«
»

I went on the internet, and I found this.

While researching gamepads for an upcoming project (stay tuned!), I found myself time and time again ogling the Xbox 360 controller.

360pad

There are few consumer devices available that look half as good as this. The console itself looks like a large print book that’s gone through the wash, but I like the pad. The current version is compatible with Windows PCs, and if I was a fan of ANY game that played better with a pad than with a keyboard and mouse, I would’ve bought one and written a drooly review of it long ago.

Anyway, I also found this.

XBox 360 controller with Chatpad.

This isn’t some bizarre photoshop job like all those iPhone Nano hopefuls. It’s a real product; that keyboard is the XBox 360 Chatpad, and it comes in a “Messenger Kit” with a talky headset. It just plugs into the bottom of your 360 pad, has backlit keys, and is meant for chatting with your chums via XBox Live.

I couldn’t give two hoots about XBox Live, though My first thought was actually “that would make the best media PC controller ever.”

dinovo-mini

This is Logitech’s diNovo Mini, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (that circle on the right is a trackpad) intended for media PC use. I own one, and slightly flawed as it is, it’s the best media PC controller ever.

It is also AU$190. Which, if you’re not familiar with money, is a lot for a glorified remote control with buttons that make your teevee do stuff. You need all those buttons for a media PC, though; play/pause/volume isn’t enough, because you sometimes have to type stuff as well.

It’s better than a fullsize keyboard, and better than not having a separate mouse, and that makes it vastly better than Microsoft’s Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000, which goes for about the same price as the diNovo.

The XBox 360 wireless controller and chatpad, in contrast, could be had on eBay for about $120 all up. If Microsoft allowed the chatpad to be used on PCs, they’d basically be shooting themselves in the foot that props up the wireless desktop kits.

Microsoft aren’t the boss of everyone, though. While it’s not meant to work on PCs, it can be made to do so with some serious mucking about.

Come on, internet. Just one awesome super-fiddly platformer game, and I can buy one and retire the diNovo to Linux box duties.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 at 13:28 and is filed under gaming, life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “I went on the internet, and I found this.”

  1. Jimmy says:
    April 12th, 2009 at 17:45

    i was discussing with you on a bright sunny day how i purchased a 360 specifically to play (to continue in the series) fable 2. the controller is absolutely gorgeous. as with all controllers it does take getting used to but never have i been more comfortable with moving around in a 3d world using a game pad. say: the left joystick controls your character and the right joystick controls the camera. there’s a fat ftw right there. i started writing this then i stopped. bugger. lost my train of thought.

    inquire leonor.