Ideazon MERC Stealth Gaming Keyboard

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] Before we dive into this review, I just want to let you know that while I belong to the church of ergo keyboards, and this is not an ergo keyboard, I will give it a fair chance for this reviews' sake. And right now, I'm so frustrated with the loss of signal experienced with the Microsoft 7000 wireless keyboard that I reviewed earlier, that I'm willing to use just about anything else but that keyboard. Ok upon first inspection - I love the USB ports on the keyboard, perfect for the HUE webcam, if you don't mind it hitting your keyboard every ten minutes, but otherwise, cheers! You can never have too many USB ports! Sadly however, these are underpowered USB ports (up to 100mA). I've read some issues with these USB ports not being able to support certain devices, though I had no problem with my camera, my tiny USB device or my bendy webcam. Before plugging it in, I sat here and toyed with it a little and immediately noticed the position of delete, insert, home, pgup pgdown, etc keys and those are very important keys for one of the games that I play. They're there, they're just actually integrated into the numpad, which will not work with my game, as the numpad controls the camera, while the delete, insert, home etc control your target and what you want to do with it. Thankfully there are a plethora of programmable buttons on the far left, but that's going to really take some getting used to. Let's look at the features listed on the box. Features Astounding Three Colour Illumination. Dedicated Gaming Terrain with Rubberized Keys. 34 Labelled Gaming Keys. Multimedia Controls & Hot Keys. Easy to program with drag-and-drop editing. USB 2.0 Ports and Audio In/Out Jacks. The illumination is perfect for gaming in the dark, there are three colour options, red, blue and purple (which is more pink than purple) as well as different levels of brightness, Subtle, Ambient, Intense and Off. Every single key is illuminated, which helps for those who need to look at their keyboard to type. The ambient glow is quite nice in a darkened room, however every time you reboot your machine, you have to reset your colour and intensity preferences. This is quite easy to do with the two soft touch buttons at the top of the keyboard, however this is something that could have been defaulted in the software as well. For me, I prefer blue on Ambient intensity. The "Dedicated Gaming Terrain" is completely soft touch for both superior response and quiet interaction. It's tilted 11 degrees, which, according to the box, matches natural wrist position. That being said, that does imply that you're using your left hand to move, shoot, jump, etc and your right hand to mouse, leaving the 15-25% of the population who are left handed, out of luck. Now there are several types of gamers. Six considering both right handed and left handed players use their keyboards differently, or at least in different positions. There are those who use the mouse almost exclusively, those who navigate their games with the arrow keys and those who navigate with WADS. Pure mouse users, you aren't going to need this keyboard much. Arrow key people, you're going to have the harder of the transitions. The arrow keys are below the numpad on this keyboard, and at least have turn keys integrated, but if you're going to insist on using the arrow keys, you don't need this keyboard either. WADS users, you're golden. If you're used to using WADS and other keypad shortcuts, this is the keyboard for you. Lefties may or may not be able to use this keyboard. If you left hand mouse and right hand key, this is not the keyboard for you. The orientation of the keys are tilted to accommodate a right handed person using their left hand on the keys, and you'd have to rotate your keyboard about 45 degrees counter clockwise for it to even start to become comfortable. However if you right hand mouse and left hand key, you'll be fine using this keyboard. And of course, this does not appear to be available in a flipped version. The Dedicated Gaming Terrain also has 34 gaming keys labelled and positioned for ultimate precision and control. Jump is in a good location, as are duck and printscreen (though it took me quite some time to find printscreen so I could capture onscreen images of the application!). The 1 through 11 shortcuts are at a very good distance though I would have preferred to see a third row of directional buttons below the other two, to include strafe left and right (normally Z and C) for turn buttons (in this case Q and E) are less used, since many games make you turn your camera and therefore your character, with your mouse. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Keyboard Overview] Moving over to the other side, let's look at the numpad. What have you done to my zero? Because the numbers, the actions and the arrow keys are all integrated into one 4x5 grid, the zero that we are so accustomed to being centred under the middle row of numbers, is moved one slot to the left, replaced with the up arrow, making any type of daily use awkward. This configuration also makes daily use a definite chore, using this keyboard to type this review has me constantly switching my numlock on and off and while thankfully there are indicator lights on this keyboard to tell you when it is on or off, it's still an annoyance to be constantly switching back and forth between delete and the number 1, End and the number 5, Pg Up and the number 9, etc. This will not be an issue for those who use the 1 through 0 at the top of their keyboard field. Z Engine Software. "The Z Engine Software is programmable with easy-to-use drag-and-drop macro editing allowing you to use one of the over 125 pre-defined key mapping layouts, or easily create your own." Hurray for letting me specify where to install this engine! Unlike other hardware, they request that you plug in the item BEFORE you install the software. After installing the software, I noticed a new icon in my tray, opened it up and wow, I'm surprised! Under Action there are 59 games listed. Under Role-Playing there are 25, and this could greatly be expanded on, not only are there games on this list that are no longer online or available, but many, many are missing, including the ones I play. Under Shooter, there are 55 games. Thankfully you can create your own custom layout, and it looks like I'm going to have to do that. Creating your own custom mod seems to be rather straightforward. The drag and drop functionality makes it a great deal more visual and idiot-resistant (note resistant, not proof, like bullet resistant vs bullet proof). In the 'Ideazon Mods' tree, double-click on the Mod located under the game you wish to create a Custom Mod for (i.e. Shooter > Call of Duty 2 > Default). Click on 'Edit Mode' button (located on the bottom of the Z Engine window). Once you are in Edit Mode you can edit your Mod in three different ways: Drag & drop the game commands from the Command Toolbar (initially located on the right side of the Z Engine window) on to the key you wish to change (Note: The commands are sorted by type: Movements, Actions, Weapons, Communications, Camera, and Other). Drag & drop the game commands on the existing Mod from one key to another. Manually edit the key using the various controls located on the bottom of your Z Engine window. Once you are done creating your Mod click on 'Save As', name your new Mod layout and press save to save your newly created Mod to your Custom Mods. YOU'RE DONE! NOTE 1: If there is no Ideazon Mod for your game, choose the Default Layout Mod as the basis for your custom Mod to start from (Default Layout > Default > Default). NOTE 2: If your Mod won't 'Enable' try adding the game trigger (application file name) by right-clicking on the Mod and selecting 'Edit Game Triggers'. Here are the games it supports by default: 25 to Life. America's Army. Area 51. Armed Assault. Auto Assault. Battlefield 1942 (incld. Expansions) Battlefield 2 (incld. Expansions) Battlefield 2142. Battlefield Vietnam. Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport. Boiling Point. Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood. Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 30. Call of Duty. Call of Duty 2. Call of Duty: United Offensive. Call of Juarez. City of Heroes. City of Villains. Close Combat: First to Fight. Cold War. Commandos Strike Force. Condemned: Criminal Origins. Conflict: Global Terror. Counter-Strike (All) Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Darkstar One. Day of Defeat: Source. Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (incld. Expansions) Deus Ex: Invisible War. DOOM III. Dungeon Siege II. Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. El Matador. EverQuest II. F.E.A.R. Fable: The Lost Chapters. Far Cry. Final Fantasy XI. Full Spectrum Warrior. Full Spectrum Warriors: Ten Hammers. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. Grand Theft Auto III. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Guild Wars. Guild Wars Factions. Gun. Half-Life. Half-Life 2. Halo 2. Halo: Combat Evolved. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Hitman: Blood Money. Hitman: Contracts. Infernal. Jade Empire. Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising. Just Cause. King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. Lost Planet. Mafia. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne. Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault (incld. Expansions) Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. Men of Valor. Neverwinter Nights II. Painkiller. Painkiller: Battle out of Hell. Pariah. Prey. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Quake 4. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45. Return To Castle Wolfenstein. Return To Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. Scarface: The World is Yours. Serious Sam II. Shadowrun. Shellshock Nam '67. SiN Episodes: Emergence. Sniper Elite. Spider-Man 2. Star Trek: Elite Force II. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (MP) Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (SP) Star Wars: Battlefront. Star Wars:...

Ideazon MERC Stealth Gaming Keyboard

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