rec.autos.simulators

by **Dennis Brow** » Fri, 02 Apr 1999 04:00:00

I'm using an older Thrustmaster wheel and pedal set plugged into the
game port of my Soundblaster AWE64 ISA card (it's in my 400a Celeron
along with a Voodoo2). For all games I play (ICR2, GPL, NFS2, even old DOS
games like Grand Prix Unlimited) I just tell the game I have a 4-button
stick, and to use "up" for accelerator, "down" for brakes, and
"left-right" to turn, plus various buttons to
shift/handbrake/horn/whatever else.

And, this seems to work OK for me!* Why is it that people need special
game cards, special wheel drivers, etc? This is a serious question--maybe
I'm missing out on something. Do the faster game cards offer better
granularity (faster sampling) of the controls? Do they resolve weird
conflicts in people's systems?

* Ok, actually, the only problem is that I don't have accel and brake on
different axes, thus, I can't brake and accelerator at the same time. But
that's a separate issue--as a "brute force" solution, I can just wire the
brake up to the 2nd controller's inputs and reconfigure the game, but the
wheel is borrowed, so I won't do that.

--

Visit the Classic Home Video Games Museum at http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Nothing I say is officially endorsed by UNC. Hooray for alumni accounts!

by **John Bod** » Sat, 03 Apr 1999 04:00:00

Valid question -- I was getting by fine with my generic sound card
joystick interface and my TSW2 wheel, and I wondered the same thing.
I did suffer from a TON of drift, though, so I made the leap and
upgraded to a PDPI L4 digital game card and the difference was truly
ASTOUNDING.

If you'd like to read my full view of the PDPI card, check out my
review at:

http://irlinsider.adnetweb.com/sims/pdpi/

Note that I don't receive any kickbacks from PDPI -- I'm just another
satisfied customer, though I may be putting up a link banner for them
on my site in the future.

Enjoy!

-- John Bodin
Publilsher, The IRL Insider Magazine
http://irlinsider.adnetweb.com/

On 1 Apr 1999 17:48:34 -0500, Dennis Brown

>I'm using an older Thrustmaster wheel and pedal set plugged into the
>game port of my Soundblaster AWE64 ISA card (it's in my 400a Celeron
>along with a Voodoo2). For all games I play (ICR2, GPL, NFS2, even old DOS
>games like Grand Prix Unlimited) I just tell the game I have a 4-button
>stick, and to use "up" for accelerator, "down" for brakes, and
>"left-right" to turn, plus various buttons to
>shift/handbrake/horn/whatever else.

>And, this seems to work OK for me!* Why is it that people need special
>game cards, special wheel drivers, etc? This is a serious question--maybe
>I'm missing out on something. Do the faster game cards offer better
>granularity (faster sampling) of the controls? Do they resolve weird
>conflicts in people's systems?

>* Ok, actually, the only problem is that I don't have accel and brake on
>different axes, thus, I can't brake and accelerator at the same time. But
>that's a separate issue--as a "brute force" solution, I can just wire the
>brake up to the 2nd controller's inputs and reconfigure the game, but the
>wheel is borrowed, so I won't do that.

>--

> Visit the Classic Home Video Games Museum at http://ns2.apmtech.com/museum
>Nothing I say is officially endorsed by UNC. Hooray for alumni accounts!

rec.autos.simulators

Steering wheels and game port cards

Steering wheels and game port cards

Steering wheels and game port cards