A little company that goes by the name of BlueOrb has come up with an ingenious way of entering text in your games, without the use of a keyboard, but instead just by using your ordinary controller - Ingenious i tell you!
Its all done through a clever new device entitled the 'Online Gaming Texter', which plugs in between your controller and the console your normally plugging it into, that's it - set up is complete!
Setting up
PlayStation2: With the PS2 version you simply plug the PS2 pad into one end, and the texter into the PS2 controller port, before finally plugging the USB cable into the back of the PS2 console and the texter. The PS2 texter has three shiny little lights on it to tell you what's working when! After plugging it all in and turning your console on, the first light illuminates to tell you it's powered on. With the PS2 version you also have to ready the device, which is done with a simple click of the analogue stick, lighting up the second light blue.
Xbox360: It couldn't be simpler to connect the BlueOrb texter to your Xbox360! Plug your controller into the USB plug on the texter, and then plug the texter into one of the console's USB ports using the wire provided. Done!
PC (Using the PlayStation2 texter): The PC uses the PlayStation2 texter device and allows you to play using your PS2 controller. To set it up, again connect your PS2 controller into the texter, and then connect the USB cable into the texter & a spare USB port on your PC. When properly connected, the power light comes on. Again to ready the texter you click the analogue stick once to illuminate the second light.
PC (Using the Xbox360 texter): The PC can also use the Xbox360 texter device and allows you to play using your Xbox360 controller. To set it up, again alike the Xbox360 setup process, simply plug the controller into the USb port on the texter, and then connect the other end to a spare USB port on your PC using the lead provided.
How to text
The texting process is at first a little daunting, but it's actually quite easy to pickup and learn.
Firstly, before any texting can be done, you have to enter into texting mode. Texting mode frees up all of the controllers buttons and analogue sticks so they can be used for texting, so while you're in this mode, you won't be able to do anything else except for entering text, and leaving texting mode!
To enter/exit texting mode on the PC/PS2, click the left analogue stick twice - The third light on the texter will light up to let you know you're now in text mode. On the Xbox360, simply click the 'Back' button (Left of the Xbox360 Home Button) twice - The green light will flashily rotate around the Home button while you're in text mode!
The character/symbol you wish to enter is dependant on the direction you point both of the controllers two analogue sticks. You point the left analogue stick in one of the 8 possible directions (Up, down, left, ridght, and each diagonal of) to declare which set of characters you wish to enter, and then point the right analogue stick in another of the 8 possible directions to choose which exact character of that set you wish to select - Then it just appears on the screen as you expect.
For example, pointing the left analogue stick left and the right analogue stick up selects the letter 'K', while pointing the left analogue stick down and the right analogue stick left deletes the previous character (Backspace).
Since there's not enough room for all possible characters just by doing this, pressing the controllers left and right triggers (L1 & R1 for PlayStation2, LB & RB for Xbox360) symbols such as '&' and '@' to appear instead of numbers.
Simple eh? Though it probabily sounds a bit complicated when there's about 70 letters, numbers and symbols that you can normally enter on your typical keyboard, not forgetting about the other functions a keyboard can perform of which this can do too just through this! But don't worry there's lots of material provided with the texter to make sure it's as easy as possible to pick up such as controller decals so you can see what you're doing, and fun little games provided on the also included 'Playground CD'.
Anything else?
So that's all there is to this thing, and after using it for a little while, you can start picking it up quickly without having to look at the decals/card.
But wait - there's more! Although intended for Phantasy Star Universe, this texter can also be used across many other online games/games that require text entry, so you can chuck away that old keyboard right now sir (PC excluding)!
While experimenting with the Xbox360 version i found that it's also perfect to use when just sending mail to other people through Xbox Live. No more having to fiddle around with the D-Pad, selecting letters one by one and taking ages while doing so with the on-screen Xbox360 keyboard, as it recognises the BlueOrb texting device.
Another great feature is that you don't have to keep unplugging it to play other games normally, you can just leave it constantly plugged in and carry on playing any other games you may wish to get your game on with (Should you really want to play something else besides Phantasy Star Universe!). However i have only tested this on the Xbox360 version, so these little bits may not apply with the PS2 version, although i should have thought it is!
