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I was reading Popular Science, a magazine of which I have been a long time subscriber, when I noticed a page on gaming equipment(the magazine doesn't focus on gaming at all, so this was a surprise). Of the equipment, one particular piece interested me the most, which was the Microsoft Sidewinder x4 keyboard. From what I gathered, this keyboard could turn starcraft 2, which some of teamliquid has criticized as a skill-less version of starcraft 1 - and other strategy games - much more noob friendly.
Notable Features(of all models of Microsoft Sidewinder Keyboards)
-The magazine caption: "Play faster with a keyboard that can sense 26 presses at once. Using pressure-sensitive panels under each key and multitouch software, it can react to numerous commands. Older models, which use clusters of circuits to detect strokes, can read only four."
-Macro Keys: "Up to thirty programmable keys that can allow up to 90 programmable options with an assigned gaming profile."
-In-game macro record button: "Record any sequence of keystrokes—even standard chat messages. Macros are stored on your hard drive and can be easily shared."
-Cruise Control: "Use Cruise Control to continue an action without having to hold down the key or keys assigned to the action. You can use Cruise Control with up to four keys at a time.* (* Cruise Control does not work with programmable macro keys."
-Anti-ghosting tech: "Gamers can press up to 26 keys at once and since each key is scanned independently by the keyboard hardware, each key press is correctly detected regardless of how many other keys are being pressed at the same time."
*It's not just the Sidewinder that has these features, other keyboards, such as the Razor Tarantula, have the same features of anti-ghosting and macro keys.
Razer Tarantula
Sidewinder x6 Keyboard
Has anyone used one of these before, or tried out macro keys and anti-ghosting? Do they work for starcraft and starcraft 2, and if they do, what impact would they have on it?
 
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Haven't ever tried one.. but wow does that sound like a nice keyboard!
Not toooo bad of a price either.
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rofl that sounds like a beast keyboard
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Nice keyboard, but waste of money. =\
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My friend programmed 1a2a3a4a5a6a to a mouse macro button. Kinda lame. :p
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lol 26 keys at once. Why would you even need that? Trying to put down the whole alphabet in one go? 
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On March 18 2010 10:27 WaddleD wrote:lol 26 keys at once. Why would you even need that? Trying to put down the whole alphabet in one go?
when you play Guilty Gear or Street Fighter against your friend from a single keyboard, you will know why
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United States11637 Posts
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You can write your own macros. It helps a tiny bit with macro, but otherwise as a player you need to know your strats and mechanics down cold to use them effectively. It might provide a borderline advantage if two players are equal. It won't close a large skill gap.
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i'm pretty sure macro's are illegal for obvious reasons...
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On March 18 2010 10:59 sob3k wrote:
i'm pretty sure macro's are illegal for obvious reasons...
still pretty handy
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Can't speak for the sidewinder, but I do have the Microsoft Reclusa keyboard.
The only problem I've had is the keys are made of some low quality transparent material, with black paint over top to form the back-lit lettering. The paint started wearing off my wsad keys after a few weeks. Which I expected out of a cheap back-lit keyboard, but not to long after, the keys themselves started to wear down in the same locations. Very cheap material, I don't know if the sidewinder is made of the same stuff, but I thought I'd mention it.
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I will buy anything with the micro$oft logo on it.
i <3 you bill gates
edit: i forgot to mention i buy anything reviewed by magazines, because they do it just because the stuff is great.
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Indeed I use the X6 Sidewinder. It has improved my speed on typeracer.com by 10 wpm on average, due to I think the low keys.
I set a macro to 0p9p and it worked, but I rarely used it so I deleted it. It's better to just play regularly IMO (but what do I know I am D level)
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the steelseries 7g keyboard has no ghosting at all. you can press every single key at once an they'll all register
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these types of things will be banned at lans, so do not bother. Online though...if blizzard sets up their own money tournaments, as well as license many other money tournaments...there will need to be rules set up to ban these types of things. Otherwise...ESPORTS!!!! ????
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Macros would be illegal by kespa rules and im sure blizzard would outlaw them at tournaments, but theres no way to stop people from using them on battlenet right?
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On March 18 2010 15:02 killanator wrote:
Macros would be illegal by kespa rules and im sure blizzard would outlaw them at tournaments, but theres no way to stop people from using them on battlenet right?
from replays, if hackers make some nice tools, or if Blizzard's are up to par, we'd be able to see things like someone pressing 1a2a3a4a5a6a in a split second and they'd be weeded out 
doubt it'll be much of a problem anyways.
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konadora
Singapore66063 Posts
I still don't get how macro keys work... googling doesn't really help 
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EPT
