No Joystick response in Prophecy or Priv2

Shane

Spaceman
I've read through a number of these posts, so I'm feeling pretty good that someone here can help me. I was given a Compaq Deskpro EN, with a PIII 450 and 96 MB of Ram. The system has Win95 installed, it never had DOS so the autoexec.bat and config.sys files are blank.

I've got two joysticks that I used on my old PC (an aging P133) and both of them work fine. One is a Gravis Analog Pro (I think) and the other is a Gravis Blackhawk digital.

The machine has the ESS sound Card built into the board and there is not a gameport available. I went over to CompUSA and bought an ISA expansion card that includes 2 serial, one parallel and one gameport. I installed it with no trouble, but Win95 didn't find the gameport. However, I went into Add Hardware in the Control panel and added the generic Joystick Gameport. I shut down, plugged in the digital joystick, rebooted, ran the gravis install program and 95 deteced the joystick. However when I went into Prophecy, nothing happened. I checked the options screen inside Prophecy and made sure that Joystick was choosen and tried again. Still no luck. Exited Prophecy restarted, no response. Rebooted, no response.

Next I installed a couple other games I had (the X-Wing collector's series mostly retouched versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter). The digital worked with those, though I had some trouble with the calibration.

Next I installed Privateer2 (the later one that is supposed to be more Win95 friendly) Did the same series of reboots, but still the same problem as with Prophecy, no joystick. Installed Secret Ops. Same routine, same problem.

Tried the analog joystick. Works with X-wing and TIE, not with Prophecy, Priv2 or Secret Ops. Snagged an old sound card. Disbaled the sound card settings for the current card, installed old card. Sound works, joystick works with the other games, not with the Origin Games.

Started to install the orignal Privateer this morning but forgot about the hoops to get it running and didn't have enough time to configure the boot files before I headed in to work. I'll maybe get to it tonight, or I'll try installing WCIV or the Kilrahti Saga and see if I have trouble with those. (Large hard drive, btw.)

A couple additional notes, I do have 95 version B which sort of supports USB and I have successfully attached an Intel USB camera to the computer. I've taken the camera out thinking maybe there was some conflict (there aren't any other devices (printers, zip drives, etc. connected except for a modem.) but still no joystick response. It shows up in the Joystick control panel, and with the anaolg, I've used both the 2 axis 4 button option and the Gravis analog pro.

Finally, I've debated about moving to Win98 and trying a USB joystick. Has anyone had any luck with them? Before I do that, any suggestions on this problem? Your help would be greatly appreciated. The Prophecy Gold CD has been sitting around the house for a while, the wife kept coming up with ways to spend my money before I could get a new machine so I'm anxious to play these.
 
I'm thinking that the problem is your version of Direct X because your pure DOS games work with it but not those that use DirectX for control (That is if you have P2 Deluxe).
For games in pure DOS (not a DOS window) a digital stick will not work, nor will a USB stick or any USB devices. Otherwise I've heard good things about USB in general (not from magazines or anything but from people I know)

TC

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CAG of the Blacklance HQ
"Canadian and proud of it"-TC
 
Go to the Game Controllers applet in your Control Panel; make sure that whatever you're trying to use is listed and has the OK status.
 
Thanks to both of you for replying, I'm too lazy to write two replies. (hmm, managed to use every spelling varation of 'to' in that sentence.)

Stinger, the analog lists in the control panel as OK, both as a 2-axis 4-button and as a Gravis Analog Pro.

TC, as far as the digital joystick, I don't care about getting it running, so much as getting some joystick running. However, I would have assumed Prohecy, SO and the Deluxe Edition of Priv2 worked under Win95. I know I used the digital on my old machine with the KS.
 
Oh, I am running the latest version of direct X, something like 7a, I think is what they refer to it as.
 
You're right; the joystick should be working. It's important to note, though, that the games will only use game controller #1. To find out what the ID numbers for your game controllers are, go to the Advanced portion of the Game Controllers applet.
 
They are listed as using #1. I add one and remove the other. Oh and the joysticks work fine on the old machine with other Origin games. I didn't have too much time to tinker with it over the weekend, but thanks for the suggestions so far.
 
Also, make sure they're calibrated properly. WCP/SO won't recognize them unless they're calibrated. And with mine, they have a tendency to "uncalibrate" themselves after a time.

If that doesn't work, go into your system properties. (Rightclick on My Computer, properties, Device Manager.) Look around in here, expanding all fields, and find the listing for your ISA add-in card. See if the gameport is listed here, and if it is, open the properties of it. Check here to see if it's disabled. If it is, enable it, and it should solve your probs. DOS games will recognize the port, without too much sweat, but Win9x is picky, and has to have all its ducks in a row to work properly.

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Since Windows recognizes the sticks, I'll tell you right now that the game port isn't the problem. Not sure what is, though.

Do the joysticks work in any other Windows game?
 
Thanks Knight. I'll try that. Thank you as well Stinger. The joystick works with the X-Wing collection (redone versions of X-wIng an TIE fighter that run under 95, unless I am mistaken about that.) on this machine and I'm able to calibrate them. I don't really have any other Joystick type Win95 games (sigh.) Barely have time to play these (larger sigh.)
 
Geez, Stinger, you working for Gates? I need more time is what I need. I miss the good old days when I had hours on end to play. Oh well. I did get it working, though I'm not sure which of the three things I did resolved it. I wiped the machine and installed a fresh copy of 98, I checked Compaq's site and updated the BIOS (while the problem it was supposed to resolve wasn't my exact problem, it was a problem with other types of cards plugged into ISA slots.) I also used the DirectX 6.0 drivers that came on the Prophecy Gold CD instead of using the 7.0a from Microsoft [mainly because I forgot to bring home the CD with the modem drivers.) If anything, I'm guessing it is the BIOS update. The OS never did auto detect the gameport, though, I still had to manually add it. Thanks, again, for the help.

[This message has been edited by Shane (edited June 07, 2000).]
 
Wow, that's a lot of work for a joystick. Still, the rest of your system should be running much more smoothly now.
 
And no, I don't work for Gates, but I am thoroughly hooked on that game. Got hooked when I beta tested it.
 
Stinger said:
<blatant plug>
In that case, you need Microsoft's new space combat game, Allegiance! Available at better retail stores near you.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/allegiance/
http://www.zone.com/allegiance/
</blatant plug>

I thought it was StarLancer? WTF? I hadn't even heard of Allegiance. Well, along time ago, but I thought it was shot down? They've got 2 out right around the same time or what?

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HTML Assistant: WC Space Command
Administrator: UBW 5th Fleet
Member of the LMG and hating it (Disgruntled Man)
I might be right, I might be wrong, but then again, I just might not care either. Got a problem with that?--Me.
 
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Both games just came out, yes. Allegiance was never shot down; FiringSquad even gave it the editor's choice award.
 
Hm....i'll be damned...I didn't even know it was coming out with all the SL hype. damn.

------------------
HTML Assistant: WC Space Command
Administrator: UBW 5th Fleet
Member of the LMG and hating it (Disgruntled Man)
I might be right, I might be wrong, but then again, I just might not care either. Got a problem with that?--Me.
 
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Ooh, that's a nice joystick. Won't work for DOS games, but I guess you already know that. So, does it work for other games?
 
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