The Blog of Oa

I brought a Messenger Kit for my XBOX 360 controller yesterday. Not for my 360 but for my PC.
It all started when I discovered a nice little program that allows you to map out a XBOX 360 controller to replace the mouse on the PC.
Initially I was just playing with it because I was bored, but I came to realise just how close I was to having a fully functional PC that didn't require a desk. I've had my PC setup to output to both the PC screen and the TV for a long time, and I've had an additional wireless 360 controller for PC gaming a while too, but what's always stopped me from making full use of those two features is the lack of a keyboard/mouse.
I have to go over to the PC just to open/close programs. Things like chat windows from MSN make it a painful experience.
Your traditional desktop wireless keyboards and mice just don't solve this. They're uncomfortable and they're always getting in the way when you're not using them.

However with the controller acting as a mouse I realised most of those problems were solved. I can handle pretty much everything except typing just like I would on the desktop.
I was about to go looking around for that on screen keyboard program that lets you use the mouse to type when I remembered the XBOX 360 Messenger Kit. A little device that attaches to the bottom of the gamepad and gives you a full qwerty mini-keyboard. With this I'd have exactly what I needed. My sweet controller would become a truly portable wireless keyboard and mouse I could use from anywhere I can see the TV screen.
Best of all I was on my way down to the store anyway to meet up with my friend who works there.

Everything was looking great, that was until I got it home and plugged it in. Turns out that there's no PC support at all for this device. Microsoft is completely ignoring the subject and nobody with the technical ability to make up their own hacked drivers is interested.


It's funny how before I was this close to having it I didn't really care, but now the invisible barrier between me and victory is driving me insane.

I just realised that I have had the same mousepad for at least 12 years (probably somewhere between 13 and 14). It's not in mint condition, it could use a wash, but it's nowhere near the point where I'd replace. That seems strange considering I remember going through dozens of them before this one.
The design is actually made to match the screen saver that came with it of Looney Tunes characters running around a Windows 3.1 desktop* eating all your icons. At the time it was great because you could set it to activate pretty much straight away, so if someone stopped using the computer to get a drink they'd come back and Taz would be chewing on their document.
Being the 90's people would just assume it was a super virus out to kill them and take their place in the physical world, or possibly a hacker using your system to launch nuclear missiles. It was great.


*I'm sure that's not what it was called back then. I think it was Workspace. I dunno, with my lifestyle I'm amazed I remember anything.

Seriously, this is what I'd expect from the bottom end model.
40GB HDD is the best feature on it. Apart from that it's got no backwards compatibility, at all. Not just poor backwards compatibility, you get a message saying 'this console is not compatible with PS2 format games' when you try to play them.
It uses leftover PS1/2 AV cables instead of coming packaged with any sort of HD cables. The charger cable for the controller is clearly something they've taken off a USB HDD designed to be used on a desktop PC. It's about 30cm long so you can't use it while playing.
It doesn't even come with an ethernet cable*. The controller feels like it's a cheap knock-off of the PS2 Dual Shock 2 controllers. At first I thought that was just the missing rumble components effecting the weight, but then I got out a PS2 controller and compared them directly. The SIXAXIS just feels worse in my hands.


I can understand being desperate to cut costs back on these things, but damn, I spent around $80 on cables. It would only have cost them a few dollars per unit to include them.

Overall I actually feel bad that I've given money to the people who are responsible for this thing.


On the plus side, Ratchet and Clank is a pretty good game. =P


*Although this is a good thing, it made me dig up my XBOX 360 box and realize that the one packaged in with my XBOX 360 is freaking huge.

On my way home tonight I'm going to pre-order GTAIV (XBOX 360) and probably pick up a PS3 while I'm at it.
I'm getting it almost exclusively for playing Metal Gear Solid 4, but I'm getting it now so that I don't have to worry about stock shortages or junk like that on release day. Odds are I'll see all the cool bundled deals they do for Metal Gear and hate myself, but I'd rather not risk getting screwed out of it.


Anyway, I'll need at least a game to play while I wait so I'm taking suggestions. I'd really, really like to get an exclusive but the non-exclusives are shaping up to be the better games.

Ratchet and Clank is about the only game I've been interested in so far. The XBOX 360 Burnout Paradise demo was good enough I might consider it. It's a fairly solid game that should look great on the PS3.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune looks like it could be a decent game, but I haven't really heard anything about it.
Heavenly Sword was shaping up to be something good, but then it sort of fell off my radar. I think it flopped pretty bad for being a short game.

Of all the UIs I used to use, AtlasLoot seems like the only one that's still needed (they've added a LFG system, which gets about as much use as the old LFG UI).

So I'm wondering if any of the instance running BYOND Members have any suggestions for UIs I should install.


[Edit] Oh yeah, I'm a hunter. Sort of important. =P