I gave Dick Smith some money ($AUD59.95), and they gave me an Xbox™ 360© Controller* For Windows® – the boxed, wired USB version that’s compatible with Windows and with your (upcoming) Xbox® 360™.
It works okay in Windows. It’s nicely put together, feels right in the hand, and I’m getting used to the bump buttons (I’m still not sure if I can move to not using my trigger fingers on the triggers). Hopefully they won’t be overused in games (they replace White and Black buttons). They’re Claytons buttons – the button you press when you’re not pressing a button.
It’s not all plain sailing – looks like Windows’ game device support doesn’t support all the axes (you know, axises) needed for each trigger to operate independently, so they end up offset against each other on the X3 or Y2 axis (or something like that), so if you pull both at once, they cancel each other out. Not ideal for driving games where you might need to blip the brake while on the throttle, or vice versa. But for the one game I’ve actually tried it with – the V8 Supercars 3 Demo (TOCA 3 to our Eurotrash readers), it was pretty good.
Wonder if Windows Vista’s going to be any better in that regard… guess there’s one way to find out (when’s that February CTP out?).
While waiting for March 23, I’ve once again jumped into the world of the original Xbox, only one of the original controllers has buggered off somewhere. So I have one original Xbox controller S™ (OK, ha ha, trademarks are funny aren’t they… we get it), and one 360 controller. And the plugs don’t match – the old one’s “electrically” USB, and the 360 one is actual, honest-to-god USB. A quick search around hasn’t revealed an adapter, and it’s probably not worthwhile with only a month and a bit before it becomes utterly obsolete, but imagine the fun:
Xbox 360 controller…
Plugged into a White Xbox you’ve just repainted and scrawled “prototype” across…
While your friends gawp in amazement.
What – no amazement?