Gourt Home::Gourt :: Microsoft SideWinder
Microsoft Sidewinder is the general name given to the family of digital game controllers developed by Microsoft for PCs. Although intended only for use with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Sidewinder game controllers can also be used with Apple's Mac OS X and Linux (or any Unix with an x86 version of X11 version 2.1.xx or newer).
The Sidewinder describes many types of Microsoft's PC game controllers including joysticks, gamepads and steering wheels. The several types of joysticks were made, including the Force Feedback 2, the 3D Pro, and the regular Sidewinder joystick. The several types of gamepads were also made, such as the original game port version, a plug-and-play game port version, and the USB version. Steering wheels are the Precision Racing Wheel and the Force Feedback Wheel variants which include throttle and brake pedals.
The family also includes some more exotic devices such as the Sidewinder Game Voice system and the Sidewinder Strategic Commander.
The Sidewinder family of products was discontinued by Microsoft in 2003, citing poor sales. The company has since re-entered the gaming hardware market, in hopes of designing a standardized gamepad for Windows Vista, the result of which is a wired USB variant of the Xbox 360 controller that is compatible with home PCs.
The Sidewinder gamepad
The original Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad had a digital directional pad, six fire buttons, two trigger buttons, and a "Mode" and "Start" button. The original gameport version had a pass-through, so additional joypads or joysticks could be used without unplugging the Sidewinder, and also allowed the connection of up to four Sidewinder gamepads working simultaneously. Newer USB versions of the Sidewinder gamepad have a round digital directional pad instead of the more traditional cross-shaped directional pad, and lack the mode button.
The Sidewinder 3D Pro
As Microsoft's first Sidewinder joystick, the 3D Pro was responsible for setting the overall design as seen in all of Microsoft's future joysticks. Designed as a gaming-neutral joystick, rather than a specialized joystick for use with realistic combat flight simulators, the 3D Pro was built with a functional, but low-key geometric design. Intended to rival the other sticks from the time, the 3D Pro included 8 buttons - 4 on the base, 4 on the stick - an 8-way hat switch, a slider-based throttle, and the stick itself was twistable for Z/rudder/spin control. By going with a geometric design however, it meant the 3D Pro lacked an effective adherence ergonomic principles, making it unsuitable for long gaming sessions for some users.
Electronically, the 3D Pro used a revolutionary digital/analog hybrid design, that was intended to correct the outstanding flaws in traditional analog joysticks, such as drift and CPU overhead by using a digital/optical tracking mechanism to keep perfect track of the joystick, and a digital communication method over the analog gameport. However, this digital mode required software support, and could not be used with many DOS games at the time (MechWarrior 2 being the only major exception), as most software and gameports were built completely around an analog design.
Additionally, some soundcard gameports, and so-called accelerated game-ports - which attempted to resolve CPU overhead issues presented by polling the gameport directly themselves - such as those produced by Gravis, wouldn't always be able to handle the stick in digital mode.
Fortunately, the 3D Pro had a unique feature in that it could fall-back to an 'analog emulation' mode, where it could emulate either a CH Flightstick Pro or a Thrustmaster FCS (Selectable by a switch on the base), in environments where the digital mode wouldn't work. In this mode, manual calibration was required, the four base-buttons no longer function and, the joystick would function essentially like a CH Flightstick Pro or Thrustmaster FCS depending on the mode selector switch.
However, as PCs became faster, the digital mode would be less and less reliable, and on modern PCs most 3D Pro owners can only run in analog mode. Fortunately, the 3D Pro was popular enough to spawn a successor, the Precision Pro, which was a USB device and, while it didn't work in DOS at all, was far more reliable under Windows despite quality issues.
The joystick was widely praised in its inception and was one of the few joysticks with multiple buttons that didn't require a keyboard pass-through. The stick was espescially popular with MechWarrior and Descent players as it was one of the few multi-button joysticks supported by the games natively.
The joystick's popularity has created a small die-hard following, with many people still holding onto them despite their age. There is even a project to create a USB adaptor for the joystick as documented http://www.descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=7090&sid=003831226f0d438b051970ec83c80d1c
The Sidewinder Precision Pro
Learning from their past mistakes, Microsoft came up with the Sidewinder Precision Pro, correcting the ergonomic issues while fixing some of the electrical issues from the 3D Pro and adding some new features. Ditching the geometric design, the Precision Pro dumped the 3D Pro's stick for one far more ergonomic, correcting the biggest complaint about the original 3D Pro. Microsoft also gave the rest of the Precision Pro a more rounded design, replacing the rectangular base buttons with more rounded buttons, the slider-based throttle with a wheel-based throttle, and the base itself was made more rounded. The Precision Pro also added a shift button to the base, doubling the number of possible button combinations.
For its electronics, the Precision Pro featured a refined hybrid system, resolving some of the hardware compatibility issues with the 3D Pro. However, with the widespread introduction of USB in consumer computers shortly after the Precision Pro was released, Microsoft also created a USB converter for the Precision Pros; doing this bypassed the problems with the analog gameport entirely and as a result became the true solution to the electrical problems. However, due to a flaw in the design of the Precision Pro, in rare cases the stick would build up a static charge in its electronics and require either a complex process to discharge that was not always successful, or simply needed to stay unpowered for a number of hours to slowly discharge on its own*.
Thanks to the timing of the launch of the Precision Pro to coincide with the widespread launch of USB along the ergonomic corrections and rarity of the static charge problem, the Precision Pro saw a much higher sales volume and review scores than the earlier 3D Pro.
The Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro
With the launch of the Precision Pro, Microsoft decided to also enter the fray of force feedback joysticks, with the introduction of the Force Feedback Pro. Built on the design of the Precision Pro, the Force Feedback Pro differed only in the inclusion of motors for the force feedback effects, and the lack of USB compatibility. Due to the inclusion of the motors, the Force Feedback Pro was significantly larger and heavier than the Precision Pro, making it easy to differentiate between the two.
The Sidewinder Precision 2
The basis of Microsoft's last generation of Sidewinder joysticks, the Precision 2 design was a further refinement of the previous Precision Pro. Compared to the Precision Pro, the Precision 2 dropped the Pro's shift button, replaced the throttle wheel with a more traditional lever, and rearranged the face buttons on the stick in to a symmetric design. The Precision 2 also dropped all gameport compatibility by only shipping in a USB version, and was slightly smaller and lighter than the Pro. Unfortunately, in spite of being Microsoft's 2nd-generation USB controller, the Precision 2 in particular seemed to suffer more from the USB Sidewinder's long-standing static buildup problem than the original Precision Pro.
The Sidewinder Force Feedback 2
Along with replacing the Precision Pro with a new design, the Force Feedback Pro was replaced with a Precision 2 derivative, the Force Feedback 2. Compared to the Force Feedback Pro and the Precision 2, nothing new was added to the Force Feedback 2 that wasn't added to the Precision 2, though the overall size and weight difference was not so great with the use of smaller motors. This joystick came in two varieties: one version with a silver trigger, and an updated version with a translucent red trigger.
The Sidewinder Joystick
Using the Precision 2 design once again, Microsoft introduced a value-oriented Sidewinder joystick, simply called the Sidewinder Joystick. In spite of its value designation, the Sidewinder Joystick was functionally nearly the same as the Precision 2. The only feature dropped was the 8-way hat switch, otherwise the differences were cosmetic, including shrinking the base, moving the throttle to the front of the base, and replacing 2 of the rounded buttons on the stick with more rectangular buttons.
The Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel
The Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel is a steering wheel controller for sim racing. It was the first wheel controller to contain force feedback.
The Sidewinder Strategic Commander
The Strategic Commander is a compliment to the mouse for some first person shooters, and Real time strategy games. It was not a very popular controller, most likely due to its $70 price tag. With its 6 buttons, and 3 shift buttons 24 different button presses are possible (6 buttons natural, 6 per shift key). It also has 3 a switch to allow for 3 profiles, allowing for up to 12 commands per key to be assigned, or 72 in total. They are still available at some etailers and on eBay. A review in German can be found here.
External links
"Microsoft SideWinder"