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Getting acquainted
I think that the first thing you should know a little about, is something of my gaming background, just to get the feeling of my credibility. I played my first computer game in 1984, and that was also the year when I got addicted to computer games (it was “Elite” for you old farts out there). That could be probably before some of you were even born. I made my first computer game in 1986 and continued to do that until present day, and many of you will leave the gaming world without ever doing something like that. I am not telling you this to show off or anything but only to give you the picture of how much dedication, free time and everything else I’ve put into (the science of) computer games.
When I was preparing this article, I had the dozen of possible tests thought of, and I was going to perform them on all this equipment. From precise equipment measures, and numbers like amount of friction for mouse pads, distance the mouse buttons travels when its pressed until a click is noticed by the hardware and lots of other (weird) stuff I thought important. Well I am going to disappoint the tech-kie freaks out there, but at one moment I decided against that approach. I am not going to explain why in detail, let’s just say that sometimes one sentence can tell more then two pages of numbers. What I am going to do is give you is the real overview of what’s out there. If you’re interested, then let’s get going!
Mice - the beasts
Well I had nine of them to play with, and I would have a few more ideally. I will nevertheless mention these missing ones:
Evomouse - a new concept of a mouse; you don’t move the mouse, but your hand
Razer Boomslang 2000 - the classic of pro-gaming
RotoKiller RTR-720 Mark 2 Mod 1 Mouse - the successor of a mechanical model I had on the test, this is an optical version with 1600 DPI optical sensor!
All the gaming mice can be divided in two groups: the mechanical (ball mice) and optical mice. The difference is in the way your hand movement is translated to the computer. The optical mice are a newer generation of mice that uses more precise optical sensors, resulting in better tracking information. However, they sometimes miss the raw “feeling” of a ball mice, the ability to make quick flicks, the feeling of the motion of the ball, the small element of inertia, and that is why some pro-gamers still use this older technology.
There are two important things that I paid special attention to when establishing judgment about a mouse. The most important one is the quality of mouse tracking and the second important one is the mouse ergonomics. There are some other issues like the driver support, extra features, availability and price that also find their share of the mouse final impression but are less relevant at this point. I will also only give the most important impressions and facts, good and/or bad. It means that I am content with all other features not mentioned, or that they can be usually easily found on the net elsewhere (like for example how much exactly does a mouse weigh).
Belkin Nostromo n30 Game Mouse and n50 Speedpad
I was eager to get this mouse, with it having the “Game Mouse” as a part of its name. There was also a relatively big LAN event held in the USA that was sponsored by Belkin, with some famous pro-gamers promoting this hardware.
Well, after spending only a few minutes with it, I was deeply disappointed. It can only pass as a gaming mouse for kids or for playing Solitaire - it is far from a serious gaming mouse. It is a ball mouse, with very small and light ball that makes the mouse skip a lot even with relatively slow flicks. The ergonomics are simply awful, although the mouse looks attractive on the other hand. Belkin must have a good designer but a lousy mouse engineer. One of the reasons why the mouse looks so bulky is that it has a small “feedback” motor inside it, and with Belkin software installed you can get several types of feedback “shakings” when the cursor moves over different windows and colors on your desktop. Neat and all, but totally unnecessary, at least for a pro-gamer. I can imagine a secretary playing Solitaire would have plenty hours of fun with it though.
The other gaming product I had from Belkin, is called n50 Speedpad. Now it’s a nice thing you put in your other hand and it acts as a replacement for the keyboard. It has 10 buttons, an analog thrust control and a joypad-like keys on the side. The idea is to assign this controller all the functions you will need in a game (you can create various profiles with the supplied software). But there are two problems. First is ergonomics. Although the pad fits nice in my hand, should one have a little smaller or bigger hand, they would have problems. Unlike holding the mouse where you can adjust the grip, you can place your hand on this mini keyboard in only one way if you want to have your fingers covering the important keys. The keys are also a bit harder to press then usual. The second problem is that sometimes you don’t have enough keys available, or you have to get used to not having some important keys (for their shape and placement) like spacebar, shift, tab, ctrl meaning it’ll probably take some time getting used to it. Not a bad idea overall, and some of you may even like it (you can buy it as stand-alone), but I think we’ll have to wait for a second generation of these products for some pro-gaming useful stuff.
Anyways, some very bold moves by Belkin, making two unusual products which may not be best suited for pro-gamers, but the courage to invent is what is important in this business and I wouldn’t be surprised if Belkin emerges with some very competitive products in the future. Here is quick quiz question: What famous spaceship carries the name “Nostromo”? You’ll find the answer at the end of the article.
Pros: lot of effort invested
Cons: unfortunately, in the wrong direction
Site: www.belkin.com
RotoKiller RTR-720 Mark 1 Mod 2 Mouse
When talking about invention, this is the mouse I would give the gold medal to. When you see the picture you will see what am I talking about. It looks truly intersting if not amazing, and will certainly bring the attention of your friends when you show up in the LAN with it. If you learn to use it properly and effectively, you can easily get some weird looks by people watching you play with this “space” mouse.
The idea is to have the control of the mouse by wrist and finger movement, instead of hand movement. This can improve the precision of the movement by a great margin, since it’s a lot easier to precisely move your fingers than your entire hand. That is why the mouse is very small and round in shape, so you can get a very good grip of it. It’s a ball mouse with designated 980 DPI precision which is a very solid number. It will take you some time and practice to get used to it, and you have the “getting used to” tutorial on the website. The result of this improved control is that your flicks become much more precise and, for example, railing aim in Quake 3 becomes simply amazing. However, downside is that a tracking aim will suffer (for example aiming with shaft in Q3, or playing CS) simply because it is a completely different thing to track a target once you get your aim onto it. That is because in order to track, you need much more physical feedback from the device, more weight and size, more resistance of the surface. That could be a problem and it’s a little difficult one to deal with such a small device. Other possible problem is the ultra sensitive buttons (highest sensitivity of all mice I’ve ever tried). That means that it takes a very little pressure to make a contact (it’s also a no-click contact, since it uses a membrane mechanism). This can be both a good and a bad thing since it will take less time for your reaction to be translated to computer. But you will more often accidentally press the button when you do not want to. There four buttons on top and two buttons on the side of the device. The side buttons are “implemented” in the case of the device and are not easily found which could be a problem sometimes if you want to use them. Rotokiller comes in a metal can package, nothing bad there.
It is an extreme mouse in every way. Superb flick control (like no other mouse out there) and super sensitive buttons can turn you into a rail-god after you got used to controlling this unusual mouse. But lack of proper tracking aim can be a relatively big drawback. If you are a serious gamer with a little extra money, you should give this mouse a try. They are making an optical version of it as well, and if and when I get it, I’ll pass my impressions to you.
Pros: innovation, precision, potential
Cons: ergonomics, too sensitive buttons
Site: www.rotokiller.com
Razer Boomslang 2000
As I already said, I could not get a sample of this mouse from Razer so I tried the friend’s mouse. It means that I didn’t have the time to properly test it so I am only passing my first impressions. The mouse is very big, with unusual ergonomics that simply take a lot of time to get used to. Designated 2000 DPI is huge. I guess this kind of sophisticated manufacturing is a reason for often malfunctions of this device (reported by many on the web) and it’s high price. Razer is also in some big financial troubles and the future of this mouse is questioned. My impression was that I could never get used to this mouse and be satisfied completely with it. It is simply too big and non-standard shaped, and it’s using ball technology, which is more or less becoming the thing of the past. I’ve seen some people use it though, but I can not think of any known pro-gamer still using it today.
Pros: best mechanical technology to date
Cons: ergonimics, price, unavailability
Site: www.razerzone.com
Logitech Pilot+
at the time. Although now it seems strange when I get back to it, the lack of precision is really noticeable. Featuring reliable mechanics and electronics, two buttons plus a scroll wheel, this is your entry-level mouse to the pro-gaming world considering it’s very low price.
I think that the first thing you should know a little about, is something of my gaming background, just to get the feeling of my credibility. I played my first computer game in 1984, and that was also the year when I got addicted to computer games (it was “Elite” for you old farts out there). That could be probably before some of you were even born. I made my first computer game in 1986 and continued to do that until present day, and many of you will leave the gaming world without ever doing something like that. I am not telling you this to show off or anything but only to give you the picture of how much dedication, free time and everything else I’ve put into (the science of) computer games.
When I was preparing this article, I had the dozen of possible tests thought of, and I was going to perform them on all this equipment. From precise equipment measures, and numbers like amount of friction for mouse pads, distance the mouse buttons travels when its pressed until a click is noticed by the hardware and lots of other (weird) stuff I thought important. Well I am going to disappoint the tech-kie freaks out there, but at one moment I decided against that approach. I am not going to explain why in detail, let’s just say that sometimes one sentence can tell more then two pages of numbers. What I am going to do is give you is the real overview of what’s out there. If you’re interested, then let’s get going!
Mice - the beasts
Well I had nine of them to play with, and I would have a few more ideally. I will nevertheless mention these missing ones:
Evomouse - a new concept of a mouse; you don’t move the mouse, but your hand
Razer Boomslang 2000 - the classic of pro-gaming
RotoKiller RTR-720 Mark 2 Mod 1 Mouse - the successor of a mechanical model I had on the test, this is an optical version with 1600 DPI optical sensor!
All the gaming mice can be divided in two groups: the mechanical (ball mice) and optical mice. The difference is in the way your hand movement is translated to the computer. The optical mice are a newer generation of mice that uses more precise optical sensors, resulting in better tracking information. However, they sometimes miss the raw “feeling” of a ball mice, the ability to make quick flicks, the feeling of the motion of the ball, the small element of inertia, and that is why some pro-gamers still use this older technology.
There are two important things that I paid special attention to when establishing judgment about a mouse. The most important one is the quality of mouse tracking and the second important one is the mouse ergonomics. There are some other issues like the driver support, extra features, availability and price that also find their share of the mouse final impression but are less relevant at this point. I will also only give the most important impressions and facts, good and/or bad. It means that I am content with all other features not mentioned, or that they can be usually easily found on the net elsewhere (like for example how much exactly does a mouse weigh).
Belkin Nostromo n30 Game Mouse and n50 Speedpad
I was eager to get this mouse, with it having the “Game Mouse” as a part of its name. There was also a relatively big LAN event held in the USA that was sponsored by Belkin, with some famous pro-gamers promoting this hardware.
Well, after spending only a few minutes with it, I was deeply disappointed. It can only pass as a gaming mouse for kids or for playing Solitaire - it is far from a serious gaming mouse. It is a ball mouse, with very small and light ball that makes the mouse skip a lot even with relatively slow flicks. The ergonomics are simply awful, although the mouse looks attractive on the other hand. Belkin must have a good designer but a lousy mouse engineer. One of the reasons why the mouse looks so bulky is that it has a small “feedback” motor inside it, and with Belkin software installed you can get several types of feedback “shakings” when the cursor moves over different windows and colors on your desktop. Neat and all, but totally unnecessary, at least for a pro-gamer. I can imagine a secretary playing Solitaire would have plenty hours of fun with it though.
The other gaming product I had from Belkin, is called n50 Speedpad. Now it’s a nice thing you put in your other hand and it acts as a replacement for the keyboard. It has 10 buttons, an analog thrust control and a joypad-like keys on the side. The idea is to assign this controller all the functions you will need in a game (you can create various profiles with the supplied software). But there are two problems. First is ergonomics. Although the pad fits nice in my hand, should one have a little smaller or bigger hand, they would have problems. Unlike holding the mouse where you can adjust the grip, you can place your hand on this mini keyboard in only one way if you want to have your fingers covering the important keys. The keys are also a bit harder to press then usual. The second problem is that sometimes you don’t have enough keys available, or you have to get used to not having some important keys (for their shape and placement) like spacebar, shift, tab, ctrl meaning it’ll probably take some time getting used to it. Not a bad idea overall, and some of you may even like it (you can buy it as stand-alone), but I think we’ll have to wait for a second generation of these products for some pro-gaming useful stuff.
Anyways, some very bold moves by Belkin, making two unusual products which may not be best suited for pro-gamers, but the courage to invent is what is important in this business and I wouldn’t be surprised if Belkin emerges with some very competitive products in the future. Here is quick quiz question: What famous spaceship carries the name “Nostromo”? You’ll find the answer at the end of the article.
Pros: lot of effort invested
Cons: unfortunately, in the wrong direction
Site: www.belkin.com
RotoKiller RTR-720 Mark 1 Mod 2 Mouse
When talking about invention, this is the mouse I would give the gold medal to. When you see the picture you will see what am I talking about. It looks truly intersting if not amazing, and will certainly bring the attention of your friends when you show up in the LAN with it. If you learn to use it properly and effectively, you can easily get some weird looks by people watching you play with this “space” mouse.
The idea is to have the control of the mouse by wrist and finger movement, instead of hand movement. This can improve the precision of the movement by a great margin, since it’s a lot easier to precisely move your fingers than your entire hand. That is why the mouse is very small and round in shape, so you can get a very good grip of it. It’s a ball mouse with designated 980 DPI precision which is a very solid number. It will take you some time and practice to get used to it, and you have the “getting used to” tutorial on the website. The result of this improved control is that your flicks become much more precise and, for example, railing aim in Quake 3 becomes simply amazing. However, downside is that a tracking aim will suffer (for example aiming with shaft in Q3, or playing CS) simply because it is a completely different thing to track a target once you get your aim onto it. That is because in order to track, you need much more physical feedback from the device, more weight and size, more resistance of the surface. That could be a problem and it’s a little difficult one to deal with such a small device. Other possible problem is the ultra sensitive buttons (highest sensitivity of all mice I’ve ever tried). That means that it takes a very little pressure to make a contact (it’s also a no-click contact, since it uses a membrane mechanism). This can be both a good and a bad thing since it will take less time for your reaction to be translated to computer. But you will more often accidentally press the button when you do not want to. There four buttons on top and two buttons on the side of the device. The side buttons are “implemented” in the case of the device and are not easily found which could be a problem sometimes if you want to use them. Rotokiller comes in a metal can package, nothing bad there.
It is an extreme mouse in every way. Superb flick control (like no other mouse out there) and super sensitive buttons can turn you into a rail-god after you got used to controlling this unusual mouse. But lack of proper tracking aim can be a relatively big drawback. If you are a serious gamer with a little extra money, you should give this mouse a try. They are making an optical version of it as well, and if and when I get it, I’ll pass my impressions to you.
Pros: innovation, precision, potential
Cons: ergonomics, too sensitive buttons
Site: www.rotokiller.com
Razer Boomslang 2000
As I already said, I could not get a sample of this mouse from Razer so I tried the friend’s mouse. It means that I didn’t have the time to properly test it so I am only passing my first impressions. The mouse is very big, with unusual ergonomics that simply take a lot of time to get used to. Designated 2000 DPI is huge. I guess this kind of sophisticated manufacturing is a reason for often malfunctions of this device (reported by many on the web) and it’s high price. Razer is also in some big financial troubles and the future of this mouse is questioned. My impression was that I could never get used to this mouse and be satisfied completely with it. It is simply too big and non-standard shaped, and it’s using ball technology, which is more or less becoming the thing of the past. I’ve seen some people use it though, but I can not think of any known pro-gamer still using it today.
Pros: best mechanical technology to date
Cons: ergonimics, price, unavailability
Site: www.razerzone.com
Logitech Pilot+
at the time. Although now it seems strange when I get back to it, the lack of precision is really noticeable. Featuring reliable mechanics and electronics, two buttons plus a scroll wheel, this is your entry-level mouse to the pro-gaming world considering it’s very low price.