January 28, 2005 - If you're a first-person shooter fan, especially and certainly if you're a PC gamer, you know that the keyboard and mouse combo is the only way to go. Console first-person shooters have really picked up the pace over the past four or five years which has only made us yearn for a keyboard and mouse setup on consoles even more.

Luckily, there are actually a few solutions out there. While some PS2 games support USB keyboard and mice, though not many, there are a couple options out there that will allow for keyboard and mouse use in any game, first-person shooter or not.

The newest of these devices is the MagicBox XFPS for Xbox from Farmer Entertainment. (Official site) It allows you to hook up a PS/2 (connection, not PlayStation 2) mouse and keyboard to your Xbox and have it replace the buttons and sticks on your controller.

The actual unit is very similar to that of the SmartJoy FRAG that we reviewed a few months ago. The MagicBox XFPS is an oddly-shaped (see image below) box with PS/2 mouse and keyboard adapters on the front and an expansion port on the top. The cord is rather short, but if you're going to be playing Xbox Live with one of these (which sparks debate of immense fury normally) then you'd need to be using a wireless headset anyway.


In practice, the plug-and-playability of the MagicBox XFPS is probably its strongest suit, but that's about all the options you have anyway. Included in the box is simply the MagicBox XFPS and two-page manual that shows you the Mode types. As seen below, there are three mode types, each with different keyboard and mouse assignments. For the record, I have no idea why the old fatty Xbox controller is pictured in the manual, but let's play along for now. As well, Mode 1 has a typo in that the mouse buttons assigned to the triggers are reversed, thank Majkyter*.

*The god of first-person shooters.


Click the images for a close-up.
Pressing F9, F10 and F11 will switch between the three modes. The box also has a centered colored light that will indicate which mode is currently selected.