No Joy...

I've spent the last 3 nights trying to get the computer to speak to the Thrustmaster WCS.

My first problem was connecting the device. The SB Live! gave me the game port, but both the WCS and the Talon require a keyboard connection. The WCS uses keyboard for it's array of buttons and switches, and the Talon, although running in Joystick mode, requires the additional voltage to operate properly. Being ancient devices, they were expecting AT keyboard connectivity.

The PC has a PS2 keyboard input, so a quick trip back to eBay yields the following adapter:

"This should be fine" I thought. After all, AT and PS2 are identical, apart form the pin layout.

The problem, however, was that I was running a USB keyboard via KVM while I build the thing, and there seems to be no way to make the PS2 port work at the hardware level, without a physical keyboard being connected at boot. I disabled legacy keyboard in the BIOS, to suddenly find myself without a working keyboard at all.

The Talon came to the rescue, in the end as it has a PS2 through port as well as an AT through port.

As Windows XP would not allow access to the WCS via the keyboard port, I installed a windows 98 version of DOS onto a Zip drive. Installed some DOS Sound Blaster drivers and tried again.

The software (incident supplied on a Floppy!) still didn't work.

Fortunately, I found updated software at http://thrustmaster.vanree.net/ (An excellent resource for like-minded people!). IT WORKED!

It had taken a lot of effort, but I finally had a system capable of running X Wing Alliance Upgrade, with a robust, heavy, (very) responsive programmable HOTAS.

I booted to DOS after configuring the config.sys (Now THAT'S Nostalgia) and ran the setup application. I turn left it alone for an hour as I looked through the (three) manuals for the WCS.

I can't believe what  a steal this hardware was, not to mention the excellent condition it's been kept in!

Next I need to install the OS.

The setup is currently as follows: