Background, or how I got here
I would love to say I’m a life-long simulation enthusiast but, to be honest, I’m not. I used to play MS Flight Simulator (probably 3. something), few other flight games (at least Gunship 2000 and F-15 Strike Eagle III) and the original X-wing when I was much younger, and finished the original Tie Fighter when it came out. I remember creating a boot disk with the help of friend’s father to get it started. I also played Wing Commander 3 a bit but recent years (or probably decades at this point) it has mostly been RPGs. I have fond memories of Baldur’s Gate 2, Elder Scrolls 3 and clocked quite a few hours with vanilla World of Warcraft tanking in MC, BWL and AQ40, just to name few games.
During Christmas holidays 2020, after building my current gaming rig, I ended up buying Star Wars Squadrons from Steam sale but figured out I needed a joystick (no way I’m playing a flight game without one). I got lucky and found a good offer for Logitech X56. In the end I didn’t end up playing the Squadrons since I also got the Flight Simulator 2020 and ended up playing it for a month or so.
For some reason the Youtube algorithms started recommending me videos about Star Citizen. After watching few videos I bought it (or pledged for it) at the end of January 2021. It really got hold of me and hasn’t let me go after that. It also helped that I found a good and active org with great people. And now I’m also getting back to flight simulators too.
The picture above is what I call my Simpit 1.0. I spent the Spring looking for second hand Virpil gear and got few lucky hits locally and from eBay. The button box in the middle and joystick mounts are both DiY and the tablets are running GameGlass. But the issue is that when I get carried away with something, I really get carried away.
Project Simpit 2.0 and 3.0
Closer to the end of 2021 I got a permission from my wife to use this room for my project Simpit 2.0. It’s a small room with relatively remote location behind the indoor aviary for our cockatiels and budgies. She didn’t want anything to do with it. It wasn’t even a storage for us, just something where we had thrown in some random stuff.
I did a small renovation, mostly just painted the walls and laid down a new floor and started the project.
After working for few months the Simpit 2.0 was ready. It was really nice setup and I had fun playing with it but while building and using it, learned a lot of things. So it was time for Project Simpit 3.0 that I started during Summer 2022 and finished just before end of 2022.
I have a separate video series of building the setup on Youtube: Building a new virtual / simulation cockpit