Time for a new joystick!

D

DyNaMiX

Spaceman
Hi all!
I've noticed lately my TopGun Afterburner Pro has been acting a little strange. Pitching down works very awkwardly and in flight simulator it is very hard to make slight movements as the joystick itself is rigid and innacurate.
I was wondering, for a Flight Simulator, what is the best joystick? Something that moves smoothly and doesn't have any friction for slow movements. Has a throttle (rudder pedals would be cool!) and possibly force feedback.
I'm after the best and affordable and something far better than what I have.
So far the best one I found was the F-16 Falcon - Cougar joystick. It's been spoken of as THE BEST joystick. However the price is daunting. :eek:
Thanks for any help! :cool:
 
I have good experiences with my Logitech Wingman Force 3D. However, don't EVER try to use it with WCP. It's hazardous. Or maybe it's just that I'm not used to the control-sensitivity now... :o
Anyway, this stick completely owns Freespace 2 and Starlancer (this game broke my older WM Force - beware). I haven't played Falcon 4 much with it, but there doesn't seem to be a problem. Completely A-OK for Eurofighter Typhoon and X-Wing Alliance. Should be pretty cheap - less than $40, most likely. I don't remember what I bought it for, but I don't think it was very much.
 
For the ultimate experience you can get a joystick with a separate throttle controller. And some pedals. Everything with force feedback.

But they still make games to play with all this stuff? The industry seems to be going for the keyboard/mouse control scheme so they can appeal to more audience.
 
AFAIK there is no HOTAS setting that has FF in the pedals or in the throttle. But playing WC with force feedback in the stick is cool enough!
 
Delance said:
For the ultimate experience you can get a joystick with a separate throttle controller. And some pedals. Everything with force feedback.

But they still make games to play with all this stuff? The industry seems to be going for the keyboard/mouse control scheme so they can appeal to more audience.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I'm after. I don't know much about Joysticks so I have no idea what brands are good or bad. I really love that HOTAS Cougar though, but damn it's expensive!
 
For my DOS WCs I use the complete Thrustmaster setup: the FCS joystick, WCS throttle and the RCS pedals.

For the Windows stuff, I use a first generation Microsoft Sidewinder force feedback stick (the one with the Prophecy layout).

Control-wise, I also use a QuickShot Master Pilot keyboard addon... it looks like a fighter VDU, and it has the various WC keyboard shortcuts programmed into fighter looking buttons. It also lights up and looks cool. :)
 
I used to have a Logitech Force 3d. Sucked - huge deadzone (that still generated control information).

Replaced it with a nice Thrustmaster Cougar ($$$). Only disadvantage is its cost...
 
@LOAF:

Hey, how is the Thrustmaster setup you have for playing in Win9x?... I have the FLCS, and now I have a line on getting the WCS throttle for a great price..would it be worth it for Win 9x?...
 
Worf said:
I used to have a Logitech Force 3d. Sucked - huge deadzone (that still generated control information).

Replaced it with a nice Thrustmaster Cougar ($$$). Only disadvantage is its cost...
Click to expand...

Same problem with my Afterburner. It doesn't sit dead in the center it can lean forward or back as well.
 
Sorry, haven't tried it in Win9x - the nature of my system prevents me from easy joystick interchangability. (The Thrustmaster setup is plugged into the gameport of my ISA SB32!AWE... which I have disabled in Win9x in deference to a PCI SB!Live 5.1... which I plugged the Force Feedback stick into.)
 
Worf: If you [would have] scavenge[d] the Logitech install-CD, you might find something called DXTweak. It does a load of funny things to your calibration-info. You can manually alter the dead-zone, max X/Y-thingies, everything I never expected was necessary.
So, you claim this stick (Force 3D) is bad? *Shrug* Well, it works fine for me, and didn't trash the budget. :) I think I'll go for a research-run right about now.
 
Has anyone here had any experience with the CH Flightstick Pro (either gameport or USB)? I'm looking for something to accomodate my left-handedness, and it seems like a good and reasonably inexpensive solution.
 
Ironically, the joystick when I bought it was anything but budget...

As for a deadzone, you might like a huge deadzone around the center, but I find a floppy joystick useless (it's hard to do precision flight that way, but that's my opinion). Of course, that was all rendered moot when after a MS Flight Sim session, I heard a nice pop and saw smoke come out of the joystick. I probably can get it working very easily (since it's only a chip I have to replace, easy enough to do), but then again, I have my Cougar :).

As for CH units, I've been told they're excellent units, and quite a bit cheaper than what the Cougar cost me.
 
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