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postm...@thepc.thegap.com (Dermot Murphy) wrote:

>Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?

I have got a Gravis Analogue Pro. This is a 4 button joystick with a throttle
control.

The autocenter tension can also be adjusted.

If you like games such as Descent then also have a look at the joysticks which
have an extra joystick mounted on top of the stick. I think the most popular
one is called the thrustmaster.

------------------------------------------------------------
Gareth Blades  (gar...@blades.tcp.co.uk)  (SMTP)
               (bla...@tcp.co.uk)         (POP3) prefered
Homepage:      http://www.tcp.co.uk/~blades
PGP key available from hompage

In article <41g1tq$4...@zeus.tcp.co.uk>, bla...@tcp.co.uk (Gareth Blades) writes:
|> postm...@thepc.thegap.com (Dermot Murphy) wrote:
|> 
|> >Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?
|> 
|> I have got a Gravis Analogue Pro. This is a 4 button joystick with a throttle
|> control.
|> 
|> The autocenter tension can also be adjusted.
|> 
|> If you like games such as Descent then also have a look at the joysticks which
|> have an extra joystick mounted on top of the stick. I think the most popular
|> one is called the thrustmaster.
|> 
|> ------------------------------------------------------------
|> Gareth Blades  (gar...@blades.tcp.co.uk)  (SMTP)
|>                (bla...@tcp.co.uk)         (POP3) prefered
|> Homepage:      http://www.tcp.co.uk/~blades
|> PGP key available from hompage
|> 

I have a Wingman Extreme. It has a trigger with 3 extra fire buttons and a 'hat-
switch' for games like Descent. Despite some individuals complaining about broken
triggers and/or hat switches I've no problems whatsoever with my stick and I like
it very much. It's also much cheaper than ThrustMaster sticks (I think about 1/3
of the price).

Dermot Murphy (postm...@thepc.thegap.com) wrote:
: Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?

How much do you want to spend is the question.  For top of the line, 
there's nothing finer than the Thrustmaster line.  After you use one for 
a while, you'll most likely swear to die by it.  I have a PFCS, which is 
a 4 buttons joystick w/ hat, and really tight springs.  I also just 
aquired an FLCS, which is modeled after an F-16 block 50.  This thing 
rules.  4-8 way hats, 4 buttons, 2 stage trigger button, and programmable 
out the wazzoo.  If you don't have too much to spend you might consider 
the Wingman Extreme, but the trigger buttons break really easily.  
Logitech is ramping up production for fixed versions though.

Warren
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Block: Did you know that through the protective practice of
       Tiea Bu Shan, you can train your testicles to draw
       up into your abdomen?
Mulder: Oh, I'm doing that as we speak...
           *X-Files* The Truth is Out There
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?
>Thanks,
>Dermot

I've held out on buying a joystick of any sort for a long time now, content to 
stick with crappy cheapo ones which do the job of the few joystick games I 
have.  (I'm a bit of a Doom head, so a mouse is usually all I need.)

However I've just lately begun playing Descent and Mechwarrior 2 in earnest so 
I went and bought the Quickshot Skymaster.  It's main attraction for me was 
it's supposed Thrustmaster compatibility and the witch hat.  Although not as 
comfrtable as a Thrustmaster or a CH Flightstick Pro it is nearly half the 
price of the aforementioned.  It's a good, solid responsive stick.

For once, the old adage "You get what you pay for" seems to largely hold true 
for PC joysticks.  (I said largely, so no flames please.)  I work in a 
computer games store and have tried them all and the QS Skymaster seems to 
represent best value for money.

Jeremy

postm...@thepc.thegap.com (Dermot Murphy) wrote:

>Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?

>Thanks,

>Dermot

I can. I recently bought a Logitech wingman and it is excellent.
Excellent construction, ergonomic feel, and only $39.99.

Todd.

to...@netgate.net (Todd Munk) wrote:
>postm...@thepc.thegap.com (Dermot Murphy) wrote:
>
>>Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?
>
>>Thanks,
>
>>Dermot
>
>I can. I recently bought a Logitech wingman and it is excellent.
>Excellent construction, ergonomic feel, and only $39.99.

Or, you can splurge 20 more bucks and go for the Wingman 
Extreme, which has a hat switch like Thrustmaster, and has an 
excellent ergonomic feel, and it has 4 buttons.
I have had it for 4 months now, deathmatching in doom, descent, 
and TV, doing all the tight turns and curves, rough-housing it, 
and it's still in perfect condition.  I love it.

BTW, I also have a Gravis Gamepad, which is excellent for 
fighting games and action side scrollers. At only about 14 
bucks, its no big deal, so I would go for that one too.

Jon

-- 
[][][] [][][]  []]  [] / Jon Reinberg
  []   []  []  [][] [] /    "What"
[][]   []  []  [] [][] / rein...@maroon.tc.umn.edu
 []    [][][]  []   [] / 
http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/m447/reinb001/jon.html

In article <DE6wn...@news.cis.umn.edu>,
   Jon <rein...@maroon.tc.umn.edu> wrote:
>to...@netgate.net (Todd Munk) wrote:
>>postm...@thepc.thegap.com (Dermot Murphy) wrote:
>>
>>>Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?
>>
>>>Thanks,
>>
>>>Dermot
>>

Well, if you're into games that require digital sticks instead of analog 
sticks and you've got a bit of cash to burn, I wholeheartedly recommend the 
U.S. Logic Keyboard Emulator Control Pad. It's a SNES-style joypad that 
connects between the keyboard and the computer.  The big advantage is that, 
unlike conventional digital joypads that use the analog port, you can use it 
without losing 25% of your PC's speed.  Normal analog joysticks (and joypads 
that connect to the normal analog game port) work by charging a capacitor 
through resistors inside the joystick and then counting down to see how long 
it takes for the charge to disappear.  A tiny resistance (when the joystick is 
at the end of one of its axes) results in a big charge; a big resistance (when 
the joystick is at the other end of the axis) results in a little charge.  A 
centered joystick produces a medium resistance and a medium charge.  The 
problem is that the CPU itself has to keep checking to see whether or not the 
charge is gone, even if the resistance will be only one of 3 values (as in the 
case of a joypad).

On the other hand, the keyboard reports "key events" (left shift pressed, "j" 
key pressed, "j" key released, left shift released) as they happen, and these 
events can be read in an instant.  What the U.S. Logic keypad does is generate 
key events like the keyboard.  It can be programmed so that the joypad acts 
like cursor up, down, left, and right, and the buttons act like space, escape, 
left-shift, right-shift, tab, enter, "%", "G", "g", etc.  It has six buttons 
and two levers along the top.  The left lever can be programmed like one of 
the buttons.  The right lever acts like a "shift" key and lets you generate an 
additional 7 keys by pressing it along with the other lever/buttons.  To 
program it, you flip the switch to program mode, hold the button, and press 
the key on the keyboard.  You can program it to auto-repeat for the button at 
30cps instantly or after a brief pause if you want.  It retains settings when 
you turn off the computer.

The only -REAL- problem with it is the cost: I paid over $55 for it at 
Computer City.  On the other hand, it IS nice being able to play DOOM with a 
joystick without losing any speed (which is why I never really used my Gravis 
Gamepad... the speed penalty wasn't worth it).  In any case, there are bound 
to be other companies that will be making similar products, and I'm sure that 
by Christmas similar products will be available for slightly more than a good 
analog joypad costs today.

-------------

What I'd REALLY like to see is a ninja-converter that lets you use ANY SNES 
joystick as a keyboard emulator (so I could buy one of the awesome $100 
arcade-quality SNES joysticks and use it with my PC), and which converts any 
IBM analog stick into a serial mouse (with transparent switching between the 
mouse and joystick... like maybe reporting the movement of whichever device 
last had a button pressed) so analog sticks could be used with games without 
killing performance as well.  In the case of analog sticks, it would basically 
serve to off-load the charge/monitoring activity from the CPU and just report 
the actual value. Since most games support using the mouse anyway, it would 
work with most programs out of the box.  Gravis???  Are you working on this???

to...@netgate.net (Todd Munk) wrote:
>sla...@gate.net wrote:
>
>>In article <DE6wn...@news.cis.umn.edu>,
>>   Jon <rein...@maroon.tc.umn.edu> wrote:
>>>to...@netgate.net (Todd Munk) wrote:
>>>>postm...@thepc.thegap.com (Dermot Murphy) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Please can anyone suggest best(?) joystick for me to buy?
>>>>
>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>
>>>>>Dermot
>I would chose one of two joysticks (I recently went shopping for one).
>
>The two best I could find were the CH Flightstick Pro and the Logitech
>Wingman. I liked the Wingman slightly better because of the ergonomic
>feel.

The wingman Extreme feels *awesome* but we've gone through 11(!) of
them.  The design of the hat BITES.  its one plastic part so it breaks
off.   We're not insane with it either... the quality of that part
just sux.  If it wasnt for that, this joystick would truly rock!

(Too any logitech lurkers out there: why cant you just make that a 
die-cast part and solve the problem?!?!?!?!)

	-Bill

IMHO YMMV.