Right now, the best PC joystick is the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog. It's sturdy and feels good in your hands, and it's also easy to use as a building block for your whole cockpit experience.

the Star Wars game used an X Z joystick modeled after the yoke in the cockpit of an X-wing. To build this joysitck, [Le Chuck] took apart a few pots and crafted the joystick out of thin sheet metal.