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Big-Time Game Controllers

Ah, do you remember the old Atari joysticks that ushered in the age of the video game (and the Atari personal computers after that)? A plastic tube, a base with a single red button, and a cord . . . what more could you possibly want, right? Because modern game players want a lot more than one button, witness the arrival of the game controller (which I think has a much grander sound than just a joystick). For example, check out the controller does that look like an old-fashioned joystick to you? In fact, this model is more like a combination of a mini-keyboard and a gamepad (reflecting the current complexity of PC games, which rely as much on the keyboard as the pointing device that you’re using). Your entire hand fits on top of the controller, much like a trackball, and your fingers use the keys while your thumb operates the gamepad directional control.

(You can also use this controller along with your regular mouse or trackball.) This model, which sells for about $30 online, can even be programmed to fit your preferences for each individual game that you play. Sweet! Another popular feature of today’s game controllers is force feedback, where the controller actually rumbles or provides resistance to your hand that matches the action onscreen, such as a steering wheel that gets tougher to turn in curves or a joystick that shakes each time that your WWII fighter is hit by enemy fire.

Consider the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback steering wheel, which has the same optical tracking mechanism as today’s optical mice and trackballs. It even has its own onboard processor, which keeps track of what’s happening within the game and activates the wheel’s internal motors to provide the matching feedback. (Naturally, it also has programmable buttons. What a surprise.) Anyway, you get the steering wheel and a set of pedals to boot for about $100, making you the hit of your NASCAR crowd! Video and Digital Cameras Images and full-motion video have traditionally been based on film (which retains an image when exposed to light) or magnetic tape. That whole approach, however, is now strictly ’90s . . . and very early ’90s to boot. Today’s digital cameras and digital video camcorders have heavy-duty advantages over film cameras and tape camcorders:

 -  No processing at Wal-Mart is required. Your digital images can be downloaded directly to your PC.

 -  Editing is easy, using programs like Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro (for digital images) and Adobe Premiere (for video).

 -  No film rolls to buy. Instead, you simply delete images from your digital camera after they’re downloaded to your PC.

 -  Your images and videos can be saved to a CD or DVD for permanent storage.

 -  Images can be sent via e-mail or displayed on your Web page.

 -  You can create your own DVD movies from your video clips.

A specialized model of DV camcorder (about the size of a baseball) is designed especially to sit atop your desktop PC: a Web cam. Folks use them to send digital video over the Internet, to add a video signal to their Web pages, or to record simple movies from their chair. Web cams have been in use as Internet videoconferencing tools for years now; most are under $100; and they use either a FireWire or USB cable connection to your PC.

External Drives

Next, consider how simple it is to add fast storage or the ability to record your own CDs and DVDs to today’s PCs. If you’re the least bit nervous about digging inside your PC’s innards in order to add more hard drive space, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s easy to connect a fast external hard drive to your system . . . providing that you have the FireWire or USB 2.0 ports available on your PC.

In fact, not every form of external storage even needs a cable. Read on to see what I mean. Portable hard drives and CD/DVD recorders Forget the huge external hard drives of just five years ago. Those doorstops have been replaced by slim, trim models that run faster and are more reliable and yet are no bigger than a pack of playing cards. At current prices, you can pick up an external 40GB hard drive for about $350 that is a mere one inch thick and shock resistant, yet can connect effortlessly to PCs with either FireWire or USB 2.0 ports. On the CD and DVD recording scene, you’ll find four major types of drives:

 -  CD-R/CD-RW drives: Can store around 700MB on a CD

 -  DVD-R/DVD-RW drives: Can store 4.7GB on a DVD

 -  DVD-RAM drives: Can store 9.4GB on a double-sided DVD

 -  DVD+R/DVD+RW drives: Can store 4.7GB on a DVD The RW in the drive moniker stands for rewriteable, meaning that you can reuse a CD-RW, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW over and over. All these recorders can produce audio CDs and standard data CD/DVDs, but only the drives that can record the DVD-R and DVD+R formats are likely to create a DVD movie that can be played in your standalone DVD player. Unfortunately, the rewriteable DVD-RW and DVD+RW standards aren’t compatible with each other, and they’re not compatible with most standalone DVD players, either; you’ll have to watch your discs on your PC. (Insert sound of palm slapping forehead here.) Backup drives Backup drives used to mean inexpensive, slow-running tape drives however, today’s typical 60GB and 80GB drives are simply too humongous for such tapes to be worth much anymore. Heck, I remember when everyone backed up to floppy disks, and now even the highest-priced digital audio tape (DAT) drives are losing ground fast in the backup storage world. Instead, you now have three choices to pick from when backing up your system:

 -  DVD recorders, especially DVD-RAM drives, which can store over 9GB per double-sided disc.

 -  Online backups, using a commercial Internet backup service. (This is really only a viable solution if you’re using a broadband connection to the Internet; backing up a big hard drive takes too long over a pokey 56K modem.)

 -  External FireWire and USB 2.0 backup hard drives like the 200GB Maxtor Personal Storage 5000DV (www.maxtor.com), which allows you to start a full, automated backup of your system by pressing the button on the front of the drive. The Maxtor unit isn’t cheap at $450, but how much are your documents and files worth? No matter what backup method you use, I strongly urge you to do your duty as your PC’s guardian and back up your system! USB flash drives The final storage toy is a little something different: the USB flash drive, which is a keychain-sized unit that needs no batteries and has no moving parts! Instead, it uses the same method that digital cameras use to store images. Your files are stored on memory cards (either removable cards or built-in memory inside the unit). Most USB drives now range anywhere from 16MB to 256MB of storage, and after you plug them into your PC’s USB port, they look just like any external hard drive (or a whomping huge floppy disk), but they can be unplugged and carried with you in your pocket. These drives don’t need any extra software Windows XP recognizes them instantly so they make a great “digital wallet.”