mac gaming wheel controllers

[octothorp]

So for Christmas we want to get my father-in-law a car racing game for the their new Mac, and if possible a wheel controller. The only wheel controller I can find that's made specifically for the Mac is the logitech Momo one, which is a little outside our price range and over $250.

I read a cryptic comment somewhere that any of the controllers that use a PC USB interface should also work on the Mac, and I've seen thrustmaster mac driver files floating around, which makes me wonder if it would be possible to configure a controller like this on the mac:
http://www.amazon.com/Ferrari-Experi...d_sim_sbs_vg_3

Can anyone tell me if I'm out to lunch on that thought, or if there are any reasonably-priced mac wheel controllers? Thanks!

[Crispy's Critter]

I'm still involved a little bit in the online Nascar racing community, even though I don't race online anymore, so I'll go to a few of the forums and ask around, see if anyone has a mac setup. I'm guessing that any USB wheel would work, providing there are mac drivers. You could always snoop around the wheel manufacturers websites in the support section to see if there are driver files for the wheels you're interested in.

[sclitheroe]

I think anything that "looks" like a joystick and connects via USB will offer at least basic functionality. For example, I have a USB device that is like a USB RC airplane radio transmitter (for RealFlight, for those who are curious) that, plugged into a Mac, just looks like a joystick with 5 different axes plus several buttons. I can use this just fine in X-Plane (Mac flight sim) once I remap the axes to the correct control surfaces.

If the wheel has more advanced functionality, like force feedback, you'll almost certainly need to find one that supports Macs specifically, and probably also games that support that specific wheel.

Edit: Also, USB Overdrive can be a powerful tool for getting generic joysticks and other USB input devices working, and all inputs mapped to the correct functions.

[octothorp]

Thanks guys; that's sort of what I thought with any USB controller working on some basic level. Since I'm just looking at the low-end wheels, features like force feedback are non-issues. The USB Overdrive also looks like a great option, I'll look into that.