rec.autos.simulators

Do I really need a dedicated game card for a driving wheel (I'll buy a
GP1)? It's not a big deal to buy a $30 game card, but the trouble is I
have only one available ISA slot, which I'll use for a HP scanner. If a
game card were really needed, I would have to buy an additional  PCI
SCSI card for the scanner, and a PCI SCSI card is way expensive. Thanks
in advance!

I use the game port on my sound card. Works fine for me.
--
Stephen D.Jenkins

Let me put it this way I have a thustmaster game card and I don't use it.
Becuase of the above. And if there is a difference it's so miniscule that most
people would ever know.

Now there are people who swear by them as they see a big dif., I race with
some of these people all the time. I still don't agree and it's a waste of a
slot.

There biggest argument is the range of values. TM is like 0 to 300 which
coincides closely with the actaul pot's range. While SC's like the sound
blaster are like 200-1000 which is above the pot's range. My argument to them
is that Papy realizes that most use the soundcard and they could easily divide
the SC's range to get it into synch with the actual pots range to make thing
more closely to the TM unit.

The problem with the last paragraph though is nobody from Papy has ever
confirmed or denied it. Is there and advantage? Is there programming to
compensate the SC's?

But the bottom line is my eyes and lap times I can't see a diff. worth
mentioning.

Q.B.M.

: Do I really need a dedicated game card for a driving wheel (I'll buy a
: GP1)? It's not a big deal to buy a $30 game card, but the trouble is I
: have only one available ISA slot, which I'll use for a HP scanner. If a
: game card were really needed, I would have to buy an additional  PCI
: SCSI card for the scanner, and a PCI SCSI card is way expensive. Thanks
: in advance!

I lived for years without one.  Unless you experience major problems,
the only advantage is a "finer" degree of control from your input
devices.  When I finally installed a Thrustmaster ACM card, my wheel and
pedals became more precise and less "twitchy".

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I went to the CH Gamecard 3. Originally I had the Trustmaster which
worked for a while in Win95 and dos just fine. But one day I booted up
and the joystick didn't work. The gamecard's ports were overwritten by
the sound card and Win95 wouldn't let me use the resources even after
I cleared the 'original configuration' box. So for a while I just ran
all the games that needed the wheel in dos. They are action games and
need the horsepower anyway.

But when I got NFS2 and now I-76 I had to use the steering wheel in
Win95 and that meant I needed a game card that would work. The ch card
works perfectly. But do alter your installation in one way when
installing. Don't delete your old joystick port from the device
manager. Just clear the box marked 'original configuration.'

Then follow the instructions in the booklet. If you delete the old
joystick port on a pnp card it will be reinstalled when you reboot.

Tom P.

Here's a somewhat related problem I'm having?  Any suggestions?

I have a SB 32PnP, thrustmaster ACM/T2.
When my system boots, it hangs for almost a minute at the:
"Award Plug And Play Bios v1.0a"
And then continues to boot slowly through the:
"Detecting PnP cards"
Whereby it detects my SB 32 PnP with all these garbled characters.
After this, my first Win95 logo screen comes up, and everything
boots at normal speed thereafter.

This has only happened since I bought my ACM card, however I need
it or I can't calibrate my T2 correctly (full brake acts as full throttle).

Thanks,

Dave Walkley

Mark
Reading, UK

 ccorpora wrote in article ...

If you only have the one slot available,  save your money.  If you should
one day have an additional slot, and someone gives you a dedicated
gamecard, go ahead and give it a try.