Most joysticks (2 axis/2 buttons or 2 axis/4 buttons) didn't need drivers, the access method was fairly standard.But some other joysticks (i.e.: Gravis Phoenix) had a lot of buttons and needed some "setup" program to work.

Also, some other "special" joysticks (with more axis/buttons) were widely supported, so you'll have no problems.

Thank you!

Hopefully, you did some research on the SideWinder 3D Pro, because it can be problematic if you are hoping to utilize all of the axes and buttons in particular DOS games. MechWarrior 2 is one of a very small number of games to provide digital mode support as indicated in the SideWinder Wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SideWinder#3D_Pro

Otherwise, you will have to use one of the two analog emulation modes, both of which should be supported by a fairly large number of games.

Descent 3 is actually a Windows game, and even there, the SideWinder 3D Pro has some quirks and problems depending on the type of platform you intend to use it with. The final drivers released by Microsoft for Win9x failed to support machines with FSB speeds of 100 MHz or higher, so many users were obliged to use the emulation modes and lose buttons/axes (or buy a different stick).

Grendel (a user on http://descentbb.net ) has developed a USB adapter that works with the 3D Pro and certain other Microsoft sticks in recent versions of Windows. More information is available in these threads:

http://descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=7090 (Original Thread)
http://descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=12217 (Follow-up Thread)
http://descentbb.com/viewtopic.php?t=3659 (POV Switch Replacement)
http://descentbb.net/viewtopic.php?t=15526 (Summary Thread)
http://code.google.com/p/sw3dprousb/ (Google Code Project)

I put together a set of modified drivers that allow the 3D Pro to be used with gameports in Win9x with machines that have FSB/CPU speeds beyond those supported by the last official Microsoft driver:

MS SideWinder 3D Pro Win9x Drivers

Other folks have put together DOS game-specific fixes for the SideWinder 3D Pro. For example, StormShark created a piece of software called Joyfix for Descent and Descent II to fix a number of issues with the 3D Pro. This Geocities page no longer exists, but you can still view it in the Wayback Machine ( http://www.archive.org/ ):

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2883/joyfix.html

Sorry man that was way to much info 😁 I'm just running an old DOS PC for dos. 486 dx4 100.
I have a high end PC and have no need or want to run dosbox and old joysticks with usb adapters.
MW2 Longbow etc will work just fine.

If the stick wont work for the games I want to play. I will just sell it on ebay. Only cost me 10bucks /shrug
And still have the old CH flight stick to fall back on. My post was about if I need drivers in dos. I don't care about windows.

I did not know Descent 3 was windows. I might end up building a p3-p4 PC just for win98se. So I would then have everything covered. I would rather play the games on the right hardware then run enu's.

Againg thanks for all the info. You too must really love Descent! Now if only Descent 4 was on the horizon.

ManOhManUSA wrote:

Now if only Descent 4 was on the horizon.

you could always play forsaken