Thrustmaster Gameport Joysticks in Windows XP and Vista

I am a huge fan of older Thrustmaster products, especially their "high-end" flight controls from the mid 1990's. They are reasonably well-built, can be disassembled and repaired, and can have any of their buttons emulate a keyboard keypress via a custom programming language.

Unfortunately, all these older items, including the F-16 FLCS, the F-22 Pro, the WCS Mk II, and the F-16 TQS, are all gameport and PS/2 keyboard port -based. Also unfortunately, though the software to write the joystick programming works in Windows XP and Vista, the software to compile and download the program into the joysticks only works in DOS (and with tweaking, Windows 95 and 98.) Ironically, once a joystick is programmed, it works just fine in XP (and probably Vista too - more on that below.)

I have a huge supply of old Thrustmaster hardware, and plan on using it for as long as possible. (In fact, I'm using my FLCS and WCS Mk II almost every day in Windows XP Pro right now, which is something a lot of folks say is impossible.) As such, it seems to me I need to collect all the software and document the process while I still can, and put it all in one place, both for myself, and for anyone else who wants to keep using this old (but still great) stuff.

As such, I present to you the The Book of Thrustmaster: Windows Vista and XP Edition. It is a work in progress, of course, but I hope people will find it useful. It should include downloads, links, instructions, and recommended hardware to buy to keep your gear going.