Using XBOX 360 Controller with DOSBox

[Dime333]

I posted this in the RL forums, but I figured there are more active people here that I bet can answer this one.

 

I'm using an X-arcade controller and at the moment I have to set up each of my MS-DOS games with AHK Keymapping since most games won't let you redefine keys. I was just wondering if you can connect an XBOX 360 controller and just use it out of the box so to speak. Can you just start a game and select joystick input and play?
In that case maby I can use the XBOX 360 emulator software with my X-arcade and I won't have to create AHK profiles for each game.

[Spawk]

As for using a controller "out of the box" on dosbox games. Short answer is no, dosbox being a virtual environment, it doesn't have access to anything in your real windows.

 

Long answer: Tonnes of games simply don't have joystick support. Back in the day, there was no "I have my joystick configured for dos". Joysticks were plugged into your soundcard and enabling them for a game usually occured by running that specific games setup.exe which mainly consisted of configuring your soundblaster. The eXodos set may have done a lot of this work for you if you're using that set but I can't either confirm or deny whether any dInput or xInput controller will work with the games that do have support for joysticks. I haven't really delved into it yet, I got it during the 12 days of christmas. Spent more time than I cared to getting it down to about 700 titles, loaded 3-4 through RL/HS to make sure they work and then put it on the back burner. I want to get to it again , it's just low on the priority list right now.

 

Like you said though, most games don't support redefining keys, and many more games don't even have joystick support so you'll definitely want a keymapper/profiler of some sort to deal with the WASD/arrow key only games and such. If you are on a tankstick already, I don't see much sense in emulating a joystick just to convert it back to keystrokes. You are probably doing it a much faster/direct way with ahk.

 

If your talking about a joystick that is recognized as such in windows... ah see, now I get to do the "plug" I tried to do in your other thread, LOL.  This is where joytokey (or xpadder) properly configured with RL really made my life easier. It's essentially the same thing though, instead of making ahk profiles, your making jtk profiles (in RL). Either way you'll have to make a profile for each game. I have no idea how hard it is to make a ahk profile or what's involved, so your call on which is easier there.