swoe: Hey,
does anyone knows whether the game can be played with a (modern) joystick? keyboard is awful in this game ;)
thx!
Short answer: I don't know.
Longer answer: It might, as DOSBox can use input devices. Some of GOG's DOSBox releases work with 360 controllers from 'out of the box' installations of the game, albeit not all buttons mapped (e.g. Wing Commander 1+2). I'd expect you will need to do some tweaking, though, to get it working. You might even need to use something like vJoy to map a modern controller/joystick to a virtual one and have the game read the virtual one (due to how old controllers/joysticks were DirectX and new ones are XInput).
I don't find the keyboard too bad in this game, actually. Managed to do a fair few missions but am stuck on this one where you have to take over a pirate control base. Done the first part of the mission fine many times, sneaking in through the back door to take out their gun turret control station, then heading to the base to join up with the ATL craft to protect their bomber. Thing is, after the initial wave of pirate scouts and a pirate bomber, the mission doesn't end, and no other pirates come near. There are some on the map but finding them is difficult and as the ATL craft don't follow you, you have no help in taking the pirates down when you do eventually find them. It is an optional mission, though, but I really don't want to have to skip it.