USB and MS Dos

[Farzone]

Reading and responding to the thread “Kilrathi Saga joystick problems” piqued my curiosity, so I did a google search on “USB devices” with a search within results of “MS Dos”. Got 21,300 hits.

Found this at www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000298.htm

Issue:USB devices not working or being detected in Safe Mode or MS-DOS.

Cause:No legacy support.

Solution:For a USB device to work in a Real Mode environment (MS-DOS) or Safe mode USB legacy emulation drivers must be installed or Legacy USB support must be enabled in CMOS.
Some computer / motherboard manufacturers may have "Legacy USB support" in CMOS and by default this option is generally disabled. If this option is present ensure that it is enabled if you wish to enable Legacy USB support.

Note: Generally this option will only support Keyboards / Mice without additional drivers. Other USB devices such as printers, CD-ROM drives or any other devices may also require additional DOS drivers to be fully detected.
If you are unable to locate this option in CMOS or to obtain legacy drivers for your USB device contact the computer or hardware manufacturer.

and THIS at www.theinquirer.net/?article=10215

Yes, there are USB drivers for DOS...

there´s more…., lots more….

The only USB device I have is a digital camera. However those of you who are the proud posessors of both WC games ( MS Dos versions ) and a USB joystick/throttle/whatever, may be interested in pursuing this further.

 

[cff]

The problem is harder then it seems - except for keyboards ALL devices you mentioned - mice, CD drives, scanner, printer,... all use DRIVERS. So you only need a USB driver for dos.
However in the case of joysticks they are driver less. So you'd have to do a wrapper. No big deal IF game programmers would use the BIOS to query the stick. Wrote such wrappers myself for keyboard/stick and mouse/stick. Unfortunately they only worked about 1/3rd of games. The rest directly queries the hardware on port leverl. So you'd basically have to do a more or less complete OS emulation (like DOSBOX) to get around that one...