Monday, December 28, 2009

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows

I've wanted to set up a games competition using PC's with controllers. I have some XBOX 360 Controllers lying about, but there all wireless. Normally the cable controllers can be installed via USB. Microsoft are pretty touchy about their wireless controller technology, it seems they aren’t letting any 3rd parties develop controllers or peripherals using it (China, I'm looking at you!). Microsoft have however release a little receiver to allow you to play on your PC with the wireless controllers. I’ve seen it about, been tempted to buy one, after all it does have controller included in the price.


The one thing that put me off buying it, absolutely nowhere did it say whether it supported 1 controller or all 4. I mean that’s a pretty important piece of information, can I just buy one or do I need one for each controller? Yesterday my damn curiosity got the better of my wallet and I had to buy it, just to find out.

The good news is; it does support 4 controllers and 4 headsets simultaneously. PC products tend to flop harder than console ones, Microsoft is a big player and they should know better than to leave important features off the box like that. If this product isn’t popular, it’s because Microsoft don’t care enough to advertise it, and when they do, they do it badly.



Tested this on many emulators and it works perfectly, its so amazing playing a PS2 emu with xbawks controllers. I'm off to enjoy Street Fighter 2.

Partition SD cards in Windows

Why? Why am I not allowed to partition my SD card Windows 7? It's 2009 and I have to dick around with Linux commands to get my SD card partitioned. The saddest part is that it's only the GUI that's preventing me from partitioning it. The system itself is fully capable of comprehending what I want it to do.

There is a solution however, its simple. Use Windows Enabler. I'ts a small tool from a small developer, but its very powerful. You need to take care while using it, clicking the wrong things can be dangerous. In short, it turns the greyed out disabled options in windows GUI's to black clickable options. I assure you, Deleting and Partitioning an SD card is pretty quick and easy with this.