Cheap-ass tested joystick "On a budget"

[Mace]

Sadly it lacks pedals, but those controls are moved under your left hand. She was build in 2007, and still available and receiving updates(2010 beta firmwares?)

It does not compete with the TM Warthog, but is a good intermediate(My old TM setup would be complex and to have revised would cost me too much, plus you can't connect it to anything else to an elderly soundcard, usb converter systems do not work.

So i found this little beauty;

Rudders are remapped on the throttle handle, and the stick itself is basicly the CH flightstick, combined with a quickshot throttle(but more durable), the extra buttons are arcade-quality.

You will need to finetune her before modern games recognize her in "Older" software(windows), but the device hardware calibrates itself....

It is not a miracle device but just a cheap, and realible joystick setup in a box for 30 euro. It is more reliable then the stuff on the market from TM or logitech in this price range.

Now to get SAGA and Starlancer on supporting the rumble features....
It took 24 hours to find one that was delivered from Germany.

It is called the speedlink black widow and production started in 2007, recent updates now call it the "megastore joystick"

 

[CataclysmX]

I've used this joystick for every Wing Commander since the first one when I was about 7-8 years old. It still works fine surprisingly.

That joystick you bought looks more comfortable not surprisingly, but why not just invest into a Soundblaster Live and have fairly good audio quality and a gameport? I find it's nice to have a gameport for using older peripheral devices and the SB Live is very good for having a host of audio equipment attached to it.

 

[Worf]

Oh man, I remember those Gravis joysticks. Had one with my first PC back in the 80s... long junked as the springs went lame...

 

[Mace]

That joystick you bought looks more comfortable not surprisingly, but why not just invest into a Soundblaster Live and have fairly good audio quality and a gameport? I find it's nice to have a gameport for using older peripheral devices and the SB Live is very good for having a host of audio equipment attached to it.

I did that, but and the stick itself was unstable, so I looked around the web and in stores for a new one, and I had to order this one through the megastore webshop. Most sticks they had on the shelf felt either cheap or unreliable, with the excheption of the 250+ euro units.