Got my good old ms force feedback joystick2 working again it win8.1

Phil2008

Phil2008

Phil2008

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I havent been able to use my ms force feedback2 joystick since the winxp days, because everytime I loaded up a game, the joystick would go limp and not return to center.

Up until now I haven't found a fix for this problem, someone has came up with a a registry fix. There no force feedback any more but at least it returns to the center now. It makes it a brilliant non force feedback joystick, as its extremely well made, with the power supply in the base of the joystick, so it stays nice and firmly on the desk and you don't have to hold it still at all.

Heres the link I used to fix the "return to center" problem with the ms force feedback2 joystick http://scribblette.livejournal.com/643709.html

And I have thought about selling, even binning it a few times after it was basically no use to me ever since I upgraded to win7. Im so glad I didn't.
 
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Buggers me why they don't still make those things.

They wouldn't dream of bringing out any type of mid/highend racing wheel without feedback. Why not on flightsticks, it worked, people loved it.

When you see those things on auction, they go for a good whack.
 
Had one of them sticks when I used to play Star lancer on WinME. You could 'feel' the direction you was getting shot from, pity support died up :(
 
Mine seems to work ok out of the box in Windows 10, in terms of self centering at least. Also, just tested it with the ForceTest.exe you can download from http://www.fs-force.com/support.htm and the various force feedback functions seem to work too. Haven't got round to installing any games that use it though.

Edit: Turns out it doesn't work in game, X3 TC, as you said. Carry on.
 
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Bubo said:
Mine seems to work ok out of the box in Windows 10, in terms of self centering at least. Also, just tested it with the ForceTest.exe you can download from http://www.fs-force.com/support.htm and the various force feedback functions seem to work too. Haven't got round to installing any games that use it though.
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I can remember the ms force feedback was brill with "decent freespace" as the feedback was awsome, I have manage to get decent freespace working on win 8.1 but sadly using the registry fix its killed the feedback:mad:

The one thing I love with the ms joystick is there's a lot of direction movement so it make it less sensitive and more precise then other joysticks I have used.
 
Had one for years. When it broke I managed to get another from ebay. Used it for FS. Only got rid of it because I got a yoke, The force feedback was great. Stick shaker when stalling with Captain Sim 727 was always epic.... good old game port connections.. :)
 
I have been playing Dirt Rally these passed few days with the joystick and I got to say that I am much better using the joystick then with my steering wheel or keyboard.. I can actually come 1st now instead of 4th or 5th place...yey
 
I've got a FF2 stick and it also works fine with Windows 10 and FSX, also Combat Flight Sim 1,2 & 3, I'm not sure I'd want to lose the force feedback, it's the reason I bought the FF2 in the first place, recently from flea bay.

Works great in Battlefront & Battlefield too.
 
Scania said:
I've got a FF2 stick and it also works fine with Windows 10 and FSX, also Combat Flight Sim 1,2 & 3, I'm not sure I'd want to lose the force feedback, it's the reason I bought the FF2 in the first place, recently from flea bay.

Works great in Battlefront & Battlefield too.
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How have you got yours working,, mines working just with the windows driver. If I dont apply the registry fix, I have the force feedback but no return to centre?
 
Phil2008 said:
How have you got yours working,, mines working just with the windows driver. If I dont apply the registry fix, I have the force feedback but no return to centre?
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Just plugged it in (USB) and it worked!

I'll have a play later (at work atm) but I'm 99% sure the return to centre is fine, I know it definitely is in BF4 as I often seat swap to use the gunner position and whilst the chopper drops due to no pilot it holds a steady centre position as such.
 
Limpnoodle said:
tbh i never knew ffb joystick's were a thing, only recentry i learned that ffb on steering wheels wasn't just a gimmic
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FSX is a whole differed experience with FF, it's great to "feel" a stall before it gets you into trouble for example rather than to only realise once your falling out of the sky!

It really adds to the experience imo.
 
i love fsx but i always thought the word force feed back was maybe a rumble or something so i took no notice

That sound's awesome where can i buy one!
 
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Surely you can still buy force feedback joysticks today? But yea the ms joystick has great feedback if your lucky enough to get one that works properly with windows.

I can remember playing interstate76 with it and the engine feedback through the joystick was awesome, also the afterburners in decent freespace. Also I think it was a FPS game, when you got killed the joystick would move from left to right as you fell on to the ground and died, and you couldn't hold the stick still in the centre while this was happening.
 
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Limpnoodle said:
i love fsx but i always thought the word force feed back was maybe a rumble or something so i took no notice

That sound's awesome where can i buy one!
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A few on Flea bay, but can be quite expensive for what's old kit now, I was lucky, got mine for £20 inc postage!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft...093345?hash=item3602da46a1:g:6IYAAOSwQupXVYt-

£40 Starting bid, £59.99 buy it now plus £9.50 postage - as I say, I was lucky.

A word of warning, make sure you buy a Force Feedback 2 (the USB one) the older Gameport connectors are no longer supported in Windows 7,8 or 10.
 
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I purloined mine after I complained to Microsoft that the original gameport version of the stick no longer worked in Windows XP. They sent me this new USB FF2 stick FOC and asked I send the old one back, which I "forgot" to do so I still have that as well. Thing is I found out later it did still work if you simply powered it off/on after starting a game, it kind of reset the force feedback. Of course this is now moot as gameport has long since died. I did the exact same thing with the original MS steering wheel, so still have a USB and gameport version of that too.

I tried the old power on/off trick with the FF2 stick in windows 10 whilst in X3, but no joy, the game just loses connection to the stick and will not reconnect in game.
 
Playing MechWarrior 4 with my FF2 was a truly epic experience, the feeling of the mech fighting back at you if you were trying to manoeuvre to rapidly on slopes and in water was insane :D :D, nothing has come close since :(
 
I have just tried mine again without the registry fix and played dirt rally. Disconnected, reconnected the power lead in the game, but na still no return to center:mad:
 
lokiss said:
Buggers me why they don't still make those things.

They wouldn't dream of bringing out any type of mid/highend racing wheel without feedback. Why not on flightsticks, it worked, people loved it.
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Well the whole flight sim genre kind of petered out heavily for a good while. I imagine that stopped manufacturers wanting to invest too much in developing further high end options. Whereas racing game popularity, particularly sims, has been fairly consistent.

The genre seems to be making a comeback now though, especially with space flight games. It'd be a really great time for FFB sticks to come back. I hope somebody is working on it and devs support it, because yes, it seems like such an obvious addition to the experience.

I'm sure VR fans, especially, would eat it up.
 
Weird thing is although yes the genre was on hiatus for a good few years, pretty much all flight sims still support FFB, after reading this thread I decided to try and track down a more recently made FFB joystick, unfortunately theres just almost nothing out there :(

I've got the x-55 and the one improvement I'd have would be to make it FFB, considering modding a MSFFB2 to take the x-55 stick top now lol
 
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