Zboard - Standard and Age of Conan
Today, Managing Editor Jon Wood takes a look at Ideazon's Zboard keyboard, both the standard version and the Age of Conan specific keyset.
I realize that I’m not usually the one here at MMORPG.com that writes the hardware reviews, but when these items showed up at my door, they piqued my interest. You see, I am one of those no-frills gamers. I’ve never owned a gaming-specific keyboard, but that’s what I was faced with: An Age of Conan Zboard keyboard showed up at my door (along with the standard Zboard package including a standard and gaming keyboard), I jumped at the chance to try it out.
Zboard - Basic and General Gaming Keyboard
It’s not that it’s anything new. Zboard has been around since 1999, providing specialized keyboards for the gaming public. I wanted to say a few words about the base model (what you get in the first box you buy) before going on to talk a little bit about the Age of Conan Keyboard specifically:
For those of you who might not know how Zboard works, it all starts with the body: a blank series of sensors provides the base for whichever keyboard you want to play with.
In this case, there’s the general keyboard (your standard letters and numbers deal) and the gaming keyboard.
It should be noted that the keyboard base offers a number of little bonuses, including a USB hub and easycontrols to help out with volune, video, internet and the like. Since this is universal to Zboard and not specific to a keyset, we aren't going to focus on it.
Standard Keyboard - 4 / 10
;)
I can’t speak very highly of the standard keyboard attachment. Using it, I found that half the time, my shift key, space bar or various other keys simply wouldn’t work. I thought at first that it may have been something that I had done. Maybe I had attached it incorrectly, after all, I don’t think I’ve ever detached one keyboard from a base and added another, but after consulting the instructions (Insert into left side of keyboard, press down, unfold keyboard, clip at right side) and repeating the steps a number of times (and having different problems each time), I have to give the Zboard standard keyset a big ‘ol thumbs down. It has been collecting dust on a shelf in my apartment.
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Gaming Keyboard 8 / 10
This is where the Zboard premise really shines. The Gaming Keyboard, which has an area on the left meant specifically for gamers with a d-pad and easy access to the buttons that you need to do things like switch weapons quickly in a fight, jump over obstacles and the like.
I have no complaints about this key set, as I really did find that it improved my gaming experience considerably, making it a little bit easier and improving my reaction times in games like Battlefield 2142. I had no problems with the installation and everything went well. Throw in on top of that the fact that the software comes equipped with key mapping templates for a wide variety of games: Battlefield 2142, Call of Duty 4, EverQuest II, City of Villains, World of Warcraft, Bioshock and others (there are over 50 in total).
Having tried the kayboard with a number of games, I can confidently recommend the gaming keyboard to pretty much anyone. I feel that the usefulness of the gaming keyboard makes buying the package worthwhile, even if it does come with what was, for me, a lame duck standard keyboard.
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Age of Conan Keyset 3 / 10
;)
Releasing game-specific keysets is nothing new for Zboard, I can’t seem to walk into my local Best buy without tripping over one. Today though, I’m only going to talk about the Age of Conan Keyset. At first glance, it has a nice look to it and even a bit of added Conan feel. To the right (taking the place of a standard keyboard’s number pad), you will find the Conan-specific keys. There are specific keys for: Say, Shout, Tell, Reply, Follow, AFK, Invite, Kick and Auto Run as well as the standard arrow keys, home, delete, and others.
The main keyboard actually functions better as a keyboard than did the standard keyset and the letters and numbers use the Age of Conan font (Which I have to admit, made the geek part of me pretty happy). Of course, the hotkey function of every key is helpfully printed on the side of the relevant keys.
Sounds good, right? Well, it would if all of the functions on the keyboard actually did what they were supposed to do. The follow key, for example, unless there’s something I’m doing wrong, doesn’t do anything. I don’t even think that there is a follow function in the game. Same goes for the emotes that run through the F-series keys. There are 24 listed, and of that, only a few actually did anything. The rest gave an unknown command message.
This was a pretty consistent problem for the AoC keyset and on its own would be justification for a low mark. I also know what some of you are thinking. You’re thinking that Funcom should share in some of the responsibility for, for example, the missing emotes. The truth is though, Zboard really shouldn’t have released a product that doesn’t synch up with its game. In the end, it’s Zboard’s responsibility to make sure that the keyboard matches the game that I’m playing. As it is, I feel like I’m playing with the wrong game’s keyset. It still works for the most part, but is still off in a number of ways.
I also have to say that Ideazon really missed the boat with this keyboard. I was honestly surprised when I opened the set to find the right hand side inhabited by the invite, kick, inventory, etc. keys. It seemed like a no-brainer to me that an Age of Conan specific keyboard should capitalize on the game’s unique combat system. Instead of having those fairly secondary keys on the right hand side, the designers could have placed the specialized keys on the left hand side and incorporated movement and attacks into a more comfortable configuration than WASD and 12345 currently offer. Directional attacks at the very least should have been represented with specialized keys. They weren’t. Boo, hiss Ideazon, boo, hiss.
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He is right on the money. I'm typing this on the AoC keyboard and have to agree about the emotes, big diappointment. Hopefully Zboard gets this updated.
Boo Hiss is right. I bought this stupid thing as well. It's no help at all, in fact it's a hinderence. I went back to using my regualr keyboard. Of course I cancelled my Conan account anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter. Moreover, this reviewer liked the standard gaming keyset, really? How do you type on it, with the keyboard split in half? It's awefull.
You don't type with it, really. I wouldn't leave it hooked in all the time (I use my AoC keyboard for typing).
Heck, when I installed AoC my computer would not let me even create a man before it crashed. I have 149g with only 38g used. I have 2 g of RAM, and 2.41 GHz. I'm running an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Duel Core Processor 4800+ on Windows XP Professional system.....so I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it and had the same problem. I ran WoW for 2 years and now Tabula Rasa with no problems. I have a video card called Radeon 8800 series and a new GeForce mother board. I just do not know what else I can do to make this game play. I am into my 10th day of free play and haven't even been able to judge it. I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription if I can't find a cure.
Heck, when I installed AoC my computer would not let me even create a man before it crashed. I have 149g with only 38g used. I have 2 g of RAM, and 2.41 GHz. I'm running an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Duel Core Processor 4800+ on Windows XP Professional system.....so I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it and had the same problem. I ran WoW for 2 years and now Tabula Rasa with no problems. I have a video card called Radeon 8800 series and a new GeForce mother board. I just do not know what else I can do to make this game play. I am into my 10th day of free play and haven't even been able to judge it. I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription if I can't find a cure.
I think you're posting your complaints under the wrong thread, but your video card is the reason you can't play it. There are known issues with people with ATI chipsets. Also, that video card is really dated. I have an ATI Radeon 9200 (Not sure if the 800 part makes it better than mine) and I wouldn't even dream of running anything made in the last 3 years. Drop 160 bucks on a Geforce 8800 GT, and be done with it.
I would do that, but my computer is 6 years old and needs to be replaced. I would definitely just say you need to get rid of your videocard and get a new one. That thing probably wouldn't run a lot of games. And to say you ran WoW isn't really saying anything. Any computer made in the last decade I think can run WoW. :p
I have a Merc keyboard from Ideazon and love it. I would never buy the Zboard because it always seems to put the directional keys on the right and I am too used to moving with my left hand now and keeping my right hand on the mouse. The merc works great and has downloadble setups for popular games. I haven't seen one for AoC yet but I haven't checked in several weeks. I also don't need to buy any additional layouts for any games as with the Zboard. I believe the Merc is also cheaper and they have the new Stealth version also.
hmmm
im still heavily undecided what i should use for conan
i have
nostromo (wich i use now)
im used to using it but im running out of keys to initiate combos and abilities.
also since im moving with the direction pad at the side its not that easy to doubletap movement
z-board gaming (wich i dont like because i want all 1-0 more or less close at fingertips)
i dint try it really its just setting dust. i should give it a try again to see if its better then nostromo
a logitech gamepad (im fighting to configure right so i have more then 4 attacks)
it would be my prefered controller if id overcome some issues
im really exited about the xbox launch to see how they do the controller layout
the biggest hinderance for me atm is the lower left and lower right attacks when i try to setup a gaming pad to play
Any keyboard template thing that requires me to BUY a new one for every game is a money sink, hence this product is a loser in my book. If this keyboard floats your boat, have at it, but I think you are being ripped off for every game you purchase.
The programable keyboards and keypads are far superior to what zboard offers. but I suppose for the lazy this thing does work.
It isnt' the keyboard's fault - AoC disabled the emotes for a time, and the same with Follow - follow is buggy and therefore the follow key does not work. to get follow to work, you have to disband and regroup after every zone and i am told after every time someone levels up.
Funcom is the problem with the keyboard - they told the Zboard people what was offered and then disabled those functions. Some of the functions are indeed back.
The combat system is a freaking nightmare to try to map to a keyboard - the alt key is permanantly bound to switch to a hotbar that you can't reach any other way. redoing the keybinds means you can't really help anyone who asks you questions about the game's commands/keys so that's a pain in the butt early in the game.
I for one could never get this thing to work properly.
Tried a couple of otherdifferent products from them, too. Did not like them or did not work 100%
I recommend borrowing one from a friend and testing it on your system before buying one.
Lots of things can be not-quite-acceptable with their product. Any of which could be a deal breaker for you and your play style.
For sure, this is a try-before-you-buy situation.
Heck, when I installed AoC my computer would not let me even create a man before it crashed. I have 149g with only 38g used. I have 2 g of RAM, and 2.41 GHz. I'm running an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Duel Core Processor 4800+ on Windows XP Professional system.....so I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it and had the same problem. I ran WoW for 2 years and now Tabula Rasa with no problems. I have a video card called Radeon 8800 series and a new GeForce mother board. I just do not know what else I can do to make this game play. I am into my 10th day of free play and haven't even been able to judge it. I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription if I can't find a cure.
This is really off topic and as the site admin I should really not be doing this...but I feel compelled to share a similar problem I had.
I don't know specifically what you see when you crash (i.e. system resets, blue screen, graceful windows crash, etc).
My system was just doing a hard reset during character creation. I have E6600 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo and the video card was a nVidia 8800GTX. As it turned out, my power supply was too low at 480W and while I never had a problem before, AoC was finally using my video board in a way that was causing it to draw more power and the supply would fail out. I dropped in a shiny new 850W PSU and everything was fixed.
If you are having a different crash than I was, like a blue screen of death or other crash then this is likely not the problem at all. I just felt like I should throw this out there since I Googled my brains out trying to find a solution and eventually I just kind of figured out what it likely was.
From what I've read. These new game specific keyboards are just trying to take advantage of the gaming market.
*shrugs* I'm happy with my Logitech EX110.
I was one of those that won a zboard with the 7 keysets from MMORPG.COm and fond that all my keys work with my wow keyset and now use it over my g15 keyboard (which is now hooked up to my laptop). I am really happy with the product when playing wow. if am sure that if there is problems with the AOC keyset they will fix the problems with time.
Dang, my Mrs is gonna love this keyboard.....
I'm totally surprised Mr. Wood didn't see this and write about it!
Since what we still have is the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Age of Conan, of course game specific products like this IdeaZon Z-Board Age of Conan Key-Set will, by definition, also be a "beta" product.
Once FunCom gets the game to release quality, look for IdeaZon to offer some software fixes to better incorporate the game's Z-Board features with the release quality Age of Conan game.
Hey, everyone! You're *ALL PLAYING AGE OF CONAN BETA!* Don't you know that?
I've stopped playing until FunCom gets the Age of Conan game out of closed beta and into actual release quality.
With the actual closed beta servers now shut down, our release quality game will be delayed even longer. I refuse to pay FunCom to beta test their game so IK'll be back to the live servers when the game achieves release quality -- that will take at least three months, maybe six months or more.
I had a Zboard before, it was the one for EQ2. I really liked it a lot as far as the standard design goes. the specialized keyboards didn't help me any because of their setup. I'm an old school computer gamer and WASD is the main way to go. I've never liked using the right side of the keyboard for movement, way to awkward for me. But as for the standard design of it, i found it to be great for gamers. the response was fine and the fact of it's innate design if you accidentally spill anything on it, the liquid won't get on the main electrical part of the keyboard and it's very easy to clean because the standard keys pop right out very easily and replace fairly easily. it does take a bit of patience to get them set on spots right.
So i'd agree on the specialized keyboards, they suck really... but the standard one is fine and did last me a good 2 years before it pooped the bed. and I didn't have any issues with any keys not responding as the reviewer stated.
"Pooped the Bed"... LOL I love it. WTG, Old School!
i hated the zboard was uncomfortable, unergonomic, space bar was floopsy and wouldnt press well as it was broken in half in a Asymetrical way. lot of the important stuff was on the right side and should of been on the left. i give it a 2/10 personally. almost completely worthless. i went back to my G15 gaming keyboard and macro'd my combos and boom prob solved.