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Never heard of AVB? You should check them out! To be honest I
had not heard of them until I came across their site by chance. It is difficult to
judge a company by their website and their products by the pictures, so I reserved
judgment until I received samples of their controllers. I must say I was pleasantly
surprised with what I received.
I have used other USB devices but this is only my second USB joystick (not
including the MS Precision Pro I returned for the Force-Feedback Pro). If your
system is USB capable and you run Windows 98 I strongly suggest taking advantage of it.
It offers no-hassle set-up, on the fly switching of devices (without restarting
your system), and low CPU usage. Gameport devices do not always offer these
advantages.
The Top Shot is packed with features that are important to today's gamers.
The throttle, rudder and 8 way hat switch are essentials for flight sims (8 programmable
buttons don't hurt either). I also found the trim controls very helpful in flight
sims. The throttle handle is nicely placed on the left-center of the base and 2
buttons are on either side of it. The front of the base has a self-centering rudder
control that is tricky to reach without unhanding the throttle.
The stick itself is very comfortably molded for your right hand (although I am left
handed I have always used joysticks with my right hand so I can throttle with my left).
The stick has 4 buttons and the 8 way hat switch well placed for easy use.
The base is somewhat small and light but secures well to a smooth surface with 4
suction cups. Alternatively, you can mount it on a stand similar to my joystick T
stand.
I only ran into two very minor issues during its use and both are discussed and a
work-around is described in the AVB FAQ. With Microsoft Flight Sim 98 the joystick
showed up as "/3" in the options panel. Although it does not properly
identify the Top Shot you should select the "/3" for configuration and setup.
In Freespace the options panel would crash when trying to detect the joystick
(effects most joysticks, not just the Top Shot). Refer to the AVB FAQ for specific
details.
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