Registered: Oct 2001
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Belkin Nostromo n52

quote:

Belkin has created many gamin devices over the years. They have even provided the MwGL with a Nostromo a few years back which we gave away at one of our tournaments. I hope that the winner enjoyed it.

Recently, I made the decision to pick up Belkin's new Nostromo n52 Speed pad gaming device. Belkin This is the firist time that I have gotten away from the traditional mouse keyboard combo and I had no idea what I was getting into. Let me tell you, it is simply smooth as butta' when it comes to laying the smack down on computer oppents or against your friends. The lay out and rubber bottom of the device allows you to put the n52 on your leg and use it without it moving around. The size if quite large and should be easy to use for everyone with normal sized hands. If however, you have large hands, then you may find ourself curling your fingers down and around in order to use it. But this is not really a big deal and shouldn't deter anyone from picking it up.

The n52 is quickly recognized by Windows XP as a hardware device, both as a HID, a mouse and as a Nostromo n52 gaming device as soon as it is plugged in. Installing the software is just as easy. Pop the disk in the CD drive and click yourself through the install shield wizard and everything goes in very smoothly.

The software installs drivers for the game pad as well as software that will allow you to create profiles to be used for each game that you play. You can setup a profile for Halo that differs from Unreal Tournament 2003 that my differ from Battlefield 1942. Each one can then be configured by the software to automatically load each profile based upon which game you are launching.

As an added bonus, Belkin has created a community of users who have created profiles for the n52 that can be downloaded from the Belkin web site. Each profile has been created for some of today's most popular games. Including UT2k3 and Halo. I have downloaded these profiles and have started using them. This is saving me from having to create them myself. A real time saver.

I have neglected to mention the general layout of the device. It has 12 button that are under your left hand. These buttons can be mapped to any key on your keyboard through the profile editing software. There is also an analog game pad under your thumb, a shift button that can be mapped to any key on your keyboard and finally another button that is below the analog pad that is most commonly used as the space bar. The layout become intuitive after just a few minutes of play time.

The retail price is $49.99 on the Belkin web site, but most retailers are selling it for $39.99.

I would have to say that this is a must buy for the gamers who read these forums.

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Philip "Mojo Jojo" Hannum
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www.mojogamingpc.com

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Bought it about a month ago from Gamestop for $30. The ability to make macros and such and the shift function is glorious.

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I can't find the community you speak of though, I looked high and low.

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Yep, had mine on pre-order the day I had heard about the new revision. It's definately a great addition, once you get it programmed and used to the feel.

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I'll post a link to the files that I spoke of. Give me a minute.

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Philip "Mojo Jojo" Hannum
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www.mojogamingpc.com

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Link to the profiles:

http://web.belkin.com/support/tech/gameProfiles.asp

now, if this doesn't work follow these steps and you will get there:

click on gaming in the lower left pane,
then click on Nostromo speedpad n52 link,
then click on Software below the picture of the nostromo n52,
on the software page, you will see all of the software updates for the n52, at the bottom of the list is a link that is for windows profiles, click on this link.
this will take you to another page where you have to click on the "click here" text just above the blue box to access and see the actual profiles.
Once you get the profiles page, all of the n52 profiles are toward the bottom of the page.

One neat deal about the n52, if you get the 3.0 software upgrade, the n52 will actually read and use the n50 profiles. pretty cool!!

Finally, the 3.0 upgrade works differently than other upgrades, it will remove all of your nostromo software first, before it performs the upgrade. Which means that you have to do the following:
download software for your OS
double click on software,
allow it to remove all of your nostromo software
reboot computer
allow windows to automatically recognize nostromo
then double click the same software that used to remove the software
choose the same location that the previous software was installed in
you are done.

I hope that is helpful. let me know if not.

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Philip "Mojo Jojo" Hannum
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OK... to ressurect this thread....

I bought one. It's a great fit for the hamhocks God gave me for hands... But everytime I play UT2k4 I slowly begin to stare at teh floor....

And it won't stop till I'm staring at teh floor.... Any thoughts?

Yes I'm updating drivers now.

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Jason and I spoke on the phone and it turns out that somewhere the look down function/key binding is causing the problem... which means that when he unbinds these keys, everything works.

I hope that everyone looks at this post as a good thing since we found the problem and was able to solve the problem.

Later,

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Philip "Mojo Jojo" Hannum
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/cheer

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Is the only difference between the n50 and the n52 the extra two keys? I have an n50, which only has 10 keys on it. Not that 10 isn't enough, it's just that 12 would be better.

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ROFL... I wander if that is why they added the 2 to the model number...

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Hmm, very possibly. Good thinking there Squirre1. That is why you are the leader.

All Hail Squirre1!!

* Mojo_jojo laughs as every gets down to praise our leader.

Later,

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There is more than two new keys, the little throttle thing has been turned into a scrool wheel, and a whole new row of keys was added, representing zxcv.

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Yes, there are four new keys for a total of 14. I didn't bother to look at the product page before, just read Mojo's write-up and took his word for the 12. The scroll wheel looks a bit awkwardly placed, but I wouldn't think it would see much use, anyway.

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quote:

---

Originally posted by ldonyo
I didn't bother to look at the product page before, just read Mojo's write-up and took his word for the 12.

---

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