ACM CARD vs CH GAME CARD

I just got a T2 and after awhile I can't play the game because of drifting. I'm using my game port off my sound card. Which is the better choice, Thrustmaster's ACM adjustable game card OR an automatic game card like the one CH Products sells? I'm running 90 mhz Pentium 16 meg ram. All help is appreciated. Thanks Craig Ostertag

>I just got a T2 and after awhile I can't play the game because of >drifting. I'm using my game port off my sound card. Which is the >better choice, Thrustmaster's ACM adjustable game card OR an automatic >game card like the one CH Products sells? I'm running 90 mhz Pentium >16 meg ram. All help is appreciated. Thanks If you are going to buy a gamecard buy the Thrustmaster ACM. I own both the CH Gamecard 3 automatic and the Thrustmaster ACM. I bought the CH card first and ran into documented bugs with the CH card and Apache, Need for Speed and also Windows95 had terrible problems calibrating with it. With ICR2 and Nascar1 I had to recalibrate each racing session and the joystick setting had a lot of drift. Well after a while I got pretty fed up with it and finally decided to go out and grab the Thrustmaster ACM, and I have not regreted doing this. The ACM has a nice knob that lets you manually adjust the speed in a much more controlled way than the lack of control that CH's "automatic" card does, and I have not had anymore problems in any games including apache Need for Speed or Win95. Note that I own both Thrustmaster and CH controllers, and have been very happy with CH's quality and durability of their controllers, it's just that in my opinion their CH gamecard 3 automatic is a piece of junk. Some people will say that you won't need a gamecard at all, but with all the different hardware combinations out there, some of us do really need better performance out of a joystick port than that provided by the port on the SB16. After all the $$$ I have spent on Flightsticks and a T2 wheel, it's worth $25-$30 to have a decent Thrustmaster ACM card giving you steady and stable readings off your expensive controllers. This of course is MY opinion and MY experience with the two different gamecards, please no flames, this is not meant to be a bash on any company in particular. Cheers. --John -- Note: my real e-mail address is below. Delete the asterisks. ------------------------------+-------------------------- Seattle, Washington USA. | http://www.cool.com/~jsilva

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>I just got a T2 and after awhile I can't play the game because of >drifting. I'm using my game port off my sound card. Which is the >better choice, Thrustmaster's ACM adjustable game card OR an automatic >game card like the one CH Products sells? I'm running 90 mhz Pentium >16 meg ram. All help is appreciated. Thanks >Craig Ostertag

I'm using a CH gamecard (I can't remember it's exact name) I can't recommend CH over Thrustmaster because I just happened to buy the CH Gamecard (I really like CH Joysticks though). Anyway I had the drifting problem with my T2....but not after I installed the CH Gamecard. It makes driving a lot of fun! The CH works for me!

That's interesting as I had hell trying to get Apache to work with my CH. I don't use it for anything at all under Win95. I haven't had any problems with ICR2, NCR1, GP2 etc at all. Calibrate and forget. I use both ports for the ECCI CDS wheel. Even though I don't play with Apache any more it's reassuring to know I wasn't alone! Stuart -- Stuart Booth Somewhere in Oxfordshire, England, UK

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>>I bought the CH card first and ran into documented bugs with the >>CH card and Apache, Need for Speed and also Windows95 had terrible >>problems calibrating with it. With ICR2 and Nascar1 I had to recalibrate >>each racing session and the joystick setting had a lot of drift. >That's interesting as I had hell trying to get Apache to work with my >CH. I don't use it for anything at all under Win95. I haven't had any >problems with ICR2, NCR1, GP2 etc at all. Calibrate and forget. I use >both ports for the ECCI CDS wheel. >Even though I don't play with Apache any more it's reassuring to know >I wasn't alone! >Stuart

Yes, I know what you mean. Apache eventually was patched to fix the problem with the CH card after a bunch of us complained about it on c.s.i.p.g.flight-sims, but the one thing that finally made me get rid of the CH card was that Need for Speed had the same joystick problems with the CH as Apache. The choice came down to keeping the CH card and have to play NFS with the keyboard, or getting rid of the CH card and being able to play NFS using my T2. I still ask myself how CH can make such great quality joysticks (I own a CH Flightsick Pro that has given me almost 4 trouble free years) and at the same time come out with such an inferior gamecard. Cheers. --John -- Note: my real e-mail address is below. Delete the asterisks. ------------------------------+-------------------------- Seattle, Washington USA. | http://www.cool.com/~jsilva