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The World's First 3D Gaming Mouse

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it-lurches-from-kentia-hall dept.

Jay Cruise writes "The world's first 3D gaming mouse was unveiled at the 2006 E3 Expo. The Game O' 3D gaming mouse offers PC gamers an 'unfair advantage' by allowing them to execute moves that are not possible using just a keyboard and a traditional 2D mouse. For example, in FPS, Game O' offers gamers a way to move forward, backwards, sideways, jump, crouch, pitch, yaw and roll without using the keyboard." For a more cynical opinion, I submit to you Ars Technica's take on the device. From that piece: "Your head just explodes. It's a terrible thing, and the nub on the side for some reason randomly makes you crouch. The man showing me the product was quick to add that you could set up the controls however you wanted. The software to do this even looked nice. This doesn't help the fact that playing a first person shooter with one hand is a bad idea. You'd still need a hand free to like, you know, reload? You could probably use those buttons, but in the demo they were set to look up and down. What if you're playing a game where you can peek around corners? You simply need the keyboard."

14 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. E4? by cryptoz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Electronic Entertainment Expo Expo?

  2. What??? by benjjj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, pitch and yaw in an FPS i get...but wtf would 'roll' be?

    1. Re:What??? by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 2, Funny
      Ok, pitch and yaw in an FPS i get...but wtf would 'roll' be?

      A buttered snack left over from breakfast, perfect for eating with your newly-free hand.

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  3. Wrong market perhaps? by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    This doesn't help the fact that playing a first person shooter with one one hand is a bad idea. You'd still need a hand free to like, you know, reload?

    Perhaps they need to find a market segment that has a need to have a free hand whilst using a computer?

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  4. I've owned logitech cyberman 1 & 2 by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Interesting

    which claimed the same..

    after a weekend marathon of playing descent, tweaking the cyberman, and playing again

    I got it to where I could play the game better than with any other combination of hardware.

    Unfortunately, by the nextweekend I couldn't remember which twist was which axis.. no muscle memory to play with.

    the curve is very steep

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  5. World's first my.... by jnik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does nobody remember the Space Orb? I've had one in my basement for five or six years now, and I keep saying "I'll pull it out and learn how to use it one of these days." It's a full 3D, 6DOF, dang hard to use controller.

    1. Re:World's first my.... by rossifer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I agree with your question. The SpaceOrb had full 6-D control in 1993 (3 rotation axes, 3 translation axes).

      I loved that thing. Descent was the absolute best game for that controller. I could finally take out bosses with the SpaceOrb that I just couldn't get with joystick and/or keyboard. It provided so much control. Always ended up stopping "game time" after a few hours because my hands would get cramps.

      No need to mention that's also the only real reason to stop a different kind of activity... ahem.

      Ross

    2. Re:World's first my.... by Eideewt · · Score: 2, Funny

      I never did buy one of those, and as a Descent player I've been kicking myself ever since.

  6. So that's what we were doing wrong. by steveo777 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Makes sense to me... If only somebody had told me that my mouse didn't have any height. Then perhaps I wouldn't have been able to see the light reflect off it... Wonder why I kept loosing it.

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  7. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The World's First 3D Gaming Mouse

    You mean the Nintendo Wii?

  8. Space Orb 360 by JCZorkmid · · Score: 2, Informative

    SpaceOrb 360 is the greatest game controller ever made (IMO, of course). I still have three of them (two for backup). I love it. Especially for games that have multiple walking speeds (push a little bit, move slow, push harder, move fast).

    I thought it was the easiest, most obvious game controller I'd ever seen, but a lot of other people couldn't use it. Not saying I'm "better" in any way. I just think that it was made for a certain type of brain, and I've got one.

    I hope all three never break. Jay at Birdman's Lair is trying to make his replacement drivers work for Vista.

  9. Wii Games by Nosklo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if it will make possible to play PC-emulated Wii games without an "Wiimote adapter"?

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  10. Euphemisms by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's the right market, you just need to rethink what "first person shooter" means.

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    The enemies of Democracy are
    1. Re:Euphemisms by hotdiggitydawg · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nice...

      My personal favourite is "browsing for left-handed websites", although I've hears a friend refer to it as "flogging on"...