Have you tried "auto"?

Yes I have. As I said, I tried messing around with the options with different combinations, unfortunately with no success. I don't think my gamepad is nonfunctional. DOSBox recognizes it, Windows recognizes it (and detects the button presses/joystick movements in Control Panel) and it works with certain games and through programs like Joy2Key. There must be something I'm missing.

I have the Logitec Dual Action USB mgman, and it works fine in both Dosbox 0.74 and the latest SVN Daum build. Strange that it doesn't work for you.

What version of Windows are you using? I have Windows 7 64, and the 64-bit version of the Logitec Profiler Software gave me problems with Dosbox - either games couldn't find the gamepad or they acted as if I was using the keyboard instead. If you have the Profiler installed, remove it and try Dosbox again; if you don't have the Profiler, then try another USB gamepad. Dosbox should work with just about any USB game controller that works in Windows.

Are you editing the correct config?

It's on Windows XP, which I use for my old-school gaming. Just very strange that it suddenly stopped working in DOSBox.

I edited the dosbox.conf file, which is what I always do; worked last time.

The default config for Dosbox 0.74 is no longer dosbox.conf but "dosbox 0.74.conf" in your userspace somewhere. In the startmenu 0.74 installer will add an option to edit the config and will use the correct one.
Also the console Window should state which config is being used.
Just saying that THIS could be your problem.

Alright, I'll give it a try and get back to you. Though I don't really think it'll make much difference, I hope it works. I'm experiencing the same problem with a couple of earlier versions of DOSBox I have laying around.

EDIT: No dice. This is frustrating.

Also:

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

I have the Logitec Dual Action USB mgman, and it works fine in both Dosbox 0.74 and the latest SVN Daum build. Strange that it doesn't work for you.

What version of Windows are you using? I have Windows 7 64, and the 64-bit version of the Logitec Profiler Software gave me problems with Dosbox - either games couldn't find the gamepad or they acted as if I was using the keyboard instead. If you have the Profiler installed, remove it and try Dosbox again; if you don't have the Profiler, then try another USB gamepad. Dosbox should work with just about any USB game controller that works in Windows.

This is the only Gamepad I have. It would mean having to buy another one just for DOSBox, as this one works perfectly for anything else.

Test gamepad detection by SDL: http://code.google.com/p/mupen64plus/download … .2.14-win32.zip. Dosbox uses SDL, too.

It gives me this result:

There are 1 joysticks attached
Joystick 0: Logitech Dual Action USB
axes: 4
balls: 0
hats: 1
buttons: 12

That's pretty consistent with what DOSBox status window reads too.

Since dosbox sees the gamepad, and dosbox is calling SDL functions for gamepad use, then a SDL cause seems likely.

One test is running Mednafen which uses SDL. Could verify a version using SDL 1.2.x and see if the gamepad works.

Also, here's an experimental program for inside dosbox to test the gamepad: Writing for dosbox - joystick IO? [JoyMon app & source link].

I just tried the JoyMon program and indeed, my gamepad's button presses/stick movements are not being detected in the program in DOSBox.
What confuses me about the SDL file is that it the gamepad worked 2 years ago and the SDL file wasn't modified/replaced since then. Untouched.

I'll try Mednafen.

EDIT: Mednafen's a pretty cool program. Anyway, not only does it recognize my gamepad, the gamepad works with it. By the way, the name sounds like a prescription drug 😜

You could uninstall dosbox (completely) and test with versions 0.74, then SVN, and finally with ykhwong's build. It doesn't seem like this issue is easily reproduced. 😀

you don't have a mapper file somewhere do you ?

This mapper file is found in the 0.70 folder (attached). Only 0.70 has a mapper file on my hard drive. Looks like uninstalling would have to be the extreme measure, although these folders haven't been touched since 2 years.

That was insightful of qbix. 😀 I noted your gamepad settings in mapper.txt, for example:

1jbutton_0_0 
2jbutton_0_1 
3jaxis_0_1- 
4jaxis_0_1+ 
5jaxis_0_0- 
6jaxis_0_0+

These don't appear mapped to the gamepad functions. Try Control-F1 to map the buttons and joystick so that the mapper file is updated with events.

This is from the wiki:

1You want to swap the y-axis of the joystick because some flightsim uses the up/down joystick movement in a way you don't like, and it is not configurable in the game itself:
2    Start the mapper and click on Y- in the first joystick field. EVENT should be jaxis_0_1-.
3    Click on Del to remove the current binding, then click Add and move your joystick downwards. A new bind should be created.
4    Repeat this for Y+, save the layout and finally test it with some game. 

Alright, I'll try. This is new to me, never done this before.

Nor have I. 😀

just delete the old file

Still nothing... But it gets stranger. I went back and tried again on the debug branch of DOSBox and it works?! No changes to the keymapper either...

Well, this is a partial solution, but I'm still kind of baffled at why it doesn't work on the other versions, including the one that it worked before.