New Joystick Woes
Back in Starkville I had a nice Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick. I used it to play flight sims & Episode 1 Pod Racer. It was the best joysticks I’ve ever used.
Well, when we moved down here it broke 
I didn’t really mind tho, since I didn’t have any games that used it. Well, lightspeed/][Jump to Lightspeed]], an action-packed Twitch-based flight sim, reminiscent of [[http://www.download.com/X-Wing-vs-TIE-Fighter-demo/3000-75574-870385.html”>XWing vs Tie Fighter. So I had been looking around for a new joystick, and lucked out when I found a guy at work was selling his on Ebay!
Well, I got it from him and brought it home, and was surprised at how easily it was to hook up. It’s a Sidewider Force Feedback 2, and they fixed some of my biggest complaints with the original (most significantly, they made the Rudder easier to hit, and integrated the power supply). Unfortunately, Microsoft has decided to get out of the Gaming Hardware business. After alot of digging around for drivers that would enable the Force Feedback, I was disheartened to find the only drivers that Microsoft has are only for Windows 95 & 98 (Yes that’s not an error, not even 2k or ME, much less XP).
After about 3 hours of digging around Newsgroups and Driver Forums, I finally found a set of drivers that work for the Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 (Not Wheel), and works on XP. In an attempt to make the lives easier of other Sidewinder users everywhere, I’ve put it on my SidewinderForceFeedback twiki page.
