joy-stick.net
Archived from The Control Center, 1999. Hardware, prices and links are historical.

ACT Labs RS Wheel

Originally published on joy-stick.net, 25 June 19994/5 sticks

**RS Wheel

Manufactured By: ACT Labs**

Retail Price: $69.99-99.99

Review Date:6-25-99

A few months back The CC received a Dynamic Duo consisting of an ACT Labs RS Wheel, a PDPI Lightning 4 Gameport and a PDPI Cartridge for the wheel. The Duo reviewed very well! So well in fact that I used the Duo for racing almost exclusively. I had forgotten that along with the Duo setup I had received the full package of the RS Wheel. I pulled the PDPI cartridge from the wheel and replaced it with the PC gameport cartridge to test the wheel as a stand-alone, standard gameport controller.

The RS Wheel has a great feel to it and a stable set of pedals. The simulated leather wheel padding helps you keep your grip on the wheel, feels great and looks nice. The wheel has all the buttons you can ever want and even has a 8 way hat switch that is left off many of the competitors wheels.

It also offers expansion. Via its cartridge system you can purchase separate cartridges rendering it operable with various platform systems or the PDPI L4 gameport for the PC. ACT Labs will soon release the RS Shifter that will be an add-on for the wheel. It will offer multiple shift configurations and you can add after-market shift knobs to match your tastes.

The wheel is very comfortable. From the heavy, sturdy pedal base to the sleek padded wheel it looks and feels great. The construction is very solid and should hold up for a very long time. ACT Labs wasn't afraid to use metal where necessary. The table clamping system is effective. It consists of two metal clamps that are tightened with large flywheel spinners on either side of the wheel base. The clamps are also capable of accommodating a desk with a small lip.

I did experience problems initially. The pedal axis spiked excessively when I first connected it. Even after a good calibration the crosshair in the game controller test panel bounced up and down quite erratically. As I said above, I had the wheel connected using the L4 gameport and PDPI cartridge and had none of the problems with that setup. Even after updating the driver the problem remained.

I was quite concerned because I remember reading on the ACT Labs site that some gameports have this problem and the only work-around was to set it up as a generic 2 axis, 4 button controller (loosing all of the extra buttons and hat switch function). I opened up the pedal base and cleaned out the pots with contact cleaner and the problem went away. I am sure the excessive use I subjected it to in the months I used it with the PDPI setup contributed to the problem. It was masked by the L4's ability to smooth spiking. The pedals function fine now.

Features 100%-

  • Padded simulated leather wheel
  • Cartridge system for multi-platform use
  • Expandability
  • 9 buttons on wheel face
  • 4 way hat switch
  • Stable pedal base
  • Single/dual axis pedals
  • Paddle gear shifter
  • Flywheel table clamps

Appropriate For-

  • Racing Games (Need For Speed III, Andretti Racing, Nascar Racing, DethKarz, Powerslide, etc.)

System Requirements-

DOS, Windows 95/98

Price -

The original MSRP of nearly $100 was a bit steep considering a force-feedback wheel could be had for another $40 but the recent price reduction coupled with the features of the wheel make it a decent buy.

Warranty-

30 day money back guarantee, 1 year warranty

Performance 88%-

Thanks to Need For Speed III I have become a dedicated PC race fan. Before that as far as I got into racing was the hours I spent playing POD. Now I am constantly looking for an edge over my competitors, AI or other.

I appreciated the hat switch for looking both ways before proceeding through stop signs (their are many busses running through the city that won't hesitate taking you out!). Separating the gas and brake pedal axis's also fed into the realism. Without the separation you would slide into reverse if you applied the brakes past the stop of the vehicle. This also allows you to drive with two feet without the signals canceling each other out if you desire (this is my dads preferred method of driving his big, old-man Lincoln Town Car with the left blinker on).

Need For Speed III and other arcade racers played great with the wheel. Thanks to the many buttons available I was able to avoid using the keyboard for advanced controls such as spike strip deployment in NFS3. The paddle shifter is situated behind the wheel and travels with the wheel as it is turned so it as always located at your finger tips. The only problem I encountered with the wheel is that the shifter paddles are connected to each other. The paddles are one piece that goes through the wheel shaft. You can, and I did, push the opposite shifter to activate the other. A few times I accidentally pushed the up shift lever while turning and dropped the gears down. Ooops.

The pedal base of the system is nice and heavy with a low center of gravity. This is one of the few pedal sets I have come across that offers a base large enough to rest your left foot on it also. The base is constructed of metal and plastic and stays in place incredibly well no matter how hard I was stomping on it. The pedals are also very comfortable to use. No sore ankles here. I did experience some binding of the gas pedal at inappropriate times. It seems the opening for the pedal shaft to recess into when pressed is a bit tight depending on slight contraction and expansion of the material used in the construction.

Setup 90% -

When you receive the box you need to unpack and assemble the RS Wheel. Assembly and setup of the RS Wheel is fairly simple.

Set the pedals on your floor wherever most comfortable, and clamp the wheel to your desktop. The pedals connect to the wheel's base with a PS2 style connector. Insert the RS Wheel cartridge into the opening at the back of the wheel base and plug the 15 pin connector into one of the L4's 4 gameport plugs and start your system.

Then its a matter of installing the software driver and selecting the correct description in the Game Controller setup and running it through the calibration regiment. I used the current drivers available from the ACT Labs website for testing purposes.

**Software 90%-

**The software for the RS Wheel is a driver that recognizes the wheel when properly connected. The most recent driver is available from the ACT Labs website. Installation is as simple as running the executable and proceeding with the hardware setup.

Documentation 95% -

The RS Wheel manual is written in several languages and offers setup instructions for each supported platform. It does a good job of describing the different features of the wheel, cartridge care and basic setup.

The ACT Labs website offers some basic details on the wheel and updated drivers. Not much new information has been posted on the RS Wheel in quite some time. The common question section has been marked as "in development" for months now. However, any questions are promptly answered via E-mail or phone.

Overall Rating 91.5% -

The RS Wheel is a very nice wheel. I experience a few minor problems along the way but they don't hold me back from recommending the RS Wheel for sim fans looking for a wheel that offers many buttons, a hat switch and the versatility to work across many gaming systems.

Pros-

  • Quick, responsive control
  • Many features not found with other wheels
  • Cross platform use

Cons-

  • Shift paddles somewhat awkward
  • Potential problems with some gameports

Similar to-**

Review date as printed on the original page. Images from the original page are not reproduced.