LGR Oddware - The Twiddler
Added 2022-01-04 00:06:23 +0000 UTCHappy 2022! Have an LGR doodly-doo.
It was high time for another Oddware, and this one is all about twiddlin' around with the HandyKey Twiddler from 1992. It's a chording keyboard, it's a serial mouse, it's a motion-controlled input device. And it's even somewhat enjoyable to use, for the most part! Perhaps not something that I'd, uh... ever want to with any frequency, frankly. But I get what they were going for and apparently there are still people that swear by these things, so hey. Better outcome than most LGR Oddware videos really.
There are of course a lot more things I could test this with, especially if I were to use some Windows drivers. But the video was already up to the 25 minute mark and I like to keep these episodes between 15 and 25, so yeah. Hope y'all had a happy new years and do enjoy the first LGR episode of '22!
Comments
I never heard of this or any of the future items but I think this is pretty cool, for sure!
CubicleNate
2022-01-10 01:48:54 +0000 UTCI'm wondering how well these would work for people with certain disabilities, considering it still requires some finger agility to an extent. Excellent video!
Deryn L.
2022-01-04 23:31:13 +0000 UTCOne day I hope to see you did a "top ten best and worst oddware" video. Because some stuff you have shown has been pretty amazing (The Sega PC etc) and things that are just awful (the Demon Gunn.. Oh god). Maybe a 15 year anniversary video or something haha. Also good luck with your surrogate cat mothering.
Novel
2022-01-04 21:44:46 +0000 UTCDevices like this make me appreciate just how "revolutionary" the 6-axis ICs developed and used in the Wii-motes really had on motion control devices. Things like this always felt like a niche market device. If you had a need, it would work fantastically well but it just wasn't for the average user. I'll stick with my IBM 101-key keyboard
Carey Brown
2022-01-04 17:54:08 +0000 UTCYou know there was at least 1 dude who was so good at this, he ruled the chat rooms/forums/BBSs with one of those, whipping out posts after posts with it. "Nobody puts Duke in the corner" :D Imagine having a lan party deathmatch and everyone tries to play with a Twiddler! It would be insane! It's giving me sympathy hand cramps watching you fiddle with the Twiddler :S
Dukefazon
2022-01-04 16:50:41 +0000 UTC"I'm gunna kill you with a Twiddler!" lol .. nice
Evan B
2022-01-04 16:37:56 +0000 UTCThese were popular with researchers developing protozoan wearable computers. Like, literally a huge waistpack stuffed with computers and batteries, and a viewfinder from an old-timey camcorder epoxied onto a pair of safety glasses. You'd see them on the MIT campus from time to time in the 90s.
Andy Ihnatko
2022-01-04 16:23:51 +0000 UTCNothing like watching a man fiddle with his twiddler to start the day lol I can imagine this thing would be frustrating to learn, it reminds me of all these crazy ergo keyboards with funky layouts. I never could figure out how people use them, especially since I myself am more of a hunt and peck typer
Zachary Outen
2022-01-04 16:16:38 +0000 UTCLet me tell you, I might have used this thing back in the day. The first 486 I ever got was a used Packard Bell. Not one week after I got it the keyboard shorted out. I couldn't use any keyboard on it. The fact that the twiddler could type stuff without actually using the keyboard port would really have saved me. For about 6 months I was editing DOS batch files to launch a game and using the control pad. It was not a fantastic experience obviously.
Megan Alnico
2022-01-04 14:59:08 +0000 UTCWhen Nintendo came out with the Wii they said very specifically what they were doing was not innovative from a technology standpoint. The tech had been around for a long long time, just no one had ever applied it to games before. Yet the average person still thinks Nintendo invented the motion control stick. Eh, what are you going to do right? I think the twiddler been similar input devices deserve more credit than they get.
Megan Alnico
2022-01-04 14:56:34 +0000 UTCThis seems simultaneously extremely useful and entirely useless depending on what type of PC user you are. Motion controls on DOS tho.
Alyxx the Rat
2022-01-04 05:28:59 +0000 UTC"I love the Twiddler. It's so bad." Every time I see the Rerez guys complain about motion controls on the Wii I think if they tried to use any of these old devices their heads would probably end up exploding. I can see myself getting used to a keyboard like this (it took me a while to get used to writing text messages in old style cellphones, but once I did I was incredibly fast), but I wouldn't even consider getting one unless I had an absolute necessity.
Pablo Rodriguez
2022-01-04 05:27:39 +0000 UTCSeems like the real failure is having the chords be alphabetical instead of closer tuned to usage. Is there a dvorak-esque alternative keymap used by enthusiasts?
2022-01-04 05:02:05 +0000 UTCI can imagine a Bond villain using this.
Chad Armstrong
2022-01-04 04:07:26 +0000 UTCWow....I completely forgot having a Cyberstick until you mentioned it. Core memory unlocked 😳
Skoddie
2022-01-04 02:46:43 +0000 UTCHey! An oddware of a thing I [correction: almost; Twiddler 2] actually have! These came up in a conversation just the other day after years of me not thinking about them - I was shocked as part of that conversation to discover that they're still made. What a serendipitous coincidence. :D
Travis Snoozy
2022-01-04 02:15:22 +0000 UTCWanting to leave your dominant hand free as a use case for the “Twiddler” brings some dirty jokes to mind
pj
2022-01-04 01:57:38 +0000 UTCA gyro mouse of some sort.
Mark Bender
2022-01-04 01:45:38 +0000 UTCI used an air mouse when I instructed in the Air Force years ago. It was extremely intuitive and worked great with my projector while walking around the room and clicking through presentations.
Mark Bender
2022-01-04 01:44:46 +0000 UTCMaybe it's possible that some of the fluid has dried up over the decades? Seems unlikely but electrolytic capacitors of that age sure suffer that fate.
LGR
2022-01-04 01:44:40 +0000 UTCFascinating.. Oddware yet not hilariously useless. The mouse part must have been more responsive 30 years ago.(?) Seems like the fluid should be a little more viscous or something. Definitely upload a blerb if you try it out with windows drivers!
Tossabaddle
2022-01-04 01:37:29 +0000 UTCTwiddle me this!
LGR
2022-01-04 00:28:49 +0000 UTCNah, the floppy is full of bad sectors. I just put em on a fresh disk.
LGR
2022-01-04 00:28:41 +0000 UTCAre you going to put the files back on to the floppy?
Mark Bender
2022-01-04 00:26:58 +0000 UTCClassic Blatman villain
Tukaro
2022-01-04 00:25:39 +0000 UTC
