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CES 2009: Thrustmaster

by: Dan -
More On: CES 2009
I had a chance to stop by the Thrustmaster side of the booth (they are owned by Guillemot Corporation, same as Hercules) to check out the latest accessories, racing wheels and flight sticks that had on display. Right off the bat I was treated to the T.16000M stick. They were running dual units on the display playing with Flight Sim X. The joystick is fully ambidextrous, has 16 switches (12 on base and 4 on stick), four axes and is plug & play. I’m not a huge flight sim guy, but I was blown away with how accurate the response was. I know Dave would have been in flight sim heaven and made the trip worth his while just to play with this for a bit.

The other major display was for the racing wheels that Thrustmaster has licensed the Ferrari name for. They had two on display, the Ferrari F430 for PC and the Universal Challenge multi-platform wheel for PC, PS2, PS3, Gamecube and Wii. Both sets of wheels and pedals looked sharp and were constructed solidly

Thrustmaster also had an extensive display of Wii and DS accessories out. This included the Glo Saber Duo, T-Fitness Pack Pro, Dual Trigger Gun, T-Wireless controller, T-Go Kart, T-Strap charger, T-Charge Duo and T-NChuk Wireless adapter for the Wii. For the DS, they had several of the bags from the Urban, Bunny, Pony and Champion lines on display as well as a few styluses. I wasn’t able to take a look at the PSP or PS3 accessories, but those were out in full force as well.

The Ferrari F430 and T.16000M stick may have been the crown jewels in the Thrustmaster booth, but they had some pretty awesome stuff for the other platforms. If you get a chance to check out any of their gear, I encourage it, as it looks like they have some of the better third-part accessories on the market.