Long live the G15

[Byron]

I was coding late Sunday night at home and I hit the page down key on my keyboard when actually I had intended to hit the return key. This was about the 15th time I had done this. The reason? For some reason the muppet who designed this keyboard thought it would be a great idea to put a really thin return key on it and stick the page up and down buttons right next to it. Needless to say that after the 15th hit the decision was made to send this damn keyboard to the level of hell normally reserved for lawyers and accounts* and go out and get a new one. But which one? There are hundreds out there. It's at this point I fell victim to my own marketing led coding and got a G15 for myself.

Coding went well on the G15. I like it when hardware manufacturers go out of their way to build very simple to use SDK's and actually put some thought into how little the end developer needs to do in order to integrate it into their code. It seriously makes the difference between the bare minimum being done and a little love shown its way. So what can you expect to see on the G15 in Multiwinia? So far the following have been coded:

Alerts - When an alert is displayed on the screen it gets displayed on the G15 as well. The major difference is that the G15 will always display the last alert so you can just look down to see what happened last.
Multiwinians selected - It will display how many Multiwinians you currently have selected.
Currently selected entity - If you select something like 'Armour' it will tell you how many Multiwinians it has on board. This aspect of the G15 will be expanded over time as I get to know the Multiwinia code base a bit better.
Game - not coded yet but will be in there. I haven't decided how you access it yet but be prepared to do a bit of hunting!

And the best bit that trumps all of the above:

A spinning Multiwinian that is displayed all the time - honestly how could you live without this? You NEED this! No seriously, your life is not complete without this and you will always have a nagging feeling of hollowness.

And that concludes my brief stint on the G15 and my first week at Introversion and I look forward to working on the amBX SDK next.

My G15 - it's the black keyboard at the bottom of the image













* Allegedly - I personally think that not even hell would have them.

[Rkiver]

Oooh you got the new generation of G15. I have the older one, but I want a copy of that SDK you've done for it, as it should work on the older ones too.

Seriously, give it now. I want spinning darwinian on my G15. Now.

Give it.

Now.

Don't make me throw toffee at you.

[Dirty Harry Potter]

I considered getting the G15 at some point. But my eyes are now set on the Razer Lycosa. While the small display on the G15 seems nice I've would probably never really use it (and it, generally speaking, doesn't seem to give much info that isn't already shown ingame). Though it is nice that it is supported, also considering I *might* get a G15 (or similar) after the lycosa (which I'll hopefully get soon) either dies or gets worn out.

About the amBX, are there any numbers on how many gamers has it?

[RabidZombie]

Great. Now I HAVE to buy a G15...

[shinygerbil]

I have one issue with the G15 - the keys look really thick and clunky. I've always been a fan of the softer,thinner, laptop-style keyboards, and I think it's take quite an exceptional keyboard to make me choose something other than that.

(Not that my current keyboard is great, but it came at the right price - I was given it )

[recover]

Sounds like you're settling in quite nicely.
I agree with shinygerbil, I think thinner keys are much much much better.
My current keyboard are Logitech UltraX Flat and I love it.

[Ace Rimmer]

Also, is that a MX1000 over there? /me hugs his own.

Round of hugs for all MX1000's!

Also, they're not making them anymore and nothing out there is equivalent. /me hopes mine never ever breaks.

[Byron]

it's an MX Revolution

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_ ... 0&cl=us,en

[Dirty Harry Potter]

Thought it was a bit too shiny and oddly shaped to be the MX1000. I'll probably replace my MX1000 with an MX Revolution soon'ish. my MX1000 is somewhat troublesome to get to recharge atm, and it is getting rather worn.

[Dirty Harry Potter]

Hyperscroll? Personally, I just like it for being a good wireless mouse, and with a lot of buttons too. Especially the buttons on the side are nice :S

[zach]

Correct me if I'm wrong (I own a G9 mouse myself) - but doesn't the MX Revolution have a nearly friction-less scroll wheel, like the G9? Flick the wheel downwards, and when it stops, you'll find yourself 200 pages below where you were before.

That's how scrolling works on the G9, anyway - not that I can recommend that mouse, not when its firm-grip plastic stuff melts off just by using it.

I also have myself a G15 Refresh (I think that's the proper term for the orange, less bloated one) - I've yet to toy around with the SDK in any serious manner, though ... but from what I know, it really should not be very hard to make a spinning Darwinian by yourself.

- Also, Byron - those are a mighty lot of books on C++ you have, there.

[Pox]

- Also, Byron - those are a mighty lot of books on C++ you have, there.

Hehe, looks like a typical scene for the tiny office I work in on the holidays - a computer set up on a makeshift desk sitting against a wall full of books (<3 the entire relevant o'reilly [sic] collection)

As to the keyboard issue: I have a HP C3757B, and it's still the best tactile feedback I've experienced after many years of operation. Can't find a photo on the web, but think all grey, with (the best bit) no annoying windows key or context-menu key to screw up gaming. Also, no windows logo to annoy me for being a windows logo. Circa 1988 I think.

[zach]

I've been thinking of getting a diNovo Edge for a while now, for programming. You're not supposed to use magic numbers anyway, so I doubt I'd miss the numpad all that much.
Besides, the arrangement of punctuation on a Danish-layout keyboard is just rubbish for programming - compared to English qwerty, that is.
I've yet to seriously try using Dvorak though.

Of course, I would have both keyboards connected - Numpad is essential for Orbiter, among other things.

[Pox]

Sexy looking keyboard... how would it help for programming though? It's hard to beat a $2 qwerty with vim...

[Pox]

Ah, Dvorak. I tried once (had fun with a slightly less old keyboard and a screwdriver ), but didn't get much further than the middle row before giving up... I had to keep using qwerty to get work done so I couldn't rewire my hands. Besides, my qwerty rate is pretty good now, and by the time I've learnt Dvorak properly, there will probably be some neural dictation software out.