Hasta La Gadget!

Almost as a dare, Shoryuken (SRK) challenged its fans to produce a fighting game-style controller for Starcraft II. Mauricio Romano took them up on that contest and won with a surprisingly polished arcade stick of his own. Its cornerstone is a heavily modified Ultrastik joystick that’s turned into an on-controller, two-button mouse. You didn’t think a PC gamer would cling to a plain joystick, did you? In the process, the usual 101 keys of a typical keyboard have been pared down to a set of 26 buttons most relevant for Blizzard’s real-time strategy epic. Packaged up in a single, polished USB peripheral, the one-off prototype’s design is good enough to imagine a Major League Gaming pro taking it out on the road. We’d put that idea on ice for now, though: as Mauricio shows in the video below, the learning curve is steep enough that most players won’t be fending off diamond-league marine and zergling blitzes anytime soon.

Continue reading SRK contest produces a 26-button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won’t stop Zerg rushes (video)

SRK contest produces a 26-button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won’t stop Zerg rushes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft showed off all the new features of Windows Phone 8 at its Summit event a couple of weeks ago, but is the company planning to introduce a new keyboard as well? WMPoweruser has been handed a picture of a new keyboard from a Microsoft Research presentation, showing a curved approach that would match the user’s thumb placement.

The keyboard has reportedly been designed for one-handed thumb typing, with the keys aligning with the natural resting angle of the thumb against the screen. Keys are placed together, almost like a T9 keyboard but using a QWERTY layout instead. A language option can be found at the bottom right corner, while oddly sized back and enter keys are off to the side.

WMPoweruser also notes that the keyboard is being demoed on an HTC Trophy, so it’s possible that the new feature could be destined for Windows Phone 7.8 and not just restricted to Windows Phone 8. Still, we’re eyeing this picture cautiously given the skewed “Curved to match thumb” text not aligning with the display, and there’s still the question of usability versus a normal on-screen keyboard.

Windows Phone may feature curved “Arc” keyboard is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
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