Wolfking's Warrior Xxtreme: $80 through Dell

Shortly after making a splash at the FCC and getting an official name, Wolfking's Warrior Xxtreme is finally available to anyone who thinks their fingers are up to the challenge of conquering this beast. Hailed as the "world's first 2-in-1 PC gamepad and keyboard," this unit is supposedly geared towards MMO players and features a "Blue Moon" backlight for playing after hours, a pair of USB 1.1 ports, built-in volume control and support for both Macs and PCs. Interestingly, the device will be sold exclusively through Dell (at least through the holiday season), and while the press release claims that you can pick one up now for $79.99, it appears that it hasn't been added to the firm's website just yet.

[Tinu @ Nov 19th 2007 1:41PM]

Also functions as a Waffle maker :-D

[Bobs @ Nov 19th 2007 2:29PM]

I know, when im done gaming, me and my aunt jemima make breakfast or whatever we feal like, the neibor, ms butterworth can sit out in the rain for all i care

[Magallanes @ Nov 19th 2007 1:42PM]

The X came from eXtreme (price tag).

[Adoniteking @ Nov 19th 2007 1:56PM]

the Q in both circles, the F-keys and f key in the left circle seem badly positioned and small for man-fingers...ERGONOMICS!

[Greg Thompson @ Nov 19th 2007 2:02PM]

Yes but small man fingers are typically Apple Fan boys, and we know they won't be buying this product, so, crisis averted.

[Gabe @ Nov 19th 2007 4:01PM]

Greg can't read.

[Markus @ Nov 19th 2007 2:14PM]

Good lord man, if i ate a bunch of keys and farted them out on a table they'd make more sense than that layout.

[Spanky @ Nov 19th 2007 2:47PM]

that's pretty funny ...

[Mile @ Nov 19th 2007 2:15PM]

Glad to see the luv for USB 1.1 return!

[Garrett @ Nov 19th 2007 2:15PM]

USB 1.1?

Why?

[Brendon @ Nov 19th 2007 2:25PM]

Why not for HID? There is no reason a keyboard needs to be 2.0.

[Eric @ Nov 19th 2007 2:32PM]

There is plenty of reason for usb 2 in a usb HUB. If you're going to occupy a usb 2.0 slot on your computer and extend it to a hub, why would you want to downgrade it usb 1? If you have alot of devices and you want to plug in your ipod or any other portable optical device, it wont be accessible if you plug it into a lower power USB port.
Who says keyboard usb hubs are relegated to only other HIDs?

[Garrett @ Nov 19th 2007 2:34PM]

I consider the keyboard ports for easy thumb drive access, but 1.1 slows transfer rates and makes it useless for that. My mouse is wireless.

[SteveJ @ Nov 19th 2007 2:17PM]

Looks a bit like a kidney.

[BananaBoat @ Nov 19th 2007 2:35PM]

First ever keyboard and gamepad in one? What?

I must not be typing on a Zboard right now, and I surely must not have a Zboard Merc in my closet.

No sir

That would make their claims an outright lie

[DataGuy @ Nov 19th 2007 2:46PM]

Perhaps they meant the first keyboard *built into* a gamepad...

[makishima @ Nov 19th 2007 3:02PM]

Or perhaps they just wanted a good marketing ploy to hock some overpriced pos?

[mAlice in Wonderland @ Jan 17th 2008 10:33AM]

You know your gaming history with regards to keyboards. Impressive.

[anonymous @ Nov 19th 2007 2:48PM]

can you have two keyboards plugged into the same machine at the same time? Isn't this missing a few keys?

[anonymous @ Nov 19th 2007 2:50PM]

I guess if you cyber, you could use this keyboard. left hand spanking the monkey and right hand typing your fantasies!

[BananaBoat @ Nov 19th 2007 2:52PM]

Dataguy-

Either way, it's a hideous and non-ergonomical design.

Anyone out there thinking of buying this...do yourself a favor and spend the 80 bucks on a 50 dollar Zboard, and then a 30 dollar faceplate for the game of your choice. Or get one of those shiny new Razer keyboards with the backlights. I don't see any reason why anyone would want this thing over the alternatives. Especially for that price.

[Kamokazi @ Nov 19th 2007 2:57PM]

I think they came close but screwed it all up.

Why not make this similar to a split ergonomic keyboard?

qwert
asdfg
zxcvb

on the left, and

yuiop[]\
hjkl;'
nm,./

on the right

the left keys could be more ergonomically positioned for gaming use, and maybe some doubled up if necessary. But it would be a much more normal typing layout and work well for gaming too. Honestly, being a big fan of split keyboards and only begrudgingly getting a G15 (LCD FTW!), I would kill for such a keyboard.

[Kamokazi @ Nov 19th 2007 3:01PM]

As a follow up, you could kinda get away with that like it is, but it would be better if it was designed for it from scratch.

[Silverfrog @ Nov 19th 2007 3:39PM]

Yeah good luck using this keyboard for MMOs, where you need to type messages to people. After using this keyboard for a while and getting used to its funky design, you're going to gimp yourself when you need to go back to a normal layout.

I can't see using this keyboard for gaming unless you had a dedicated PC for FPS games and another computer for other games. Someone else pointed out that it's not ergonomic. I suspect after extended sessions of Starcraft, your left hand will be cramped from the now awkward hotkey placement. Any Shift-1 users out there? Also, what about the lack of a numberpad? I for one use that thing a LOT in games. Nope, this keyboard ain't cuttin it...not at all.

[MasterCKO @ Nov 19th 2007 3:57PM]

Wow, this seems to be an ergonomic nightmare. Even though the game-controlling side looks kinda alright (except for a few troublesome placements), if they were going to make both key circles completely able to type every letter, why in the hell is the one on the right still aping QWERTY, when it could use one more conducive to one-handed typing?

In fact, why would a keyboard this radical in design even try to stick with QWERTY, which was designed to be inefficient in the first place?

[Blaze XR @ Nov 19th 2007 9:14PM]

I actually think this keyboard is a good idea... Because whenever i am surfing web with my mouse under my right palm and keyboard on the left, i always have to move my right hand from mouse to keyboard to type username and password... which is a pain... This might teach me how to use the keyboard with one hand...

[Dan S. @ Nov 19th 2007 4:04PM]

Here's another bone-headed design feature to add to the pile:

The "Ice Blue"/"Blue Moon" backlight doesn't appear to illuminate the character, just the outline of the (unfamiliar) keys.

[M Burke @ Nov 19th 2007 4:39PM]

I don't need the same keys repeated, i need MORE function keys. Is it possible to create such a keyboard? Give me all the normal qwerty keys plus extra keys that I can assign, the problem isn't the layout, but the number of keys.

[kojo87 @ Nov 19th 2007 5:25PM]

$80? i think i'll get a Razer Lycosa instead. that once can be used for actual typing as well.

[Nervid @ Nov 19th 2007 6:14PM]

By the way, this kind of backlight sucks and is useless. It doesn't show through the keys' symbols. It only shines around the keys, which essentially backlights the keys making them HARDER to see. I have the same kind of backlighting on an old Saitek keyboard (not the new one) and I had to turn off the backlighting even in the dark.

[N30 G30 @ Nov 19th 2007 11:30PM]

Dvorak... They should've used a Dvorak setup.

[Defiler @ Nov 20th 2007 9:30AM]

Not that I would ever buy one but the lowest I see it for is under $55.

I'll stick with my eclipse ver. 1 for now...