I thought I would share this interesting yoke from the 80s when Flight Simulator on home PCs was just starting. Interesting that it uses the mouse as the input but I guess it worked.
How far we’ve come since then. With all the flight simulator hardware that is now available, it would be good to look ahead 40 years to see what we have compared to now. The choice we have now is remarkable.
Never seen one like that before. The products change but the marketing BS stays the same. 
It appears that “The Gaming Industry” are more interested in selling new hardware than supporting older hardware, i.e, the MS Sidewinder 2 joystick in MSFS. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.
LOL, cant believe how intense games like Strike Eagle were with what we would say today has absolutely no immersion factor, most cartoons are drawn closer to life.
Brilliant device! Uses the mouse ball for steering!
Do you think it had force feedback 
?
Nice, do you actually have this still or is it just a picture?
If you have it since it emulates a mouse, maybe could get a PS2 to USB adapter and give it a try. Might be worth a laugh.
I built one in 1994 to me, very similar but experienced after some tests that i need to be very gently and not go over max values. I had in that time still FS4 and 486DX50 and can control flight with mouse, elevator axis was inverted, therefore mouse is sitting as is on picture. Nevermind complete construction I have till this time but analog old usb joystick do it’s job inside. It’s quite heavy construction to C172 and feel still very realistically.
On the other hand it’s also sad that in some ways the scene isn’t what it used to be. Back around turn of the millenium flight sims were a much bigger thing, there were bunch of brands competing with each other with fresh designs and new technology like force feedback. Gaming magazines regularly reviewed the hardware.
Before MSFS the mainstream hardware market was pretty derelict consisting of tired brands selling hardware that often dates from late noughties or even earlier. When MSFS came out Thrustmaster’s response was to take their now 15 something year old joystick, complete with the same design flaws it was well recognized for having for a long time, and reskin it as something more suitable for MSFS. I sometimes wonder why Logitech is even in the market anymore, since they seem to have no interest in making further development in it. It has become more lively since, somewhat, but I don’t think it will ever be what it was.
What has been fortunate though, that there have emerged alternatives. The boutique brands that sell stuff on their own webshops or specialty shops like Aerosoft’s. The internet has enabled that sort of thing. And going further, some more universal controllers have emerged as valid alternatives to specialty controllers: stuff like touchscreens and MIDI controllers jacked as sim controllers. Those are what brightens the scene.
I just wish I had something else to look up to for stand alone universal two engine HOTAS throttle in circa 150-250€ price range than VKB’s eternity project TECS. Honeycomb is coming up with HOTAS setup (first one in well over a decade in the mainstream market!), but it doesn’t seem like they are interested in selling the throttle as standalone.
Wow. Never knew something like this existed. This looks like some of that old, odd, forgotten hardware you’d see on an LGR Oddware YouTube video. (worthwhile checking out on YouTube if you like seeing some really oddball stuff from the yesteryear of computing).
No I don’t actually own this. I found it on eBay while looking for old copies of flight simulator which I’m currently collecting. This is actually an unopened one which must be quite rare. It’s amazing what you can find which has been sat all these years never even taken out of the box.
Old sim days I remember every flight was prefaced with switching slots to try to get enough irq free for your gameport soundcard joystick to work … gah, more than four colours was a glorious victory.
If you owned this yoke back in the day, you were considered a real ‘baller’. 
If I have three mice, can I turn them into yoke, throttle, and rudder pedals?
I wonder how profitable all of this is. I wonder if it makes research and development worth the investment. While it is true that the internet has opened up another lane for sales, it does not create these markets. In the case of hobby flight sims, products create the market. If there’s not enough profit to cover the cost of R&D then products will come ONLY from boutique brands, or from hobbyists, as a labor of love.
Today the mouse doesn’t even work as a yoke anymore… That’s how far we have come.
That is absolutely hilarious, thanks for sharing
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