Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52

I'm a skeptic. No, I mean I'm REALLY a skeptic... especially in today's marketplace (because nothing is built like it used to be). I don't buy anything without checking it out first, and even then, I expect that it's probably going to fail me when I do. Yeah, wonderful view there, huh?Well, needless to say, I was pleasantly (and quite happily) surprised when this device didn't fail me out of the box. I've been using my speedpad for almost a year now, and I have to say that it has been by far more solid, responsive and intuitive than I ever expected it to be. I will not play a PC game without it plugged in now, that's how well this gamepad has worked for me.Here are the ins and outs:1) Solid construction. As others have stated, this device feels very solid and is just generally "sturdy as hell". This, alone, surprised me. Not too many electronic devices are solidly made these days (not too many at all!)... so I'm glad to see that this one was. Belkin did an excellent job in this department.2) Software. Do yourself a favor, when you get this device home, don't bother putting in the CD that comes with it. Instead, go directly to Belkin's website first-thing, download the newer version of the software (which is near exactly the same as what's on the CD, but updated) and install that *before* plugging in your speedpad for the first time. Do that and you'll have everything updated immediately with little to no trouble at all.I've had no problems with the software for this hardware (and that's generally the part I have trouble with the most). The applications (profiler and button editor) function perfectly, and macros are a snap to program. Kudos to Belkin's programmers on writing the software suite for this, they did a good job.4) Sticky keys. Most people have experienced this.. myself included. Being possibly a byproduct of the solid construction of the product, basically, what happens is the keys stick just a little bit coming out of the box. Though just "excercising" the device (pressing the buttons down quickly and solidly over and over) for a few seconds after plugging it in each time I went to use it cleared up this issue within the first week of using the gamepad, and I've never had it happen since.5) Other buttons.* The mouse scroll wheel can be an annoyance, and I don't use it much at all because it's hard to scroll up and down with it (Belkin may just have made that particular button a little *too* solid).* The orange button above the d-pad also isn't that easy to press, though if you keep you pinky finger positioned on the side of the keypad for leverage, it's not impossible to press this button (in fact, I use it as my default "map" button in most of the games I play). It's perfect for those functions you use enough to need a button for but not enough to need an easy spam button.* I haven't experienced any problems hitting the 'space' button below the d-pad that others have experienced. My thumb taps that button as easily as it taps the space bar on a standard keyboard. My only complaint with it is that I can't simply twist my thumb a bit to hit the key, I have to actually lift my thumb off the d-pad to do it - and that's not much of a complaint at all, really.The d-pad itself is a godsend! I'm a true console gamer, having used nothing but d-pads for movement since all the time spent playing my old NES as a kid (and using a joystick before that with my even older Atari). D-pad is all I know, really. In fact, the one thing that's kept me away from PC gaming all these years is I've never, ever been able to accustom myself to using arrow keys or WASD for movement (and probably never will get accustomed to that either). For the longest time I was looking for a device that could allow me to keep the sensitivity of mouse aiming (to keep up with other PC players) while giving me an actual d-pad for movement... and that is EXACTLY what this gamepad did for me.As I said at the top of this review, I will never play a PC game without my Nostromo speedpad plugged in. This gamepad has provided the one benefit that other pads haven't and that I really needed - a controller interface that's actually functional and intuitive enough to use that I forget I'm using it most of the time, allowing me to immerse myself completely in whatever game I'm playing... which is really the point of gaming in the first place, isn't it?The Nostromo Speedpad gets 5 stars from me. I would recommend it to anyone who's looking for the type of benefits I've listed. And, for that matter, I'm recommending it right now in fact...

Used this to play various PC games. Worked wonders and was easy to free up the mouse hand. Fragged many of characters.

Apparently Belkin doesn't support the Nostromo Speedpad n52 on Intel Macs, though there's nothing anywhere on the packaging, or on their site (or Amazon, for that matter) to let you know that before you buy it. Also, they're apparently not writing drivers for Windows Vista, leaving anyone who upgrades out in the cold.This seems like a nice product, it works OK on my iBook G4 and seems to have a lot to offer, but it's worthless on my Intel iMac, which is what I play games on. Customer support doesn't offer any remedy. You'd think they would at least mention, somewhere, that they don't support Intel Macs or Vista, but I guess they just don't care enough.

While this certainly did the job, I've already replaced this with a Merc keyboard which I HIGHLY recommend.Everyone else has hit on the good, of which it is pretty good, so I'm going to hit what I don't like about it.First, and miner the red button above the directional and the scroll wheel require much more force than you'd expect, any other key takes a light press but the red fire button requires more force than the rubber bottom can resist, pushing this button will push the pad across your desk but not actually depress the contact, not exactly ideal for lightning fast responses. As far as the scroll wheel it also requires more force to turn it than is worth, I will reach for the scroll on my mouse before using this one.The complaint I have that keeps me from using it relates to the software. In a "former life" I wrote Macros (do my job buttons) for a living and am very well versed in how to make a macro, the 1 key at a time entry they use is about as tedious a process as you can make it. Wanna make a correction to a Macro you already made? may as well delete it and rewrite it as the editing process is as absurd as you could ever make it. The people that wrote this portion completely missed the whole point of a macro: Make things easier - they made macro creation as difficult as it possibly could be.If you are looking for something along the lines of this keypad, look into merc keyboards/gamepads