Continuing its trend of modular peripherals, Madcatz have developed the S.T.R.I.K.E 7 keyboard to accompany their R.A.T Mouse. The keyboard can be broken down into seven parts, allowing you to remove or shift around the different elements to your heart’s content. One of the detachables is a programmable touch pad, allowing you to load up apps specific to your games and software.
The keyboard will set you back $300 but for that money you’ll get: A full metal chassis -for all that vigorous wear and tear keyboards receive; ”
a specially engineered membrane which mimics the tactile feel generated by the mechanical keys” but with none of that incessant clicking; plus three sets of interchangeable WASD keys (standard, contoured or rubber-edged versions”.
For the actual gaming features, there are 24 programmable keys which can be switched through three modes, in essence, providing 72 programmable buttons. The V.E.N.O.M touchscreen’s namemay be written in a manner that makes me C.R.Y but it looks like a pretty nifty piece of kit. It allows you to program macros for in-game features, control external software (like the volume of your iTunes or Skype), and change the colour of your keyboard on the fly…that last one may not be a /key/ feature. Though, as they say themselves, with 16 million colour variants, you can match “the keyboard to your gaming rig”.
The main feature is that the keyboard can be broken down into seven parts and rebuilt for your needs. Prefer your numpad on the left? Tear it off and move it over, or do away with it altogether. It’s a neat idea, and if my keyboard had the option I’d use it. Though, $300 is steep for a peripheral, right?
The S.I.L.L.Y.-.L.Y N.A.M.E.D K.E.Y.B.O.A.R.D is available to buy now.