DOS game in Win 2000 won't use joystick

[Gamereviewgod]

I'm trying to play NBA Live 95 which is DOS based (still the best version of the game ever produced). Everything installed fine and I fixed some sound trouble I was having, but now it won't recognize my Gravis Pro. Windows knows it's there but the game just sits there. Any help?

[Jorpho]

Hmm...

Have you tried DOSBox (http://doxbox.sourceforge.net)? (I have no idea what the current status of joystick support is in DOSBox.)

Alternatively, doesn't the Gravis Gamepad Pro have a switch on the back that lets you switch from GRiP mode to single player or something?

[Gamereviewgod]

I tried the switch, but it doesn't work either. Oddly, Windows won't recognize it in that mode though either. :hmm:

I was trying to avoid using anything like DOSbox, but I guess I'll have to give it a go. Thanks.

[calthaer]

Remember: USB "Plug n Play" didn't really exist when DOS was king and Duke Nukem' was pulling out his "Hail to the king, baby" quote in all its Army-of-Darkness glory.

If your Gravis Pro is not the kind that fits into the multi-pinned joystick port (aka a MIDI port on the old SoundBlasters), then you probably won't be able to get it working in DOS.

[Gamereviewgod]

I have one in the USB port, but that's not the one I'm trying to use. It's connected to the multi-pin port on the back.

[Jorpho]

Oh, of course, I forgot to ask: Is this Windows XP or something else?

You may also enjoy SDWRGMPD (http://members.aol.com/bretjohn/), which supposedly allows digital gamepads to be used with DOS programs.

[YoshiM]

Wow, had no idea someone wrote a program to get USB devices to work in DOS. Cool.

Anyway, you may have to invoke the "joystick" switch in your Set Blaster line in Autoexec. I remember my Pro Audio Spectrum having that option. You may also need to load a special joystick TSR program in DOS for your particular sound card.

Another thing you could try is see if the game can have commands assigned to different keys on the keyboard. If it can, go to Gravis's web site and I think they should have some DirectX software for game pad configuration. Set up a new profile for that game and assign the D pad and buttons to letter keys. Keep the gamepad software running and then jump back into your game. Assign the commands to letter keys and it *should* work. I did this with my Gravis USB game pad in order to play a DOS emu and it worked fine.

[Jorpho]

That's for digital gamepads, not USB. Not necessarily the same.

(There is at least one driver buried in some corporate website that allows USB hard drives and the like to be used from DOS, but nothing for more sophisticated peripherals, last time I checked. Well, maybe this thing (http://www.catc.com/products/usb4dos.html), but that looks like an embedded systems product for corporations.)

[Jorpho]

Ah, forgot about this one...

http://ntvdm.sourceforge.net/

ntvjoy sounds like exactly what you need.