In the mid 1990’s Suncom Technologies released a series of serious flight sticks aimed to compete head-on with Thrustmaster and CH.
Their F15e stick was modelled on the real joystick from the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E Strike Eagle fighter aircraft, and consisted of four models.
All four were 2-axis analogue sticks with 4 buttons, using the PC gameport. Additionally, some models had a keyboard pass-through (both PS/2 and AT) for injecting keystrokes, which is how they circumvented the gameport’s restrictions of only 4 buttons.
| Model | Description |
|---|---|
| Hawk | Castle and hat non-functional. Buttons are standard joystick buttons. |
| Raptor | Castle and hat emulate CH Flightstick Pro |
| Talon | Castle and hat support limited single keystroke programming directly on the stick. Buttons can also optionally send keystrokes. |
| Eagle | Fully programmable via software. The hat, castle, and (optionally) buttons can send multiple keystrokes, included chorded keystrokes, with the ability to control the keystrokes sent on press (key down) and also release (key up). |
There was also the Suncom SFS, which consisted of a similar F15 stick and a hands-on throttle, which together made a HOTAS.
In the late 1990’s I bought the top-of-the-range Eagle, which transformed my playing of LucasArt’s X-Wing series of games.
Sadly I no longer own this absolutely stunning bit of mid-1990’s tech, as I sold it several years ago. I wish that I had not.
