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Cockpit Collection
lineup of keyboard covers is very extensive. For just $9.95 you get a
very high quality printed keyboard cover for your favorite game or
simulation. My test sample was for FS2000, using their updated
graphics and mold. The keyboard cover is made from a rubbery material
that doesn't wrinkle or crease. It slips easily over your existing
keyboard and presents you with all the key commands you need to know
(or may not even know...it covers pretty much everything) when
piloting your favorite flight simulation.I found the colorful cover to be very eye pleasing in terms of reproduction quality. Touching the cover was pleasing as well. It had a nice texture. The new cover mold has a slight indentation between the keys which earlier models lacked. This makes it easier to tell that you are hitting the intended key. The only downfall I found with the keyboard cover that I had for FS2000 is that it was too cluttered. There are so many [SHIFT], [ALT], and [CTRL] commands written all over the thing, that my eyes were tired after looking at it for just a few minutes. Now I must say, this cover is for FS2000. We all know that FS2000 has the most keyboard commands of any simulation, many of which have always been a jumble of awkward ALTs and SHFTs etc! So, in retrospect, I must give credit to the Cockpit Collection team for doing as good as a job as they could in managing all the FS2K commands.
As the designer of Looking Glass' Flight Unlimited III, I got a chance to preview a cover for that simulation a while back. The FU3 cover is much easier to read, less cluttered and presents to the user with a much better picture of what to press. The simplicity of the FU3's keyboard command system results in a much better cover in my opinion.
Should you get one of these? If you're an experienced simmer, chances are you've had the key commands memorized for as long as you can remember. I know I do. I found using the keyboard cover far more difficult, as my eyes had to read each key to see what the colors and codes all meant. By removing the cover I was back to snapping commands as I always had. In my opinion the Cockpit Collection is a 50/50 product. Beginners and novices will find this an invaluable tool for learning. If you just picked up FS2000 and want to learn the sim in and out, the Cockpit Collection keyboard cover is the way to go. If you already know the keyboard commands the cover probably won't offer you much but you might want to buy one as a gift or to let less experienced pilots use your sim.
I would hope to see the Cockpit Collection bundled in the boxes of all flightsims and other games in the future. There are many times I wish I had one when playing games I am not familiar with. But since I quickly memorize the commands for all the sims I use often, I really have no need for one for those sims.
