Joystick recommendations?

capnq · #1 November 17th, 2006, 05:22 PM

I'm in the market for a new joystick. Any recommendations for manufacturer or model?

My last joystick was a Thrustmaster Millenium 3D Interceptor. My only complaint about it was a bit of disappointment in the durability.

Parameters:

Can't really justify spending over $100 (would prefer $50-70)
Needs to work under Win98se
Primarily used for a flight sim, would prefer a trigger grip.

PvK · #2 November 25th, 2006, 12:37 AM

I inherited a Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital joystick from my dad quite a few years ago. It's big and heavy but has several programmable buttons and a "hat" control and a throttle slider (which works alright but is sort of a weak point). It works fine in Win98SE and I have no real complaints. It worked well with Independence War (fairly complex starship sim), combat flight sims, and I even had decent success using it with Need for Speed (car racing game) with it. It seems quite durable. Has a trigger and was a mass-produced model so I imagine it can still be found cheaply (e.g. I see one on eBay for $9.99).

Atrocities · #3 December 6th, 2006, 12:04 AM

I miss my Microsoft joystick.

IT was a good joystick.

President_Elect_Shang · #4 December 7th, 2006, 12:53 AM

Semi-OT: I am thinking about getting into flight sims. So far the only sim games I have played are racing on the PS2. Fun but consoles only seem to provide half the thrill of a computer game. Well, for obvious reasons though. Anyway what joystick and flight sim would any of you recommend?

PvK · #5 January 4th, 2007, 09:14 PM

IL-2 Sturmovik
Falcon 4.0
Independence War

capnq · #6 January 5th, 2007, 03:48 PM

A computer mishap put me offline for a week, and prevented me from reinstalling my flight sim and new joystick. I'd forgotten that I hadn't posted the results here.

I ended up getting another Thrustmaster, the Fox 2 Pro USB, which a friend recommended. It cost less than I expected to have to pay, and so far my only complaint is that it looks rather anachronistic controlling a World War I flight sim.

I would recommend Red Baron 2, if it were still on the market. When I went looking for patches for it, I discovered that it had quite an active mod community.

Most of the recommendations I got from threads like this one were for Logitech, Gravis, or Saitek, but all of those models that I looked at reviews for were about half positive and half negative. The Thrustmaster's reviews were about 80% positive.

President_Elect_Shang · #7 January 5th, 2007, 04:00 PM

The Thrustmaster; I will have to look for it. Thanks for the advice; however, if Red Baron is out of print what else would you suggest?

P.S. never mind the attachment. For some reason I can't get my new avatar to upload.

capnq · #8 January 6th, 2007, 08:18 PM

The only Windows[1] flight sims I've played are Red Baron and Red Baron 2, so I don't have another recommendation. I've never been interested in any post-WWI flight sims.

[1] I don't think Wings was ever ported over from the Amiga.

President_Elect_Shang · #9 January 6th, 2007, 11:18 PM

I had an Amiga but I don't recall Wings. Can you describe it a little, maybe that will jar a memory. I have never been much into sims, in fact GT3 and 4 for the PS2 is my first real dedicated sim. I had like one or two before them but never played much. Now that I am older I am really starting to enjoy the more peaceful games more. The ones that take longer to play and require more dedication to detail; you know?