Oolite Bulletins

i use a saitek x52- which i find tricky with the rolling because i cant seem to get rid of the massive dead zone in the middle

so i also use an old microsoft sidewinder- which has no hat, no yaw, but i find the the stick excellent

I had a stick with the BBC, a tiny little thing for finger and thumb only, not like today’s sticks.
However it was very responsive and precise. Full speed docking was a cinch.

Later, with Elite Plus on PC, it was the keyboard only. Once you got used to it, it was also very precise.
Then I had a MS Sidewinder: also a good stick.

Now it’s the Logitech Attack 3, which for a budget stick is excellent.
Overall, I prefer a stick, but I can use both.

oh yes i remember those beeb joysticks- they were clever analogue ones weren't they?

i only ever remember seeing them in magazines - oh there was a girl at uni who had one, but she didnt play elite, she was actually doing something research related with it- you could move something about the screen with it, and it would stay in position and not centre again

am i making this up????

No you're not, I remember the sticks you mention.
The first time I played Elite with one, the non-centering threw me. The stick I had did self-centre. Very precise.

cooooool!

does anyone have a remedy to the big dead zone problem i have with my x52?

phonebook wrote:

cooooool!

does anyone have a remedy to the big dead zone problem i have with my x52?

Ditch the software that came with it on the CD - it's outdated and buggy. Go grab the latest drivers and software from Saitek's site. That's a very stable driver with new features there, including the ability to tweak deadzones.

El Viejo wrote:

No you're not, I remember the sticks you mention.
The first time I played Elite with one, the non-centering threw me. The stick I had did self-centre. Very precise.

The Speccy version had the option to turn centering off or on. Catered for both camps! Also had a useful feature whereby there was a key to reverse the axis when shooting aft.

I used on of the microswitch joysticks. Drove my parents mad with the manic clicking!

Elite and Elite Plus had the "reverse axes" function, but you had to pause the game to access it.
Felt a bit like cheating. Made the aft laser a lot easier to use, though.

El Viejo wrote:

Elite and Elite Plus had the "reverse axes" function, but you had to pause the game to access it.
Felt a bit like cheating. Made the aft laser a lot easier to use, though.

I used an old Atari 2600 joystick during my C64 Elite days - trick was to rotate stick to match view - so aft - turn stick around so bottom was at the top - left view rotate stick so left was at the top - learned to know where the single fire button was and how to press it - and away I went - could comfortably snipe side on with Mining lasers and not miss...

Ah, the tricks of the trade, eh.

Kaks wrote:

Hey, there's no option for keyboard, no issues!

See this comment..

A couple of months ago, I upgraded to a Saitek Cyborg Evo.. very nice piece of gear.. 4-axis, adjustable to suit L or R handed play, different size hands, 2-axis adjustable stick-head, to fit whatever feels best under your thumb.. 11 buttons plus hatswitch.. (though mine isn't wireless, unlike the one in the pic)

me likes very much!

I feel a bad case of "joystick envy" coming on.
Waaaaahh!

ah but the commodore joystick had a big advantage over the atari- the fire button wasnt in the corner, it was in the middle so when you turned it upside down to do the aft, you didnt have to swap hands

it is amazing to think, that until amstrad, there wasnt a british computer with the industry standard joystick port included (the atari interface)- when the c64 and all the atari's had 2 as standard

i know this is digression, but could the atari's 400 or 800 take the games from their game system? can anyone remember that far back?

El Viejo wrote:

I feel a bad case of "joystick envy" coming on.
Waaaaahh!

The Evo isn't too badly priced.. from AU$55, which is about US$50, or GBP30..