I'm taking another serious look at anti-ghosting keyboards these days, especially the gaming keyboards which tend to feature superior anti-ghosting.
"Anti-ghosting" itself is a bit of a misnomer, more of a marketing gimmick than a useful metric. I use it here in the context of "maximum simultaneous keystrokes", even though it technically refers to a capability that's been built into even the cheapest keyboards for almost two decades.
First and foremost: I won't even consider a keyboard without wires. No wireless. No exceptions. Why not? Simply because even the best and most sophisticated infrared, radio, or bluetooth technologies suffer from problems, problems that are easily avoided with a wire. It's not like I trip on it a lot anyways.
Second: I know way too much about keyboards. I really do. I'm proud to be a geekhacker. I happen to be a superior typist, I prefer blank keycaps, I'm particular about keyswitches and tactile response. I've owned, typed on, played on, broken, fixed, modded, and simply taken apart more keyboard models than I can remember. I'm even seriously thinking about programming my own overpowered keyboard controller, with multiple scan sets, superior debouncing algorithms, parallel "anti-ghosting" key circuits, large n-key rollover buffers, advanced macros, all the bells and whistles I want - all the sorts of things that just aren't realistic or cost-effective in mortal keyboards.
I'm interested in the capabilities of all the mainstream gaming keyboards.
Logitech G15, G19, G110, G510. Razer Lycosa, Arctosa, Marauder. SteelSeries 7G, 6Gv2, Zboard, Merc, Merc Stealth. Saitek Cyborg. Gigabyte GK-K8000 Ghost. OCZ Alchemy. Even the lowly Microsoft SideWinder X4, X5, X6.
And the non-mainstream keyboards.
Made by names you know like Zalman and OCZ. Made by names you've probably never heard of like Deck, Das, and Cherry. Anything from Model M to the Optimus Maximus project. Hell, even the Optimus Minimus if you got one (joke).
And yes, I already know that the G15 and G19 are hugely popular, excellent products - but they're not the only good keyboards out there. But I'm not going to automatically rush out and buy one just because lots of people swear by it. How many of them have really looked beyond the fancy LCD and actually compared the product against the competition?
Back to anti-ghosting.
I've recently been a bit disappointed with my new Merc Stealth. It doesn't live up to the SteelSeries advertised spec of "anti-ghosting up to 7 simultaneous keystrokes". Testing it (with Notepad and some decent free keyboard testing software), I found the following:
- Gamepad ("Gaming Terrain") – all 6 main cluster [QWEASD], any 4 adjacent on [123456] row, any 4 within [CVFRBGTP] group
- Qwerty block – any 4 in [1234QWERASDFZXCV] and [7890UIOPJKL;M,./] home-columns
- Function keys – any 4 adjacent near center [F4 to F8] area, typically 2-3 otherwise
- Numpad – any combination of 3 numbers (except [369] vertical)
- [Spacebar] and [Shift, Ctrl, Alt] mod keys – usually always scan in combination with other keys
- all other combinations generally scan only 1-2 simultaneous keys
- no combinations (other than the gamepad [QWEASD] cluster ever scans more than 4-5 simultaneous keys
(testing of Windows GUI keys and some F-keys a bit difficult, since they try to launch Windows services)
Why is this disappointing? Here's the results of testing three different cheap generic USB qwerty-104 keyboards:
- Qwerty block - same as above
- Function keys - any 4 in any combination
- Numpad - any combination of 3 numbers
- [Spacebar] and [Shift, Ctrl, Alt] mod keys - as above
- all other combinations generally scan 1-3 simultaneous keys
And here's the results of testing two different cheap generic PS/2 keyboards:
- any combination of 3-6 keys anywhere on the keyboard
- keyboard also has a buffer that stores 16 characters
Can anybody post similar test results on other keyboards here?