Windows 98 does support USB joysticks / pads 😀

No need for a sound card. And I found a modern Joystick to work much better than the old analogue sticks. They don't work in DOS though.

I'm kindda fond of this SideWinder gamepad (it is not a joystick). Guess the easiest way is a Gameport->USB adapter, but would those work with it? It is not a standard joystick, and does not work in bare DOS (which is why I thought of putting it into the PCI card, it doesn't need to be visible in DOS either way).

Well, I solved it. Gameport devices only EVER get detected if the gameport is on the default 200-207h address range, therefore I can only have one of them enabled and at that address at any given time. The way the gameport is handled is borderline stupid, and is one of the things I'm glad got replaced. So my current setup now is: disable the OPTi gameport (needs to be disabled through its DOS drivers, as the card isn't PnP, so the card won't listen to port 201h) and manually set the Crystal Soundfusion to the 200h-207h address range. In DOS mode, though, all I have to do is enable the OPTi gameport and go to town with older gamepads.

Overall, I don't think this is a very elegant solution, and if the SideWinder gamepad works with an USB adapter, I'd rather have that. Or I could just try another ISA card. I'm pretty sure a SoundBlaster 16+ would not give me trouble (but it comes with the impossibility of finding a combination of wavetable header, good SnR, no hanging note bug and true OPL3, all of which are important for me). I could also try my cheap YMF719, but it doesn't sound as good and has the incoveniently placed wavetable header.

alexanrs wrote:

(...) I could also try my cheap YMF719, but it doesn't sound as good and has the incoveniently placed wavetable header.

Doesn't sound as good as...?

My OPTi 82C929a-based card. This is the cleanest sounding ISA card I have. Practically no hum and no hiss no matter how high I turn either my speakers. Even the amplified output isn't atrocious.

alexanrs wrote:

Well, I solved it. Gameport devices only EVER get detected if the gameport is on the default 200-207h address range, therefore I can only have one of them enabled and at that address at any given time. The way the gameport is handled is borderline stupid, and is one of the things I'm glad got replaced. So my current setup now is: disable the OPTi gameport (needs to be disabled through its DOS drivers, as the card isn't PnP, so the card won't listen to port 201h) and manually set the Crystal Soundfusion to the 200h-207h address range. In DOS mode, though, all I have to do is enable the OPTi gameport and go to town with older gamepads.

Overall, I don't think this is a very elegant solution, and if the SideWinder gamepad works with an USB adapter, I'd rather have that. Or I could just try another ISA card. I'm pretty sure a SoundBlaster 16+ would not give me trouble (but it comes with the impossibility of finding a combination of wavetable header, good SnR, no hanging note bug and true OPL3, all of which are important for me). I could also try my cheap YMF719, but it doesn't sound as good and has the incoveniently placed wavetable header.

Get a Gravis Multiport it has 2 gameports and 4 contoller ports for grippads

The problem isn't that I want multiple gameport joysticks, but rather me trying to avoid the stuttering the SideWinder causes. Anyway, it works now.

alexanrs wrote:

Gameport devices only EVER get detected if the gameport is on the default 200-207h address range, therefore I can only have one of them enabled and at that address at any given time.

Is this true? I have 3 sound cards in my win98 system, each with a gameport, and I can only get one to detect in the game port control panel. It too is the port using 200-207h.

AWE64 Gold, Audigy, and SQ2500. The SQ2500 claims the 200-207h range. Device manager says that I can not change it (therefore I can not disable it to enable others). Do I just accept this as part of life?

You have no choices there with the gamepad.

As far as the sound stuttering etc. goes, it has to do with how analog input works on gameport. A write to gameport restarts 4 timers, the timers expire according to joystick position and the CPU must poll the timers until they expire and count cycles while at it. The counted cycles determine the position. This uses up all the CPU time during the polling operation and can lead to all sorts of issues. You can enable "poll with interrupts enabled" in the control panel, you will get much more erratic joystick position but there should be less stutters and whatnot with other things.