In addition to old PC parts, I'm building up a collection of non-KB/M input devices and game consoles.
For the former:
-Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar (Force-Controlled Cougar mod pre-installed) + Thrustmaster RCS (Hall sensor kit installed) (You really don't want to know how expensive mods like those are...still, it feels great to use and helps me get into that "I'm sitting in an F-16" mood.)
-NaturalPoint TrackIR 4 Pro (As much as I like my aforementioned Cougar + RCS, I'd give that up before the TrackIR. It's that important.)
-Logitech WingMan Interceptor (Quite possibly the best damn flight stick Logitech has ever built, maybe except for the G940's stick. Not too stiff, little center play, precise and spike-free thanks to the strange Hall sensors on the X and Y axes, very ergonomic, and has plenty of controls on the stick itself, mostly courtesy of three hat switches. The only problem is that it uses a digital gameport interface, meaning no compatibility with modern PCs and OSes, and also that it has no twist rudder.)
-Logitech WingMan Strike Force 3D (The physical layout of all the controls is pretty good, and it's fairly ergonomic. Problem is, they used cheap potentiometers and coupled them to the stick gimbals in such a half-assed manner that X/Y-axis bleed is a problem. Worse off, the stick's centering forces have a MASSIVE deadzone that still leave the stick loose within a whopping 20% or so of both X-axis and Y-axis ranges.)
-Microsoft SideWinder Freestyle Pro (It's very ergonomic with the long grips, and it's one of the earlier controllers to use an accelerometer, which actually works surprisingly well for a late 1990s peripheral. Problem is, the D-Pad is a whole new level of suck. Hitting a cardinal direction can and will often result in a diagonal input. Seriously, the Xbox 360 gamepad's D-Pad is godly compared to this.)
-Microsoft SideWinder Force-Feedback Wheel (Second-gen red version, USB. 240 degrees of steering, 6 face buttons, paddles, no handle shifter of any sort, no clutch, and very disturbingly, the gas and brake pedals only have 6-bit (64) resolution. Good starter wheel, but FFB support is VERY hit-and-miss with Vista/Win7 64-bit because MS never released anything resembling proper drivers for an OS beyond XP 32-bit.)
-Spacetec SpaceOrb 360 (Successor to the Spaceball Avenger, and the controller of choice for any true Descent player-yeah, you heard me, MS SideWinder 3D Pro diehards! Takes a bit of getting used to, but it allows for some very nice manuevering in 6DoF games like Descent, Independence War, Terminus, etc. Downsides include having only 6 buttons and a serial interface that won't work on modern PCs.)
-3dconnexion SpacePilot (A 3D/6DoF "mouse" generally used in professional apps like the old Spacetec SpaceBall line it's descended from, and lacking in game support since they don't really consider it a priority, though I think I can use GlovePIE and PPJoy to get around that. Currently waiting for it to arrive.)
-Microsoft SideWinder Force-Feedback 2 (Second-gen red version. This particular FFB stick has a ridiculously diehard following despite its lack of controls-the stick only has four buttons and a hat switch, with four more buttons on the base. In addition, it's in much the same predicament driver-wise as the aforementioned SWFFB Wheel. Despite this, you'll see sellers on the Internet try and charge $100-150 for these things at times, and its most ardent fans will collect more than one of these sticks as spares-even if the primary one is ten years old and still going strong! Also waiting for this one to be delivered.)
For the latter (all consoles North American models):
-NES, "toaster"/front-loader
-SNES, Model 1
-Genesis (Mega Drive), Model 1B (no "HIGH DEFINITION GRAPHICS" text or DB-9 in the back)
-N64
-Saturn, Model 2/64-pin/v.0014 (old)
-PSone
-Xbox (one 1.0/1.1, one 1.6, both softmodded)
-GBA SP (frontlit)
-DS
-PSP-2000
Not much of a collection, really...
