MicroSoft Joysticks

Willy

Willy

Administrator
Staff member
Not trying to make light of other folks problems with their controllers, but it did get me to thinking. I bought my first MS Sidewinder FFB stick back in '99. A year later I bought a non-FFB Sidewinder as a backup stick to the FFB. The FFB stick died on me in '01 and ever since, I've been using the non FFB stick. These are the original Sidewinders, not the Sidewinder II sticks.

Back when I bought the first one, folks were running them down because they were a Microsoft product. At the time the first one died, I just figured it had lasted as long as could be expected. When it died, it was the FFB that quit and after reloading the software, it would no longer recognize the stick. The stick was still working but very loose with no FFB until I reloaded the software. After that, it was pretty much a large paperweight. I've still got it in the attic in case I ever need some of the switches or other parts for the non-FFB stick.

I went to my backup SideWinder and I'm still surprised that it's been going and going and going. I do every couple of years clean it out and use a little silicone grease on the wearing surfaces though. If only MS made software that worked as well as that stick.

My backup stick now? A Saitek Cyborg Rumbleforce that I dread the day that I take it out of the box as that means my old Sidewinder has bit the dust.
 
Gotta agree with you, Willy....I'm running with a non-ffb MS Sidewinder Precision II that's going on 11+ years old. I had thought when I went to Vista 64 it would have problems, but thus far with the new OS and FSX and FS9, it's doing very well.

The only problem I've ever had is that in FS9, sometimes it will lose rudder control when the flight starts. Just have to restart the flight and it comes back. Thus far on the new PC, it hasn't done that.

I've got a brand-new Logitech sitting on the backup shelf.
 
Hey Odie
I have an old MS Sidewinder Precision II non-FFB that I got in '95. Sometimes the ailerons on one side stop working. All I do is unplug, wait for the beep and then plug back in. Works every time. Hain't touch the innards since I bought it. Strange. Whenever a company has a great product, they wanna stop makin' it.:friday:
 
Hi all,
I have an original MS Sidewinder that I use everyday.Bought it end 1998.Still works flawlessly.

Buddha13
 
Now tha MS stepped out of the Flight Sim idustry I guess it is pointless to even hope that they consider selling SW again...
Glad that my SWII is still working perfectly after all these years.

I've flown Zeros and Corsairs in the Pacific, Yaks and Fock-wulfs over the tundra I now regularly land at CDG with powerful liners now that I grew older all with my SWII ;-)
 
Way back in late 1997 I went to the Office Depot and bought three things:
  • a Compaq computer with 300mhz processor and 48mb RAM,
  • Microsoft's Flight Simulator 98
  • and a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick (non-ffb)
Several computers later and several subsequent versions of Flight Simulator, the Sidewinder is still my preferred way of getting around virtually. Sure, if I travel I use the backup, an XBox 360 controller but nothing quite compares to the Sidewinder. I'm pretty sure at some point it will stop working but right now other from some slop in the middle it still seems to do the job well. I've seen what is out there now and I'm not so sure anything would work well for me at this point. Of course when I bought the Sidewinder I didn't think it would do as good as my old trusty CH stick with only two buttons either.:kilroy:
 
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