Keyboard Adapter Options

[Dive]

Info taken from PSO World with permission from Layrinn.

"Hey, I thought I would bring this to your attention.

With the help of a friend, I have developed a fully functional PC keyboard adapter for use with GC PSO. I have posted further details in the Keyboard Information thread in the general forum. My partener and I have an informative web site in the works. You can view what we have so far here:

http://www.pantsofevilgamers.com/kb/

Please feel free to contact us through our web site if you have any questions or comments.

Sincerely,
Eric Konizer
- Layrinn
"

[Layrinn]

Here's an update from Adam and myself:


Greetings all,

First off, I want to thank all of you on behalf of the two of us for your
amazing response. In just about 48 hours, we have received over 140 emails
about the project. We knew that word would travel quickly, but it's still
amazing that so many people from around the world play PSO and have the same
problem we did.

Because a lot of you asked specific questions, mostly about pricing and
availability, I will be doing a huge update to the FAQ on our webpage. I am
also planning on implementing a news page so that people can see both
progress on the project and when major page updates occur. This should
happen by late Weds. or early Thurs. of this week. That will save me some of
the trouble of trying to keep up with the swelling email list, and also make
info more quickly available to you. Those of you who have expressed interest
in building kits, doing web work, etc. will be contacted directly to discuss
options.

I know the big questions are when and how much? Right now, we have about a
dozen units shipping to testers around the country that should be arriving
late this week. After the testers run them through the gauntlet, we will
enter the kit assembly phase. At this point, it seems likely that we will
have some sort of ordering plan in place by the end of the month, hopefully
(but no promises) sooner. We're looking at about $25 US maximum per kit,
with shipping via USPS priority mail for $6 US; this will cover shipping
within the United States. Orders outside of the US will be dealt with on a
case by case basis to determine the most cost-effective way to get the
product to you. Our plan is to accept payment through PayPal once the
ordering is available. DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT
THE KITS ARE AVAILABLE! It will *not* guarantee you an adapter and will give
us a giant, giant headache. We need to get our ordering and distribution
lined up before anything else gets going. Trust me, we want to get this to
you as soon as we can.

The kit does require basic soldering skills, screwdriving skills and the
ability to strip the insulation off of wires. It will also help you a great
deal to if you can read English. It should take the average person about 2.5
hours at the most to build one. We cannot sell a completely assembled unit
because frankly, we don't have the time to make them. Eric is a full-time
student at Virginia Tech, and I work full-time and have a family. Luckily, a
good number of people have stepped up to offer their services for assembly.
We will likely allow anyone who wants to sell an assembled kit to do so, as
we will only be offering the kit. Hopefully, this will allow people to get
the kit in the form they want it.

You guys have really reminded us why we started this project, and any work
we can do to further support for the PSO community is worthwhile to us. I
will send an announcement to this list when the new FAQ and news page are
ready. Again, we humbly thank you for your enthusiasm and look forward to
providing a solution to you to help you further enjoy your PSO experience.

-Adam Cook


Woo! That's m'boy! I doubt any of you know Adam since he doesn't post here... but I just want to say that I couldn't be doing this without his help. For all of my technical efforts, he has matched me every step of the way with PR, organizational, administrative, and moral support. I couldn't ask for a better partner or a truer friend right now. By the way, Tuesday is his birthday, so wish him a happy one.

The only thing I'd like to add to his statement is to stress that we are trying to make arrangements with interested individuals to make a finished adapter available through them. What that means is if you want to build it yourself and save a little money, we'll sell you a kit for as cheap as we can. (and still stay in the black, of course ) If you're not a technically-inclined type, we will hopefully be able to offer a completed kit for a little extra money. We are still working on the details, so I can't really say how much more it would be... But we do intend to reach as many PSO players as we can, and we're not going to leave anyone out of the loop just 'cause they can't solder.

Thanks again, everyone, for your wonderful support. YOU are the reason we're doing this.
_________________
'Rinn