I used the forum search to look for joystick threads, but the most recent one it returned was from 2005 or so. I knew that was a joke, so I tried Google. Still nothing since 2010. So I figure, it's time for this thread again
Back in time immemorial, I used cheap gameport joysticks. The kind you could get free from OfficeMax after mail-in rebate. They're what I learned to ply sims with. I tore up Descent, Freespace 1 and 2, a bunch of the old Jane's games, and countless other games which have simply been lost to my memory over the decades.
Then for the longest time, I had
this Logitech joystick. It got me through I-War 2, the newer Jane's games, pretty much any of the thinning crowd of joystick games from the turn of the century. It wasn't the most expensive thing in the world, but it was better than my old sticks, and I was happy with it.
But then disaster struck. You see, this stick (or at least the version I have - mine was blue) has a gameport cable, but it came with a female gameport to male USB adapter. Nothing at all sophisticated - I know these adapters can get rather involved, so I'll have to assume that the joystick had internal circuitry to detect the connection type and function accordingly. Anyway, around 2006, I lost the gameport to USB adapter, rendering it useless on pretty much any computer constructed in the last ten years.
So I jumped to a
Saitek X-52 about a year later. I really liked having a hands-on throttle, and I liked having all the buttons, but I did not like the feel of the stick. Felt way too floaty. Maybe my memory is biased after all this time, but I could swear those cheapy gameport sticks were easier to control. Or maybe the 52 just wasn't what I was used to. Why would you use magnets for your axis mechanism? What's wrong with a simple potentiometer? In any event, I was never entirely happy with the X-52.
On top of that it didn't have the best build quality. By now the calibration is all over the place. Plus there's something really funky going on with the cable that's shorting out my PC. Time for a replacement!
Now, I've seen decent reviews for the
Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X (any reason the name is so long?). No really strong complaints about it aside from one post I found here, which to me seems encouraging. You can find a bad review of pretty much any of the more expensive sticks. And given my tastes, as long as the spring is strong enough, I could be really happy with it.
But I'm also a firm believer in the phrase "you get what you pay for". So I'm also considering other options. The only other real front-runner is the
CH Fighterstick USB. The design really reminds me of one of those old-school, simple yet rugged sticks. It is a bit more expensive - ~$100 for the stick alone, and another ~$100 if I want the throttle, so if I end up hating it, it's a bigger deal than if it's the $30 Thrustmaster. But everything I've read says this is a really solid stick and should definitely last. I'm torn.
Then there's the
X-52 Pro. A
review I've read suggests that their decision to add another spring and generally improve the build quality might actually solve my issues. On the other hand, you don't have to look far on amazon to see a poor review. One plus is that it's $150, as opposed to $200 for the CH stick/throttle combo.
Then there's the X-65F. I don't think I'd have any patience with the X-Y bleed mentioned in its SimHQ review. There's also the price - that's really pushing it. I don't think I'd mind if I knew I'd be 100% satisfied and it would last me for years, but I have no such illusions.
I'm aware of the existence of the Warthog and G940, but I'm not interested in these. I've seen some terrible reviews for the G940 that say it simply wears out after a few months, and the Warthog is simply a bridge too far as far as price. I could buy two consoles and have money left over for games. No thanks.
So I'm torn and can't decide what to do. What say you, HLP? Maybe the best option is the cheap stick for now, since most games I play these days are FPSes anyway. On the other hand, if I had a working joystick that wasn't frustrating to use, I might dive into FS2 and some of the other classics. Either way, I'd like to hear from people with experience with the sticks.