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Need help getting a GamePort joystick recognised by Windows Vista/7

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First post, by WinVistaIsNotBad

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I've got a SoundBlaster Live! (SB0100) sound card in my Core 2 duo gaming rig which i used to connect 15-pin gameport joysticks to it.

I've decided to try out Vista on that computer; i've already got a working driver for the card and the game port, but since the joystick needs to be added and configured manually in the control panel, I'm stuck because in Vista and newer Microsoft just removed the option to manually add a game controller.

The only things i could think of were
1) Search the web for answers, only to see mentions of USB to gameport adaptors that are unobtanium nowadays
2) Borrow joy.cpl from XP, which worked, however once i try to configure a joystick, some options are missing (notably only up to 4 buttons while mine has 6), and once i press OK, nothing actually gets added to the list of game devices.

I'm kind of at my wit's end now, do i just "down"grade to XP (possibly x64 edition)?

Reply 1 of 8, by ulao

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Bliss-Box.com has a game-port to USB adapter. Note that that will only work with standard game stick that are analog. If you show me a picture I bet I will know if its digital or not.

Reply 3 of 8, by ulao

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There are some specific game-pad digital adapters like Sidewinder. The issue is that there is no standard. digital info is written to either midi, buttons, or analog wires. none of them are the same. Bliss-Box made drivers for Side-winder, hammerhead, and Gravis gamepads way early one. But you will never find 1 adapter for all digital gamepads. You will find adapters that connect GPIO pins and then you can write a driver, but that's a PINA.

When it comes to the analog sticks, its simple: 4 axies, 4 buttons. Simple and Generic. Many adapters existed for this as the OP mentioned, but the only current option that I know of is Bliss-Box.

Reply 4 of 8, by weedeewee

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regarding gameport to USB adapters there still is this Necroware's GamePort to USB adapter for analogue and digital joysticks

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Reply 5 of 8, by sangokushi

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Are you running Vista (x86) 32 bit?

Reply 6 of 8, by WinVistaIsNotBad

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sangokushi wrote on 2026-02-07, 02:50:

Are you running Vista (x86) 32 bit?

No, 64 bit. I kind of gave up on the idea of getting it working via the port on my sound card, but i could also install XP x64. Using 32-bit Windows would leave me with only half of my RAM due to some quirk in the BIOS, so i don't want that anymore. Would it work on XP x64?

Reply 8 of 8, by WinVistaIsNotBad

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sangokushi wrote on 2026-02-16, 21:35:

@cyclone3d posted a link for 64-bit Windows, though it no longer works:
Re: Does PCI-Express sound card with gameport exist?

Not sure if the zip file in that link has what you need.

Quite interesting, although I already have a driver that supports both the sound card and the game port (which show up as 2 separate audio devices in device manager) on a x64 version of Vista or Win7, the only roadblock is the control panel no longer has a way to configure the joystick, and i haven't been able to bypass that

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