Help with old joystick

[Anonemouse]

Hi, I've trawled around trying to find a fix, but no luck, then I came across this site. I have an old Gravis Xterminator joystick that's been on the shelf for years. getting back into games like this, FSX and looking at Elite, I wondered if it would work with a gameport to USB adaptor, but no joy (scuse pun).

I am more or less resigned to junking the joystick and buying a new one, but seeing the tips on converting controllers on here, I wondered if anyone knew how to do this?

There is an edge connector inside the joystick, on the PCB, that the lead connects to. Removing this, there are 7 wires connected to it, that are from L-R; brown, orange, green, black (thin), red, yellow and black (thick). The last is I believe ground as it's wired to the cable shield.

I know its a long shot, but it's a great joystick with a solid build and plenty of buttons, so replacing it would cost well in excess of £40 for equivalent controls, or more for something with the same solid build. If I can strip down a USB lead and do a straight connection swap from the gameport connections, it would save me time and money, but if there's no hope I'll accept defeat with grace.

Any advice gratefully received.