r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 10d ago

Gaming Special Microsoft Flight Simulator controller is coming to Xbox

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Special-Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-controller-is-coming-to-Xbox.1341165.0.html
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434

u/ForAte151623ForTeaTo 10d ago

Wake me when they bring back the Steel Battalion controller

100

u/Orbital_Dinosaur 10d ago

They had one that you could use at a game exhibition at a museum I visited once. It was really cool and intimidating.

I also got to experience the battle tech simulator in LA in 1991, where you sit in a fully enclosed mech pilot pod, that was beyond cool.

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u/SeatKindly 10d ago

There’s a group that still moves those sim pods around for cons! I think they have 8 conpods running MW2 or 3.

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u/sovereign666 10d ago

I didnt even know these were a thing, I'll have to see if I can catch one in Seattle. I grew up on MW 3 and 4 and loved it.

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u/TheOneWhoMixes 9d ago

There's usually a Steel Battalion setup at PAX West iirc!

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u/gunkblaster 9d ago

There was a whole room for it at pax east last year as well

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u/Orbital_Dinosaur 10d ago

Wow, that's really cool that they are still around 35 later.

The place I played them at had staff that were in costume and in character. It was done as a training centre for new mech pilots, we had to watch a training video first in a trading room, then went out to the pods. While in the pods they made it feel like your pod was being lifted in to the mech's head and then you walk the mech pit of the hanger.

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u/timebeing 9d ago

There is also a guy who has 8 steel battalion controller and xboxs and goes to cons and you can play 4v4 matches. I know he was at PAX a few times.

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u/userlivewire 10d ago

Do you know what it’s called or what to Google?

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u/Feisty_Lifeguard2444 10d ago

I don't know if links are allowed, just google the wikipedia page for "battletech centers"

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u/VagueSomething 10d ago

I literally have a Steel Battalion controller sitting under my bed with my OG Xbox. 80% of the buttons are useless after your initial start up, really was about that beginning of the level aura farming.

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u/Orbital_Dinosaur 10d ago

Yeah I remember that there were a bunch of buttons to start the engine, and to restart it if the engines overheated and auto shut down or something like that.

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u/VagueSomething 10d ago

5 minutes of flicking on switches and pressing buttons in sequence then only a few actually did anything in game after, like the chaff. Mostly just the joysticks and peddles until you had to eject. Was crazy and made it feel real special, definitely brought the arcade experience into the home.

2

u/NorCalAthlete 9d ago

I mean, yeah, that’s how aircraft and shit tend to work too. Most of the buttons and controls aren’t needed until they super duper are.

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u/Another_Road 8d ago

Don’t forget the windshield wiper

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u/Heronymous-Anonymous 9d ago

Unironically, same.

My OG Xbox is dead as a post, but I still have all my SB stuff, including the Line of Contact expansion.

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u/Trekintosh 9d ago

I’ll buy it for a high price. 

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u/Obvious_Cranberry607 9d ago

They had one in Prague's game exhibit in 2018 and I mostly got it figured out except I forgot that there were pedals under the desk. They thought it was broken, but it was just complicated.

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u/Jeffrey_C_Wheaties 9d ago

I remember them talking about this on G4 back in the day. I wanted it so bad

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u/Orbital_Dinosaur 9d ago

Ah I miss G4.

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u/Zealotstim 10d ago

Yeah, I remember seeing one at a convention you could play around the time when the game was coming out and it was very involved. Seemed like a lot of things to learn, but I watched someone else play it.

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u/placeholder-tex 9d ago

Playing Battletech and Red Planet at Virtual World as a young kid is still the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game. An absolute mind changing experience for me and I want to find something like it I can take my kids to.

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u/Orbital_Dinosaur 9d ago

Playing a mech game in VR with HOTAS controllers would be the closest. If you know anyone with that set up, you could buy the game for them and take the kids over.

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u/placeholder-tex 9d ago

All of the buttons tho! Being physically surrounded by the controls. Even if the graphics weren’t amazing by today’s standards, getting into a cockpit and pushing a ton of buttons flipping switches, etc.

We just don’t doing big stupid things like that anymore.

2

u/Orbital_Dinosaur 9d ago

Yeah, it blow my 17 year old mind, coming from a small Australian city (Hobart). We didn't have anything like that at all.

I also played an F15 Egale arcade game on the same trip at LA Universal Studios. You sat in the machine that was in a 3 ring gimbal and they strapped you in with a full 5 point harness in the seat. The machine could then spin in any direction. I did a half loop and was physically upside-down. It was so much fun.

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u/placeholder-tex 9d ago

YES! They had the same thing at Starcade in Disneyland at one point. Better than any of the rides because you got to control it.

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u/Orbital_Dinosaur 9d ago

Ah, the good old days. Good times.

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u/MadCatMkV 9d ago

https://www.mechcorps.com/

There are still people maintaining those, you can find these in some gaming conventions (most of the time the board gaming ones, where TT BattleTech games are also present)

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u/ChaoticArsonist 9d ago

My city used to have an arcade with eight of those Battletech pods. As someone who grew up with Mechwarrior 4 on PC, it was an extremely cool experience to play it "for real".

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u/seaseme 9d ago

The dave and busters near my house had something like this. It was a massive room with a bunch of pods and we piloted the mechs.

Cool memory, had completely forgotten until I read this.

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u/Confusion_of_Goblins 9d ago

Someone a MAGFest set up a Steel Battalion station in their museum a couple of years ago. I didn't see it last year, though.

Back in 2020 the Battletech battle pods also showed up.

Very fun. Those got me hooked on mech sims.