Buttons & Performance
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| Closeup with view of Throttle |
The throttle control is placed within convenient reach of the thumb, and this is different than a conventional joystick where some of the functions are placed on the base, to sort of free up some space on the stick itself. And therein lies part of the design problem. Because the stick is designed for use without the base, all of the buttons have to be located on the stick itself. If that had not been the case, I think the layout of the buttons could have been much better, and much more useful. Instead, I found it tough to reach at any but the primary buttons closest to my fingers.
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| Close up of the Buttons |
The Airstick 2000 doesnt come with any installation software, instead, you just do a custom game controller install, as described in the single sheet instruction pamphlet. I didnt have any problems with the installation, but I became aware that you would have to sort of recalibrate the joystick if you switched between using the stick with the base, and using it as a free floating device.
So how does the stick play? I have mixed feelings about its performance. Lets start with the performance and feel when using the base. The included base is nicely designed and feels like a heavy duty, quality piece of hardware.
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| Heavy Duty Base |
The stick plugs right into the base, with no locking mechanism whatsoever. Later, this turned out to be a big problem as I kept picking up the stick and lifting it into the air so it could be moved, only to have the base come crashing down on my desk. The resistance of the joystick when installed on the base is excellent, but there were no discrete limits to the throw of the stick movement, so calibration became difficult, and you kept wondering whether you had reached the limit of movement on the stick. As a result, the airstick was horrible when used with the base, because the sensors couldnt seem to decide whether you were trying to bank a hard right, or whether you were gently leaning into a soft turn. It actually fluctuated between the two states at times, and in general we couldnt comfortably and accurately play our games, even after calibrating the joystick numerous times.
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