Rating: 
Summary: I am a Pro Gamer....
Review: I am a Pro Gamer, current earnings to date for the year of 2004 are $18,000. I compete in several leagues, Just recently my clan took 3rd in the CPL Extreme Summer World Championships in UT2K4, & I am currently ranked as the 7th best player in the world for FPS games (as reported by the GGL, WCG, CPL,& iON Gamers) & will be @ the WCG in San Francisco in Oct.
So this is an abomination, it cannot even come close to replacing the mouse & keyboard. If you are serious about FPS games, do not waste your money!!!
I does take awhile to learn, & overall you are left with something that only functions @ half the level of a keyboard. I tried hard to like this product & devoted near a month of my time mastering it. But if you need a quick reaction time, this is not the tool. May I recomend the Zboard Crossfire, besides the good old keyboard this is the only product that can compete!!!( & I belive that the Logitech Wireless Keyboard & mouse w/ fresh batteries is the best out there!)
Dra8er
Rating: 
Summary: Why aren't there six stars available?
Review: As I glance over at my Nostromo I am almost reverent about it. I do not always rant in a positive way about new computer products, but about this I will rant. I am a serious Age of Empires series player, and now have moved into playing Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, and cannot imagine how you could play these games without a Nostromo 50 device.
I own a Microsoft "Strategic Commander" also, having purchased that first, since nothing else was available, but kept longing for something which was simpler and easier to use, something with a more ergonomically perfect layout. The "Strategic Commander" has some serious faults in use and I find those faults have lost me too many games played against adept opponents on the Internet.
But Nostromo's device came out, I saw a review announcing it on "Tech TV's" "Screen Saver's" web site and didn't hesitate to go out and get one that day. I am that addicted to my games!
There is simply no comparison between this and all the other gaming devices I have used. It has everything I could possibly think of to put into a game controller, especially for a RTS game. Every one of the ten keys can be individually programmed as you see fit using the included software. You can assign a single key, like a number, which allows you to move groups of units around in the AOE games, or program macros for the various keys, so that you can order units to build the buildings you need. The separate modes made possible by the various colored keys, red, green, and blue, allow you to have a separate "mode" you can use, so that it is like having four different game pads available to you.
I find the ten key system to be ideal, it seeming far more natural to me to have "keys" like this to push when I am using the thing, and the "dial-pad" you can use to control directional moves, if that is what you want to do, is far more natural to use than the one on the "Strategic Commander." I do not use it to move, instead having programmed these extra keys with functions like "Control" or "Alt," which are very useful in AOE games. You need these to assign units or groups a number, and to cycle to them in an instant when you are in the midst of the game.
Every "profile" you create for any of your games can be saved in the software's easy to use modes, and you can use the "load-out manager" to install them for each different game. There are ready-made profiles for various games available with the included software, and you can also download them from their website. I don't use these because I have made my own and find it to work best for me.
An extra benefit of this device is that you can use it for things other than games. I have a normal calculator's keypad programmed into one of the profiles, and I can enter figures with my left hand in a far more natural way for myself than the usual external keypads included on the keyboard for this purpose, as well as an external plug-in type to use with a laptop. I programmed the dial-pad with the addition, subtraction, division and multiplication functions, and it works great for me.
In the various flight simulator games the throttle control that is built in is a boon, and I have been able to finally fight a good dogfight with some of the aces out there.
I cannot recommend this product highly enough, and no, I don't own stock in the company! Buy one and play a mean game!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Product
Review: I have been using the N50 for three months now, and for me its a very good joystick or pad. I mostly use it on 1st person shotters, with great results, its confortable, easy to setup, easy to program, very easy to create macros, and you can get it between $20-30. Me and my brother are so happy with it, that we already order the N52 which has one of the only drawback of this product, no enough keys (enough to play), but when you want to crete marcos, scripts and binds, your run out of keys, but overall a great product.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I have been using the N50 for three months now, and for me its a very good joystick or pad. I mostly use it on 1st person shotters, with great results, its confortable, easy to setup, easy to program, very easy to create macros, and you can get it between $20-30. Me and my brother are so happy with it, that we already order the N52 which has one of the only drawback of this product, no enough keys (enough to play), but when you want to crete marcos, scripts and binds, your run out of keys, but overall a great product.
Rating:
Summary: Never had a problem - great product!
Review: I have been using the Nostromo n50 speed pad for over a year now. I have Win2k Pro and use the v2.6 of the drivers and have had no problems. I play UT, UT2k3, QuakeIII, and my lastest game America's Army with my speed pad. All games have worked great! AA requies a lot more keys than the other FPS games and the speed pad works great for that game too. The new Speed pad n52 has just been released and I already have it on order. Well worth the money I spent on the n50 and now the n52.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I have been using thins pad for months now. I love it. I have made more profiles than I can count, and made them very easily using the software included in the box. I really don't know what the person who wrote that it does not play well with Win XP and causes his machine to crash; this is the first I have heard of that. I use a Dell 8100, same model, most likely not the same hardware inside anymore, and have had no problems at all with any game I have played in Win XP.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I have used this produst for over a year now and dont know how I lived without it. I play Counter-strike and found my gameplay has gotten ALOT better.
Rating:
Summary: was the best, now a bit long in the tooth
Review: i loved this device, and had it for almost 2 years... but i've since upgraded to the n52 and will never look back. the n52 is heavier, has more buttons, and has a slicker layout than the n50.that said, the n50 is a great tool. i used it mostly for fps games (mostly b1942), and it's a champ. by default, it'll try to map the movement keys to the dpad, which is a total mistake. do yourself a favor and set the keys to something close to your actual keyboard layout (with the wasd keys in the center), then program the dpad to the other functions that you use all of the time but usually have to take your hand off of the home keys to reach (like jump, reload, crouch, prone). with this sort of setup, you'll find that you'll be able to reload on the run, duck, and jump while doing other things - which will greatly improve your game. some things to remember with the n50 - the scrollbar is next to useless, and, unless you work for a circus full-time, you'll never be able to reach it. i'd say that the same holds true for some of the keys to the left and right of the 'home' area. also, the rest area on the n50 is somewhat uncomfortable and way too light in comparison to the n52. also, make /certain/ that you install the drivers that are up on their site (3.0), not the ones that come with the cd (which are older and buggier). anyway, if you're looking at this product, i'd suggest dropping the extra 10 bucks and getting the n52. it's a more refined product, and really works better. see you on the battlefield.
Rating:
Summary: was the best, now a bit long in the tooth
Review: i loved this device, and had it for almost 2 years... but i've since upgraded to the n52 and will never look back. the n52 is heavier, has more buttons, and has a slicker layout than the n50. that said, the n50 is a great tool. i used it mostly for fps games (mostly b1942), and it's a champ. by default, it'll try to map the movement keys to the dpad, which is a total mistake. do yourself a favor and set the keys to something close to your actual keyboard layout (with the wasd keys in the center), then program the dpad to the other functions that you use all of the time but usually have to take your hand off of the home keys to reach (like jump, reload, crouch, prone). with this sort of setup, you'll find that you'll be able to reload on the run, duck, and jump while doing other things - which will greatly improve your game. some things to remember with the n50 - the scrollbar is next to useless, and, unless you work for a circus full-time, you'll never be able to reach it. i'd say that the same holds true for some of the keys to the left and right of the 'home' area. also, the rest area on the n50 is somewhat uncomfortable and way too light in comparison to the n52. also, make /certain/ that you install the drivers that are up on their site (3.0), not the ones that come with the cd (which are older and buggier). anyway, if you're looking at this product, i'd suggest dropping the extra 10 bucks and getting the n52. it's a more refined product, and really works better. see you on the battlefield.
Rating:
Summary: Great product - too bad it's not compatible with Win XP!
Review: I really like this product, when it works. And on my Dell Inspiron 8100 it doesn't work very often. Win XP is a great operating system that is very stable unless you try to run the Nostromo software - then XP crashes, every time.
Consequently I cannot load any game profiles so the Nostromo is just an attractive paper weight.
Blekin recently updated the software and drivers, which I downloaded and installed but it did not help any.
If you use Windows XP think twice before buying the Nostromo n50.
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