I upgraded my first PC way back in the dark ages of the 1980s. The reason? I wanted to play a flight simulator at full fidelity.

Read "Fly and Drive: 10 Sim Game Controllers"...

Some sims state that a good graphics card is more important than CPU speed or memory size. For a good example of this, download the following shareware sim of an Apollo Lunar lander.<br><br>
http://www.eaglelander3d.com/
<br><br>
Neil Rieck<br>
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/

Nice! This is more like Extremetech. I'd just want to mention a correction in the summary boxes of the CH Fighterstick Pro and Throttle...I think they're reversed. Anyway, I wish you did review the MOMO...I personally bought one specifically for GTR2 and love it. The nice part is it was only $49...a refurb that's flawless.

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ARGUMENT FROM MUSHROOMS
(1) This pizza tastes funny.
(2) That purple llama on the ceiling is juggling chainsaws.
(3) Purple llamas can't juggle chainsaws.
(4) It must be a miracle!
(5) Therefore, God exists.

Ahh, i remember Falcon 3.0. That was one of the first PC games i ever played. I think my family was rocking an IBM Aptiva desktop with a Pentium 100 chip at the time.

I miss the old space flight sims. X-Wing and Tie Fighter were classics. Not REALLY a sim, no, but still great games. I still have my Microsoft Sidewinder 2 force feedback joystick from those days, waiting for a space sim renaissance. Plus that joystick was good for the MechWarrior games, which also had a sim-ish feel in the MechWarrior 2 and 3 days.

If your going to spend some money to achieve some "sim realism" then one shouldn't overlook the benefits of the TrackIR Pro.  It allows you full fluid range of visual movement to see more of your environment rather than a static screen.  It's functionality is even being implemented in some new FPS's so it  has even trancended the sim environment.  Anyone who likes the idea of the Wii will appreciate it's functionality and usefulness where your physical movement is replicated in the virtual environment. I really like sims and I chose this first over flight pedals and quandrants which I'll get at some point but the benefits of this controller's visual realism (freedom) are more important IMO than a simulated tactile realism for immersion.  Not to mention, it makes plane combat a lot easier when you're able to keep an eye on your opponent.

Where is the best stick of all?  The Thrustmaster Cougar?  I've tried most of the others, and none of them hold a candle to the Cougar for flight simming!

 
-X 

I'd like to know how the CH and Saitek feel when compared to their previous products. Personaly I love the feel of the Thrustmaster products, but I don't know how to get them in my country. I've tried the earlier Saitek products and find them very disapointing and the last time I tried a CH joystick was almost a decade ago. What i'm asking about is how they feel when compared to their earlier offerings and if possible when compared to the Thrustmaster FLCS.

I began flight simulator on a Timex Sinclair, loaded from a cassette tape.I think i started "flying" in 1979.

I had to build my own controller with a plastic blue box and and radio shack buttons, and the 128K memory pack.

graphics??? you must be kidding.  hard core, text based, B&W flite sim.

I know that the maximum speed that you can drill a cessna into the ground at full throttle is 217 mph.

Currently  I have MS flite sim X , 2006, 2004, loaded. yes, you can fly a lear, inverted coast to coast on autopilot, then go right side up on the downwind leg of the pattern. with a hard bank at the righ time you can fly between the antenna on the Hancock building in Chicago.  and regardless of what you have heard, flying under the bay bridge is not on the approach to SFO.  but I digress...

The most realistic I have is X-PLANE. with 65 GB of scenery.  Simply stunning. 

I use CH Yoke & rudder pedals, and a keyboard. 

I'm still waiting for decent graphics cards to catch up so running multiple monitors becomes more realistic.