Gaming Novint Falcon Limited Edition

i thought qwerty was designed to slow down people on a computer
otherwise a load of people who used typewriters for their jobs would have lost a job

 

It's certainly what I was taught in A-level ICT and BA Linguistics :S

 

Wow that does look good

 

There's some contention as to whether the QWERTY layout was designed to slow typists down or whether it was designed to separate commonly used letters and avoid the typewriter jamming. No one knows which one is right because the guy who invented the QWERTY layout has been dead for 150-ish years.

Anyhoo, back on topic.

Any reason why it's called the "Limited Edition"?

 

Still OT... But that's the actual reason it was to slow typists down, the keys jammed when they were moving too quickly due to space constrictions.

 

Exactly, type too fast on a typewriter and the hammers will jam, so the QWERTY layout spreads the vowels around increases the amount of finger travel required. To stop typists having to retrain, this was then carried over to PC keyboards despite better alternatives existing by then. The DVORAK keyboard is the best layout I'm aware of, but it takes a fair bit of time to get used to.

 

No, it's 3 axis: Left/Right (X) is the first axis, Up/Down (Y) is the second and In/Out (Z) is the third.

If more games used this I could seriously see this taking off. (I want one....)

 

The world of input devices is littered with sooo many ideas that seemed like a good idea but simply didn't work (Fragmaster anyone?), this one seems interesting but will it catch on? I'm curious about it but not at $239 (about £120 ish) - way to much for this kind of niche product as far as I'm concerned, unless I have a shot and love it of course!

It will have hard time competing against the traditional Keyboard and Mouse combo, the real market to crack with this kind of kit is the New Tech Rich, they are the ones who will buy any kind of new toy just to try it. Once you have enough of them on board you can drop the price to the New Tech Poor market where the real volume sales are.

 

Personally, I think it's smashing. I picked up the Limited Edition at Fry's Electronics in Burbank for $189, which is a steal for what it is. So far, Penumbra's been amazingly fun to play, and Haptic-Life 2 is pretty immersive as well, if a smidge wierd for a longtime Mouse+WASD gamer. I confess a lot of my initial interest was with regards to tying it into my own 3D graphics noodlings, but the gaming side is startlingly compelling. As the LE ships, yes, it's a three-axis device. That said, the grip-controller is a removable sub-peripheral to the main unit - adding a controller with a twist or any other type of extra axis-set should be a very straightforward matter - at the moment, no apps really exist to need further axes, but the hardware's capable in expanding in that direction should it be desirable.

All in, that's the best UK £90 I've spent in a *long* time.