dr.schliemann: Any controller properly set up in
Windows should work in
DOSBox as well.
DOSBox features a built-in mapper tool that you can use to remap the keyboard keys to the controller buttons: you can start the mapper tool pressing CTRL+F1 while
DOSBox is running. Follow
this guide or
this tutorial.
neosapian: the keys are mapped and the buttons work. But Redguard doesn't have an in game calibrator. No matter if I use the hat or the stick on my X-box (windows compatible) F7 pad even if I calibrated it already in Windows 10 Pro, Redguard still gets stuck going "downward" in the menu and in the game my character is stuck walking backwards when I don't pull forward on the stick. is there some Redguard fix? I recall when I purchased this game in 1999 it did this even in the native OS. I am using Windows 10 as of the GOG edition today.
I'll try to explain my idea again and in a better way: note that I've never used this method, so I'm not sure if it might work.
When you start the DOSBox key mapper, you are presented with a virtual keyboard and a virtual joystick/joypad: by default the virtual devices' events are bind to the corresponding real keys/buttons on your real devices.
This allows your pad to be properly recognized and used in an old game such as
Redguard, but might cause the issues with its calibration and sensitivity you are experiencing.
My idea is to bind
the axis/button/hat on your real pad to the corresponding DOSBox
virtual keyboard event (i.e. bind D-PAD up direction to the up arrow key), leaving the virtual joystick buttons/axis unbind.
In this way while you are using the pad, the game will assume you are using the keyboard instead possibly solving the sensitivity/calibration related problem.
Another possible solution is to edit the DOSBox configuration file
dosbox_redguard.conf setting "timed=false" in the
[joystick] section:
[joystick]
timed=false