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It's been a quiet time in the Flight Simulator world. The new version of AIRCRAFT FACTORY was supposed to come out in April, and there was even an ad for it in COMPUTER GAMING WORLD.
It was not to be. Mallard went out of season, and with it the timely release of all the anticipated FS5 versions of its products. I am still not aware of all the reasons, but slower-than-anticipated sales of SAN FRANCISCO and WASHINGTON scenery is supposed to be one of the causes. FS5 runs slowly on many users' systems, and SF scenery slowed it down to molasses in winter.
Moving in to fill the void, however, is Bruce Artwick Organization (BAO), the outfit that made FS5 for Microsoft, as well as other things. BAO's press release announced that it would release Mallard's current titles as well as those that had been planned for future release.
Unfortunately, shipping is expected to be at the "end of the second quarter or early third quarter 1994." I'm guessing the middle of summer.
I've seen this question asked about 10,000 times on usenet. I've used a variety of sticks for flight simulator over the years, as well as the mouse and the keyboard. I don't recommend mouse input because it's hard to get them to return to center--resulting in a see-saw effect while trying to straighten out the course. Keyboards work fairly well, but I find it difficult to use them for precision flying.
Before I talk about different kinds of sticks, I want to say something about different features on them:
TRIM CONTROLS are slides that bias the stick in the two axes of operation. There's a horizontal control and a vertical control. So say that you're flying along and you find that in order to keep your airplane level, you have to keep the stick pulled back. You can move the trim control back to do the input for you. That allows the stick to return to it's centered position. Real aircraft use trim controls in this manner. Trim controls also allow the joystick to be calibrated more easily. Some games have poor joystick routines, and trim controls help immensely.
LOCATION OF FIRE BUTTONS: all but the worst sticks have at least two fire buttons, called fire buttons #1 and #2. Most flight sims use both fire buttons for different functions--one fires a machine gun and one fires missiles, or something like that. If there are more than two fire buttons, then the extra buttons are redundant. One common configuration is to have one button #1 on the top of the stick and one button #1 on the base, and one button #2 as a trigger and one button #2 on the base. Having redundant buttons allows the user to use whatever is most comfortable.
For flight sims it's generally nice to have one button as a trigger and one on the very top of the stick (which would sit under the thumb). This allows both buttons and the stick to be operated with one hand, leaving the other hand free to manipulate a mouse, keyboard, or other input device.
THROTTLE WHEELS are showing up on some sticks, most notably the FLIGHSTICK by CH Products. Many flight sims use one joystick for aeleron and pitch control, and a second stick's for throttle and rudder control. By putting the wheel on the stick you end up with 1 1/2 sticks in one.
Now to joysticks: I divide them into four classes: short sticks, big sticks, super sticks, and yokes.
SHORT STICKS are small--they have a short pole with some sort of knob on them. The shaft is designed to be held with the fingertips, and the base is held with the palm of the other hand.
The short shaft makes it easy to make lightning-fast shifts from one extreme to another because there is very little distance to cover. This makes short sticks ideal for fast-action arcade shoot-em-ups where you need to make quick, extreme reactions. Commander Keen, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and the like, all do well with short sticks.
Short sticks are generally the least expensive. They work with flight simulators but most flight sims don't need that super-fast reaction time.
BIG STICKS are grown-up versions of small sticks. They have a large base and a long shaft, often with a skeleton grip. Some have fire buttons on the top of the stick, trigger buttons, and fire buttons on the base.
Big sticks work better with flight sims because the long shaft allows for easier positioning in small increments. Flight sims generally don't need violent extreme-to-extreme maneuvers--they need to be finessed. If you're lining up a target in your sights, you need to make small, exact changes to make the shot.
One big stick with a very good reputation is the FLIGHT STICK by CH Products. It has a large base, a big, skeleton grip, trim controls, a throttle wheel on the base, and is very durable. Other sticks have different features.
SUPER STICKS are just starting to come out. They're the most expensive of the lot. They're like big sticks but they have several buttons and a little multi-way switch that can be activated by the thumb. They incorporate circuitry that allows the buttons on the stick to be read like keyboard commands. Thus with a superstick you can fire chaff or flares, or turn on radar, or change your view to look for bogies, all without having to use your other hand or touch the keyboard.
For MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR a super stick is probably wasted, though it could be convenient. For combat games, however, supersticks can be wonderful. In a complicated combat game like FALCON 3.0, where there are many keyboard commands and much to do, having the controls under one's fingertips on the joystick can save a lot of trouble and considerably reduce reaction times.
Lastly, there are the YOKES. A yoke is similar to a wheel or bicycle handlebars that are attached to a sliding rod. The wheel can be turned to the right or left (like a car's steering wheel), and the whole thing can be pushed forward and pulled back. On a yoke, the right and left action controls the ailerons (roll) and the forward/back controls the elevator.
Yokes can offer several advantages as input. First, they tend to offer seperate direction control. If you want to roll your aircraft without changing the pitch, or adjust the pitch without rolling, it's usually easier to do it with the yoke. Second, the yoke's input is the same as that of the large-stick above--there's a long distance to go from one extreme to another, allowing small changes in stick setting to be easily made. Lastly, they also mount to the desktop and can be handled with one hand. Many joysticks either require two-handed operation or one has to mount them onto the chair or tabletop. One-handed operation allows the other hand to use the keyboard, juggle maps, mix cocktails, etc.
Yokes are becomming more popular as more flight simulators come on the market. They run the price and quality gamut. Below the $100 level, the yokes are intended for games. More expensive yokes tend to be used for high end flight simulators for flight training.
My personal favorite yoke is the CH Virtual Pilot, by CH Products. It runs around $80.00. It's sturdy, well made, and works well with a variety of flight simulators. And it has an extra-long cable.
I've found that a yoke works best for FS and FLIGHT ASSIGNMENT: ATP, where the advantages of a yoke are best exploited. FS and FA:ATP generally don't require violent maneuvers--they require precise movements and excellent control. My landings in FS5 improved dramatically after I got a yoke. And I was still able to perform aerobatics without problems. However, I tried it with ACES OF THE PACIFIC and didn't care for it. My reaction time was cut down and the input turned out to be nonintuitive in dogfight conditions.
And that is everything and more than you ever wanted to know about joysticks.
This article is Copyright (C) 1994 by J. Ollinger for Game Bytes Magazine. All rights reserved.