GAMING ZONE - CONTROL IN HAND

Like most of the othe components of gaming, congaming, con trollers have also evolved with time.

There are many types of controllers designed according to the nature of the game and the device being used.

The basic purpose of a controller is to help a gaming device interact with humans.
If you talk about computers then the most common controllers are the very humble and useful keyboard and mouse. Though many people might not consider these as controllers many games -- most of the FPS -- are designed to work with ASDW key combination on keyboard. While the mouse is there for supplementary functions, this keyboard and mouse combination actually works very well.

Many companies have come up with special keyboard and mouse designed for the gaming purpose. Logitech has a full range keyboards with pre-pro grammed keys and digital display. Similarly special gaming mouse with weight balance are ex tremely precise.

While this combination controller is more PC focused, there are varieties of controllers for consoles. Joystick is one of the common controllers. Again there are different types of joysticks catering to different games.
The simplest ones are the arcade style joysticks, which basically is for moving left/right, up/down and to shoot. With time joysticks have evolved to more complex forms. These days there are 3D joysticks meant for car games and simulators. Not only are these modern day controllers armoured with added functions; they are also designed to adjust well into the hands of a gamer. These also come with third access where a gamer can even twist the joystick. The added abilities also in clude throttle control, pivotal/view control on the top and shoot button at index finger.

The most advanced form of joysticks has this amazjoysticks has this amazing capability called `forced feedback'. What happens is that while racing if a gamer tries to turn right immediately after a left turn the joystick will not allow that. Plus in case of a car crash the whole controller will vibrate giving the user a sense of an almost real crash like situation. In terms of simulator -- just like flying a real plane -one has to put extra effort to move the joystick while taking the aircraft up. Joysticks are mostly compatible with games like car racing, simulators, FPS and the arcade style can also be used for playing sports games.

Then comes the gamepad, which is the most common ones for console. Most of the consoles have their own gamepad but basically a gamepad in- cludes direction keys on one side, action buttons -- like shooting -- on the other side. These handheld controllers are controllers are suitable for sports, arcade, FPS and character involved games like Mario Brothers. These days gamepads also come with feedback functions so in case of an accident the whole thing shakes.

The advanced forms of gamepads are the wireless ones and the ones with multiplayer ability. When it comes to wireless ones batteries can be an issue. But one can enhance their gaming experience by connecting a headpiece to the wireless controller.

Again gamepad has also gone through makeovers like the motion control gamepads. The best example is the Nintendo Wiimote, which has motion sensor ich has motion sensor along with the normal gamepad functions.

So the controller detects the mo tion of a gamer and functions accordingly.

Such controllers have taken the w h o l e gaming ex perience to another level.