[Flaser]

I thought this would be of your interest:

http://www.mindaugas.com/projects/MJoy16/

It's a DIY joystick interface, allowing you to build a simulator of your dreams.
As said in the title, it uses the USB port, and Windows automatically detects it.

EDIT - The PCB enthusiast (or those with the bucks to have it built) may find the following programe usefull:

http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/

KiCAD is an opensource schematic and printed circuit board designer.

[Nuke]

8 10-bit axes, well thats better than the joy warrior board which only supported 3 8-bit axes. still id perfer it if it would have an even 16 bit precision per axis (which is the format most apis use for joystick data). still its rather impressive.