I found this interesting video on Migman's Museum (http://www.migman.com/sw/A-10_Attack/A-10_Attack.php).
(http://www.moodurian.com/tornado/images/console-A10-attack.JPG)
Genius at work!
Andrew Young is flying Eric "Hellcat" Parker's classic flight sim for the Mac in 2012. Remember that one and its cousin A-10 Cuba? Andrew's Mac had three video cards in it. A10 attack supports multiple screens.Andrew used three 17" mnoitors. Joystick used was a basic Logitech Thrustmaster with slide control, trigger and a few buttons. USB Overdrive (free download) was used to get the joystick working with system 9.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjqPkSUApao
3 minute video of Andrew Young's labour of love
Here's how Andrew interfaced the custom switches with the keyboard. The keyboard had two membranes, which touched when a key was pressed. Andrew glued wires (using conductive wire glue) onto the contacts on the membrane corresponding with each key and covered with hot melt glue to hold securely. The wires then went to momentary push switches to simulate a keystroke. At lot of the keys shared the same tracks on the membrane, which reduced the wiring work needed to interface the keyboard with the dedicated flying station.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00LuVgeHkRg&t=1m49s
"Digital Combat Simulator: A-10C Warthog" might be prettier, but you have to admire this predecessor
A-10 Attack! had the best physics and realism of any flight simulator in 1995. Except for the missing fly-by view, the game was an absolute blast to play. Drop a 1,000 pounder with your A-10 too near to the ground and the resulting blast would do major damage to multiple parts of the plane. Still, in most cases the A-10 could still limp home - provided you activated the fire extinguishes in time. A-10 Attack came with a flexible and powerful mission planner, which sadly was conspicuously missing from the A-10 Cuba! release on the PC. Mac users have all the fun!
A DIY dedicated flying station with clickable buttons simply ramps up the fun factor. Add together creative, fun and dedication, and you get something like this.