Comments on: The Sidewinder Shall Not Sleep Tonight

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:48:17 +0000

ffb2 works in windows 7 with force feedback

By: Rich Tysoe

Rich Tysoe — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:09:14 +0000

for a long time, I used the non force-feedback second-generation sidewinder joystick and was gutted when it became obsolete due to the passing of the 15-pin joystick port, and the USB adapter I had didn’t work.

I then, a few years ago, went completely mental and bought a CH fighterstick off ebay, for Falcon 4: allied force, but didn’t really use it much. it’s cool that it has all the buttons, but the throw is way too big and it doesn;t twist for rudder (I know, it’s supposed to be used with pedals…)

then, late last year, I found a USB sidewinder stick (3rd gen) at the recycling shop at the local tip. for £2. yay!

I do think it’s a shame MS got out of the PC gaming perpheral market. The FF wheel was the best, and I used one for 5 years with total reliability.

Was it MS who invented the twist-stick for Rudder input?

By: DerangedStoat

DerangedStoat — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:23:35 +0000

Wow, just yesterday, I had a very similar conversation with a friend about my Sidewinder FF 2. Funnily enough it also started with the mention of HAWX (I also believe that game is definately not going to be a sim). I too only ever use it a couple of times a year for bouts of IL2, but I will never get rid of it. The fact that FF isn’t supported in the latest versions of Windows will be a major strike against any of the reasons I have to upgrade to Windows 7.

I originally bought it for Grand Prix 4, though I quickly purchased a number of flight sims to make the most of it. Hell, it even got a work out from far too many hours pulling off combos in Tony Hawk (I think it just made life harder in that case though!).

Hell, if I never had that Sidewinder, I wouldn’t have gotten my Logitech Momo wheel, and then later the G25, which is the greatest peripheral I have owned.
I like to think that years down the road when everyone is using Windows X, and USB connections are nearly as archaic as PS/2, the Sidewinder and the G25 will still have pride of place on my shelves.

By: Alan Au

Alan Au — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:52:00 +0000

I had a Sidewinder FF 1, which was way too clunky and hardly worth the trouble. I also had a Sidewinder Precision Pro, which sadly refused to initialized properly on my hardware so I bequeathed it to a friend when I last moved. Interestingly, the joystick that still works on my machine is the original Sidewinder, which I keep around in the hopes that another mech combat game will show up.

By: Thom

Thom — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:59:15 +0000

I used a lot cheap $10-$15 crap sticks to fly MS Flight Simulator over the years. I finally broke down and spent some real money ($30) on a Thrustmaster Top Gun fox 2 a couple of years ago and was hooked. It weighed a ton, had a very comfortable (If you are right handed) handle and the best throttle I have ever found. I wore it out in about 18 months and went to look for a replacement and discovered that they are now around $90. So i went with a Xbox 360 gamepad for Windows and discovered it was great with flight sims and really handy to have for other games that are actually designed for pads. I miss my joystick but am happy with the gamepad.

By: DeuceMojo

DeuceMojo — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:10:38 +0000

Logitech Wingman all the way, baby!!! Just kidding. I do not like my joystick at all. Aren’t joysticks like so C-64 era?

My Wingman has:
A) Caused me no shortage of embarrassment as more than one girlfriend has called me a nerd for owning a joystick.
B) Destroyed two pair of perfectly good PC speakers, as my wife was searching for an A/C adapter for them and instead just grabbed the Wingman adapter, which fried one, then two sets of speakers. Hooray for interchangeable A/C adapter connectors, with wildly different voltages and amps.

By: Xerxes

Xerxes — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:55:56 +0000

http://www.joy-stick.net/reviews/joysticks/topgun.htm

If only I had a PC that would still use the old school ports, or some USB conversion for my poor sweet Top Gun.
Lost hours to every flight / space combat simulator using this, these days it is confined to storage.

It was the Goose to my Maverick…. I suppose I should try and find one of those gameport to USB cables, and resurrect old faithful.

By: Gravekeeper

Gravekeeper — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:02:18 +0000

My Sidewinder Precision Pro will not go quietly into the night… I’ve had it since the mid-nineties, and it has accompanied me through MS Flight Simulators 95, 98, 2000, 2002, and 2004 faithfully, and has flown with me through bloody dogfights in Combat Flight Simulator 2 and 3… It’s the ooooold one with the dome throttle and the game port… My old flight instructor was kind enough to give me his own Sidewinder’s gameport-to-USB cable, so I could carry it into the future unknown…

The other day me and my friends all LANned CFS 2 for nostalgia’s sake… We cried manly tears.

By: mashakos

mashakos — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:19:28 +0000

oops! meant Wingman Force 3D. No point in getting a joystick without force feedback…

By: mashakos

mashakos — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:54:42 +0000

@compguy1088: same here, had both the Saitek Cyborg 3D and the Wingman extreme 3d pro. Gave the Saitek to my brother.

By: compuguy1088

compuguy1088 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:57:22 +0000

I’ve used in in the 90’s the original Wingman (they kept breaking), the Sidewinder 3D Pro (original), Some cheap Sidewinder joystik, the Wingman 3D pro (with force feedback….never had many games that used it). Currently I have the Wingman extreme 3d pro, which is a great bang for the buck joystick….

By: vicx

vicx — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:50:10 +0000

I get this same feeling with any old exotic hardware. Even though I know its pure foolishness to buy hardware that is destined to fail – I always have the urge to own it. It’s actually amazing that I have resisted most tempatations and I only have 3 sets of stereoscopic hardware and a SideWinder Game Voice (I was ebay sniped on a z800 headset last year). On my list of hardware to resist owning in the future is a Novint Falcon – z800 headset – ergodex dx1 (aka CH products MFP) – TrackIR and a Logitech Airmouse. The Novint Falcon is definately the least practical and most tempting item of course.