Almost impossible. Microsoft has been known for good quality mouses, joysticks, etc. I wish they would still make them.

I still have mine. After a little cleaning it could possibly work...if I could find a working driver and a sound card with a game controler port (yeah, mine wasn't USB).

Some geek has got the driver covered, somewhere on Sourceforge or elsewhere in FOSS land, surely. The game controller port thing might be tough, that might be some soldering or something unless some crazy foreign company is selling some sort of converter.

Someone stole my USB one at a LAN party 8 years ago or so, was so pissed.

I would say that it’s hard to stay on contemporary european market producing cheap crap – you can’t beat price of products that are manufactured in China anyway. As for those GoodRam modules – they never failed me (also have lifetime warranty) – and I think they have good opinion among other polish users because they keep over 40% of memory modules market in Poland – competing with Kingston (that has another 45%). Local brand is always my primary pick even if its (reasonably) more expensive.
But only those models with optical sensors instead of potentiometers.
I wanted to buy one on polish auction service but my wife said that I don't need 2 joysticks...:-(

Mine, a MS Precision Pro to be exact, works flawlessy (no drivers needed), with the included GamePort-to-USB adapter
Havent't tried on newest OS, but XP still supports that natively

I saw the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro on Aikade for R$ 120,00 (about 70 dollars for those wondering). It's still very expensive but as we are already used to paying ridiculous amounts of money for computer hardware I still think it's a nice deal. I never bought anything from them though but you might want to take a look. I'm sending you a PM with the link.

Thanks. I saw it, but did some research and that store doesn't look trustworthy. Have you bought anything from them?

No, I haven't. If that's the case I'd stay away from them. Damn, I just wish amazon would ship that kind of stuff here.

A had a better look at it, and it seems they are importers. So it's cheap, but the product might take too long or never arrive. Also, they won't let you see the shipping cost until you make a login, and I bet that's where the price goes back to normal.

I think I'll just go with the ST290. At least one gogger is very happy with it.

Phew. I found someone who upgraded from an Attack 3 to a T-Flight Stick X, and he did mention the TM is less precise. I will try to ask him further details, but I think that mostly settles this.

I'll get the ST290 Pro, and if I don't like it, I'll wait for a price drop on a Logitech.

My thanks to everyone who showed up in this thread.

I actually didn't know about this, do you have any references for the technical differences and models that used each?

It looks like the game port to USB thing is a solved problem (honestly I think I have some internal mobo card addons that do this as well).
Someone gave me an old Attack 3 awhile ago but I haven't tried it due to the lack of a Z Axis, I find this critical for 90% of the games that are worth plugin in a joystick for (hello MW4, how I've missed you!).

I agree. I have played only Red Baron and some Battlefield 2 with it, and decided not to play anything else before upgrading. Not so much for jet fighters, but it's essential for the rest, specially helicopters.

Just one more thought: did you try to visit some forums of brazilian flight-sim fans (like IL Sturmovik). From what I know on each of such site there is a thread "reccomended joy for..."
I remember someone mentioned it od polish flight-sim site and I only found this on wiki:

The Precision Pro 2 had reintroduced potentiometers to save money and thus their lifetime was limited to wear and tear of the potentiometers.

I looked at everything google would give me, but it's hard to find reliable recommendations. Most flight-sim enthusiasts go for more expensive options, such as the X-52, or will just say "anything, really, except the cheap brazillian ones."

You can find lots of people who love each of the sticks mentioned in this thread, but it's hard to find comparisons between precision, or dead zone sizes, as most people are using their first joysticks and simply have nothing to compare them against.