Product Info

Developer: Belkin
MSRP ($US): $35.99

System Requirements

• Pentium 233 or higher
  
• USB port
  
• Windows 98/ME, Win 2000
  
• 32 MB of memory (RAM)
  
• 30 MB of available hard-disk space
  
• CD-ROM drive
  
• DirectX compatible video card

The Good

Gamers who visited this year's E3 convention got the first glimpse at this handy controller. By the time I heard about the Belkin n50 SpeedPad, I was drooling at the prospects of leaving my keyboard behind during intense game play. Although the n50 looks a bit like the SideWinder Strategic Commander at first glance, it is very different indeed. The "Nostromo" line is Belkin's first attempt at the game controller market, and I think they will make quite an impact after seeing their first few devices. GCC will be reviewing three other Nostromo game devices as the month continues, so stay tuned!. At the time of this review, the boxes and manuals that were shipped for review were a little out of date, and as a result, I have a great announcement for you folks. Belkin is now offering a Lifetime Warranty on the Nostromo devices. New packaging and user manuals have been changed to reflect this. Lifetime? Wow!

Designed for your left hand, the n50 offers ten genuine keys, a throttle, and an 8-way directional pad fit for your thumb. The keys can be effectively tripled by use of a method known as "shifting", allowing you to use up to 40 keys in your profile configurations. This unique combination of keyboard and game pad allows for one heck of a configuration in most games I play, and then some. The device is very stable on the desktop and does not tend to move during those intense gaming sessions with Elite Force or Quake. The seven rubber grips on the bottom provide excellent support in this area, and the device is rather light. The n50 comes with a standard 6 feet of USB cabling, so there is little concern about where you can place the device on your desk before "stretching the cord". Did I mention the pretty LED lighting? Ooooooooooo!! Red, Green, and Blue! I am a sucker for cool lights on my desktop, you know.

I found that the fit of the n50 was rather well designed for multiple hand sizes. My hand (medium-sized) fit comfortably on the controller as did my wife's hand (small-sized). I could see larger people being more comfortable with a slight adjustment of the hand rest. Belkin states in the product manual that this hand rest is "adjustable", I however think "removable" is a more appropriate word, and they seemed to agree on the outside packaging. Maybe at one point they had planned to make this rest point movable or on a pivot, I don't know, but it fits my hand well, and I believe a larger hand size would fit the n50 well by just removing the rest. With all that said, Belkin designed this very well, with all hand sizes in mind.

Installation went fairly smooth on my Win98/ME machines, however the Win2k box did not fare as well at first. It seems that with installation on Win98/ME you must install the software first, then plug in the USB part of the controller. In Windows 2000 it was just the opposite, but it took me a few tries to figure this out. After I did however, it worked on the Win2k machine flawlessly. Once up and running, the installation had put two programs on my system, the "Nostromo Loadout Manager", and the "Profile Editor". We will go into those two programs in a moment.

I tested a variety of games with the device including Counter-Strike, Quake 3, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, Everquest, Diablo II, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, StarCraft, and Mechwarrior 4. Under all of these games this device worked great, but some were better then others in practicality. The learning curve for each game is slightly different, but overall it is very minimal. You will find that you can easily and quickly adapt to using this device between all types of games.

First Person Shooter Games (Counter-Strike, Elite Force, Quake 3, etc.)

FPS gamers are normally used to the standard keyboard layout for directional control. Once you overcome this small adjustment, it is quite easy to maneuver in these games. FPS gaming is probably the highest learning curve you will encounter with the n50, however, and some of you may enjoy true keyboard play better. I enjoyed using the pad for these games personally.

RTS Games (Diablo II, Red Alert 2, StarCraft, etc.)

First off, I know Diablo II is not really a RTS game, it is included here because it fits nicely with the style of play. The n50 really made life easy for me in Diablo II and StarCraft. I could easily assign the keys I normally have to look down at my keyboard for, (Like the inventory and building hotkeys) and hit them with confidence when I needed them quickly. The "shifting" states of the controller came in handy for the many hotkeys I assign in StarCraft as it allows for up to 28 keys to be assigned (See below in "The Bad" section of this review for more on this shifting and it's drawbacks). Never once did I miss my keyboard, and I honestly prefer the n50 for these games now.

Sim & RPG Games (Everquest, Giants, Mechwarrior 4, etc.)

Got one word for you in this area that sums up my opinion in this area, Yummy! It is this dragon's humble opinion that this device was made for games like MW4 and Everquest. With all the various control aspects of these games it can be easy to forget what hotkey is bound to which keyboard key. Add in the throttle (Especially handy in MW4!), your choice of mouse/Joystick, and you can throw away your darn keyboard! Well, ok, don't throw it away, but I never used it during my review testing in these games. Some of you may know I am an Everquest geek at heart, but this device really gave me control over almost every command I have set in the game. Truth be told however, it has not replaced my preference for Game Commander 2 (Voice commands) in EQ. For those of you that don't have GC2 though, this is one great alternative.

Nostromo Software

The installed Nostromo software works not only with your n50 SpeedPad, but also support the n40 and n45 game pads which GCC will be reviewing in the near future. No need to load a million different software programs for each Nostromo device you own, simply click between controllers and get configuring! Reminds me of something SideWinder started doing with their controllers, but I find that interface a little clunky once I compared it to Belkin's Nostromo offering.

Loadout Manager:
(Click picture for a larger view)

This Loadout Manager allows you to load your predefined profiles to each Nostromo device. The software supports up to five controllers at once, which makes owning multiple Nostromo devices and loading them with your profiles a breeze. Just set each controller with a game profile, associate the game launch executable with a game on your hard drive, and GO!

Profile Editor:
(Click picture for a larger view)

The Nostromo Profile Editor allows you to modify, edit, and create your own device configurations. On the SpeedPad, you can bind either a single key, or a macro to any of the keys. You will be allowed to choose up to 3 different "shift" settings, in addition to the normal mode of operation, which allows you to create about 28 separate commands bound to the keys of the controller. In other words, you can bind the "shift states" to any of the available 10 keys on the pad, which in turn, eliminates a key that could be used for another command. Each of the modes of operation can all be programmed in the editor, and it is very easy to use. The macro function is a tad "young" at this stage in my mind, and could stand some improvement. This will come in time I think however.

There are 33 predefined game profiles which come with the controller, and of course, GCC will be adding some to our profile download section soon as well. Some of the latest games are included in the default profile pack, including Serious Sam, Counter-Strike, Elite Force, Mechwarrior4, and Deus-Ex. They are very basic profiles however, I don't think a gamer made them.

The Bad

Not too much negativity about this device, but I do have some minor griping to do. As mentioned above, let's look at the "shift mode" function a bit. One of the major gripes I had was that in order to use this feature you must bind one of the keys on the pad to each "shifting mode" (Red, Blue, and Green). Essentially this means you loose three keys out of the ten if you choose to use all the shift modes. You can have up to four different controller settings, or "shift modes". In addition to the normal mode, you get red, green, and blue modes as well. The bad part here is that if you want to switch over to your "blue" commands, you have to utilize one of the keys on the n50 to "switch to blue", but this does allow you to configure even more keys for commands. Instead of getting 40 programmable keys, you only get 28 when using all shift modes, as well as having to know where you assigned these "shift modes". I would have liked to see a feature similar to the Strategic Commander here, maybe a shifting switch on part of the controller so you wouldn't have to take up those precious binding keys. Or perhaps, a single key bind that could be used to cycle through the four various modes. Oh well!

Another small gripe I have involves the hand rest. If you remove it more than a few times (Which of course I did during my review), it becomes a tad loose and easily comes off the unit. I think it better to say that it doesn't sit as firmly in place then when I first pulled it out and began using the device and is easily removed now. This is not as bad as it may sound, but I am griping anyway, for it is my duty as a perfectionist. Maybe some snapping tabs or other locking mechanism would have come in handy when this device was being developed. My advice to you if you buy this controller is not to remove this piece unless you truly need to. Overall however, it is a well made device, unlike my SideWinder Dual Strike controller.

The Final Word

The n30 GameMouse compliments the n50 SpeedPad nicely.

Belkin's entry into the game controller market is off to an excellent start with the n50 SpeedPad. Any person who has been looking for an excuse to bury their keyboard while gaming, is in for a solid treat with this controller. Well designed, easy to use, and a welcome addition to the desktop. I was waiting to try this pad out, and I can honestly say I was not disappointed in the least. With a lifetime warranty on the SpeedPad, low price, and a name like Belkin behind it, you can't go wrong.

The SpeedPad is complimented very well by it's optional companion device, the Nostromo N30 GameMouse, but I shall save that for another review. You will have the competition eating from the palm of your hand once you grip the n50 SpeedPad into your computer setup and get past the very small learning curve. If you find yourself often struggling with looking at your keyboard, this device may just be for you.