Had one back in the days, was very happy with it, actually so much so I upgraded to a USB version later on ..

IIRC it had a pass through game port connection, so one could chain an extra device on it

Some (maybe all?) of them are digital-only and will not work in DOS without SDWRGMPD from http://www.bretjohnson.us/ .

I reckon you should just go with whatever gamepad you can find.

note that the sidewinder is officially unsupported under real DOS, you'd need to use it in 9x to work with DOS games. there's some unofficial TSRs around now but i can't say how well they work.

as for the pad itself, it's about passable... i'd be surprised if there was anything that much better around back than as the market was filled with junk, including the gravis gamepad.

auron wrote on 2020-07-29, 21:44:

note that the sidewinder is officially unsupported under real DOS, you'd need to use it in 9x to work with DOS games. there's some unofficial TSRs around now but i can't say how well they work.

as for the pad itself, it's about passable... i'd be surprised if there was anything that much better around back than as the market was filled with junk, including the gravis gamepad.

Agree ! The pad itself was (like Sidewinder joysticks) built well and no one had much better built hardware at the time. They were designed for Win9x as mentioned but will work in SOME games if you load a 3rd party DOS driver.

If d-pad gaming is the goal, I can recommend the Quickshot Command Pad.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-07-29, 21:39:

Some (maybe all?) of them are digital-only and will not work in DOS without SDWRGMPD from http://www.bretjohnson.us/ .

I reckon you should just go with whatever gamepad you can find.

There is (at least) one sidewinder gamepad that supports digital and analog D-pad (the sidewinder pro: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/39864/ … r-Game-Pad-Pro/), however it's not a good d-pad in any of the usage cases, so that gamepad sucks. I have one, and have used it maybe like 2 hours total since bought it like 20 years ago.

whats a good gameport gamepad?

Warlord wrote on 2020-07-30, 04:43:

whats a good gameport gamepad?

Different gamepads are good for different things – especially if you're interested in using something that has Windows drivers. I don't think there's really any point in stressing out over finding one particular model or another.

I have an InterAct PC ProPad 4 stuck in a drawer which I think is pretty neat in that it has an actual +-pad. (I think Nintendo had a patent on those that prevented people from copying it for a long time.)
https://www.amazon.com/InterAct-Propad-SV-231 … e/dp/B00Y74NDK4

+1 for the InterAct PC ProPad 4 it's the best one I've found so far

Thanks all - food for thought
Does the propad 4 need dos drivers or do dos games just recongise it when you opt for joystick?

No driver it just works. There's on one ebay for like 12bux right now too

Thanks, went for the propad - £5 on ebay - not exactly a huge investment if doesn't pay off 😉
Thanks the advice

Talking about DOS gamepads, I bought that one atleast a year ago:

Anyone know if the Sidewinder works with Quake, Doom, or Duke 3D in pure DOS mode with the mentioned driver?

Do any controllers allow for shoulder button strafe in DOS?

For anyone wondering I’ve not been able to get the Sidewinder game pad working in DOS even with the DOS driver mentioned earlier.

It does work quite well in Windows with GLQuake however!

I know this is an old thread, but yes, the Sidewinder gamepad will allow for shoulder button strafe in DOS. You will first have to load the SDWRGMPD driver and then use the JOYKEYS program to map the keyboard keys to the gamepad's d-pad and buttons. The JOYKEYS manual is a bit on the technical side, but I was able to figure out the program after a few tries. The gamepad has worked on every game I've tried in DOS except Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. That game is doing something with the inputs that seems to interfere with JOYKEYS.