Flight joysticks for arcade and simulator cabinets

A flight joystick is the pistol-grip control fitted to flight, shooting and combat cabinets: a moulded grip with a trigger and thumb buttons on a sprung base, where the ball-top joystick a fighting cabinet uses would give a player nothing to aim with.

The specification that separates the models is how far the stick travels. A short-throw grip held to about ±7° behaves like a directional control — the switches close early and the hand barely moves, which suits cabinets where the stick is steering a cursor or a reticle. A ±20° grip moves visibly under the hand and reads as flying an aircraft rather than pressing a direction, which is what a simulator or a dedicated flight cabinet wants. Both are eight-direction, both close ordinary micro switches, so the panel wiring is the same either way.

The second choice is whether the stick has to push back. A vibration model carries a motor in the base and a control card that drives it, with separate patterns for firing and for releasing a bomb, so the machine answers through the player's hand as well as the screen and the cabinet speakers. That needs a power feed and a signal from the game board the plain models do not, so it is worth settling before the panel loom is made. Grip colours are stocked across the range, including camouflage, for operators matching a stick to cabinet artwork.