Joystick Controls for WC1 and WC2

A

arch 14

Spaceman
Longtime WC fan of WC1, 2, and Armada. Despite owning WKSaga I never played through WCIII. Anyway, I've always used the keyboard up until now, but I've purchased a joystick (to make WCII run better) - but I'm wondering - is there a way to take advantage of the numerous buttons on my joystick (Logitech Attack 3)? Basically the default is movement, guns, missiles - so do I have to use my keyboard for afterburner, etc. (And yes, I do realize that back in the day joysticks weren't quite so complex so I do understand if there's no way to map the controls to the various buttons).

For what it's worth, I'm running WKSaga on Windows XP - no dosbox.

Appreciate the help, and I'm looking forward to playing through the entire series (if I can get my hands on WCIV).
 
Kilrathi Saga uses directx I believe for joystick control. So whatever your stick is shouldn't be an issue.

Logitech almost always ships their sticks with button mapping software though. You should be able to assign any keyboard command to one of your joystick buttons using their software (which will need to run in the background).
 
arch 14 said:
Longtime WC fan of WC1, 2, and Armada. Despite owning WKSaga I never played through WCIII. Anyway, I've always used the keyboard up until now, but I've purchased a joystick (to make WCII run better) - but I'm wondering - is there a way to take advantage of the numerous buttons on my joystick (Logitech Attack 3)? Basically the default is movement, guns, missiles - so do I have to use my keyboard for afterburner, etc. (And yes, I do realize that back in the day joysticks weren't quite so complex so I do understand if there's no way to map the controls to the various buttons).

For what it's worth, I'm running WKSaga on Windows XP - no dosbox.

Appreciate the help, and I'm looking forward to playing through the entire series (if I can get my hands on WCIV).
Click to expand...

With Wing Commander I and II, you can 'double tap' the missiles button on the joystick to engage afterburners, on the second press, hold the button to keep the afterburners engaged, release to stop. I personally find this clunky, and prone to error, and in those games, attempt to only use the joystick for steering and guns, and the keyboard for everything else.

There is nothing worse than trying to fire a missile, hitting both joystick buttons at the same time, and instead of a missile flying off, firing guns, and getting a mistimed burst of speed that sends me careening into my enemy, or worse, a capital ship.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll look into Logitech software (nothing shipped with the stick, but I'm sure there are downloads).

I actually found some third party software that lets me map out all the keys (with a bit of coding) - works pretty well so far.
 
Welcome back!

You should make sure to check out the weekly replay's we've been doing. We started WC1 almost a year ago and will reach the end of WC Prophecy next week.

Good luck with the joystick.
 
I found a Windows-based program a few months back that allows you to map any keystroke combination to any button (or axis motion) on a modern joystick. I know Microsoft Flightstick Pro's come with such software bundled, but this was freeware that works for any joystick or game controller (manufacturer independent). Needless to say, one of the first things I did was set up a Wing Commander profile.

I've only tested it with Standoff so far, but it works fine. I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work with WC1 (provided you're running in a Windows environment), since all it does is detect joystick button presses and issue a keyboard command.

I wish I could give you the link, but I'm at work right now and don't have it. I'll check when I get home, or you could just try to find it yourself (I found it just with a Google search--took about 30 minutes total to find, download, and set up).
 
I can't find the link online, but I found the ZIP file with the program... Is there some way to upload it to the CIC so you (or others) can use it if you like? It's just 300 K, but it's not an image or anything so I don't think I can just post it to the message board as an attachment...

Like I said, it works pretty well with Standoff (and hence probably with SO and WCP). Haven't tried it with KS or any of the earlier games yet...

I've scanned it for viruses with the most recent Kaspersky, and it comes up clean.
 
KrisV said:
Hey,

Sounds interesting. Can you take a screenshot or two of this program?
Click to expand...

Sure. It's not autohotkey ... it seems to be called "Joy2Key".

Here's a screenshot.

I just found it via Google, but if you're having trouble finding it, let me know and I can try to find a way to get it to you, or one of the CIC admins can maybe let me know how one goes about making a non-image file available to other folks...
 

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