DOS Games Discussion

Is there any way to get a USB joystick to work with a very old DOS based game?

You can mount USB folders in dosbox. Works flawless.

That sounds very encouraging. I don't know what is meant by "USB folders", though.

Whoopsy overlooked that 'joystick' thing, you may blame Wally for that.
Thought it was about a USB stick LOLZ.

Nevertheless: USB joysticks are supported by dosbox.
So: run your dosgames in dosbox, you will be able to use your USB joystick in them. (Be sure to have it calibrated in windows first).

Thank you for the excellent advice. It all works beautifully now.

How do you get the USB joystick to work in DOSBox and work with old games?

You plug the joystick in the computer and run the games in dosbox.
The joystick must of course work and been calibrated in Windows .

Okay, now how do I calibrate it and set it up so it works in DOSbox?

You plug it in, calibrate it in Windows, run dosbox, start your game, if *IF* the game supports a joystick it will work in dosbox.
Maybe you'll need to enable joystick in the game options, or not, depends of the game.

For example:
Corncob3D auto detects a joystick.
Keen 4 doesn't, you need to enable it in the game config panel.

Game config panel. Isnt that the keymapper?

Nope.
Config panel ingame. (If memory serves it's under 'configure' in Keen4 game.)

My new Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X works great in Windows. But, how do I make it work in DosBox?

My Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X has 5-axis and 12 buttons.

Thanks in Advanced,
Dave

Plenty of axis and buttons .... but should work as a 'normal' joystick in dosbox.

No idea what's wrong, really none.
You always could try to alter the settings under
[JOYSTICK] in dosbox conf
Things that come in mind:
Play with 'joysticktype='
And alter 'timed=' from true to false.

Otherwise ask if someone knows @ http://vogons.zetafleet.com/index.php

Joystick = T.Flight Hotas X

Game = Nighthawk F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0

How do I map the THROTTLE to Axis-4 on my joystick in DosBox?
I would like to map the following in DosBox:
+ to Max Throttle
= to increase Throttle
- to decrease Throttle
_ to Zero Throttle

I can map everything else. But, could not figure out the throttle.

Thanks in Advanced,
Dave

There's this game I own; well, two to be exact. Champ Pac-Em and Champ Ms. Pac-Em. I own several USB joysticks but whenever I switch the in-game control scheme to Joystick, the game continually shouts "Joystick Not Found!" even if a fully working joystick/game pad is plugged into the machine.

I'm doing this mostly on real hardware, not just DOSBox.

Dos games (like the Pack-Ems) don't understand USB / windows joysticks, so something has to convert windows joystick API to dos joystick "API". Even if the game runs, it won't see your windows joysticks because it's a dos game.

(Don't get me started on IBM PC "Joystick" interface! Blech! A bit better hardware/software interface and Dos games would have rivaled Nintendo.)

DosBox is the way to go.

Also, dos joysticks were _always_ troublesome, and lots of dos games are solid on keyboards and weak on joysticks. DosBox does about as good as could be done. All that to say, joystick and DosBox might be fine, but the game may be the problem.

And, DosBox can convert joystick commands to keyboard commands, and you can use joysticks more easily that way sometimes, just mapping joystick to game key commands using the DosBox Mapper (F1).


(edit for tipos and key->joy mapping)

Cool, wanted one of those! Does it really work for generic DOS joysticks? I'll have to give it a try.