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From: ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Joysticks, Game Controllers -- What's Good?
Message-ID: <1991Jan28.164543.21942@d.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: 28 Jan 91 16:45:43 GMT
References: <3370011@hpsgwp.sgp.hp.com>
Organization: Oklahoma State University
Lines: 45

From article <3370011@hpsgwp.sgp.hp.com>, by plim@hpsgwp.sgp.hp.com (Peter Lim):
> / dlow@pollux.svale.hp.com (Danny Low) /  9:03 am  Jan 25, 1991 / writes:
> 
> $ The best joystick controller is the SoundBlaster music card. It has a
> $ stick port as well as providing music. After playing The Colonel's Bequest,
> $ Loom, Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain, or Rise of the Dragon with
> $ a sound card you will never go back to the PC speaker again. 
> $ 
> Danny, you should try WING COMMANDER. If you think the sound from Their
> Finest Hour is great, the sound from WING COMMANDER will knock your socks
> off.   :-). The music runs throughout the game and pace changes with pace
> of game.
> 
> As for joystick, I use a "made in China" -- SuperShot joystick. Paid about
> US$12 for it.  Suprisingly, it handles a lot better than all other sticks
> I tried, including the Yoke (sp ??). Both buttons one the stick; very
> easy for single hand operation. The other hand can work the keyboard for
> more game control.

Yes, I couldn't agree more.  I have the "QuickShot" which I think is
the same as the "SuperShot" (sold under different name), Made in China,
bought in Soft Warehouse for about $9.  The only "thing" I had to add to
it was to scotch-tape its suction (sp?) cups to the table, partly because
my table does not works well with suction cups alone.  However, I also
think that everyone should have a MAXX yoke to complement the
joystick.  The joystick is a must in games like WING COMMANDER (wow!),
but for driving games like Stunt Driver and Indy500, a yoke handles better
as they simulates a steering wheel.  I have seen non-MAXX yoke for higher
price, and they are more fragile.  If anyone's seen a yoke more
steady and solid than MAXX yoke, please let me know and also its price
(MAXX yoke $60 from Soft Warehouse).

I would also have to praise WING COMMANDER.  The first time I saw it was
its ad in games magazines.  I simply couldn't believe that with the
dazzling graphics, it could produce the kind of functionality it advertised!  
But it DOES.  I guessed I was taken in before too many times (by games
like StarCon), and that WC was not from Electronics Art (which gave me
fantastic games like LHX and Indy500).  But WING COMMANDER, as it turns
out, is 10 times better than any PC action games I have played.  It's the
best in many respects, including but not limited to, its fundamental
simulation model, its ray-traced graphics, its sound effects and music 
score, it storyline, its interaction devices, etc.  You haven't live it,
if you have not played WING COMMANDER.  (be warned, you need a
full-size joystick, a Sound Blaster or equiv., color VGA, at least
12MHz AT or 25MHz 386 for full speed).