137
Awesome "F-15" Radio Shack joystick (lemmy.ca)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/thrifting_scores@lemmy.ca
24 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This thing looks, and feels, like it came from an actual F-15. Holding it I feel like I could bomb [country that offends you] tonight!

Anyhow it's a Radio Shack 26-8104 "F-15 Combat Fighter" joystick. It's heavy. There seems to be a metal plate with actual hex head screws holding it together. There's a mish-mash of PS2, PC, and DB-15 connectors on there, can't wait to see if it sends out mouse or keyboard signals. Maybe because it has so many buttons it uses both the 15 pin and keyboard interface?

Googling it gives the rarely seen

"No results found for Radio Shack 26-8104 "F-15 Combat Fighter"."

Like, you'd think maybe one or two hits, something, some retirement home Myspace page about flight sims, nothing.

I just buy these things because they amaze me more than having a use for them.

all 24 comments

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[–] [S] 22 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Here's the sticker on the bottom, if anyone isn't totally bored to tears already.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I’m pretty sure my dad had this exact stick when I was growing up

    We played this ww2 aircraft game, I can’t remember the details but we really liked crashing. If you skimmed the ground with the German jet engine plane the engines would fly off IIRC

    No idea what the game was called though

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Dynamix made several air combat games. I've only played Red Baron which is WW1 but it sounds like it could be similar to what you're talking. Maybe Aces of the Pacific?

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    • [–] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Holy shit, I wanted one of these so bad.

    Or the setup they had at Babbage's that was ridiculously out of the question for 9-year-old me.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Can you tell me more about it? Was it advertised? I've never seen these, I don't remember seeing these even though I was into combat flight sims in the '80s and '90s. Granted, we're talking Commodore 64 and Amiga so this joystick wasn't for me anyway.

    Was it a rebranded Suncom joystick? Did they have them in store for demo?

    I will have to try to power up my Value Village PC and see what it does with the PS2 port.

    Anyhow I can confirm that you had excellent taste in joysticks, this thing is awesome.

    I think I will take it apart tonight, there is one reddit post out there with someone taking it apart, revealing a Realtek chip in the handle.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    I can't seem to find the display (as I remember it, anyway) but it looks like the joystick I'm remembering is the Flightstick Pro. So, likely less flashy, but IIRC, they also had the throttle for the left hand, too. Maybe it's more nostalgia than anything, since this would've been just after Top Gun or so, and I thought I was going to be a pilot.

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    • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Googling it gives the rarely seen "No results found for Radio Shack 26-8104 "F-15 Combat Fighter"."

    And this is why Google sucks now. You just know that in all the web data they have archived, there is more than one entry about this unit over the past 30 years, but no. Nothing facing us (the public) anyway. They just actively erase all the history of people talking about shit that was so painstakingly built up. 😡

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    There are filters. At least for countries. If you search for a specific place with country at default, it may be that you get no results, while you get results with a specific country. I guess there are also many other filters.

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    • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    It looks very much like this Suncom F-15 Talon, maybe?

    https://www.combatsim.com/archive/htm/htm_arc4/suntal.htm

    Might have been a white label thing for radio shack.

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    • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Bro that's sick a The hotas discords would worship you if you 3d scanned it for them

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    • [–] [S] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    If anyone has one and wants to take it apart, 3/32 hex head screws, and they're all different lengths! Wait to sober up...

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    • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    Man! That looks super familiar. Had a joystick back when we had Microsoft Flight Simulator (I don’t remember which, was around when ME was out) on CD. Didn’t really like that one, but it was great for Star Wars X-Wing and Rouge Squadron.

    There might be an old box of cables that never got tossed that has it somewhere. I might look for it to see if it’s the same as this picture.

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    [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    That's wicked cool. And with 3d printing you could probably fix that up nicely

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    [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    I had this and it was awesome… I'm certain this is the second stick I have played ith the most hehehehehe

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    [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Awesome find, but.....

    .....am I the only one who sees ET?

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    • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    There's a mish-mash of PS2, PC, and DB-15 connectors on there

    Sounds like that could be a hassle if it needs all that for a joystick. Maybe it was also part of a HOTAS and acts as the connecting hub for all the controllers, so you might get away with not plugging everything since you don't have those.

    Having a metal plate at the base is like level 0 of a decent joystick imo.. Even my X52, which basically cheaps out on all features, has that. Can't imagine how unstable it would be with a plastic part instead

    Edit : holy hell it looks like all these connections are actually for the joystick itself. Does it have a throttle ?

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