Phoenix Microtechnologies  Analogue Joystick Adaptor  & Quickshot "Warrior 5" Analogue Joystick by Peter Tosi  ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| Ok, the Phoenix Microtechnologies Analogue Adaptor $30.00. When you buy it you are confronted with swish-looking black cardboard backing with gold lettering and a clear plastic sleeve. Inside the sleeve is a disk (more on that later), the registration card for your 12 month warranty, and the adaptor widgit doohicky thing. The aforementioned widgit doohicky thing has the Amiga (Hooray) 9 hole digital joystick port plug at one end and the IBM and Apple (Boo) 15 and 9 hole, respectively, analogue joystick port inputs at the other, being roughly L shaped, the two longest sides approximately 6 cms. The other thing notable about the construction is that all there is to it is the circuit board and the three plugs, no insulation or covering or reinforcement. The plugs are attached to the board by the pins jutting over and under the board, and soldered there. This at first looked a bit dodgy to me, but after a bit of a prod I felt confident that I would not break it plugging it into the machine, which as owners of A1500s or A2000s would know is a bit fiddly because of the recessed joystick ports. Apart from this first doubt the construction looks fine, if a little primitive - it even had labels saying "Amiga" and "Analogue" so you know which way to insert it. Now for the big problem.  Flash! At this stage my machine was turned on, and as I manoeuvred this widgit into position I was confronted by a flash, and a strange electrical toasting sound, and my beloved Amiga went off line. "AHHHHHHHHRRRGGHH!" I screamed inwardly, "I've blown my snekking Amiga." hours of Amiga fun flashed through my stunned brain and I cursed the adaptor and Phoenix freely as I realised what I had done, then I switched off the power waited 30 seconds and switched it back on, the Workbench hand came up and I breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps there is a reason for the company in question being called Phoenix i.e. rising from the ashes. I'll wager some of you will be thinking I am a nutter, as in the Amiga manual it says never to plug and unplug things while the Amiga is on and this is obviously to avoid earthing the machine, but most joysticks and mice are amply wrapped in plastic to avoid earthing them while connecting and disconnecting them. Why have Phoenix not done this with their $30.00 buck adaptor? Actually it would not be to hard to do it yourself by putting one of those boxes you buy at Dick Smiths over it with suitable holes cut in it to allow access to the plugs. The box could structurally support the adaptor allowing a longer life of plugging and unplugging, etcetera. Anyway, that's really all there is to the adaptor itself. On to the disk. I was expecting instructions for the adaptor but when I loaded the disk I realised it was a demo and catalogue disk. The disk contains four pictures digitised using the Phoenix digitiser and information on the Phoenix company and its catalogue, which is quite extensive. The best thing in the disk is the utility DirOpus, which is a good CLI replacement, allowing you to run programmes, view text, and pictures, and hear sound samples right from DirOpus. The text viewer is the excellent pheonixview programme similar to fullview that Megadisc use on occasion, written by the same person I believe. DirOpus is simply fantastic worthy of a review of its own, so I'll go no further. [Ed: see reviews in past Megadiscs, 26 & 27.]  Worth every cent Now, why would you want to by a analogue adapter and joystick? I'll tell you, I have two flight simulators that support an analogue joystick: Birds of Prey by Argonaut Software from Electronic Arts and Microprose's F-19 Stealth fighter. You may think a $30.00 adaptor and $50.00 joystick is too big an outlay to use with just two programmes, but the improvement to the whole feel of the simulation is so great that it's worth every cent. Most flight simulators offer a mouse option but the mouse does not feel as natural as a joystick. Digital (normal Amiga) joysticks lack sensitivity, because of their off/on signal the roll and turn rate of your computer aircraft has to remain constant. Small alterations in course require jabs at the joystick, while sometimes you cannot turn tight enough, so it is hard to keep the enemy aircraft in your sights when in a turning fight. An analogue joystick changes this - if you move the joystick right back the aircraft will immediately go into the tightest possible climb. When landing the final approach and flare out now become smooth precision manoeuvres, instead of jerking all over the sky. A good example is the difference the analogue joystick made to "F-19 Stealth fighter". With the digital joystick the aircraft jerks around, there is no feeling of inertia, the aircraft feels unnatural and fine manoeuvres are difficult. With the analogue joystick connected, it really feels good, movements are progressive and smooth, landings are much easier. One little detail I really like is with a two button analogue joystick one button fires the machine guns wile another releases ordinance and launches missiles. This is especially useful in a dogfight as you can forget about the keyboard and if a target of opportunity presents itself make a snap judgement whether to launch a sidewinder or engage with machine guns (or autocannon to be technical as modern combat aircraft have almost totally dispensed with machineguns in favour of heavy calibre autocannon). Microprose can always be counted on to provide that extra feature, which puts them above the competition. This brings me to "Birds of Prey" which I reviewed for Megadisc 27 recently. When using a digital joystick with Birds of Prey" you notice the 40 aircraft have different top speeds and payloads etc. but you don't really notice really big differences in handling. Once you hook up an analogue joystick you start to really getting into the programme. As a case in point, while flying the F-104 Starfighter against 3 MiG 23 Floggers I hauled back on the stick to perform a split S manoeuvre, which is a half loop followed by a roll to correct attitude, but the F-104 went into a deep stall as the angle off attack went through 90 degrees and I realised I had stalled the tailplane. This was a problem with F-104s which is generally regarded as a nasty aircraft to learn but a "hot ship" once you've mastered it. The aircraft nosed up, turning onto its back while continuing to move forward at a high speed. Once I had recovered I realised the joystick had allowed me to input a greater amount of control than the aircraft could handle at that speed and altitude. Using less force allowed me to pull tight turns once I had learned to work with the aircraft. To make sure this was not a shortcoming of the programme instead of added realism, I then flew a sortie in an F-1 5 Eagle performing such violent manoeuvres that I over stressed the aircraft, the Eagle handled totally differently to the F-104, as it should have done, but control input was also vastly divergent which added to the feel of flying a different aircraft. In short the analogue joystick has improved "Birds of Prey" 100%, enabling you to pull the manoeuvre you are thinking of, instead of hoping for the best. I recommend that anyone into flight simulations buy one and the Phoenix adaptor (support Aussie products). In the future it is probable that more programmes will support the analogue option.  QuickShot Warrior 5 Joystick In order to try my analogue adaptor I went out a brought a Quickshot "Warrior 5" analogue joystick from K-Mart for $59.95 (because I knew I could return the stick if I did not like it). It is a well constructed stick with a contoured "fighter" style grip . There is one fire button which falls under your thumb and one which falls under the index finger (imagine you're holding a pistol). there are two trim wheels on the base to fine tune the centre point of the stick and under the base two buttons which disconnect the springs which self-centre the stick. Obviously for some programmes you would not want the stick trying to self-centre, as the springs are quite strong. The connecter is the 15 pin IBM type (which the phoenix adaptor supports). Joystick travel from full forward to full back is twenty cm which means you have a good progression of control sensitivity. The cable is over 150 cm long. I have found this to be a really good flight simulation stick, far better than other types I've tried. It also has a 1 year warranty. Quickshot boast over 20 million joysticks sold worldwide, so they must be doing something right.  The F-104 and the F-15 Incidentally both F-104 Starfighter and F-15 Eagle were designed as air superiority aircraft. The F-104 first flew in 1954 (the prototype had white wall tyres) based on air combat lessons learned during the Korean war, it weighed 14,060 kg fully loaded and developed 8,120 kg of thrust in its later versions, but lacked range and manoeuvrability. It was known as "The Missile with a Man in it". The F-15 first flew in 1972 incorporating ideas gleaned from pilots who flew air combat over Vietnam, it weighs 18,824kg, armed for interception, and develops 10,885kg of thrust. Both were developed into all-weather strike aircraft. The F-104 was phased out of service with NATO forces in the 80s, being replaced by the F-16 Falcon the "Electric Jet".  ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 ||| 28 |||