It turns out that in his collection of old computer peripherals, he located a Thrustmaster Formula 1 racing wheel he used back in the day. Analog racing wheels can cost a pretty penny nowadays, depending on what you buy, so he decided to see if he could hack this outdated controller to work with his new PC.
That pin connector? Microsoft discontinued support for the game port once Vista was released, so [Atti] had to figure out how in the world he would get it to work on his new PC. His solution was an Arduino, which is used to read the analog signals output by the wheel. Those signals are processed and sent to a parallel port joystick emulator, enabling him to use the wheel with any game supporting a standard joystick. Hey I had a project like this in a part of my head….
Bah, I this is nothing. I remember hacking new USB joysticks to use Gameport. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article Steps. Tips and Warnings. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Author Info Last Updated: September 22, This will require some soldering skills, or you could just twist the wires together then electric tape them.
Soldering will help hold the build together though, and if you have other ways of securing the wires, please do share. Cut the Gameport end off of the joystick about 3 inches 7. Do the same with the spare USB 2. Strip the rubber shields off both wires to reveal the true wires underneath the rubber and foil shields.
Sorry forgot a picture for this step. Strip the casing off the wires from pin 1,14,10, and 4 on the joystick cord. Do the same with all wires from the USB. Twist the corresponding cords together. USB Red with Pin 1 wire from joystick. USB White with Pin 14 wire from joystick. USB Green with Pin 10 wire from joystick.
I suspect the buttons need to be removed for cleaning. This stick should have worked with the USB adapter set to position 2. The CH Pro only has three potentiometers, four buttons and one hat switch. Perhaps the Flightstick I tested is defective?
The Pro Flightstick I bought second hand definitely has not been in proper storage, it had a layer of fine soot coated on it as if exposed to weather. I bought a second CH Flightstick Pro and confirmed it functions just fine! Having "flown" with the standard two button CH Flightstick, this is a very smooth stick with light springs to make precise control a breeze. New USB capable CH Flightsticks are costly due to their high quality, but older gameport CH Flightsticks are of the same high quality and are inexpensive due to the obsolete game port connector.
CH Products calls it ambidextrous, but I would hesitate to call it truly ambidextrous due to the location of the throttle wheel on the left side of the joysticks base. This just about mandates the use of the left hand for throttle actuation. There are also two "trim" wheels incorporated in the base alongside the pitch and roll axis of the stick. They allow you to trim the "X" and "Y" axis anytime you want, including during game play.
This function is surprisingly useful. I use it primarily after I have sustained battle damage and the "aircraft" will not fly normally. It is much easier to trim than holding the stick "hard over" for the long flight home! The shape of the handle is on the small side, ideal for small or young players.
All the buttons are easily accessed. I really like the feel of this unit The unit installed and functioned flawlessly as a stand-alone controller, but Control Manager software will make all the buttons programmable. If you can see past the commercialization of this stick your in for a great ride. The Top Gun is a quality, no-frills flight stick. It is molded for comfort and is very nice to use with flight sims.
I am accustom to having a throttle and rudder pedals; features lacking in the Top Gun. However this stick can easily be expanded by adding the external controllers.
If you enjoy space shooters and sports titles, or don't want to bring the steering wheel out of the garage every time you fire up a racing game, then this might be the perfect alternative. The four main buttons are nice and big and are easy to hit even if they are a little gaudy. They are spaced far enough apart that you won't be hitting more than one button unless you mean to or you have a swollen thumb. The four top buttons two on each side are also sized and placed nicely.
The buttons also are also perfectly tuned to give just the right amount of responsiveness. The d-pad is very responsive giving tight control and immediate response to your commands. It's a little big for my taste, mainly due to the socket in the middle for screwing in the joystick, but it doesn't really detract from gaming as I got used to it very quickly.
One other nice feature that those of you without USB ports or a second game port will like is the split plug on the cord. Plug the first controller into the back of your computer and then add a second one on top of that.
It's easy and will allow for two people to play on your computer even if you are one of those poor souls with only one controller port. However some controllers such as the Gravis GamePad Pro and CH Products Gamestick get around this by incorporating auto fire, duplicating buttons or making one button act as two or even three buttons pressed at once.
This is done without need of any driver. If you are using a sound card gameport the mfg of the sound card would be responsible for keeping up to date with game port drivers for Win7, as they would with the audio drivers for that card.
If using a motherboard with a gameport. Don't think you will find Win7 drivers for anything that uses gameport. It would have been nice for the link above to go to a specific version of a sidewinder controller, so we could know which one you are trying to use, but I've not heard of any controller that uses gameport as having compatible drivers for Win7. THAT was my Question I anyone would have read my Text you would have recognized, that I already know that there is no chance the Gameport-Version will run.
Overlooked the last line. Guess I got distracted by all the redundant information about the game-port model. Anyway, it's good to know that you lashed out and have tried the controller and found it works. In reply to BossDweeb's post on January 10, This site in other languages x.
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