Saitek PZ31A Pro Gamer Command

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saitek pz31a pro gamer command

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Saitek PZ31A Pro Gamer Command

Saitek
PZ31A Pro Gamer Command

List Price: $35.99
Lowest Price: $31.50

Product Description:

Pro Gamer Command Pad combines the controls essential to First Person Shooter and Strategy games in one unit making them fast and easy to reach in the heat of battle.PRODUCT FEATURES:Backlit device for First Person Shooter (FPS) and Real Time Strategy (RTS) gaming;Ergonomic keypad with laser etched keys so characters are visible in any lighting environment; ideal for late night gaming session and LAN parties;4-way analog hat switch;20 buttons including space, shift function and 3 mode states for up to 144 programmable commands;Adjustable thumb control area has 2-way tilt mechanism, slides forwards and backwards, pivots up and down.

Customer Reviews:

Rating:
Date: 2008-07-05
Good but not good enough
I am giving this controller 2 stars because I had too many issues with keys that would send their strokes multiple times. I used it for playing poker and at times I would press a key for one window, the controller would continue sending that key to other windows causing me to lose money. I promptly stopped using it and have the Wolf King command pad.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-07
Performs as expected
I just tried the PZ31A on my PC (under Windows XP Pro) and found it worked very well with an old flight-simulator game called TIE Fighter (Collecter's Edition). The original TIE Fighter game did not allow controls to be remapped, but using the PZ31A I was able to group all the commonly used controls into an area easy reached by my fingers.

I would have given the PZ31A 5-stars but the only down-notch is for the software configuration. Configuring the profile was not intuitive to understand, and took me over two hours of reading the manual and digging on the internet to figure out how to get the key-customization setup. If you have no patience with studying for a few hours how to configure a controller then you should probably avoid.

Also, as of June 6, 2008, the image in this particular Amazon listing does not match the version I received. The unit seems to be a newer model and doesn't appear as snazzy as the grey and black-colored unit in the picture listed. One difference is the manual for the profile configuration indicates there are three color-coordinated configurations, being blue, green and red, but on the unit I received there was a faint yellow-color in place of the blue color.

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-26
Made for a man... :(
Created for long manly fingers, which I do not have, I have small girly hands and although I did keep it since I desperately needed it I found myself re-adjusting the set up over and over, I just never got comfortable with it. The programing is insane, I tried to figure it out but just could not. When they mean this item is adjustable they mean ONLY the thumb pad is, kinda deceiving since it looks like you could also adjust the base and make it shorter, not so. the 4 top keys are too far for me to reach and the little joystick gets in the way more than anything. Also after 3 months of use the keys are really starting to look worn but have remain kinda hard to push. Keys 20/21 are a total mystery to me. I will say if you are good with programming keypads, if you have long fingers and you play very hard it should be right for you.

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-11
Excellent in Theory, Poorly and Cheaply Made
I've had 2 of these. TWO. I loved the first one so much that when it broke after only a few months of use, I had to buy another. Well the second one just broke - almost on cue, actually.

This is a great unit when it works. The buttons are nice, the positions is good, and I found that it really helped me play better as I wasn't alwsays looking for buttons and finger positioning.

The problem is that it's made VERY cheaply. The software itself is very poorly designed; it's a pain to use with Vista, it doesn't take advantage of certain key possibilities, and other nuances that, while individually small, make the software look and feel like a high schooler designed it. The unit is also made of very cheap plastic. The thumbcontroller gets dirty too easily (I'm not a messy person ordinarily), the buttons stick over time, and other obvious things that just scream "I'm made very cheaply by the lowest bidder using the cheapest materials and no QC".

If you're a casual gamer, maybe this will be OK as you won't use it enough to wear it down; but if you're a casual user you probably don't need something like this.

But if you really want a great tool that makes playing easier, I'd suggest looking at something with a little better quality manufacture.

Rating:
Date: 2008-04-29
Happy
High quality and works as advertised.

The programming software seems overly cryptic, but downloading the latest version from their website was a big improvement.