DOS Games Discussion

So I picked the game back up about a year ago. I used to always play this game with a Thrustmaster joystick back in the day. Now that all of that is gone, I have a Logitech 3D Extreme joystick and am trying to play the game. When you are in space and you move the joystick ever so slightly, it moves a whole 4" and in a dogfight, it becomes this thing of you going from side to side and up and down to try to get lined up with the enemy.

Isn't there some kind of commands, or parameters we can set in DosBox for joysticks for this kind of problem?? I mean, it's crazy trying to play the game when you don't even have good control over the flight stick. I asked on Reddit and was told version 74.3 is probably going to be the last DosBox version. So if there's no parameters to set for joystick, does this mean what we have is it? I sure hope not because DosBox can definitely be improved upon.

There are some parameters for the joystick, e.g. setting for how the stick is polled - I usually do this with a frontend D-Fend Reloaded.

Here is a command list: https://www.dosbox.com/DOSBoxManual.html#Joystick

As for other versions, there is DOSBox-X: https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/Guide%3ASetti ... %E2%80%90X

Rwolf wrote: ↑ There are some parameters for the joystick, e.g. setting for how the stick is polled - I usually do this with a frontend D-Fend Reloaded.

Here is a command list: https://www.dosbox.com/DOSBoxManual.html#Joystick

As for other versions, there is DOSBox-X: https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/Guide%3ASetti ... %E2%80%90X

Yeah I'd seen another person on Reddit mention DosBox-X which I use for Printmaster from 1985. I print the calendars for my boss at work to use, and the blocks are big enough to write in. She gets a lot of use out of those old calendars lol. I didn't think DosBox-X had much game support, I'd thought DosBox-X was more like Microsoft 2004 Server edition OS, in other words, in my mind, I was under the assumption DosBox-X wasn't for games as much as regular DosBox is.

I looked at the command list link you provided, that's the same information as the DosBox manual information. I need something on the joystick that defines sensitivity. On DosBox 0.74-3, I'm not finding any option for sensitivity. I'll have to take a look at DosBox-X at some point to see if the joystick has a sensitivity setting. Because that's literally where I'm at. In DosBox 0.74-3, the joystick connects fine, it calibrates fine, but if you just tap the stick to move, you end up moving a lot more than you wanted to.

Did you try the 'timed' stick polling? That is what I usually have to change in these cases.

Quotes from the DOSBox manual linked above:

"If controller is working properly outside DOSBox, but doesn't calibrate properly inside DOSBox, try different 'timed' setting in DOSBox's configuration file."

" CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
See if it still happens if you disable the joystick emulation, set joysticktype=none in the [joystick] section of your DOSBox configuration file. Maybe also try unplugging any joystick/gamepad. If you want to use the joystick in the game, try setting timed=false and be sure to calibrate the joystick (both in your OS as well as in the game or the game's setup program)."

I wonder if it can be affected by the CPU cores, but I have not played Privateer on a multi-core machine yet.

Rwolf wrote: ↑ Did you try the 'timed' stick polling? That is what I usually have to change in these cases.

Is that what option I need to change for sensitivity? I haven't tried that because I figured if there was a sensitivity setting/option in DosBox, it would be straightforward/explained in the manual which it isn't.

Rwolf wrote: ↑ Quotes from the DOSBox manual linked above:

"If controller is working properly outside DOSBox, but doesn't calibrate properly inside DOSBox, try different 'timed' setting in DOSBox's configuration file."

" CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
See if it still happens if you disable the joystick emulation, set joysticktype=none in the [joystick] section of your DOSBox configuration file. Maybe also try unplugging any joystick/gamepad. If you want to use the joystick in the game, try setting timed=false and be sure to calibrate the joystick (both in your OS as well as in the game or the game's setup program)."

I wonder if it can be affected by the CPU cores, but I have not played Privateer on a multi-core machine yet.

I'm not sure if CPU cores would affect joystick movement. Well, when you have Privateer running in DosBox, say you set the setting to Pentium (whatever the DosBox option is for that) Privateer would see a single core Pentium would it not? And then whatever cycles you set it to. What if you set the affinity to just zero, or would that mess up DosBox? That is a very interesting question you pose, and is definitely worth looking into.

What I figure from the timed=true or timed=false in the joystick section, is that the polling is done with fixed timed intervals (timed=true) or as fast as possible (timed=false), which I know affects some games joystick sensitivity. (Cannot try Privateer at the moment, I have managed to hide my CD:s somewhere I can't recall now.)

Rwolf wrote: ↑ What I figure from the timed=true or timed=false in the joystick section, is that the polling is done with fixed timed intervals (timed=true) or as fast as possible (timed=false), which I know affects some games joystick sensitivity. (Cannot try Privateer at the moment, I have managed to hide my CD:s somewhere I can't recall now.)

I'll have to play with that timed setting for Privateer and see what results I get, because there's other games it affects as well that use joystick.

I've just been buying these games on GOG. I still have the original CD's, but I figure instead of trying to find something that I might not ever find, if it's on GOG for $4.99 or $7.99, I'll just get it at that point.