On what OS? If you're running Windows XP ignore this post.

Not exactly sure how this works, but...it seems that on Windows 7 (Vista too I guess) games are not allowed to write to configuration files that are located in Program Files /Program Files (x86), unless you run them as administrator.

A folder named virtualstore (or something like that) is created somewhere inside a hidden folder in your user folder hierarchy with copies of the files that your game has written to at some point. Enable view hidden files, look for the virtualstore folder and try hand editing the config files there instead.

Alternatively try starting it in Windows XP/98 compatibility mode or even reinstalling the game in your documents folder.

Not sure what happens in Vista/7 if Carmageddon 2 is trying to write configuration settings to the registry?

I'm running windows 98SE. No admin rights/UAC needed for that 😀

Haven't checked registry yet. Will check that though.

A small update but still not fixed.

I didn't see anything registry wise that would let me force the joystick enabled.

Messing around and tried deleting the joystick.txt file and once Carm2 is started the joystick is enabled...until you exit the game and the new joystick.txt is created...then once more it will be disabled in the menu. I made a batch file to delete the txt file but still looking for a better option.