New MS Sidewinder Joystick series....

[Timmo]

I noticed the other day that Microsoft has released the first new Sidewinder product for a while: A new gaming mouse....im assuming that there will be other peripherals coming out in due course. The most interesting of these to us simmers would be a new Sidewinder joystick.....

Im not sure if they will release a new Sidewinder Joystick but I hope they do- I have a Precision 2 joystick which is great (and im on the lookout for another one too).

What features would be useful/Cool do you think?

For me:

Replace the 8-way hat with a trackball/joystick similar to a mouse trackball or a playstation analogue thumbstick. This would control the same functions as an 8-way hat but be much faster and accurate (i.e. It would give you the ability to use 'mouse look' in FSX without using the mouse). It would ideally have a couple of secondary modes allowing you to 'click' the track ball/thumbstick down to select something and a 'shift' button that would temporarily disable the mouselook function and allow you to move the thumbstick up/down to change radio fequencies/mixture/rotating switches without taking your hands off the joystick.

(Currently ive set my joystick up so that a button is assigned to start 'Mouse look'- I can then look around/zoom the cockpit etc using the mouse. The drawback is that a) You cant fiddle with knobs in the cockpit until you switch mouse look off again). b) Moving the view using a traditional 8 way hat is a bit slow and cumbersome and, again, there is no way to fiddle with knobs without moving your hand to the mouse.

Other than that, it would be great if they also released Sidewinder rudder pedals and Sidewinder head tracking....if MS released these it would drop the price considerably I think. Their previous gear has been of very high quality and of a reasonable price.

[Charl]

Ooo I'd kill for a 21st century FF Sidewinder Joystick...I think MS left the business because their product was so good, they lasted forever and nobody replaced them!

[Kahu]

QUOTE (Charl @ Apr 2 2008, 04:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ooo I'd kill for a 21st century FF Sidewinder Joystick...I think MS left the business because their product was so good, they lasted forever and nobody replaced them!

Your right there!!! I have had my Sidewinder for 6 years now and it still works like new and I play a lot of combat sims. I wish they would release a new force feedback joystick.

[Charl]

QUOTE (Timmo @ Apr 2 2008, 12:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...What features would be useful/Cool do you think?...

This onehas plenty of buttons...