CES 2011: Penguin Converts Keyboard to Controller

There’s always been a long-standing battle between the console folks and the mouse-and-keyboard elite, and amongst a small sea of solutions, Penguin’s Eagle Eye adapter offers a seemingly suitable option for most gamers. At least, for most PS3 gamers…The Eagle Eye adapter converts the signals from any standard USB mouse and keyboard into the equivalent of a PS3 controller, offering one-to-one conversation between the mouse and the usual right-analog stick. Software included with the package allows you to map specific keyboard keys to the common controller functions for enhanced ease-of-use and comes with an automatic preset for some quick, plug-and-play action.

We were able to try out the Eagle Eye on one of the Call of Duty: Black Ops zombie levels and found it fairly responsive if not exactly life-changing. While there wasn’t any noticeable lag, we kept asking ourselves one single question, “Wouldn’t anybody who feels passionate enough about choosing mouse-and-keyboard gameplay over consoles already be playing this on a PC?” That said, the controls worked well enough for us to blast our way successfully through the level once we had the hang of the arrangement on our keyboard. But it’s certainly a bit confusing when you have to constantly remind youself that when the screen says “press X to reload,” the X-button is now the spacebar (or whichever you’ve chosen it to be). The game itself obviously doesn’t translate that for you…

Additionally, we only saw the system running a FPS, so for other genres like run-and-gun platformers or action titles, we’re not quite sure how helpful a keyboard arrangement would be. Regardless, if you find yourself desperately needing to ditch your controller for the comforts of a keyboard, this might be one way to do it.