static- wrote on 2021-07-25, 01:25:

Is this possible? Or does a USB/BT->gameport dongle exist, where you pair with the dongle and it converts to GamePort ? […]
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Is this possible? Or does a USB/BT->gameport dongle exist, where you pair with the dongle and it converts to GamePort ?

I would love to use my PS4 or Xbox one controller in DOS games (ex. duke1, apogee platformers).

Finally, if pure DOS isn't possible, perhaps through Windows98se, DOS games?

I'm running with a Via C3 Ezra processor, it does have two USB ports.

Cheers

I don't believe anyone has made a gameport to bluetooth bridge for wireless controllers (should be technically possible using something like a Raspberry PI, for example) .

There are things like this for connecting wireless bluetooth controllers over USB https://www.mayflash.com/product/showproduct.php?id=4 (don't know if it would work under Windows 98).

See http://bretjohnson.us/ for USB joysticks/gamepads under pure/real mode DOS

See Dualshock 4 and Windows 98SE? It works! Other controllers tested as well. for USB game controller connectivity options under Windows 98 .

There were schematics to convert the output of a digital Atari 2600 joystick to the analogue signals needed for an analogue game port.

They consist of a few resistors, essentially.
By arranging them in a specific way, the digital d-pad of a 2600 controller appears like an analogue d-pad to the game port.
The fire buttons are digital, anyway.

In combination with some of nowadays available Atari 2600 accessories/home brew projects,
it should be possible to use a wireless or bluetooth controller on a DOS PC.

Anyway, this is just an alternative idea. 😅

Edit: Here it is. Found it here: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/245861-usin … on-on-the-5200/

There's a YT video that covers the interface (at 22min).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKloEnCYTwI&t=1320

Please don't be confused, though.
The friendly dudes demonstrates the
adapter with another adapter that works in reverse. 😉

Of course, there are also other joystick interfaces for PC.
Some emulate a keyboard, others use parallel port.
Champ Kong and other Champ games support some custom Atari-LPT interface, if memory serves.

The parallel port was also very popular from circa '96 to 2004 for interfacing real NES and SNES controllers.
At the time, Snes9x and ZSNES were very popular emulators.

Thanks for the suggestions @darry!

I tried few things, and here's what I found:

1) Bret Johnson's USB DOS tools are very impressive. Unfortunately I could only get a few of my USB controllers to work, and none that I would want to use for gaming. PS3, PS4, PS5/dualsense, Xbox one controllers, 8bitdo BT receiver all didn't work. They would usually get acknowledged/known by USBJSTIK.COM, but would report as "BAD" joysticks. Perhaps their descriptors just need to be populated/mapped? FYI The USB+JOY stack also uses ~49KB of TSR memory, but can be loaded into UPPER memory if you have.

2) You can do *a lot* in Windows 98... DS4 indeed worked out of the box, with default Win98 drivers, and ALL analog & buttons were recognized. Truly amazing. Even a PlayStation 5 / Dualsense controller works! DOS games launched from within windows also detect the joystick (eg. Duke Nukem 1)

3) I have an 8bitdo USB wireless dongle, and that worked too after I put it into DirectInput mode! Using default windows 98 drivers. From there, I could pair a Wireless controller (such as Xbox One) without issue and use it wirelessly!! And yes, it works in DOS too, if you run the game from within Win98.

Kind of wild to be able to play a DOS game like Duke 1 using a modern wireless bluetooth controller! I really like the dpads on the xbox one controller, as well as the DS4/DS5 controllers.

My only wish, is that if there was a way to have the DPAD be the joystick L/R/U/D input instead of the analog. Playing DOS platformer games with a DPAD would be nicer. I wonder if there's some other Win98 app that could re-map that ...

Very cool stuff!

@Jo22 interesting, thanks! Yeah I do recall that.. Ages ago I had made a PS1 <-> Parallel port adapter that worked well in Win98. I can't find that cable unfortunately. I'd have to find the driver as well. This might be a great solution though, as joystick input would likely be mapped to the DPAD (given PS1 controllers did not have analog).

EDIT: A decent workaround has been to use joy2key... in Duke 1 I can assign DPAD/hat to keyboard L/R/U/D.