Yeah, they do exist.
Saitek X6-33M for example…

Another example is InterAct PC Power Pad Pro.

Also 3dfx / InterAct Hammerhead: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3DFX-Hammerhead-FX-G … e-/254127815459

Any gameport joystick/gamepad will be 100% DOS compatible and will work without any drivers. They all work on the same principle.

OMG Thank you!! For some reason I wasn't getting to these by way of Google searching. I'm all over that 3dfx one!!

HanJammer wrote:

Any gameport joystick/gamepad will be 100% DOS compatible and will work without any drivers. They all work on the same principle.

Sorry, but that isn't exactly true. Game pads with lots of buttons require drivers. The gameport is only hard wired to show 4 axis and 4 buttons (two joysticks with two buttons each). Anything beyond that requires software (drivers), and DOS software for this purpose is not as common as you'd expect.

I don't have one myself, but this comment about the Hammerhead states that it only supports Windows 9x and I can't find any mention of DOS drivers for it:
3DFX HammerHead is it good ?

I can't speak for the other controllers but they look fairly complicated to me, so likely require software to use most of their funcitons. The PC PowerPad Pro may work as a standard gameport device with the switches set a specific way, but the most it can possibly utilize without drivers in DOS would be 4 axis and 4 buttons.

The exception to the rule would be Gravis GrIP supported games when using a Gravis Gamepad Pro, but personally haven't played any GrIP games, and I don't think any had analog sticks.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

I can't speak for the other controllers but they look fairly complicated to me, so likely require software to use most of their funcitons. The PC PowerPad Pro may work as a standard gameport device with the switches set a specific way, but the most it can possibly utilize without drivers in DOS would be 4 axis and 4 buttons.

That is correct, still they are 100% DOS compatible and don't require any drivers for basic functionality and 4 (2) axes and 4 buttons is what he was asking for. Additional features may or may not work under DOS (many times they are just turbo fire/auto fire buttons and stuff like that - but of course there are joys which exploit some weird gamport hax for some features).

I have Logitech Wingman Extreme 3D joystick which has 11 buttons and 4 axes… I can check out what's working...

I fear Mr. Ozzuneoj may be right because I just received my Hammerhead that i dropped $50 on and DOS ISN'T SEEING IT!
It only installed into Win98 WITH A DRIVER - and it does work with said driver WITH WINDOWS GAMES - but I greatly prefer my Xbox 360 gamepad for Windows 9x games so that's of no use to me. I wanted this thing for pure DOS games like Descent 2 that cannot see a modern gamepad. Before installing a driver, I tried telling Windows to look for a basic 2-axis 4-button joystick on the gameport and it said "not connected." I tried running Descent 2 from within Windows, both before and after installing the driver that made the Hammerhead work IN WINDOWS, and also launched Descent 2 from pure DOS mode. It always says NO JOYSTICK FOUND. Is there any way around this or have I just wasted $50?

HanJammer wrote:

Another example is InterAct PC Power Pad Pro.

image;s=644x461.jpg

Any gameport joystick/gamepad will be 100% DOS compatible and will work without any drivers. They all work on the same principle.

I have a Nintendo 64 version of this gamepad

AngieAndretti wrote:

Is there any way around this or have I just wasted $50?

Maybe this will work: SDWRGMPD from http://bretjohnson.us/

Finally got around to trying the DOS Sidewinder driver. It was a good idea, thanks, but it refuses to load the driver: "Sidewinder not present or incorrectly configured."

At this point I'd sure love to hear from anyone who can personally say that they've used Device X successfully in pure DOS-mode.
Any of the devices originally suggested would be acceptable but I'm not wanting to buy them all to see if I can get any of them working.

At this point I'm tempted to try buying an old Sidewinder joystick and soldering its PCB connections to the individual pot's and buttons of some easy-to-work-with handheld gamepad! I'm actually kinda surprised nobody has produced something like that for us retro gamers yet - even if it were based on something really simple that wasn't individually patented like a generic one-stick two-button old school DOS joystick! If someone could reproduce the PCB for something like that and 3D print it into a handheld controller, I'd be SO into that!!

AngieAndretti wrote:

Finally got around to trying the DOS Sidewinder driver. It was a good idea, thanks, but it refuses to load the driver: "Sidewin […]
Show full quote

Finally got around to trying the DOS Sidewinder driver. It was a good idea, thanks, but it refuses to load the driver: "Sidewinder not present or incorrectly configured."

At this point I'd sure love to hear from anyone who can personally say that they've used Device X successfully in pure DOS-mode.
Any of the devices originally suggested would be acceptable but I'm not wanting to buy them all to see if I can get any of them working.

At this point I'm tempted to try buying an old Sidewinder joystick and soldering its PCB connections to the individual pot's and buttons of some easy-to-work-with handheld gamepad! I'm actually kinda surprised nobody has produced something like that for us retro gamers yet - even if it were based on something really simple that wasn't individually patented like a generic one-stick two-button old school DOS joystick! If someone could reproduce the PCB for something like that and 3D print it into a handheld controller, I'd be SO into that!!

Very cool idea!

In the meantime, I did find this:
https://www.gumtree.com/p/computer-joysticks/ … odem/1287322518

It at least says it is MS-DOS compatible.

I don't have any of these gamepads either, but I suspect the ones that have analog adjusters (little sliders above and to the side of the analog stick) are probably MS-DOS compatible without drivers, at least with some of their buttons enabled. It seems logical that they would only put these there if there was no software way of doing the same thing, which would mean that the analog stick is connected directly to the gameport. This is just speculation, but it would also go along with the Hammerhead controller not being MS-DOS "gameport" compatible.

Quick Shot had a analoque game pad style joy stick P/N OS191.

Icolor Joypad-Pro Leadership

This gamepad, although it looks modern, is analog and is easily found in Brazil, cheap, new and in the box. It is compatible with Gravis drivers. It is recognized as a four button control, A, B, X, Y. In the box it is written that to work all buttons you need to add it as "analog gravis joystick pro". I tested with the gravis calibration utility in DOS, it was recognized and worked ok with Mortal Kombat DOS set to 4 buttons, already in Windows 98 I couldn't make it detect yet, in Windows XP it was detected as a 4 button gamepad.

they are not plug n play. you have to manually install them.

Warlord wrote:

they are not plug n play. you have to manually install them.

I could not detect it by using hardware add in Windows 98 nor by adding the gravis control to the controls, but DOS is working normal with gravis DOS drivers. I suspect it is because my card is a Live, I have to test with a native ISA DOS card.

HanJammer wrote:

Ozzuneoj wrote:

I can't speak for the other controllers but they look fairly complicated to me, so likely require software to use most of their funcitons. The PC PowerPad Pro may work as a standard gameport device with the switches set a specific way, but the most it can possibly utilize without drivers in DOS would be 4 axis and 4 buttons.

That is correct, still they are 100% DOS compatible and don't require any drivers for basic functionality and 4 (2) axes and 4 buttons is what he was asking for. Additional features may or may not work under DOS (many times they are just turbo fire/auto fire buttons and stuff like that - but of course there are joys which exploit some weird gamport hax for some features).

I have Logitech Wingman Extreme 3D joystick which has 11 buttons and 4 axes… I can check out what's working...

Test with Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 and you will see that it is not any gameport control that works, it has to be analog and have 2 or 4 buttons. The sidewinder gamepad for example has problems with MK. In the Sidewinder gamepad box it says "Works only with Windows 95 games and MS-DOS based games that run within Windows 95.

I spotted this out thrifting a few days ago and thought of this thread. No idea about DOS compatibility, but it might be worth looking into. It almost certainly needs the driver package for full functionality (it has trigger buttons on the front too, so too many buttons.) The driver package isn't on Genius's website anymore and the only sites that purport to have it are shonkware distributors, so no idea.

I didn't buy it because I don't need it, but it seems like a cool pad. Very solid.

AngieAndretti wrote:

Finally got around to trying the DOS Sidewinder driver. It was a good idea, thanks, but it refuses to load the driver: "Sidewinder not present or incorrectly configured."

Just for the record: The Sidewinder and all the other models from MS, also Logitech "digital" joysticks etc. do not utilize the old way of using port 201h. They use the MIDI interface of the joystick port instead. That's why they don't work in DOS normally (unless they offer some compatibility mode with reduced axes/buttons) and they require a sound card that actually has MIDI on the game port.

I will try to get a 2 joypad-pro leadership on eBay. I do not know if it pays for you to import this with so many other options closer, but for those who want a gamepad with differentiated look and most importantly working on ms-dos with gravis drivers, the first company to launch a gamepad for dos, can be a Good item to collect or use as they are new.It is an item for very old games. For DOS-era Windows games there are other better options.

xjas wrote:

I spotted this out thrifting a few days ago and thought of this thread. No idea about DOS compatibility, but it might be worth l […]
Show full quote

I spotted this out thrifting a few days ago and thought of this thread. No idea about DOS compatibility, but it might be worth looking into. It almost certainly needs the driver package for full functionality (it has trigger buttons on the front too, so too many buttons.) The driver package isn't on Genius's website anymore and the only sites that purport to have it are shonkware distributors, so no idea.

CameraZOOM-20191007201026473.jpg

CameraZOOM-20191007200952862.jpg

I didn't buy it because I don't need it, but it seems like a cool pad. Very solid.

A friend of mine had this exact gamepad, the "ring" around the d-pad is functional and can be used as a wheel in driving games. It was a cool pad for w98 but I highly doubt that it function in DOS.

I still have the "lite" version, with no analog stick or ring, it's a nice budget pad although a bit too "toyish".

Can confirm the Saitek X6-33M to be DOS compatible out of the box. As expected, the buttons and axis are distributed through player1 and player2. (2 axis and 4 buttons each.)
I played through Tie Fighter with X6-33M this year.