The keyboard has stood by the sidelines as every other PC peripheral has undergone a variety of chances over the years. Sure, there are wireless and multimedia keyboards on the market but the basic concept has remained the same since the days of the typewriter. Ideazon has broken the mold with the Zboard, a special keyboard whose keyset can be swapped for a game-specific one. Getting ready to play Doom 3? Change the keyset on your Zboard for a specially designed one for that game and play like a pro.

There are several sets designed for games such as Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2 and Age of Empires III. The Zboard goes beyond traditional typing into being a sophisticated game controller of each one of those. We put it through test playing Battlefield 2, a huge battleground-based first person shooter (FPS) which requires some quick finger action in a traditional keyboard due to a variety of functions performed by a high number of different keys.

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Figure 1: The generic FPS ZBoard keyset..

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Figure 2: The Battlefield 2 specific ZBoard keyset.