CH F-16 Fighterstick on OS 9

I used to have an old G3 Beige that I hung onto for gaming purposes -- specifically, I used it for "X-Wing" and "TIE Fighter." It was slowly dying, so I went ahead and bought a G3 iMac on ebay to replace it; it was only about $50, so I figured it was a worthwhile investment.

The computer itself works just fine, but as it has USB ports instead of ADB ports, my old joystick won't work on it. I bought a CH Products F-16 Fighterstick, which is supposed to work with OS 9, but it doesn't seem to work with this computer.

When I installed the driver and tried to calibrate the joystick, the computer wouldn't recognize it. When I activate the Fighterstick control panel, it insists it's looking for a device attached to the ADB port -- which, of course, the machine doesn't have.

At startup, the icon for the Fighterstick has a red "X" through it, so the computer just doesn't seem to be recognizing it.

Is there a driver I can download somewhere that will let the Fighterstick work on this computer? So far, I've been unable to locate one.

Thanks!

Michael

iMac G3, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Jun 17, 2008 4:07 PM

Reply
9 replies

Jun 17, 2008 5:36 PM in response to BDAqua

Well, see, that's the thing. The joystick is USB, and the computer has only USB ports. CH Products insists that the joystick will work fine on USB Macs running OS 9.

That doesn't seem to be the case, though. The driver thinks it's an ADB joystick, and the computer keeps insisting that it needs to be plugged into an ADB port. (Which is rather difficult, seeing as it's a USB joystick and the computer doesn't have any ADB ports.)

Maybe Ch Products' customer support will be of some help ...

Cheers,

Michael

Jun 17, 2008 8:06 PM in response to BDAqua

I'll give that a try when I get home.

Some web sleuthing revealed that CH made drivers for the Fighterstick up to version 1.0.8. The version that's on my "TIE Fighter" disk is 1.0.3. I'm guessing the disk was made before USB Macs came out.

Unfortunately, I can't find any newer drivers online anywhere, but I sent a request to CH Products, to see if they'll point me to where I can find more recent drivers.

Thanks!

Michael

Jun 17, 2008 9:58 PM in response to The Lone Ranger

Hi, Michael -

Have you yet installed the latest version of Apple's Game Sprockets software for OS 9?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31236

In addition, you might try downloading and using the OS 9 version of USB Overdrive. It's extremely stable, and provides interfacing and configuring of functions for almost all input devices (mouses, gamepads, joysticks, etc.).
USB Overdrive

USB Overdrive usually offers better control for third-party mouses than their OEM software does. It also provides auto-switching of configuration settings when switching from program to program.

Jun 18, 2008 6:24 PM in response to Don Archibald

I have the latest version of Game Sprockets, so that doesn't seem to be the issue.

CH Products hasn't been of any help. Apparently, they have no interest in the "Classic" Mac OS, and don't maintain any OS 9 drivers for their products, even though the FighterStick is advertised as being compatible with Mac OS 8.6 and above.

So, I've been trying USB Overdrive. That seems to be the ticket. With Overdrive, the game recognizes the joystick as a joystick and will accept its input. So, now it's a question of mapping all the buttons and assigning them functions. That may take a bit of time, but at least it's do-able.

Thanks!

Michael

Message was edited by: loneranger1701

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CH F-16 Fighterstick on OS 9

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