Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship

	Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. Did you miss your activation email? October 13, 2024, 07:31:02 pm

News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

The Ur-Quan Masters Re-Release

General UQM Discussion (Moderator: Death 999)

Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship

« previous next »

Pages: 1 ... 13 14 [15]

Author

Topic: Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship (Read 66677 times)

Zeep-Eeep
Enlightened

Offline

Gender: Male

Posts: 917

Good Grief

Re: Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship
« Reply #210 on: July 10, 2006, 08:40:28 pm »

I agree with the comment that it's difficult to tell which
way an Eluder is pointed. Especially when the screen zooms
out.


	Logged

What sound does a penguin make?

Novus
Enlightened

Offline

Gender: Male

Posts: 1938

Fot or not?

Re: Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship
« Reply #211 on: July 11, 2006, 12:19:43 am »

Quote from: Draxas on July 10, 2006, 08:06:31 pm

It seemed to be pretty random, almost as if it were unique to each keyboard (which was, if I recall, how it was described back in the old key configuration utility included with the DOS version).

PC keyboards have their own microcontroller to handle key scanning and reporting key events to the computer, so you can hook up the keys pretty much any way you like. Most keyboards use a matrix-like structure in which, essentially, voltage is applied to each row of keys in turn and each column is checked. The keys themselves are on the intersections between rows and columns.

The advantage of this is that you don't need a 104-input (or whatever amount of keys you have) microcontroller to check key states, just one with enough outputs to the rows and inputs for the columns (e.g. 6 and 20, respectively). You also don't need anywhere near as much wiring between the keys and the controller. However, by wiring each key individually, one could build a PC-compatible keyboard with no jamming problems whatsoever; it would probably be something like twice as expensive, though, at least (even worse if it isn't mass produced like normal keyboards).


	Logged

RTFM = Read the fine manual.
RTTFAQ = Read the Ur-Quan Masters Technical FAQ.

Holocat
Frungy champion

Offline

Posts: 84

Re: Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship
« Reply #212 on: July 11, 2006, 12:23:08 am »

If there were more applications that suffered from keyjams, or if keyjams themselves resulted in more horrible consequences (aircraft control systems don't keyjam, for instance) we'd probably have our perfectly wired keyboards. As it is, keyjamming remains a plausable but very, VERY cheap star control 'tactic.'

It IS kinda funny though...


« Last Edit: July 11, 2006, 12:30:05 am by Holocat »	Logged

evktalo
Frungy champion

Offline

Posts: 50

Re: Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship
« Reply #213 on: July 11, 2006, 04:49:16 pm »

Additional USB keyboard helps against keyjam. Spread the word. Wink


	Logged

Culture20
Enlightened

Offline

Posts: 917

Thraddash Flower Child

Re: Better than banter: OUR single favorite ship
« Reply #214 on: July 13, 2006, 02:42:36 am »

Quote from: evktalo on July 11, 2006, 04:49:16 pm

Additional USB keyboard helps against keyjam.

But opens the possibility of further cheating... Roll Eyes


	Logged

Pages: 1 ... 13 14 [15]

« previous next »