Microsoft SideWinder is a former brand name for a family of video gaming peripherals developed by Microsoft for PCs. It was initially marketed from 1995 to 2003 consisting of game controllers, then again from 2007 until the early 2010s with gaming mice and keyboards.
The term "SideWinder" describes many types of Microsoft's PC game controllers including joysticks, gamepads and steering wheels. Several types of joysticks were made, including the Force Feedback 2, the 3D Pro, and the regular SideWinder joystick. Also, several types of gamepads were made, such as the original game port version, a plug-and-play game port version, and the USB version. Steering wheels are the Precision Racing Wheel and the Force Feedback Wheel variants which include throttle and brake pedals. The family also includes some more exotic devices such as the SideWinder Game Voice system and the SideWinder Strategic Commander.
The SideWinder family of products was discontinued by Microsoft in 2003, citing poor sales. The company since re-entered the gaming hardware market, attempting to design a standardized gamepad for Windows Vista with both the wired Xbox 360 controller and the Wireless Gaming Receiver that allows the use of the wireless Xbox 360 controller on a PC. In August 2007, Microsoft announced they were relaunching the SideWinder line of gaming peripherals, starting with the SideWinder Mouse. The mouse was given an MSRP of $80 and a launch date of October 2007.
First generation Although intended only for use with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft SideWinder game controllers can also be used with macOS, Mac OS 9 with third-party software, and Linux. +Table of SideWinder models Name Type Release date Force Feedback Interface Game Port USB Adapter USB Microsoft SideWinder Game Pad 1.0 Game Pad September 11, 1996 Microsoft SideWinder Game Pad 2.0 Game Pad September 11, 2001 Microsoft SideWinder Game Pad Pro Game Pad May 31, 1999 Microsoft SideWinder Plug & Play Game Pad Game Pad August 1, 2000 Microsoft SideWinder Freestyle Pro Game Pad August 12, 1998 Microsoft SideWinder Dual Strike Game Pad May 31, 1999 Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro Joystick October 9, 1995 Microsoft SideWinder Standard Joystick October 9, 1995 Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro Plus (Part No. 97462) Joystick Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro (Part No. 57540) Joystick August 12, 1997 Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro 2.0 Joystick Microsoft SideWinder Precision 2 Joystick July 29, 1998 Microsoft SideWinder Joystick Joystick August 24, 2000 Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Pro Joystick August 12, 1997 Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick August 12, 1998 Microsoft SideWinder Precision Racing Wheel Wheel May 31, 1999 Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel Gameport Wheel August 13, 1997 Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel USB Wheel August 12, 1998 Microsoft SideWinder Game Voice Voice Device August 24, 2000 Microsoft SideWinder Strategic Commander Exotic August 24, 2000 Microsoft SideWinder 92626 (Part No. X08-59073) Joystick ~2002
Gamepad The original Microsoft SideWinder gamepad had a digital directional pad, six face buttons, two trigger buttons, and a "Mode" and "Start" button. The original gameport version had a pass-through, so additional joypads or joysticks could be used without unplugging the SideWinder, and also allowed the connection of up to four SideWinder gamepads working simultaneously. Newer USB versions of the SideWinder gamepad have a round digital D-pad instead of the more traditional cross-shaped D-pad, and lack the mode button. The Microsoft SideWinder's button layout is very similar to that of the Sega Saturn controller, which was released over the same time period.
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3D Pro
As Microsoft's first SideWinder joystick, the 3D Pro was responsible for setting the overall design as seen in all of Microsoft's future joysticks. Designed as a gaming-neutral joystick, rather than a specialized joystick for use with realistic combat flight simulators, the 3D Pro was built with a functional, but low-key geometric design. Intended to rival the other sticks from the time, the 3D Pro included 8 buttons — 4 on the base, 4 on the stick — an 8-way hat switch, a slider-based throttle, and the stick itself was twistable for Z/rudder/spin control. By going with a geometric design however, it meant the 3D Pro lacked an effective adherence to ergonomic principles, making it unsuitable for long gaming sessions for some users.
Electronically, the 3D Pro used a digital/analog hybrid design that was intended to correct the outstanding flaws in traditional analog joysticks, such as drift and CPU overhead, by using a digital/optical tracking mechanism to keep perfect track of the joystick, and a digital communication method over the analog gameport. However, this digital mode required software support, and could not be used with many DOS games at the time (MechWarrior 2 being the only major exception), as most software and gameports were built completely around an analog design.
Additionally, some soundcard gameports, and so-called accelerated game-ports — which attempted to resolve CPU overhead issues presented by polling the gameport directly themselves — such as those produced by Gravis, would not always be able to handle the stick in digital mode.
The 3D Pro had a unique feature in that it could fall-back to an 'analog emulation' mode, where it could emulate either a CH Flightstick Pro or a Thrustmaster FCS (Selectable by a switch on the base), in environments where the digital mode would not work.
In this mode, manual calibration was required, the four base-buttons no longer function and, the joystick would function essentially like a CH Flightstick Pro or Thrustmaster FCS depending on the mode selector switch.
However, on later operating systems the digital mode would be less and less reliable, and on modern PCs most 3D Pro owners can only run in analog mode. The 3D Pro was popular enough to spawn a successor, the Precision Pro, which was a USB device and, while it did not work in DOS at all, was far more reliable under Windows despite quality issues.
The joystick was widely praised in its inception and was one of the few joysticks with multiple buttons that did not require a keyboard pass-through. The stick was especially popular with MechWarrior and Descent players as it was one of the few multi-button joysticks supported by the games natively.
The joystick's popularity has created a small die-hard following, with many people still holding onto them despite their age. This resulted in the creation of a USB adapter for the 3D Pro.
The 3D Pro features as a character (Ã) in the Webdings dingbat font.
Standard The SideWinder Standard joystick was a more basic joystick released around the same time as the 3D Pro. It was a simple two button, three axis joystick. It featured a trigger button, a thumb button and a throttle wheel on left side of the base. In addition it had two additional dials on the base for adjustment of the stick itself, one above stick and the other to the right of the stick. It used a gameport connector to interface with the computer.
Precision Pro
Microsoft introduced the SideWinder Precision Pro in 1995, correcting the ergonomic issues, fixing some of the electrical issues, and adding new features. The Precision Pro introduced a new stick that was far more ergonomic than the "geometric" design of the 3D Pro. Microsoft also gave the rest of the Precision Pro a more rounded design, replacing the rectangular base buttons with more rounded versions at the top of the base, the slider-based throttle with a wheel-based throttle, and the base itself was made more rounded. The Precision Pro also added a shift button to the base, doubling the number of possible button combinations.
Signatures can be seen inside the joystick, on the base coverplate. Fred Iyc and Edie Adams are among the 17 people who have signed it.
For its electronics, the Precision Pro featured a refined hybrid system, resolving some of the hardware compatibility issues with the 3D Pro. However, with the widespread introduction of USB in consumer computers shortly after the Precision Pro was released, Microsoft soon re-released the joystick in a USB-compatible form (joysticks labeled as Part No. X03-57540, Product I.D. 85791-579-2177031-00000). The revised joystick still featured a gameport connector but had additional circuitry for interfacing with USB, and was bundled with a USB converter (a DIY converter project exists). Original Precision Pros remain incompatible with this converter, but a user made converter exists. The creation of the USB converter bypassed the problems with the analog gameport entirely, and as a result became the true solution to the electrical problems. However, due to a flaw in the design of the Precision Pro, in rare cases the stick would build up a static charge in its electronics and require either a complex process to discharge that was not always successful, or simply needed to stay unpowered for a number of hours to slowly discharge on its own. This is also one of the first joysticks to use light sensors instead of potentiometers so it required no calibration, and thus had no electronical moving parts. The only moving parts were mechanical on the throttle and joystick pivots which gave this joystick virtually unlimited lifetime. The Precision Pro 2 had reintroduced potentiometers to save money and thus their lifetime was limited to wear and tear of the potentiometers.
Thanks to the timing of the launch of the Precision Pro to coincide with the widespread launch of USB along the ergonomic corrections and rarity of the static charge problem, the Precision Pro saw a much higher sales volume and review scores than the earlier 3D Pro.
Force Feedback Pro From technology acquired from EXOS, Inc, Microsoft then released a force feedback product called the Force Feedback Pro. Built on the design of the Precision Pro, the Force Feedback Pro differed only in the inclusion of motors for the force feedback effects, and the lack of USB compatibility. (A DIY converter project exists for the discontinued Teensy 2.0 board,, and also a more recent project using the Pi Pico instead.) Due to the inclusion of the motors, the Force Feedback Pro was significantly larger and heavier than the Precision Pro, making it easy to differentiate between the two.
As the PC joystick port is input-only, the only way for data to be sent to the joystick (to trigger force feedback events) is to use the MIDI capabilities of the port.Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro MIDI protocol This extension to the original gameport, first popularised by Creative Labs in their early sound cards, was intended to allow MIDI instruments to be connected to the joystick port but is used here to provide bidirectional communication with the joystick instead. Force feedback events are triggered by messages on MIDI channel 6, with effect data uploaded via SysEx messages. This means that force feedback would be unavailable on the earliest of PCs, where the gameports lack MIDI functionality.
Precision 2
The basis of Microsoft's last generation of SideWinder joysticks, the Precision 2 design was a further refinement of the previous Precision Pro. Compared to the Precision Pro, the Precision 2 dropped the Pro's shift button, replaced the throttle wheel with a more traditional lever, and rearranged the face buttons on the stick into a symmetric design. The Precision 2 also dropped all gameport compatibility by only shipping in a USB version, and was slightly smaller and lighter than the Pro. In spite of being Microsoft's 2nd-generation USB controller, the Precision 2 in particular seemed to suffer more from the USB SideWinder's long-standing static buildup problem than the original Precision Pro.
Force Feedback 2