Microsoft Sidewinder Strategic Commander (USB Device) - Any open source drivers or tools? [closed]

Question

I have an old USB gaming device called the Strategic Commander. It was handy for strategy games like Age of Empires - allowing for easy left hand to control of scrolling, panning, zooming and using a variety of programmable hotkeys. Today it's a useless/unsupported/forgotten item that sits in a drawer in my office. I would like to use the device to help navigate in a 3D CAD environment like Blender or 3D Studio Max. On Windows 7 & 8.

Is there any existing research/work available in this area?

Is there an open source driver framework?

Does anyone know Microsoft's official stance on 'hacking' this old hardware?

How should I get started?

Thanks!

Answer 1

There's a post at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/need-windows-7-drivers-for-sidewinder-strategic/27cabb00-b9b6-425b-8593-87f2ef7663f6 about it:

I find it was VERY hard to download the driver directly from http://strategic-engine.software.informer.com/1.3/ so I am sharing another link.

I did successfully install the drivers from this website http://www.picturemon.com/Downloads/StrategicSetupv1.3.zip

the web owner stated on http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/microsoft-public-windows-vista-hardware-devices/10329-sidewinder-strategic-commander-problems-11.html

"Okay, I Finally found a copy thanks guys (sarcasm) so others can download it. I'm putting it on my website. Oh and if the author of you software wants me too take it down don't hesitate to shoot me an email thanks."

This version does work on my Win 7 64 Bit computer.

I also posted it on my personal site so more people can use it.

http://home.comcast.net/~formosanh/Sidewinder/StrategicSetupv1.3.zip

Except for the first link ("VERY hard to download"), the others all seem down.

Google found http://pds27.egloos.com/pds/201501/28/48/StrategicSetupv1.3.zip, but given the suspicious origin and current file host, I'd recommend you take proper precautions before installing it (lest it contain malicious functionality).