Peripherals
Microsoft Strategic Commander
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Microsoft have now discontinued the Strategic Commander (shame coz it's a brilliant gadget!) and unfortunately have also removed the drivers from their site (Personally I think it's despicable! Why not keep the drivers available for those that have invested in this product?) Anyway here's a link for the Strategic Commander driver: Driverguide.com - needs registration (free)And the Microsoft profile download site Pack 2 [if anyone knows of the whereabouts of pack 1, please email me using the link below! (Thanks)] |
"Play Faster, Play Smarter, Win More" - that the tag line for this fantastic new gaming pad from Microsoft. Part of the Sidewinder family of gaming devices, the Strategic Commander is like no other gaming device.
Designed
specially for strategy games, the SideWinder Strategic Commander will take your
strategy game play to a completely new level by allowing you to move, deploy and
command your forces faster and with greater efficiently. Its innovative map
movement control lets you scroll and spin the map quickly and intuitively. In
addition, its brilliant design puts customizable commands at your fingertips.
Get ready to play as fast as you think with the Strategic Commander, a shortcut
to victory.
Over the coming weeks and months we hope to have more and more profiles available for download here!
Features & Benefits
Left-handed game device to be used in conjunction with a mouse. Complementing the functionality of the mouse, the Strategic Commander can enhance or replace keyboard use in strategy games through the efficient grouping of its programmable buttons and its ability to facilitate map navigation and camera movements.
Programmable Buttons: Six buttons and three modifiers, plus profile switching allows up to 72 possible key mappings, assuring users of the flexibility they need in order to easily adapt to a variety of game play scenarios.
Profiles: Strategic Commander ships with over 30 pre-built game profile for the user to choose from. They can easily adapt these profiles to suite their needs and style or they can create and edit new profiles.
Record on-the-fly key mappings and on the fly profile switching. Users can quickly and easily adapt to new circumstances in the game, whether with last minute key mapping decisions or carefully planned profiles for more regularly occurring situations.
Leading Microsoft ergonomic design: Strategic Commander's ergonomic design facilitates the users comfort during extended and intense game sessions.
Map navigation in 2-D and 3-D games: Allows the user fast, easy map navigation & camera control for both 2D & 3D-perspective strategy games.
USB compatible: Plays better by taking advantage of technology innovations afforded by Windows 98 and Windows 2000.
Illuminated buttons: Users are always aware of which buttons are available for key mapping, and when they are in the process of recording a new key mapping; thus, the possibility of overwriting programmed functions inadvertently is greatly reduced.
Reduce "busy-work"/keyboard dependency: Repetitive, keyboard & mouse click tasks that accompany all Strategy games can be easily assigned to the buttons on the Strategic Commander. In this way, gamers can reduce and optimize the time they need to spend on "busy-work" so that they can focus on the more important aspects of their game play.
Program up to 72 commands: From simple profiles of only a few commands, to advanced, competitive profiles that might use all 72 commands, Strategic Commander can address the needs of gamers of any level and can easily adapt to all styles of game play and making these players better.
Record on the fly: Strategic Commander gives gamers a simple way to change and fine tune their strategy instantly, allowing them to quickly respond to new situations.
Age of Empires
Using a Microsoft Sidewinder Strategic Commander with Age of Empires II (or The Conquerors Expansion Pack)? If so, then you might enjoy these profiles I've created. Both profiles are highly modified versions of the profiles that are included with the device.
Save these profiles in your "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Hardware\Game Controllers\Profiles" folder.
Military Profile
This profile is designed to quickly and easily control your military forces and assign them to groups. Take a look at the profile.
Download: Age of Empires II Military(23 kb).
Turbo Start
This is my own update of the original Age of Empire profile designed to start the game quickly. Some of the buttons will work only in The Conquerors Expansion Pacl. Take a look at the profile.
Download: Age of Empires 2 Turbo Start(23 kb).
Empire Earth
Download: Empire Earth - turbo start (24 kb).
Visit the Games Section.
Kathie Kingsley-Hughes
Last updated: May 16h 2006
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