Good news today for fans of the old MS SW hardware, they've announced a comeback for the series.

The mouse is the currently featured product, but apparently the whole range is due to reappear, obviously optimised for Vista features.
I can't find any hardware specs on anything other than the mouse right now though.

I wonder if the wheel will give the G25 a run for it's money...

never been MS fan...so just one question
Is that good news?

I've never had an issue with MS hardware myself. In fact, one of the best joysticks I've ever used was an old MS Sidewinder. I also really like their range of mice.

And people keep saying that the old MS FFSW is a wheel worth getting if you can find one, so I guess the new one will probably be worth a look too.

M$ Hardware is actually fairly decent - my first wheel was a SideWinder, and lots o' people still use em, i still think my M$ FFB Joystick is the best i've ever used too

I'll never buy Microsoft gaming hardware again after having had the unique experience of discontinued driver support. Sure, basic drivers exist, but there is nothing to change the pedals from combined to separate axis besides copying windows 2000 and XP driver files back and forth.

That's good news - I still have (and still use, on the odd occasion I need a joystick) an MS SW joystick, and it's great. Excellent reliability, ergonomic, and very reasonable cost. But like wollschaf says, I'll think twice about buying anything from them again after their abysmal driver support on the previous range. I too used to have an MS SW FF wheel, and was left without any proper "advanced" drivers when they pulled the plug last time.

I don't care because I don't have to buy something new .

I 'm still using the usb MS FF wheel (now for more then 9 years) and the first optical IntelliMouse Explorer MS made (for over 10 years I think) without any problems (except they both look very worn and you can't see the MS lettering on the mouse anymore).
Was both worth the money I spent for it.

seeing as i still use and love my 3d pro (afaik still _the_ joystick to have in the descent community) id love to see what theyll come up with this time
sw hardware has always been amoung the best in its market segement

Quote from BBO@BSR :

I 'm still using the usb MS FF wheel ...
without any problems...

Maybe I shouldn't write something like that again it was a bad omen
because the gas pedal and the spring of my MS FF just broke 10 min. ago.
:cry:

Quote from BBO@BSR :

Maybe I shouldn't write something like that again it was a bad omen
because the gas pedal and the spring of my MS FF just broke 10 min. ago.
:cry:

What did you expect? It's M$ hardware: working welll,and working good,but fails when you expect it the least(sp).

But hey,it beats their software

Quote from Dajmin :

Good news today for fans of the old MS SW hardware, they've announced a comeback for the series.

The mouse is the currently featured product, but apparently the whole range is due to reappear, obviously optimised for Vista features.
I can't find any hardware specs on anything other than the mouse right now though.

I wonder if the wheel will give the G25 a run for it's money...

Not if the joke that is the 360 force feedback wheel is anything to go by.. The original SWFF wheel was great though, had one myself before the g25..

Will we see a G25 competitor made by Microsoft? :dunce:

Well, i'm using a Microsoft Sidewinder Joystick for flightsimming for eight/nine years...

I predict the next Logi wheel will be good. They'll have learned from the niggles of the G25, make it maybe cheaper, not as feature packed. I even heard a rumour that they might have new wheel for GT5.

Always heard that the sidewinder FF was very good.

Quote from Shotglass :

seeing as i still use and love my 3d pro (afaik still _the_ joystick to have in the descent community) id love to see what theyll come up with this time
sw hardware has always been amoung the best in its market segement

The 3D Pro was my first serious stick, which was perfect! Can you imagine optical stick and throttle 10 years ago? Plus they kind of invented the twist handle feature. And yes I played loads of Descent2 with it. 3D Pro + Pentium 133 + Descent2 + Kali were the best 2 years in my earlier life!

I still own a MS FFB2. Funnily if I leave the throttle off center, the rudder drifts away, too. So I can use either rudder or throttle, but not both. Still the stick signal is top-notch and the FFB has been flawless for years.

Although I don't like MS otherwise, they do have great hardware in that Sidewinder line.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

Maybe I shouldn't write something like that again it was a bad omen
because the gas pedal and the spring of my MS FF just broke 10 min. ago.
:cry:

Hey, have you sold the problem?
I've broke my spring month ago and can't play
I went around almost all stores here, and could not find smth similar to this spring... Maybe you saw somebody selling it on eBay or smth?
Thanks!

Hmm since this thread has been bumped I'd like to add my thoughts.

I really like Microsoft hardware. Some of their products are really good quality. I have a Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 and find it very good for the money. Nice solid plastics, none of this bling bling flashing LEDs rubbish that you find on 'gamer mince' these days.

I really think that Microsoft could make a good FFB wheel to compete with the G25

My first wheel was the Microsoft Sidewinder wheel (with Monster Truck Madness 2!!!) Great piece of hardware. Always served me well, for YEARS until the power cord plug started getting finicky and I'd lose FFB in the middle of a race. Still, a piece of tape holds it in fine, and my friend is now using it!

errr.. It's a mouse?

Did you guys hear the news a few weeks ago?

Microsoft might been purchasing Logitech. Sorry I didn't post this here then:
http://www.overclock.net/hardw ... oft-acquire-logitech.html

That logitech rumour is over a month old and it seems nothing has come from it.
Ms resurrecting their own controller brand can be seen as a quite strong indicator that the Logi buyout fell through, so they decided to go for the next best option.