Looking for simulator type of games that can satisfy my "button fetish" (not sexual)
TLDR: I have a fetish for physical buttons/switches and need a game that let's me go wild with them. I diy most of the things, but flight sim yokes are too complicated to make. I have the gear to play ETS2, but it doesn't require me to fiddle with the buttons/switches often enough.
As the title says i am looking for simulator type of games that need you to manage many many buttons and switches to play the game. The key here is that those in game buttons/switches could be bound to irl physical buttons and switches, so button boxes for those who already know what i'm talking about.
The closest thing i have found to scratch that itch are all the various flight sims. The issue with those is that you can't really play them using mouse + button boxes, since to get the aircraft off the ground you need stuff like yoke, rudder pedals and thrust columns which are expensive af.
To clarify, i know that button boxes cost a lot too, but it's not that big of a problem for me as i make them myself, the components and PLA filament costs something too, but not as much as the retail price for them on etsy. I could also diy the thrust columns and maybe even the rudder pedals, but the yoke is out of the question, since they are too complicated even for me. Especially the ffb stuff.
On another note, i do have a G920 with pedals and a TH8A shifter (i don't play racing games, bought it for ets2 and i don't feel like upgrading to dd wheel base as it is an overkill for ets2 imo). So if there are any sims that go in line with my "button fetish" (google thinks i have a bellybutton fetish whenever i put those two words in), but also can leverage the gear i already have, then that could work too.
ETS2 does have a good chunk of buttons to work with, but i rarely touch more than a few, with turn signals, retarder keybinds and cruise control being the ones i use the most (not counting the most obvious ones like steering, pedals and shifting).
To whoever read the whole thing, i am very grateful. I tend to write my posts extra long due to getting sidetracked a lot (ADHD at it's finest) and the feel to need to defend every point i make. Those interested can read this post i found that explains it very well. >!Though i don't have abusive parents, i would say i have the best parents in the world and i love them a lot. I am not sure where in life this mentality arose in me, but i am guessing the constant bullying for being on the spectrum and having two extremes of grandparents. One granny who loved me more than anything (those were her last words) and protected me like her life depended on it from the other side. With the other side being the other granny who verbally abused me (and still does) for being weird aka being on the spectrum.!<
Posted Jan 27, 2026, 11:39 AM UTC