Introduction

Now that the time has come, it's time to look at this new version in detail. And for those of you reading this review, who are trying to decide on whether to splash out and get hold of the Pro version, let me tell you straight off: Fox Two Pro is stunning! If you thought Fox Two was good, you'll fall in love with the Pro version. This is in a different class altogether.

But a glance at any review or threads in the newsgroups reveals a common theme: these controllers have an associated steep learning curve when it comes to developing the files needed to get the most out of them. And this isn't made any easier by the fact that the software that comes with them uses a DOS interface - which has yet to be ported out to Windows and supported consistently by TM. For the price of these controllers, and in this day and age where non Windows interfaces are few and far between, this seems to be an incredulous situation.

This year however, a newcomer entered the scene, namely Fox Two by Dr. James Hallows, which does the exact opposite: it maintains a text based interface throughout, whilst providing GUI support. Although it's only been on the programming scene for some six or so months now, it now commands a substantial following from the TM simming community. With the newly released Professional version, I have no doubt that it will become the app of choice for practically all TM owners.

The next thing you'll notice is when you put the CD in your machine - nothing happens - there's no autorun information on the CD that makes it loadup some app - which may initially suprise you as the first thing you'll want to do is to install the software. However, there's a very good reason for this. Fox Two Pro is not the only file on the CD. A quick look in Explorer shows that there's a massive 148MB of files on the CD. Don't worry - Fox Two Pro hasn't grown that much. Most of this is a HUGE library of superb high quality images as well as Mystic's Six Degrees of Freedom - more on these aspects later. As users are likely to be putting this CD in and out of their machines regularly, James thankfully opted not to have any autorun information on the CD.

Click to continue . . .

When he set about developing Fox Two, James constantly listened to users suggestions and in the Pro version, you'll see that they're implemented fully. As I said in my earlier preview of Fox Two, he went out of his way to explain that Fox Two, (or Foxy as he tends to refer to it correspondence), isn't just his program. Rather, it is there to be developed from everyone's ideas, so that he can put together an app that everyone wants. Indeed, there are many parts of this program that several users can point to and say "that was one of my suggestions."

What really hits you about this program, aside from its simplicity and user friendliness is this: It's a program that from the outset firmly establishes an impression of experience - a program that's come about from a dedicated and experienced Thrustmaster user who clearly saw that there was a great need for a dedicated text based interface. And with the Pro version, I cannot see what features could possibly be added to enhance it. Without a doubt, this is the most complete TM programming app that you'll ever use. Let's take a look then at the main interface - ie. the Editor.

These wizards proved to be so popular that James has added six more increasing your knowledge gradually, including pretty advanced topics such as Raw code and Logical programming, and there's really no excuse anymore for anybody not to be writing their own files. Everything in Foxy is definitely geared towards helping new users understand all aspects of TM files. For example, if there's a statement you don't understand in a file, you only need to highlight it, press F1, and you're taken straight to that topic in the help file which will explain, again with James's unmistakeable humor, what that statement means. It's very slick.