What you see is a glorified DIY joystick controller with a LCD (‘MFD’) and plenty of RGB inspired by a VF-1 (Block 6) Valkyrie of the Macross franchise.
I use it mainly to play Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, X4: Foundations and plenty of other Space Pew Pew.
It’s mobile and can be stashed easily because my battlestation is, unlike most gaming rigs, also my workstation and has to move a lot. It’s also frequently occupied by my kids who also love clicky buttons and compete with me for stick time :D
It’s completely DIY and made on a budget (no really). It’s also Work In Progress, like probably any home cockpit out there.
For the PC it’s just a joystick and an additional display. The magic starts to happen when I manage to interface with the games to display live game data and adjust the blinken lights depending on the current ship telemetry.
Am I crazy? Yes, probably. It’s a hobby and when Corona happened indoor hobbies became kinda a thing again 🤓
Not going to defend ED but this type of game is usually more about the journey especially with friends. Yes, the grind is unreal and also nothing for me which is why I almost completely ignored engineering so far. I do enjoy other parts of the game though.
100h? My would you look at my SC playing time: just 57h and half of that is walking back to the spaceport xD