Wing Commander IV & Joystick support @ WinXP Home, help requested!

O

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Spaceman
Hello all :)

Today I have gathered some old files and yes Wing Commander IV : The Price Of Freedom is one of them I am buisy with and yes that is the one it's all about.

As far as now I got it running under WinXP Home on the Dell Inspiron 9100 Xtreme and the films, sound and all the parts meant in it works, really great story line too, though there is one little thing not working.

My Joystick!! arrggh Shocked Shocked Shocked What's a Jedi Master without a Joystick, a sitt'n duck if you'd ask me Wink Lips Sealed

Is there a sollution to this I surely hope so Wing Commander IV is kinda the thing I always loved to play once more since it got 10 Years old today Smiley

Hopefully there is a fix for Logitech Force3D USB Joystick for this great Space combat game, if people know a sollution I'd be glad to hear you out.

oh BTW I have done exactly what the readme file prompted and that didn't work either:

[5.1] Joystick Drifting

If your joystick is not working correctly, it may not be set up
correctly in the Control Panel. For the best results, the joystick
should be set up while the game is running.

1 Start Wing Commander IV for Windows 95.
2 When in gameflow or spaceflight, task-switch to the desktop with
[ALT][TAB].
3 Right-click My Computer.
4 Double-click Control Panel.
5 Double-click Joystick, which will bring up the Joystick Properties.
6 Make sure your Joystick configuration is correct.
7 If you have trim knobs, center them.
8 Click Calibrate. Follow the instructions to calibrate your
joystick.
9 Task switch back to Wing Commander IV for Windows 95 ([ALT][TAB]).
Whenever the joystick starts to drift, press [ALT][C] in the game
to re-center the joystick.

So hopefully there is another way, otherwise I will install Win98SE on the XP 2700+ for the ease of things.

Cheers,

Obi-Wan Kenobi.
 
Press Alt-O when you are flying a mission, i THINK that activates joystick support.

And if you have any other problems, refer to the Tech Support forum (not the general Wing Chat zone:p). Reading streams of information from there will help.

And if my suggestion does not help you, apologies.
 
What version of Wing Commander 4 are you running? How are you running it on your computer?
 
oh sorry for posting this in the wrong place oh dear :x

well I am running Wing Commander IV: The Price Of Freedom the 6 CD-Rom disked version and I used the Win95 patch with the win95 update patch.

The system I am using is the following:

YODA

Dell Inspiron 9100 X-treme'
Intel Pentium4 HT 3400Mhz Prescott LGA478 1MB L2 800Mhz FSB
Intel i864PE Dual Channel DDR 400 mobo + 7.1 onboard AC97's sound card, Giga Lan Bios 1.0
2x 512MB PC-3200 DDR 400 Infineon in Dual DDR mode
ATi M18 Mobillity Radeon 9800 AGP 256MB 256Bit DDRII 2.5ns :p
Onboard Intel Sound card AC'97 compliant
Logitech Force3D USB JoyStick

Windows Home Edition + Service Pack2
Omega Catalyst 6.02 based on Catalyst 6.2
DirectX 9.0c

But I'll give the ALT-O thing a shot thanx for the kind replies everyone , it's highly apprciated :)
 
Well The ALT-O key worked Thanx!!!

Man fly'n the good ole Vindicator again after 10 good long years!! :D
Vindicator.jpg
 
Another problem...

Sorry to dig up a dead horse around here... but I have a similar problem as discussed in this thread. Having oh so recently been lucky enough to score on a nearly mind condition WC$ copy, I installed it with glee, and using the patch, got everything working pristine... except the joystick. Only the problem is that even AFTER activating the alt-o menu, my joystick still will not register. I am using a logitec WingMan Attack 2, but no dice. Don't know if anyone can help?
 
Obi-Wan Kenobi said:
Man fly'n the good ole Vindicator again after 10 good long years!! :D
Click to expand...

The background images on the ship in WC3/4 are just amazing, even today.

Pulmonox said:
Sorry to dig up a dead horse around here... but I have a similar problem as discussed in this thread.
Click to expand...

It's better that you continue in a related thread like this rather than start a new one for such a similar issue.

Pulmonox said:
Having oh so recently been lucky enough to score on a nearly mind condition WC$ copy, I installed it with glee, and using the patch, got everything working pristine... except the joystick. Only the problem is that even AFTER activating the alt-o menu, my joystick still will not register. I am using a logitec WingMan Attack 2, but no dice.
Click to expand...

Does the game allow you to turn on the Joystick in the options menu? Does it just not save when you do so? What patch did you use? The Windows 95 patch? You should always supply your system specs, details about what operating system you're running and so on. Is this in Windows XP? Are you using compatibility mode? Did you apply the separate Alternate Joystick Routines patch for WC4?
 
Having some issues myself

CD Version of WC4, copied all the files from the disks and installed the Win95 update and the W2K patch, running in Win95 compatability mode.

Game crashes at the video following your flight first flight with maniac unless compatibility mode is enabled. However once it's enabled the game no longer detects the joystick (a logitech extreme 3dpro). If I disable Compat. mode the game detects the joystick just fine.

I've tried both Win95 and Win98 as the compatible OS and no change. I can't play without it enabled as the game crashes but trying to fly with the keypad is like pulling teeth.

System

MSI K8N Neo2 Plat
Opteron 144 @ 2.8
1gig HyperX pc3200
x850 xt pe @ 600/600
Audigy2 Value

W2K W/ SP4 and all patches
DirectX 9.0c
Omega 3.8.221 based on Cat 6.2
 
Can you just play through that one mission without the joystick and then go back to compatibility mode? There's lots of issues with WC games running in Windows 2000. If you can just skirt past this one mission, it might end up being less work to advance.

It's very possible that you'll end up needing Compatibility Mode at other points in the game though, but the joystick might just not be compatible with that setting. I'd suggest trying to disable the sound card and see if you can get through the mission without crashing. If that works, try different sound card options.
 
TurboGLH said:
Game crashes at the video following your flight first flight with maniac unless compatibility mode is enabled. However once it's enabled the game no longer detects the joystick (a logitech extreme 3dpro). If I disable Compat. mode the game detects the joystick just fine.
Click to expand...
If you have any other USB game controlers plugged in (joystick or gamepads or flight yokes ect. *EVEN* if the joystick you are trying to use is an old analog) Unplug them all so only your keyboard, mouse, and Joystick are plugged in. Make sure it is calibrated in windows game controlers panel and that it is set to the primary controler. Then in WC4 in flight press alt-o and make sure you choose joystick and save the settings.
 
ChrisReid said:
Can you just play through that one mission without the joystick and then go back to compatibility mode? There's lots of issues with WC games running in Windows 2000. If you can just skirt past this one mission, it might end up being less work to advance.

It's very possible that you'll end up needing Compatibility Mode at other points in the game though, but the joystick might just not be compatible with that setting. I'd suggest trying to disable the sound card and see if you can get through the mission without crashing. If that works, try different sound card options.
Click to expand...

I'll give those idea's a try, I don't have an aversion to flying the first mission without a joystick as it's just story filler and if thats a no go I'll try messing with the sound card a bit.

AD said:
If you have any other USB game controlers plugged in (joystick or gamepads or flight yokes ect. *EVEN* if the joystick you are trying to use is an old analog) Unplug them all so only your keyboard, mouse, and Joystick are plugged in. Make sure it is calibrated in windows game controlers panel and that it is set to the primary controler. Then in WC4 in flight press alt-o and make sure you choose joystick and save the settings.
Click to expand...

No other usb controllers installed at all, hell I had to dig the joystick out just to use for WC. I've tried calibrating it before playing and using alt-o and selecting joystick doesn't work, no flight control from the stick and pressing alt-o again shows that keyboard has been reselected (showing that the game doesn't see the joystick even after it's been launched as well as in the setup).
 
I had a similar problem. If i remember right, there had been a joy patch either on this site or another. It might be because wc4 is an older game. IF you have an older joystick that works through a joystick port then might want to see if it works.
 
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