenced bullets start popping in the water next to you...it's easy to hit the wrong button out of panic. But that really has nothing to do with grip.

Maybe people should just wear rubber gloves when playing games LOL

Re:Controllers don't need rubber grips

[Wireless Joe]

The tighter you hold the controller, the sweatier your palms and fingers get.

So in other words, "The more you tighten your grip...the more game controllers will slip through your fingers"?

Anyone try the reflex tester? Post your time!

[teamhasnoi]

I seem to remember reading that green was the brain's natural signal to stop, so traffic lights were reversed - green made people want to stop, and red to go.

I tried the tester with reds, and couldn't get better than .3xx times - I tried with green, and got more than a couple .2xx times.

Hmm.

Neoprene Game Controller Covers

[what_the_frell]

Long ago, a company called Redz Comfort Gear made neoprene game controller covers for the PS2, Dreamcast and GameBoy that saved my thumbs many times from blisters after hours of playing my favorite games. They can still be purchased here.

Chemical rubber?

[Awptimus Prime]

So what rubber is not chemical?

It looks like they are using more words than needed to sound more intelligent.

Alternatives to Melting your controller

[ShroomSolo]

Drummers are always concerned with grip on their sticks. I know numerous ones who prefere Gorilla Snot to keep a hold on things. I'm sure it could be used for controllers for a cheaper and less perminant solution.

rubber coating my grip

[kni52]

I know rubber coating my grip usually improves my chances of a score!

My Favorite

[Greenisus]

Palmela Handerson