Covert old Joystick to USB?

[LMO]

Hello all. I just bought MS Flight Sim X Deluxe. I have an older Sidewinder
joystick that I would like to use with it. Problem is the stick is an older
model that plugged in to a sound card. My new system does not have the
female plug for this card. Is there any way to convert an older model
sidewinder to a USB plug?
I have a newer model sidewinder, also, but the older one worked better.
Thanks all.

 

[Larry Mauriello]

If you find such an adapter I'd like to know. I looked for 1 for a while,
and never found 1.
IF you do find one it may cost more than the actual joy stick. Good luck.

 

[John John]

http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=FP-pull-web-t&ei=UTF-8&p=USB+to+Game+Port+Adapter

Or get a sound card.

John

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

Hello all. I just bought MS Flight Sim X Deluxe. I have an older
Sidewinder joystick that I would like to use with it. Problem is the
stick is an older model that plugged in to a sound card. My new system
does not have the female plug for this card. Is there any way to convert
an older model sidewinder to a USB plug?

There are adapters available, however, they support particular joysticks
only and they do not suppport all the features like Force Feedback etc.

I have a newer model sidewinder, also, but the older one worked better.

You might be better off when purchasing a new and suitable Joystick.

 

[LMO]

Maybe this would work?
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Game-Joysti...3QQihZ011QQcategoryZ42322QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[RobertVA]

Hello all. I just bought MS Flight Sim X Deluxe. I have an older Sidewinder
joystick that I would like to use with it. Problem is the stick is an older
model that plugged in to a sound card. My new system does not have the
female plug for this card. Is there any way to convert an older model
sidewinder to a USB plug?
I have a newer model sidewinder, also, but the older one worked better.
Thanks all.

Many USB/game port adapters only work with the "analog" sticks that used
the game port's circuits that were originally designed for dual two
button sticks. Unfortunately a lot of "digital" joysticks used the
bidirectional serial data transmission capabilities of the port's MIDI
(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) circuits. Force Feedback
controllers NEED the two way capabilities of the MIDI circuits and will
ALWAYS require "digital" communication with the computer via MIDI, USB
or a serial port. Compatibility with different ports vary with different
Force Feedback controllers.

Some Microsoft sticks featured a switch that allowed operation in the
user's choice of digital or analog modes. Others came with a special USB
adapter with MIDI capabilities. I don't recall which models had which.

 

[Martin C]

My old MS Sidewinder Precision Pro joystick came with the USB adaptor with
MIDI capabilities which works fairly well on my new PC via the USB port
using the adaptor. I do have the occassional problem, like in one game I get
the equivalent of an 'e' key press when 's' should be simulated. My stick
does not have force feedback, so that was never a problem anyway.

I am in the process of trying out a joystick emulator that simulates key
presses when a button on a joystick is pressed. It is called JOYTOKEY
(google for it and you will find it). This not only emulates the key
presses, but you can use one of the buttons to emulate a second joystick, so
you can effectively use that button on the joystick as a 'Shift' key. I have
only tried one game on it so far, but it seems to work fine. Try it out and
see for yourself if it gives you what you want.

Martin

 

[LMO]

Thank for that program, Martin. However, doesn't the equivalent already
exist in WinXP? I mean, when I run FS X, and go to adjust the joystick, it
gives me the options to reassign the buttons. Isn't that what JOYTOKEY does?
Thanks again!

 

[Martin C]

Yes, that IS true, that a lot of games (or in your case, simulator) allow
you to assign keys to a joystick. There are also a lot of games that have a
very limited number of buttons you can assign actions to. In some older
games (yes, I still play them), it is not possible to get them to recognise
the joystick properly or change the button actions. Using the JoyToKey
program I am able to do all of these and effectively use it as the old
profile editor that used to be usable before XP sent it to the graveyard. It
is mainly for its 'profiling' actions that I intend to use the program.
With FS X (I have FS 2000 so I am making assumptions here) you probably can
assign actions to the buttons on your stick. With JoyToKey, as I have
mentioned before, you can assign one or more of the buttons as an effective
shift button, thereby opening out another 15 button presses that you can use
for key assignment. For some of the games I play which rely very heavily on
using the keyboard to set up action, this is a really useful feature as I am
now able to do most things just with the joystick and only need to go to the
keyboard for the lesser used (one off) actions.

Just my 2p worth.

Martin