The sticks that got me through the Kilrathi War and beyond...

Dundradal

Frog Blast the Vent Core!
I'd long thought them lost or destroyed. However, rumors of their demise appear premature.

My father, while do some spring cleaning, came upon the three devices that made up my joystick setup in the mid-late 1990s and all appeared in working order.

I was always a Thrustmaster guy. I found their sticks to be durable, easy to program and had more buttons, switches and hats than any other stick set.

Here are my F-22 Pro Advanced Control Series, F-16 TQS Throttle Quadrant System and my RCS Rudder Control System.

There is more than enough buttons, switches and hats on those devices to map every control button in WC and still have a few to spare.

I'm hoping to get them hooked up to my machine and see if I can find a copy of the necessary TM software somewhere.

Does the CIC or any members here still have old TM "sticksets" for use with these sticks?
 

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Ah! Back when certain brands were built to also bludgeon burglars in a pinch, double as a tire stop when you're working on your car, and absorb a direct nuclear blast.

Well, maybe not the last two parts.
 
I love the TQS. It alone has enough buttons, switches and knobs to do almost everything in WC. It would have required 3 pics just to cover them all on that one stick!
 
I can remember endless arguments on IRC over which sticks were better.

I've found TM to just seem like more solid products. Like t.c. cgi said it's not only a joystick, but a home defense system.
 
TM Stick/Throttle setups still appear on the media-market shelves today, (250~280 euro's a set)

I still have a suncom(f15-E Talon/Dual Throttle) set lying around.
 
Have none of those, but I have pretty much one of the last few of the modern age - a TM HOTAS Cougar.
 
I can remember endless arguments on IRC over which sticks were better.

I've found TM to just seem like more solid products. Like t.c. cgi said it's not only a joystick, but a home defense system.

I really couldn't agree more - my buddy has a TM HOTAS setup (I'm not sure which one though) and I have a Saitek X-52, and after coming back from LAN night at his house I feel like I'm going to break my sticks just by looking at them. Saitek products are for casual enthusiasts, that's for sure. Which makes me sorely embarrassed to have them. I don't really like the tension in the spring either. I was thinking eventually it would loosen up, but that never really happened. Apparently alot of people replace theres, someday I might look into doing that.

Or maybe I'll just go 'real' and buy a TM setup.
 
I can remember endless arguments on IRC over which sticks were better.

I've found TM to just seem like more solid products. Like t.c. cgi said it's not only a joystick, but a home defense system.



I really couldn't agree more - my buddy has a TM HOTAS setup (I'm not sure which one though) and I have a Saitek X-52, and after coming back from LAN night at his house I feel like I'm going to break my sticks just by looking at them. Saitek products are for casual enthusiasts, that's for sure. Which makes me sorely embarrassed to have them. I don't really like the tension in the spring either. I was thinking eventually it would loosen up, but that never really happened. Apparently alot of people replace theres, someday I might look into doing that.

Or maybe I'll just go 'real' and buy a TM setup.

Well, I've never heard anyone argue that a *saitek* was better than a Thrustmaster....that kinda goes without saying.
 
Well, I've never heard anyone argue that a *saitek* was better than a Thrustmaster....that kinda goes without saying.

Thrustmaster makes some really good stuff. They're inexpensive, but well made, sturdy and long-lasting. Saitek on the other hand tends to do these bizarre designs and be very costly. (Granted, they're sturdy and longs-lasting, too.) I'd feel like paying for the design. With Thrustmaster I have both my own and friends' experience with their products, and none of us were ever disappointed.

But okay, I have to admit I never owned a Thrustmaster joystick myself, although I've played with some at some point and always liked them. I do however own a Thrustmaster gamepad. And that has all the positive attributes I talked about: Inexpensive, feels well made, sturdy, works well, and I think it fits comfortably in my hands.


By the way, is it allowed to post pictures of our own "The sticks that got me through..." and stories?
 
Thrustmaster makes some really good stuff. They're inexpensive, but well made, sturdy and long-lasting. Saitek on the other hand tends to do these bizarre designs and be very costly. (Granted, they're sturdy and longs-lasting, too.) I'd feel like paying for the design. With Thrustmaster I have both my own and friends' experience with their products, and none of us were ever disappointed.

I should've phrased my post differently...I meant it goes without saying that a Thrustmaster is better than a Saitek, they are not even remotely in the same league.

And I wasn't aware 'inexpensive' and Thrustamster belonged in the same sentence, I'm only familiar with Cougar HOTAS's.

I have two friends with 'em and it seems like they were always tinkering with the things' internals....

I've had a CH setup for seven years and never had to change anything...but their modded sticks are undoubtedly superior. Out of the box though.....maybe not so much.
 
I can't remember the old two-button joystick that got me through most of PC gaming. It was a sturdy thing and cost a lot back when X-Wing first came out but it wasn't easy to calibrate either.

This is the one I have on hand these days - Logic 3 Starfighter. Not especially pretty but it gets the work done at a fair price.

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I've never owned a TM, but have always liked the Microsoft Sidewinder Force feedback Precision Pro. The original is better than the 2nd edition, especially for the layout of the thumb buttons.
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I use that in conjunction with the MS strategic commander.
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The useful thing about the SG is that you can program it on the fly, the 6 main buttons have 3 shift keys (so 24 in all) it moves and twists, which is useful for early games that don't support rudder control and you can switch between 3 profiles, which is useful for different types of missions and effectively triples the available function buttons.

They did do a voice recognition headset which I've always wanted to try.

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I also currently play all my WC games on a 117" projector setup :)
 
I too have a HOTAS cougar, but for arcade sims like wing commander I prefer to use a Microsoft Sidewinder force feedback 1, 2, or precision pro. I find the HOTAS Cougar is too heavy and unwieldy for gaming and is better suited to realistic simming.
 
I've never owned a TM, but have always liked the Microsoft Sidewinder Force feedback Precision Pro. The original is better than the 2nd edition, especially for the layout of the thumb buttons.

Something that I have discovered is that my somewhat looser MS Sidewinder (not the force feedback model) works better for the Star Wars games, but that anything with a twist access and more buttons works better for Wing Commander and other flight simulator games (like Falcon 4.0 or Starlancer).

Once, with an add on program, I even had my X-52 setup configured to run Freelancer via a joystick-to-mouse setup, which is sort of the opposite of a virtual joystick. I guess it was a virtual mouse set up? But I quickly found that Freelancer is not meant to be played that way, you don't really fly in that game as much as you just follow your guns around in space.
 
Of the 3 PC sticks I've used, 2 were TM, first the FCS Mk2 I used until the spring got too stretched out and wouldn't hold a straight line, and the third/current being a Top Gun Fox 2 Pro.

The second one? A Sidewinder 2 Force Feedback, which no matter how I adjusted the tension, was either too stiff with FF active, or as floppy as a sheet of paper and requiring very careful handling to keep it in the center with FF turned off. When it died, I wasn't too heartbroken, to be honest.
 
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