Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro on Win 10

[judasphysicist]

Hey everyone,

 

I recently dug out my old Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro joystick that I used way back in the day.

After doing some research online, it seems to be possible to get this thing working with force feedback on Win 10.

However it is very dubious as to what sort of USB converter that I should be using. My particular joystick has a

D-shaped game port but has 9 pins inside it. I have been able to find these two converters but the comments

below are pretty confusing.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184900572039?hash=item2b0ceed387:g:EW4AAOSwsLFkRrV-&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8Cu0rCLi9GpF8QU4CPuo9dIIJGMFG4LErZwyI1MTTpkJM9g97utB5rG7AxtM%2Bu2i34i2k4cnbLNNUyIgcg71WK9%2FQovpZ058x6I8%2FN1IXZAShYnlJXsh2eX1A9wSpMAVbIHp7BieOrX1%2FhDMis8sp3tx2vO9QpAyQNPQGlIdVGeceFtkBmQpZKcXFXPQOL1bNkLTdyqlqW4qnX5Zn%2FHH4qvwyIg8xOBUaqxAfFMeEDPRbn9xkU9g%2BKr5t7aDvL3wKMAADnmeGm5pJ119NxPE%2FNu2IyLw9eivtbZToKSf4s%2BlFFTOjn92RfPfRDg5mnaOHg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5DaouGUYg

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304856249565?epid=15048805042&hash=item46fad934dd:g:KWIAAOSwYXpimiDq&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8KZN%2BZLZdqD0eTdMqC%2FT7PCxhP13l8iyNc1mVGiBO%2FlYKrvX7N4pZD4YrRt0oD%2F1w6Ic9iFsJbkOOoDjY%2BPu%2BYmFmzbkjEZIui2N8l%2BOZ6%2BE0Hx47LCJR7o%2FI7zTKH2Zn36Imr4eEcr9vWUuzUOxF8fFH1jvAChkw32%2BgJJG%2F8h2tnbV1WHNB%2FacdlNYiydJD8eLv%2BchKCeV540TF03ZsaORK4yfSK6Ox3hAyb%2Bzpx1iWSEyEyKcXyOYjlZY91fhExspOiq4E5L8OwqxDTPfx6%2FhvTyqcxPdYDTplMNDmacFS1XANIRH8DVbCXCA32SO8A%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5DaouGUYg

 

There is also a considerable price difference of 40 dollars between the two items.

Anyway I want to get this bad boy working again with all of its bells and whistles, including the force feedback.

 

There seems to be some form of driver emulation if all of the axes can get working: https://github.com/tloimu/adapt-ffb-joy

 

If anyone has any suggestions on what I should use, it'd be great.

 

PS: I also found my old Soundblaster 16 with a game port on it, but I highly doubt I can

get that thing running on any sort of modern motherboard AND get the joystick port working.

[Kilrah]

 

3 hours ago, judasphysicist said:

There seems to be some form of driver emulation if all of the axes can get working: https://github.com/tloimu/adapt-ffb-joy

 

Seems there's nothing off the shelf and you're going to need that

 

The contemporary Freestyle Pro supported native USB through a passive adapter like your first link or a DIY one but I can't find something mentioning the FF Pro does the same, and that listing doesn't mention it being compatible.

 

[judasphysicist]

11 hours ago, Kilrah said:

 

 

Seems there's nothing off the shelf and you're going to need that

 

The contemporary Freestyle Pro supported native USB through a passive adapter like your first link or a DIY one but I can't find something mentioning the FF Pro does the same, and that listing doesn't mention it being compatible.

 

Well it certainly look doable.

I wonder if I can use an Arduino instead of the teensy they have there.

[Kilrah]

As long as it's 32u4 based (Leonardo and compatibles) and has the right pins broken out it should.

[judasphysicist]

Okay great news, I got it working now.

 

• Followed the requirements here:https://github.com/tloimu/adapt-ffb-joy/blob/wiki/HowToBuild.md
• I got the Teensy 2.0 board described in the project, did not bother with an Arduino but it seems to be plausible to get it running with that as well.
• Make sure to do at least a half-decent job at soldering pins on the Teensy board, otherwise it gets hard to find if there's any issues with the circuit or the hardware itself when the thing inevitably doesn't work on the first try
• The optional capacitors in my case turned out to be mandatory, the force feedback effect did not function correctly otherwise
• I also needed to use this slightly modified code from this forum post: https://dbb.d3k.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19061&sid=c7d84d8b1fcb680d330c8b22fd5265b1&start=200#p348404 that I found from a random Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/hotas/comments/hvrzl9/help_with_adaptffbjoy/
• Once the circuit is built correctly and the Teensy code has been uploaded on to the board, unplug the usb cable from the motherboard. Make sure the joystick is plugged into the circuit and also make sure the force feedback power adapted is plugged into the joystick and and powered on, wait a bit then re-plug the usb cable back into the motherboard
• If all has gone well you should hear the generic usb plugged in sound and after a bit of waiting the device shows up under "Setup USB game Controllers" as "LUFA Joystick wFFB" then you can click properties and test the axes and the buttons. For whatever reason the big arrow button under the throttle did not work on my stick, maybe my particular button is broken, not a big deal.
• The stick light indicator should be green, if it is constantly blinking then the force feedback adapter is not plugged in properly.
• After being plugged in for the first time the stick should NOT be resisting your movements on the desktop, it should only do that when inside a game.
• You can test if the force feedback is functioning correctly with this neat little program found here: https://www.fs-force.com/support.php download here: https://www.dirks-software.ca/downloads/ForceTest.exe
• And all that's left to do is find an old game that support FFB and enjoy ^_^ I went with the good old Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator games, the first game has a lot of issues but the 2nd game works out of the box and recognized the joystick without any hassle. The games are abandonware and pretty easy to find online.

Here's some list of of old games that support FFB:

https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/1094o2g/overview_of_force_feedback_joysticks_and_games/

https://web.archive.org/web/20050204191438/www.immersion.com/gaming/game_applications/pc/games_list.php

The most modern game series that still supports FFB seems to be the IL-2 series. It's really a shame that Microsoft abandoned this tech and tried to bury it. It's got a lot in common with the recent PS5 controller haptic feedback, but it was being done back in 1998. Kinda mind blowing how Microsoft crippled and damaged the PC gaming space between 2001-2014

 

Apparently this person managed to get his alleged "FFB Gamepad" to mimic the generic gamepad rumble and have it be at least functional in games that only support XInput: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/2020 But he claims this only works on Linux and I don't really have time to test that at the moment.

 

[The 8-Bit Time Traveller]

For anyone interested, the big arrow button is a shift button, allowing you to reuse all the other buttons with an additional function. Not sure if it will work with the USB adapter though.