You should post this over at the MSFN forums too if you haven't already. Should be a big hit.

I'd recommend posting them here directly, for posterity (and also in case you drop off the face of the earth. Hey, it's happened before).

I just got a SideWinder 3D Pro in a couple days ago, and just stumbled on this. Thank you so much for doing this. Really, I really appreciate it a lot!

Glad you (and others) still find it useful. Thanks to VOGONS and Wing Commander CIC for continuing to host it for so many years.

akula65 wrote on 2021-04-03, 13:53:

Glad you (and others) still find it useful. Thanks to VOGONS and Wing Commander CIC for continuing to host it for so many years.

I think I might have spoken too soon. I've tried 4 of the '0' folder versions, the patch, and no luck. I wonder if its to do with my Aureal Vortex 8830 Gameport?

I still have no idea what the upper bound is on the driver set. Most people who provide feedback are using systems slower than the fastest that I used for development.
Don't jump to conclusions based on a handful of the drivers. You need to go through them systematically. It's tedious, but there is no way around it.
If your soundcard has timing that deviates substantially from a SoundBlaster Live!, then that may be problematic. Other system hardware with "unusual" timing may also cause problems.

akula65 wrote on 2021-04-03, 14:44:

I still have no idea what the upper bound is on the driver set. Most people who provide feedback are using systems slower than the fastest that I used for development.
Don't jump to conclusions based on a handful of the drivers. You need to go through them systematically. It's tedious, but there is no way around it.
If your soundcard has timing that deviates substantially from a SoundBlaster Live!, then that may be problematic. Other system hardware with "unusual" timing may also cause problems.

So when it works, if I go into game options, it'll say connected? Like thats what I should expect?

Right, persistently "Connected" means that the stick has entered Digital Mode and should be working fully. "Not Connected" or waffling between "Not Connected" and "Connected" states is a sign that the driver timing is off and the stick is failing to enter Digital Mode and can only be used in Analog Mode.

akula65 wrote on 2021-04-03, 22:52:

Right, persistently "Connected" means that the stick has entered Digital Mode and should be working fully. "Not Connected" or waffling between "Not Connected" and "Connected" states is a sign that the driver timing is off and the stick is failing to enter Digital Mode and can only be used in Analog Mode.

hmm, I'm starting to wonder if mine is broken. I swapped out to the Sound Blaster Live, and went through all the '0's (not 99 yet, but will) but even in the Analog Mode, it doesn't show up as Connected [is it supposed to in analog mode?]

So I dropped the FSB down to 66mhz. Didn't work. Decided to do a full reinstallation of the Live! drivers. Showed up 'okay'. Switched back to 100mhz, not connected. So I'm going to go through again, now that I know it functions in SOME way, and see if I can get it. Thanks again for doing all of this, and even responding to my messages in here.

23 - '0' is what worked for me.

System specs are:
Abit BH6
Pentium III 800MHz Slot-1
256MB SDRAM 100MHz CL2
Radeon 7200 32MB SDR
2x Voodoo2 8MB SLi
Sound Blaster Live! (had Diamond Monster MX300 prior, it wouldn't work with that Cards Gameport, so be advised)
D-Link Wireless G Network Adapter

Great to hear you got it working, and thanks for the info on which drivers work. If I had known your system specs, I would have suggested starting at the slow end of the drivers (higher folder numbers).

stry8993 wrote on 2021-04-04, 08:39:

Sound Blaster Live! (had Diamond Monster MX300 prior, it wouldn't work with that Cards Gameport, so be advised)

I wasn't familiar with this card, but I just noticed this in a review (http://www.dansdata.com/MX300.htm):

If you're a joystick user, check to make sure your stick will work with the MX300's subtly non-standard game port. Apparently because of the card's 3.3 volt architecture, the game port is incompatible with some older sticks. The original 1997 Monster Sound was renowned for being incompatible with pretty much any joystick you care to name; the MX300 is much, much better but still not perfect.

So that sound card may be great for sound, but it is likely to be problematic for (digital) joystick users in general.

Was not able to get it working with any of the drivers on this system:

ABIT NF7-S V2.0 Motherboard (nForce 2)
Athlon XP 2400+ @ 2GHZ / 266 FSB
1GB Ram
Windows 98 SE
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

I suspect this system is too fast.

I have a P2 350mhz system I will test on at a later date.

This file is certainly worth lQQking into.... i too have the M$ SindWinder 3D Pro joystick and its completely functional in my WIN95c P200 system, but when connected to my WIN98se P3 1.4ghz tualatin system along with the joystick's original driver installed, the bottom 4buttons refuse to register after calibrating, so only the fire button , top hat button and the button just below it, side 2 buttons and throttle lever work.

To be fair... it works just dandy as is when playing "Star Wars : Rogue Squadron 3D" in WIN98se.

Thank you, this worked for me as well! 16 was the lucky number for me, with following specs:

CHAINTECH CT-7AIA (VIA KT133)
Athlon XP 2400+ @ 1,5GHZ / 200 FSB (yes, it's underclocked, because of motherboard limitations)
1GB RAM
Windows 98 SE
ESS ES 1869F

For my Win95/98 PC, running a 1000mhz PIII, all these drivers seemed to work. Ended up using the July '95 drivers for the Win95 partition. Right now I'm trying to figure out if it's the physical hardware or a possible software issue that's causing a slight drift in the down-right direction on the joystick itself. Noticed it in Joystick mode with Fury3 and Hellbender