I found an MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 2! Now what?

[jorpho]

Wandering around late last night on the way to my local 3DS Streetpass relay I stumbled upon a little treasure trove of electronics. Lying alongside some fancy VCRs (probably worth some money to the right people, but I'm not interested in looking for them and left those behind) and a frighteningly massive CRT was a tricked-out SCPH-7501 and this gigantic joystick.

Looks like if I can't find anything else to do with it, the MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 is still much beloved and might fetch around $100. It definitely still works (even with Windows 7 x64) – I was a little concerned about it not being self-centering, but it just needs to power up before it behaves normally.

So... What's so great about this thing, exactly? I'm not sure I can properly appreciate it.

[Weasel]

The Sidewinder Force Feedback series was well regarded because, in games that actually supported it, it would actually kick around in different directions, or actively resist being pushed, or rattle with bad terrain. Unfortunately, not a lot of games still bother with that, since basic vibrations are the only real standard anymore.

[jorpho]

Any particular games? I suppose flight simulators are a likely candidate, though I would think flight simulator fans would prefer much more sophisticated instruments.

[Weasel]

Racing games like Need For Speed 3 and High Stakes, and Mechwarrior 3 and 4 are a good place to start. I'm wondering if there's a comprehensive list anywhere.

[zerker]

I believe Freespace has good force feedback support if you want something more joystick oriented besides the Mechwarrior games. NFS3-4 etc's support is more geared for Force Feedback *wheels*

[Weasel]

Maybe I'm weird, but I'm pretty sure I race better with a flight stick than I do with a wheel, especially using the forward/backward motion as gas/brake pedals, since that discourages me from trying to press both at the same time and spinning out as a result.

[dsparil]

Wikipedia has a list, but the release years aren't listed there. The Force Feedback 2 came out in 2000 so anything past 2001 or so is probably rumble only. I have an original Force Feedback Pro and support for it never seemed that great overall. Interstate '76 does have good support for force feedback and is pretty good to boot! I'm probably imagining this, but I think the original software for it let you add different effects to the buttons for games that didn't natively support it.