Many thanks to you both for your sympathy.
Yes, I hope I will be able to finish the project sometimes in future.
Unfortunately I often had no documentation of the things I've done, cause during the built so many things changed ever and ever again.
It's really complex cause I wanted to use at least the backseat (WSO) with simulators from Windows 98 to Windows 7 era.
I never had the time to play my old collected sims the past years, so I wanted to do this now. But it looks like the time-problem will still going on
I just finished the whole retro PC system to play things like the good old Jane's series or Comanche Gold etc. again. Now all has to be made compatible with the newer Phenom II and the Ryzen PC's in terms of input devices.
There are four systems integrated in the WSO place, I choose between the use of a KVM-switch and a seperate USB-switch for the input devices, like Pokeys cards (modified
HOTAS system with a few buttons and switches) and a X-Keys Keyboard for programming macros to naval- and tank- and infantry (ARMA series) simulators.
Most payable KVM switches still have annoying keyboard and mouse emulation even for USB!? So you couldn't use there USB-ports for special mice, keyboards or any
HOTAS system, cause they wouldn't be recognized by the PC. Cause of this unnecessary emulation the KVM is only compatible with standard keyboard and mice, which makes it necessary to use an additional USB-switch.
You also have to use only programmable devices with MCU inside, cause a macro-software which is running in the background is often not compatible with older windows systems like 98 or ME. With a MCU inside you can program the device with W7 and still use it with W98.
The cockpit itself uses three networked systems for a multimonitor setup, but they all running W7 or W10, so its not as far as complex as the backseat. I decided to use the cockpit only with modern simulations and also only a few. I would like to run it with EECH Allmods, DCS World, Falcon BMS, Strike Fighters Project 2 and the FSX or FS9.
Only BMS and FSX/FS9 can use the fully functional cockpit with MFD's and gauges, for the rest I have still to look for a relatively acceptable solution. Javelin has made some real cool things here for eech allmods and I hope I can use them with my pit.
As you can see the project is very complex and I'm fiddling around with it since many years now. Every time I got a near finished solution, things in life changed and I'm not able to work further at this project. The next time I'm able to work on it again, all hardware related things have changed (eg. PS/2 now obsolete / USB changed to 3.0 an not always compatibleand many more) and I have to find completely new solutions. Some old things would still be functional even with newer systems, but you need drivers which aren't downloadable anymore after the two or more years break. So you have to start from scratch again.
The problem is that all newer simulations like BMS and DCS are continuously get improved, what is a nice feature, but also always needs a more powerfull hardware. So if you come back to your project, which was nearly finished and powerfull enough to run those simulators a few years again, it's now far to slow. If you the choose to upgrade it, you run in new hardware compatibility problems, you thought you have already solved years before.
I still hope for something like a Window 9X Box to play old simulations again, but it doesn't look like anything similar will ever see the light of day. Something comparable like DOS-Box but for all the old Windows 95 to XP titles that aren't modable for Windows 7 or newer. This would be the easy solution and no more need for different systems, but until now, there isn't any real solution to run many of those old titles without any glitches and problems. I tried many things like the Tackleberry patches for Janes, or nGlide etc., but nothing compares to a real hardware of this time.
To get all under one hood with only one monitor and the same input devices fully useable is a real challange. Sadly I have not enough room for another seperate retro PC place, which also would make things a little bit easier.
The project how it should be anywhere the next hundred years (WSO still has the old keyboard here which I wanted to use with hid-macros, but since I decided to use the retro system also at the WSO place, cause of no more room for a seperate retro place, I've bought a X-Keys keyboard now). At the WSO place "blue" is for use with naval sims, "green"for use with armored vehicles, the rest is for older flight simulations. The WSO place has also a small programmable
HOTAS.
All the throttles, collective and the center and sidesticks in the cockpit are interchangeable. Side and center stick or even the yoke aren't in the pit at the same time. The whole thing is construed to be universal useable for aircraft of any kind eg. helicopter, fighterjets (also for the AV-8B with seperate nozzle control), big birds or even prop machines.