How do you 'stress test' a keypad?
So, as with most bits of new kit, I thought the Warrior would take a bit of time to get used to but I was wrong. Because of the layout of the keys and the fact that everything is put in a much more accessible place, I found I settled into using the Warrior very quickly and even a complex game with loads of extra key presses (such as ShadowRun) was a doddle. This is because the Warrior emulates the key presses on a normal keyboard rather than having a bunch of keys to which you assign functions… So you can boot up just about any game you fancy and assign keys as normal, all through the Warrior, which is exactly how it should be.For a laugh, I decided to boot up Pacific Fighters, a vastly complex flight sim and run my Saitek X52 alongside the Warrior. Now, although I have a wealth of keys assigned to the X52, some of the more obscure and less frequently used key combos I still just access through my keyboard. This does mean that desktop space is at a premium with the vast footprint of the X52 throttle and stick, my keyboard and mouse.
Click for larger imageSo I was interested to see if the Warrior would work alongside my favourite stick and allow me a bit of extra space so things weren’t so cramped. And I’m pleased to report that here the Warrior performed brilliantly, with Saitek’s notoriously cranky software not offering up even the slightest hint that I wasn’t using a full keyboard (which was still plugged in but now residing on its side round the back of my monitor. Though it wasn’t all roses as even the Warriors 52 buttons proved to be too few for all the possible controls in Pacific Fighters. That said, I know I can lob a load more assignments on the X52 and to be fair, expecting the Warrior to be able to cope with the 180 or so different key combos in Pacific Fighters is a tad unfair…
Click for larger imageWhat was heartening is that the Warrior coped perfectly well with multiple key presses. So whilst I’m fiddling with my X52 and essentially inputting ‘CTRL-SHIFT-F’, I didn’t get a buffer over-run when I simultaneously hit ‘CTRL-SHIFT-F9’ on the Warrior. Seeing as the Warrior is really intended for FPS use, I guess you could say I took it far beyond it’s intended use… but I’m sure those of your with big sticks and limited desktop space would like to know that this is a possible option…