Customer Reviews

Belkin Nostromo n50 SpeedPad - Game pad - 10 button(s)

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The N.50 is to first person shooter games (like "Quake III Arena" or "Half-Life") what Thrustmaster products are to flight sim games: a programmable game controller designed with the idea that you need never touch your own keyboard again. With a shape suggesting a hand, the N.50 has 10 keys - in 2 rows of 5, a traditional 4-way keypad ala your console game-pad and, for those moments in which your thumb might get bored waiting to use the 4-way pad - and for those even rarer moments when you might need throttle control - a throttle wheel! Entirely programmable using bundled software, the N.50 can be customized to fit your preferences for the most convenient fragging. Though combining many controller functions, the N.50 does not replace your mouse, which would have freed up a USB slot. (On the other hand, it's not like you'll be scanning pictures and downloading from your digital camera while blasting your closest pals to a pulp in some virtual deathmatch; and anyway, there's probably a limit to how many functions a single controller can handle at a shot).

Fitting on your USB slot, the N.50 is a breeze to install. Belkin's "Profile Editor" makes it easy to map the keys for specific games. (The software that came with my N.50 was not optimized for Windows XP. An XP-friendly version was available on Belkin's website back in 2003; finding it online today may be more difficult).

Customizing keystrokes is incredibly easy - as compared to working the bugs out of my Thrustmaster setup. So far, I've used the N.50 on "Star Trek: Elite Force", both All three "Jedi Knight" games and the original "Half Life".

I am now totally spoiled for keyboards.

Two issues.

Build quality shows a shortcoming in relation to the directional keypad: even with practiced dexterity, I found that the control would sometimes move every way but the direction I actually wanted it to. Also, after about 6 years, one of the buttons has suddenly gotten stuck.

GETTING IT TO WORK IN WINDOWS 7-64

N50 will go no further than Win XP (and I can't even vouch for 64 bit version) UNLESS you use regedit to change the entry that Windows 7 uses for the speedpad. Yes - even though it will work fine in control panel you still must change the registry. Use regedit and find the entry for the speedpad - it may be in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/MediaProperties/Joystick/OEM/VID_050D&PID_0805. It's that last part (Joystick/OEM/VID_050D&PID_0805) that you're looking for. Once there, look for "3 axis 10 button controller". That's how Windows sees the N.50 - but Belkin's software won't...until you change "3 axis 10 button controller" to "Nostromo n50 Speedpad" - make sure you spelled it right. I did that and after 2.5 years, my Windows 7 desktop is now a gaming machine.

Is there a better gaming device? Probably. Nevertheless, price-wise, the N.50 approximates a good programmable joystick. For ease of use, it's an indispensable peripheral for shooter games. If you're still running on XP, let this is your boomstick.