E3 2010: iGUGU
Say you want to connect your PC or laptop to the TV. Sometimes it’s rather nice to play some of the PC only titles whether it be a game from a major company or even a Flash based game on a big screen. There are several ways to go about doing this and iGUGU has a solution that might be up your alley.
The Gamecore system consists of a wireless controller and with the long range version, a transmitter and receiver. Let’s talk about connections first. Connecting to the TV is pretty simple as it takes your standard VGA connection and then lets you connect to the TV with their setup. Connecting to the TV though from a computer isn’t too hard these days so there’s nothing too special here about the Gamecore system.
For going long range though, you can pick up a transmitter and receiver that can be connected with a twister pair network cable to carry the signal a long distance. I’ve seen a few setups that use twister pairs as a way to transmit video so this isn’t anything too new in itself.
What iGUGU has done to differentiate itself is the controller. You can see, the controller closely resembles an Xbox 360 controller with a chatpad attached. So if you’re used to that, then you’ll be somewhat used to the Gamecore controller. The wireless controller doesn’t have any rechargeable batteries but just use four AAA of any kind.
One of the major difference is that the four facing button area is replaced by a trackball mouse. Since the setup allows for interaction with a computer, the mouse is pretty essential to the setup so it’s placed in an area that’s easily accessible with your thumb. I know those coming from the console will find it odd as I was demoing the product and wanted to press buttons in that area for actions so it will take a little practice to get used to. The good news is that the trackball felt quick and smooth and I was told the sensitivity can be adjusted to your liking.
There are four triggers in the same position as the Xbox 360 controller so that’s where most of your actions will be mapped to. For firing guns and what not in a FPS, this should be pretty normal for most console gamers so at least that’s there to make sure you’ve got some familiarity to the setup.
An accelerometer is also built into the controller so it can give you some motion controlling aspect just like the PlayStation 3 controller. Whether you want to take advantage of it is totally up to you and you might find some games work well with it.
At the booth, a setup was connected to a Samsung TV and a stereoscopic version of Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. was running. My guess is it’s using the NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision to handle the 3D so it’s good to see the setup able to handle the feature should you have the hardware capable of handling 3D gaming.
The mid-range unit will retail for $99 and should be out in August. iGUGU’s controller is rather unique and the system seems portable enough that it would be easy to take with you should you want to game on a hotel TV or at a friends house with your laptop. I made a suggestion of including a small carrying bag or case to handle all the items and I hope iGUGU takes that into considering before they release it. I’d like to thank the folks at iGUGU for taking the time to show me around.
The Gamecore system consists of a wireless controller and with the long range version, a transmitter and receiver. Let’s talk about connections first. Connecting to the TV is pretty simple as it takes your standard VGA connection and then lets you connect to the TV with their setup. Connecting to the TV though from a computer isn’t too hard these days so there’s nothing too special here about the Gamecore system.
For going long range though, you can pick up a transmitter and receiver that can be connected with a twister pair network cable to carry the signal a long distance. I’ve seen a few setups that use twister pairs as a way to transmit video so this isn’t anything too new in itself.
What iGUGU has done to differentiate itself is the controller. You can see, the controller closely resembles an Xbox 360 controller with a chatpad attached. So if you’re used to that, then you’ll be somewhat used to the Gamecore controller. The wireless controller doesn’t have any rechargeable batteries but just use four AAA of any kind.
One of the major difference is that the four facing button area is replaced by a trackball mouse. Since the setup allows for interaction with a computer, the mouse is pretty essential to the setup so it’s placed in an area that’s easily accessible with your thumb. I know those coming from the console will find it odd as I was demoing the product and wanted to press buttons in that area for actions so it will take a little practice to get used to. The good news is that the trackball felt quick and smooth and I was told the sensitivity can be adjusted to your liking.
There are four triggers in the same position as the Xbox 360 controller so that’s where most of your actions will be mapped to. For firing guns and what not in a FPS, this should be pretty normal for most console gamers so at least that’s there to make sure you’ve got some familiarity to the setup.
An accelerometer is also built into the controller so it can give you some motion controlling aspect just like the PlayStation 3 controller. Whether you want to take advantage of it is totally up to you and you might find some games work well with it.
At the booth, a setup was connected to a Samsung TV and a stereoscopic version of Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. was running. My guess is it’s using the NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision to handle the 3D so it’s good to see the setup able to handle the feature should you have the hardware capable of handling 3D gaming.
The mid-range unit will retail for $99 and should be out in August. iGUGU’s controller is rather unique and the system seems portable enough that it would be easy to take with you should you want to game on a hotel TV or at a friends house with your laptop. I made a suggestion of including a small carrying bag or case to handle all the items and I hope iGUGU takes that into considering before they release it. I’d like to thank the folks at iGUGU for taking the time to show me around.
