eNforcer wrote on 2025-03-30, 00:07:

Everything is working great except the force feedback, trying to tick the box to enable it just un-ticks itself. I have good batteries. Does it perhaps require USB along with batteries? I do not have the original gameport to usb adapter. I tried the adapter that came with an older logitech wingman controller but Win98 doesn't detect the controller at all.

I own two of these and never figured it out... I had one back then and I don't remember having problems with force feedback.

Are you trying to enable the rumble from the driver within Windows? That's what it sounds like when you say you are ticking it and it's unticking.

I don't have one, but it sounds like the center buttons that other controls would have as start/select are unmappable. One turns rumble on and off, and the other launches the profile software. What happens if you press the top center button that's labeled Rumble On/Off?

3DFX HammerHead is it good ?

SScorpio wrote on 2025-03-30, 14:23:

Are you trying to enable the rumble from the driver within Windows? That's what it sounds like when you say you are ticking it and it's unticking.

I don't have one, but it sounds like the center buttons that other controls would have as start/select are unmappable. One turns rumble on and off, and the other launches the profile software. What happens if you press the top center button that's labeled Rumble On/Off?

3DFX HammerHead is it good ?

I am trying to enable it in windows, yeah. See screenshot. No errors or anything when it unticks, it happens as soon as I click. And yes, I make sure the rumble is toggled on, on the controller itself. It's on and turns red.

eNforcer wrote on 2025-03-30, 17:57:

I am trying to enable it in windows, yeah. See screenshot. No errors or anything when it unticks, it happens as soon as I click. And yes, I make sure the rumble is toggled on, on the controller itself. It's on and turns red.

Are you using NiMH rechargeable batteries? It looks like the battery levels meter there isn't registering. Maybe try some fresh non-rechargeables and see if that changes.

SScorpio wrote on 2025-03-30, 18:07:

eNforcer wrote on 2025-03-30, 17:57:

I am trying to enable it in windows, yeah. See screenshot. No errors or anything when it unticks, it happens as soon as I click. And yes, I make sure the rumble is toggled on, on the controller itself. It's on and turns red.

Are you using NiMH rechargeable batteries? It looks like the battery levels meter there isn't registering. Maybe try some fresh non-rechargeables and see if that changes.

Went out and grabbed some 1.5v Alkalines but still no-go 🙁. Might have to play around with drivers, seems like these things have a strange amount of revisions to them.

You possibly already saw this site linked in the Vogons thread I already posted. But if not, it has several versions of the driver.
https://3dfxarchive.com/hammerhead.htm

Does it list a model number on the back of the controller? You mention not having the GamePort -> USB adapter. But the SV-262 and SV-262A are different revisi0ns with different drivers.

I'd restart with the Sept 1999 driver package as that's the full install and the other things listed are just drivers without the associated apps if you have the non-A model.. So try that first package and then step your way up. Through the versions. The Nov 1999 driver update specifically calls out fixing issues with DirectX 7 and some sound cards.

Otherwise start with the earliest version of the A driver and update from there.

SScorpio wrote on 2025-03-31, 12:31:

You possibly already saw this site linked in the Vogons thread I already posted. But if not, it has several versions of the driv […]
Show full quote

You possibly already saw this site linked in the Vogons thread I already posted. But if not, it has several versions of the driver.
https://3dfxarchive.com/hammerhead.htm

Does it list a model number on the back of the controller? You mention not having the GamePort -> USB adapter. But the SV-262 and SV-262A are different revisi0ns with different drivers.

I'd restart with the Sept 1999 driver package as that's the full install and the other things listed are just drivers without the associated apps if you have the non-A model.. So try that first package and then step your way up. Through the versions. The Nov 1999 driver update specifically calls out fixing issues with DirectX 7 and some sound cards.

Otherwise start with the earliest version of the A driver and update from there.

Thanks for all the help btw. Although going through the sets of drivers never helped in the end 🙁

But, I have an update, I got it to work! I believe the issue was some sort of hardware conflict. I was using my SB Audigy 2 ZS for audio and my onboard audio just for the gameport, because I didn't have the gameport ribbon cable adapter for my ZS, but I eventually found one in my bag of crap. I disabled my onboard audio & gameport in the bios and reinstalled windows (I needed to reinstall anyways) and all appears to be working well off the ZS.

Still find it strange that rumble didn't work through the onboard gameport though, even though the controller otherwise worked fine.

Congrats, since the driver called out there being fixes for different sound cards they are likely doing some funky and your onboard audio just wasn't supported.

It's possible the controls themselves are using a CH or Thrustmaster encoding allowing for more than the standard four axis, four buttons. But otherwise work on a standard Gameport. If you have a PC that just runs DOS, I believe the original Descent supported both protocols, so you could test this if you're intersted.

Then other devices like the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro used MIDI to handle the rumble. Since you had the two ports, it's possible the MPU401 on your Audigy was active so MIDI messages were getting sent on the wrong physical port.