Playing Dos games with a controller

[gamerboii]

Hello.

I just installed the exoDoS collection. And i want to set up games to i can play them with my 360 controller.

I could do it mannualy, but I was wondering if there exist soultons for this? If not i might make something for the community..

Edited November 18, 2016 by gamerboii

[SentaiBrad]

There isn't really something like this. You might be able to find mapper files out there for specific games, I know you can specify custom mapper files in a conf file, but having an automatic style solution doesn't really exist. If DOSBox can read your controller, then setting up the mapper file might be the best solution as I don't know if you can set this from within a game's controls menu. You could also use Xpadder as well, but this might be a bit clunky. Either way, only very specific games will even work well with a controller, so keep that in mind.

[SentaiBrad]

As an extremely helpful reference, I did find this: http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Mapper

[Zombeaver]

44 minutes ago, SentaiBrad said:

There isn't really something like this. You might be able to find mapper files out there for specific games, I know you can specify custom mapper files in a conf file, but having an automatic style solution doesn't really exist. If DOSBox can read your controller, then setting up the mapper file might be the best solution as I don't know if you can set this from within a game's controls menu. You could also use Xpadder as well, but this might be a bit clunky. Either way, only very specific games will even work well with a controller, so keep that in mind.

This is partially true. It's correct that if a game wasn't designed to use a joystick in the first place, the mapper (or an external app like Xpadder) are likely your only options. However, if the game natively supports a joystick, you can use a 360 controller with DOSBox without resorting to those. All you have to do is go to the [joystick] section of your dosbox.conf file and change the "joysticktype=auto" line to "joysticktype=fcs" and "timed=true" to "timed=false". Beyond that you just have to make sure joysticks are enabled in-game or via the game's setup file, depending on the game.

Rayman, Tyrian, Times of Lore, and Alien Rampage are some examples of games in my library where I've done this and it's worked just fine. Like all things with DOSBox, it all depends on the game though, and joystick support certainly wasn't as ubiquitous as it is nowadays.

[SentaiBrad]

Oh sweet! I never tried to use a controller with DOSBox honestly, so I never thought to change the joysticktype= line. I also didn't know if DOSBox would pass the drivers off intelligently like this. Thank you for the extra info @Zombeaver.

[Zombeaver]

No problem! Yeah, in fairness it's not something very obvious - "fcs" is actually for Thrustmaster. Why Thrustmaster is the ideal setting when used in conjunction with a 360 controller, I have no idea, but that's what works. If you leave the type on "auto" the d-pad doesn't work properly and with "timed=true" the analog stick inputs drift.

Again though, if you're dealing with a game that's only designed for keyboard+mouse this won't work. Most games where that's the case though, you probably wouldn't want to use a joystick anyway. Things like platformers and shmups often had joystick support. I just tested it with the original Commander Keen and it works

[gamerboii]

Thanks for the help guys

Than my plan will be to get games with controller support working using dosbox. For games that dont support controller out of the box ill use https://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/.

I allready use this for flash games so it will be easy to just start adding dos games aswell. Will take some time but hoppefully worth it in the end when every games is controller friendly

[gamerboii]

More people should use pinnacle so we can start sharing controller profiles! Dos games, flash games, atari computers, amiga.  Also windows games that dont have officaly controller support have profiles over at their website. You can even play World Of Warcraft with a 360 controller using this program.

[SentaiBrad]

2 minutes ago, gamerboii said:

Thanks for the help guys

Than my plan will be to get games with controller support working using dosbox. For games that dont support controller out of the box ill use https://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/.

I allready use this for flash games so it will be easy to just start adding dos games aswell. Will take some time but hoppefully worth it in the end when every games is controller friendly

You can add controller support for DOS Games, but you honestly shouldn't. There will be hundreds of DOS games that will not work with a controller, even if you make it work with extra software.

[gamerboii]

Yeah, offcaurse alot of games were meant to be played using a mouse and keyboard. I luckely have a wireless mouse and keyboard for this very reason. But for games where controll can work it would have been pretty chill to just play em with my xbox 360 controller laying on the coach