I’ve written several articles about the pros and cons behind keyboard and mouse control. On the whole, it’s accepted that keyboard and mouse control gives you more precision than a dual analog stick. While PC games generally allow you to choose between KBAM and dual analog controls, consoles usually don’t allow you to connect a keyboard and mouse. For players who are looking to use a keyboard and mouse to their consoles, they need to connect it up to an adapter. We are showcasing one of these this week in the IOGear KeyMander.
The KeyMander is essentially a controller emulator. You connect a keyboard and mouse up to it and it translates that keyboard and mouse movement into controller inputs. Of course, it’s not going to translate exactly the way a game designed for keyboard and mouse inputs parses KBAM inputs, but it is a pretty good approximation and many gamers would say it’s still better than using a dual analog stick setup.
The KeyMander is your fairly standard pass through controller setup. The tiny box has USB and Micro USB ports all over it, allowing you to connect up USB keyboard and mouse setups, and game controllers. You’ll need to both your game controller and your KBAM setup to get it to work.
As a “connect and go” solution it’s pretty simple, but there are a couple notes we can give you for this and basically any KBAM converter setup. First of all, know that any pass through setup will have a tiny delay, as the signal needs to ping from your KBAM to controller to the game itself. Second, make sure to turn up your sensitivity in the game. Your mouse movement is translated into analog stick controls, and if your max analog stick depression isn’t moving you very fast, then you’ll need to swipe the mouse wildly in order to aim.
The KeyMander also has a few ways to… tweak your game shall we say. You can program in macros, ballistic curves, turbo firing, and more. Yes, this does mean you basically get to turn every single pull weapon into an automatic one. Whether or not you are OK with that sort of tweak will completely be dependent on your morality as a gamer.
Another feature that the KeyMander supports is the ability to save multiple profiles, allowing multiple players to use the same box for different games. It also doesn’t have to be reformatted or reinstalled when disconnected, as some other converters do, so you can easily bring it to a friend’s house or to a convention.
The KeyMander costs $99.95, which is actually on the low end for some KBAM converters. We have seen several that go up to 150, or even 200 dollars in price. If this your first time using a piece of hardware like this, the KeyMander is a decent choice. Note, however, you will have to connect it up to your PC to get the firmware running, so make sure your PC and consoles aren’t too far away from each other.