rec.autos.simulators

Has anybody out there tried the new MS Joystick with any of
the major driving sims?  I had a look at one in the store,
and it looks pretty neat.  The handle twists, and I think
you may be able to program how a game handles that.  It occurs
to me that you could configure it (the twisting motion) to
handle braking.  It also has four buttons on the handle,
a hat, and four more on the base.  It can emulate either
a Thrustmangler or a CH Pro.

Has anybody out there tried the new MS Joystick with any of
the major driving sims?  I had a look at one in the store,
and it looks pretty neat.  The handle twists, and I think
you may be able to program how a game handles that.  It occurs
to me that you could configure it (the twisting motion) to
handle braking.  It also has four buttons on the handle,
a hat, and four more on the base.  It can emulate either
a Thrustmangler or a CH Pro.

: Has anybody out there tried the new MS Joystick with any of
: the major driving sims?  I had a look at one in the store,
: and it looks pretty neat.  The handle twists, and I think
: you may be able to program how a game handles that.  It occurs
: to me that you could configure it (the twisting motion) to
: handle braking.  It also has four buttons on the handle,
: a hat, and four more on the base.  It can emulate either
: a Thrustmangler or a CH Pro.

I bought the Sidewinder Pro a few days ago, and have tried it on F1GP,
Nascar, and NFS(demo).

Unfortunately F1GP is so old that it just treats it as a standard
joystick.  The only benefit from the sidewinder is the silky smooth
movement, but the extra buttons and twisty stick are useless.

Nascar, didn't want seem to want to accept even buttons 3 and 4, let
alone the special twisting handle.  I guess there really isn't much you
can do in Nascar except steer, acc/brake, and change gears, so the two
buttons are enough.  Still nice and smooth.

NFS, is pretty much the same, but maybe the full version has better
joystick support???  It would be nice to have one button for the horn,
another for the hand brake...

Basically, the Sidewinder's main feature - it's rotating handle - is not
used by racing games unfortunately.  Primarily because they were written
before it came out, so maybe future games will make use of it.  At the
moment I'm using the FS Pro and TM modes for virtually all of my games,
except Mechwarrior 2 (which came with the stick) which lets fire at 90
degrees to the way your walking.

It would be really nice if future versions of F1, Nascar etc would allow the
driver to change his point of view - the sidewinder would be ideal for
this.  But in the mean time the smooth optical tracking is well worth it.

Hope this answers your question. :)

Tim.