Manufactured By:  Microsoft

Retail Price:      $49.99

Review Date:  9-24-99

With the Dual Strike controller Microsoft makes their entry into the 3D game controller market...  Sort of- the first 3D digital controller they offered was the Sidewinder 3D Pro.  It offered 4 axis control but in a traditional "stick" configuration with the now much copied stick-twist rudder.  The Dual Strike is different.

With a target audience of "first-person-shooter" fans the Dual Strike is meant to tear keyboard and mouse users away from their old control methods and step up to a controller with the Microsoft logo on it.

The Dual Strike is difficult to describe but here it goes-  Its part standard gamepad, mouse and keyboard all in the palm of your hands.  It actually sets itself up this way in your game controller category of the systems properties (Dual Strike Controller (as joystick), Dual Strike Controller (as mouse) and Microsoft Virtual Keyboard).  The basic gamepad operation is typical of any gamepad.  The D-pad, accessible by your left thumb, controls the X and Y axis (standard forward/back and left/right) movement.

The 8 buttons (2 triggers and 6 pad buttons) are placed on either upper end of the grips.  The 6 buttons on the face of the controller are capable of serving 2 functions thanks to the shift key found on the face of the left handle.  All are well within your reach.

Now for the truly unique feature- the right grip of the Dual Strike.  The right grip is connected with a ball-joint allowing you to swivel the two halves (actually 2/3 and 1/3) of the controller.  You can either twist the right section vertically or horizontal to the other section of the controller.  The intent of this feature is to emulate the mouse.

The twisting action (mouse movement) is typically used as a view control and the D-pad is used for movement.  For most configurations I used the D-pad's up/down directions for forward/back movement and the left/right direction for sliding left/right.  The horizontal twist of the right portion of the Dual Strike was used for turning and the vertical twisting for looking up/down.

The Dual Strike has 2 modes- FX mode and joystick mode.  In FX mode the perspective control (ball joint) speed grows as you twist or turn from center.  This allows you to be more accurate in aiming and quickly turn by twisting to the outer extreme of the twist range.  At the far ends of the twist turning is fast and continuous.  In joystick mode the control speed accelerates as you reach the outer extremes but does not go into a continuous mode.  The joystick mode is more linear in speed while the FX mode ramps as you reach the outer edges.

If your confused by the description, can't chew gum and walk or pat you head and rub your stomach at the same time you may not like the Dual Strike.  In other words, like any 3D controller it takes coordination, patience and practice to master its use.  I consider myself all 3 but still found myself frustrated with the Dual Strike at times.

Once concern I do have is the durability of the Dual Strike.  This controller is a brand new release and long-term usage reports are not available.  I am very hard on my controllers and the Dual Strike is a lightweight, joined by a 2 way pivot controller.  The light weight makes it a pleasure to handle in long heated battles.  However, the ball joint is an obvious weak point of the controller.  To use it to its fullest extent requires you to "tork" on joint.  I am afraid it may not be durable enough to last me through my gaming career.  Time will tell...

• 6 programmable buttons
• Shift button
• 2 trigger buttons
• D pad (2 axis)
• Rotating grip control (2 axis)

• First person shooters (Quake I, II, III; Hexen I, II; Half-Life; Sin; Blood II, etc.)
• Space Sims (Descent II, III; BattleZone, Mechwarrior III, etc.)
• 3rd Person Adventure Games (Tomb Raider I, II, III; Shadows of the Empire. etc.)

Quake III Test was a real pain to setup and still is difficult to play after hours of trying to tweak the settings and trying different configurations.  Most of the problem lies in the current support in Q3 for joysticks.  Granted Q3 Test is just a test and shouldn't be used to judge another product.  Preset games seem to be the most playable.

The setup issue plays directly into its performance.  The large number of control variables that makes the Dual Strike a powerful tool also hinder it in some respects.  I actually discovered using the Quake II settings for other first-person shooters not included in the profile collection worked well.  Blood II, a game poorly supporting controller setups worked great using the Q2 profile.  I modified some of the setting in the in-game settings to tailor it to my preferences for button placement. 

Half-Life was another game that played well with the default configuration.  Aiming was a pleasure and highly accurate.  Sin and Jedi Knight were also great.  It needs to be noted that once you get the movement down with one game, transferring to another is quite simple.  It took me a few hours to adjust to the way the controller operates.  Once acclimated, it (and I) performed well.

The Dual Strike has presets for racing games which is quite strange.  In testing Motocross Madness I found it weird to control the turning with an axis perpendicular to your body.  The control of the biker pitch was very nice with the tilt to or away from you body (similar to the biker's pitch on screen).  It was virtually impossible to pull stunts in the game because the way you need to press the button and move the controller in one of the 8 directions on the X/Y axis's.  It may be possible with more practice but would simply be learning where to place the controller rather than anything intuitive.

One criticism is the placement of the 2 left buttons and shift button.  With most configurations you will want to keep you thumb active on the D-pad/hat switch.  The only way to access these buttons in to pull your thumb off the pad, hit the button and then reposition it on the pad.  In most cases this stops movement of you ship/player/etc. making you vulnerable to attack.

The Dual Strike is a 1st and 3rd person shooter controller first and foremost.  Games with complex controls, requiring more than 2 axis's are difficult to setup with any controller but can be quite pleasurable with the right setup- once its setup.  Descent III and Forsaken were tested and fall under this category.  It took a hell of a lot of time to get them setup with the Dual Strike (no presets).  When done- I was pulling death blossoms on my opponents and kicking butt.  I used the d-pad for sliding and the twist function to control my bearings and forward/backward movement.

Mechwarrior III will work with the Dual Strike but left me with a desire to go back to my 3D Joystick (Microsoft Precision Pro or Thrustmaster Reflex 3D).  The game just doesn't require as much view manipulation as the Dual Strike offers.  I was often being pounded by the enemy while looking down and left trying to figure out where I was.

Performance of the Dual Strike is great overall.  As long as you "stick" to the games it was intended for (despite their being setups for others).

Setup 95% -
Simply plug the Dual Strike into a free USB port.  Since USB allows hot-swapping you can safely plug it into you system with it on or off.  Installation of the software is automatic upon detection of the controller.  

Insert the driver/utility disk and the software will self install.  It will stop twice during the typical install asking for the Windows 98 CD.  Once complete the Dual Strike should be present in the Game Controller Setup application.  No calibration is necessary.

Once installed a brief movie plays showing the features of the controller.  An icon for the Sidewinder Game Controller Software will be added to the system tray in the bottom right corner of your Windows screen.  From the icon you can access the game controller panel, user guide, compatibility document, and access links to the MS Gaming Zone and the Sidewinder Website.

From the game controller panel you can access the properties of the Dual Strike.  It is here that you can access available setups, test the controller, adjust the settings of the controller and record button functions.  The test window is a valuable tool to determine the sensitivity of the axis's and button setting.  It is highly recommended that you save any changed configuration under a different name in case it doesn't work quite the way you hoped.

There is also an on-line compatibility guide describing the similarities/differences between the 4.0 software and other versions.  My chief complaint with the documentation is that it is primarily on-line making it frustrating to access when your using your system for other thing or away from it all together and just want to "read up" on your controller.

The Microsoft website has yet to post any dedicated information on the Dual Strike.  Also part of the documentation of the Dual Strike is a short movie that plays immediately after installation showing the potential of the controller.  The view switches between a guy at his computer with the Dual Strike and screen shots of the action in Half-Life.  The sequence is fully narrated.

Some odd button placement and possible durability issues need noting but overall the Dual Strike is a very innovative controller.  Despite that- I have a feeling most will not appreciate its complex operation and Microsoft will have a huge return rate.  Be sure that you meet the criteria for this controller (patience, patience, and ummm.... patience!) before arming yourself with this powerful and effective controller.

• Great 3D control
• Numerous buttons with programmability

• Possible durability issues.
• Poor placement of buttons next to hat-switch/D-pad

Buy the Sidewinder Dual Strike