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 (4.5 star rating)
Written by: William Ford
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PC gaming has come a long way from the days of Solitaire, Minesweeper and Hearts. With the new fast paced 3D first person shooter games, better control means higher scores, more kills and greater frag counts. Games like CounterStrike: Source and Doom3 require the use of keyboard / mouse combination or a single game pad. People like myself who prefer the keyboard and mouse to a game pad, usually do so because of the more precise control they offer over a game pad. There are also more hotkeys available on a standard keyboard than there are buttons on a typical game pad. Enter Ideazon with a new idea for a keyboard - Ideazon has taken the concept of a keyboard used for gaming one step further with their Zboard. They have introduced the ability to swap keypads and remap your keyboard for the best possible configuration for each game - that's the basic premise behind the Zboard.
Design
Ideazon has a great keyboard designed with gaming at its core purpose. The ZBoard is a keyboard that is customizable for just about any game out and can be upgraded with new layouts for future games by simply downloading layout updates. The board has a removable key pad that neatly folds into three sections allowing easy storage on a bookshelf or desk shelf, it also comes with a standard keyboard pad and a gaming pad.
Features
Designed for First/Third Person Shooter and Action games, the Gaming Keyset provides a better gaming experience, advanced layout and built-in technology advantages. It comes loaded with a selection of mod files for over 70 of today's hottest games.
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| "Butterfly" Movement Keys |
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Enlarged and sloped "butterfly" movement keys that keep fingers comfortable and accurate! |
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| Labeled Command Keys |
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Commonly used command keys for FPS/Action games are labeled for faster and better performance in game. |
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| Dome-shaped Keys |
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Unique domed action keys give gamers the responsive feel that they demand. |
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| Control Zones |
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Players can easily access more critical commands with the one hand control zone. |
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| Technological Advantages |
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Registers up to 7 simultaneous key-strokes, in comparison to 2-4 on most other keyboards! Jump, move forward, lean
left, change weapons and shoot at the same time. |
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The standard pad is laid out just like a standard 101/102 key keyboard. The gaming pad is laid out for first person 3D games with six large red keys for movement (W,A,S,and D for fwd, left, right and back - Q and E for diagonal fwd movement). It also has a black crouch key, black jump key and a black run/walk toggle key. These keys also double as their respective letter or function keys in Windows and writing programs; however, it is much easier to type with the standard pad. There are also game specific keypads that you can order for the ZBoard like CounterStrike: Source, Doom3 and Rainbow Six.
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| Retail box |
Top view of the Zboard |
Zboard installed |
The keyboard also has a built-in USB hub with 2 ports for attaching other USB peripherals so you don't lose the use of your USB ports. Unfortunately, the USB ports are only USB 1.1 so you may want to make sure to leave a USB 2.0 port free for high speed USB devices. I would also mention that the Reaper is a USB 2.0 mouse, so you will want to use an available USB 2.0 port on the computer instead of plugging it into one of the ZBoard's ports.
