tech tales
This article first appeared in PC Gamer magazine issue #378 in December 2022 as part of our Tech Tales series. Each month we talk about the ups and downs of PC hardware and look back at our own history in the hobby.
Part of our culture is that we need to go beyond what is strictly necessary to run a game and control it. There was an industry bordering on it that promised new and improved ways to interact with, guaranteed to look incredibly cool doing it, and demanded $300. .
Without the innovation of PC gaming hardware manufacturers, the bar for input devices would never have reached this level. The mouse that NASA probably relied on to control rocket launches and calculate trips to Saturn. Even with just biomass on the ground, the keyboard will register your input correctly. And RGB lighting, the biggest innovation in PC gaming history.
But the research and development that paved the way for our favorite peripheral was funded by the sale of Gaming Snake Oil. Purchased at full price in 2003, the dusty doohickey was almost immediately stored in a bag in the attic or under the stairs, where every modem I’d ever owned lay. In short, gaming hardware hits and misses. We’re all in fashion, and maybe it’s time for an amnesty.
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The story of this author’s play on dead technology begins in 1999. Microsoft (yes, Microsoft) has released a controller for Windows PC aimed at first-person shooters. You’ve seen it all over gaming magazines held by actors who could hardly imagine the ferocious action they were clearly a part of. It seemed to hang on to this thing. That name? Sidewinder Dual Strike.
This impressive gamepad retailed for £100 ($88 in the US). Then you can buy three of his PC games at full price plus one re-released in 1999 or one of his in lowestoft semi-isolated. It didn’t look like a console controller. A directional pad and three buttons on the left. On the right side, on the front of the flight stick he has four buttons placed on it and attached by a giant ball to the left piece. The idea was that this ball negates the need to aim the mouse with the shooter.I had all the mouse and keyboard axes and inputs at hand.
Of course, the reality felt like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube and play System Shock 2. Like so many technological fads, it was a solution to a problem that didn’t exist in the first place. Playing shooters with a mouse and keyboard worked brilliantly, both with a trackball mouse and before the days of unified WASD control schemes. This £100 torture device I just purchased made even walking around in first person an extremely grueling endeavor, but I learned a valuable lesson.
Sidewinder Dual Strike competitor Thrustmaster Frag Master knew what to avoid. I looked with deep suspicion at the original his Razer Boomslang, which offered flashy ergonomics and a frankly unnecessary size.
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Novelty controllers rarely hit the market once the 90s gave way to the 2000s, but our money was still far from safe. With a new threat to our setup and common sense, the 3D monitor was at the head of the ruckus. This incredible breakthrough will allow you to see game worlds and movies like never before. They said over and over again in increasingly desperate tones until 3D was declared dead at some point in 2013. Whenever you want to use your PC, put on your glasses, load a title from the small list of supported software, and – no! – 3D. Unfortunately, not only did the 3D panel turn the game UI into a migraine-inducing nightmare, it always looked like a dark, blurry pop-up book. increase.
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Out of the limelight was the mouse DPI arms race. For over a solid decade, peripheral brands have proudly marketed new models based on massive DPI values, even though more than 2,000 are practically unusable. The rise of pro gamers and their 400 DPI settings took us wise to one of them.
It makes you think. Ten years from now, which time bomb will we be laughing at? A strong contender, but will RGB still rule in 2032? Does it make today’s streamer setup visible? And are we almost ready to admit that mechanical keyboards are actually very difficult to type on? Or are we not ready for the Sidewinder Dual Strike? It may have been. Winning Shroud, he’s PUBG’s, he’s only one stream…
