One of the latest hardware
offerings from Microsoft is the Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel. This is a
force feedback device—you can feel the jerks and the rattles as you drive
over various types of terrain—and the power of the forces was quite
strong, though adjustable. It has a toggle button with which you can switch
off force feedback if you don’t want it.
Interestingly,
even if the game you’re playing doesn’t support force feedback, you can
still feel some of the realistic effects, because the device plugs them in.
It has eight buttons, very
conveniently placed. Six of them are on the top, and two below the wheel. It
also has a pair of foot paddles—one for acceleration and the other for
braking.
The Sidewinder Wheel is easy
to set up and the drivers are preinstalled in Win 98. It comes with an
installation CD, which you can use to configure and program the various
buttons for various games.
The Sidewinder Wheel is
designed for driving and racing games, but even flight sims, tank combats,
and other games were a sheer pleasure to play. Even with Quake II, with its
huge array of buttons and easy controls, it proved itself to be a great game
controller.
The Sidewinder Wheel ships
with two full games—Monster Truck Madness 2 and Precision Racing.