Suddenly two winged forms burst out of the mist directly in front of you. The frightening silhouettes of the red triplanes tell you immediately that you are in BIG trouble.

As you rapidly close you place the lead bandit in your sights and fire a burst from your trusty Vickers, feeling the satisfying thup-thup-thup transmitted through the airframe to your wrist. Breaking to the right just prior to impact, you could see the eyes of your opponent as his aircraft sped past you. Just before the break you saw his gun spitting fire, and you felt the impact on your fragile airframe... Now a shudder runs down your spine as your engine begins coughing... you are fighting the stick as your aircraft begins to buck and reel, and each cough of your engine sends a jarring impact through the stick to your wrist....Well, if you were using the Force FX that is!!

CH has released the first force feedback joystick to the market. Why is this so significant? I thought you'd never ask! The benefit is two fold: first, in suspension of disbelief, the feeling of "being there." Second, for the increased situational awareness. If you are diving too fast in your Spitfire, you'll know it by the rapidly increasing buffet. If you are about to stall in your aircraft, you'll feel it. Other aerodynamic effects can be added. And those explosions that are rocking your fighter will be transmitted physically to your hand and wrist.

Wow! If this hasn't got you drooling, check to see if your heart is still beating. Not only will we hear the "thup-thup" of the Vickers gun, we will feel it. And when the engine is suddenly coughing and burping, we will feel that too! As I have been testing the stick in Fighter Duel, I have begun to rely on my hand to tell me what my engine is doing. Yes, I can still hear the engine drone, but feeling the engine vibration increase in frequency is another matter.

Buffet and stall effects transmitted through the wrist are infinitely better than the mild shake of the aircraft or the pause of an accelerated stall. And you will no longer wonder if you are taking hits... your stick will tell you! The sense of "being there" is even better than with a VR headset.

What applications are suited for feedback technology? Tank sims, space combat sims, racing sims and flight sims, primarily. This technology is a step toward uniting the player with the environment, and its importance should not be underestimated.

Just as 3d hardware has begun to remove the restrictions on the graphics environment and contributed to suspension of disbelief via increased frame rates, so force immersion technology will change the way we interact with simulations. No longer will we be limited to visual and aural clues, we will also physically feel the forces and effects that would act upon a real person in the simulated world.

What this means is that one more barrier to immersion is beginning to fall away. Its only a beginning, but every monumental change begins with small steps. First, force feedback sticks and steering wheels, next, force feedback chairs. Who knows where it will go after that?

What sims will take advantage of the full range of force effects? Red Baron II, Tactical Aero Squadron, Jetfighter III, Fighter Duel 1.1 and 2, Flying Nightmares II, Sabre Ace, and soon Rowan's Flying Corps. The list gets much longer when you add space combat sims. For more information on the implementation of feedback see the CH Force FX Review. This will be the year for feedback!

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Last Updated March 24th, 1997