Discovered my HOTAS is now dead :(

I used to play ED back way and when, all from initial beta, right through to when they released the influence map update thing… (Used to even make tutorial YT videos on the game – which still receive views for some reason) but it's been such a long time, I decided I wanted to play it again, see all the updates and just cruise around.

Go to my cupboard, dig out my old X52 Hotas (Saitek edition)… found the old drivers, found my old bindings and profiles on an old HDD, get that all copied over to my PC.

Download the game through Steam, only to find out Steam downloaded the 'legacy' version, so I had to use the launcher to download the live version (which literally took 5 hours because their launcher is just so slow), get everything plugged in… and only the throttle is working… the stick is dead.

Lights are on, windows control panel shows a tiny bit of input from the stick, then it stops.

After much troubleshooting… it's dead Jim. To be fair, it has been sitting in my cupboard collecting dust for years, and it never really felt like it was built to last with it's plastic setup…

But still, very sad 🙁

I used to be pretty good with controlling the ship with KBM before I got the HOTAS, but it's been a VERY long time since then, and since playing with HOTAS, I just couldn't play ED any other way.

I check on Amazon for different HOTAS's, but it's like there hasn't been any new HOTAS devices in years… the ones I'm seeing are the ones that I saw from years ago when I first purchased the X52.

All the nice ones are super expensive ($250+ where I am).

Anyway, thought I'd share my disappointment with you all.

Perhaps… if the wife doesn't give me the 'stare', I may be able to get a new HOTAS. If so, which ones are you all using? Pro's/ Cons of each? Perhaps any convincing argument I can use without being judged by my better half?