I'm disabled and can't use a regular keyboard to play my old games, is it at all possible to use Windows' On-Screen Keyboard with my GOG titles?

I played Colonization, Pharaoh etc

I know for certain that the latest version of DOSBOX has support for the Windows on-screen keyboard, and all DOS-based games sold here use it. I can't say for sure, however, that all DOS games sold here comes with the latest version. If a staffer doesn't respond to this thread, definitely contact support (they are great at getting back to you, just may take a couple days sometimes).

EDIT: Also, welcome to GOG :)

http://www.dual-ring.net/on-screen-virtual-keyboards-and-gaming/


I don't think many turnbased games or the sim games you mentioned are going to be much trouble with it. Then again, I never tried using an on-screen keyboard while gaming.

For DOS-based games, there shouldn't be a problem. You can run them in a Window in DOSBox, and DOSBox will accept the commands from the virtual keyboard. Some games may require a mouse though, and switching between the in-game mouse and the outside virtual keyboard may be inconvenient. If you can handle a mouse, then I would buy one with additional buttons, and map Alt-Tab to one of them. But I can't tell if that'd work for you without further information.

Also, note that the on-screen keyboard in Windows 7 lacks function keys and a number pad. Some games might require those keys. There are other on-screen keyboards available though, check WBGhiro's link.

Other games should mostly work as well, though there's always a chance that a game might read the keyboard in an unusual way, and doesn't recognize the onscreen one. But those should be exceptions. The problem with other games is rather to get the game and the keyboard displayed, since many games insist on going fullscreen. There are several solutions for this: A two-monitor setup would help; also, there are (somewhat experimental) tools to force games into windowed mode even if they don't support it natively. Google for DxWnd and D3DWindower to find those.

If you're not afraid to tell us more about the type of your disability, and what you can and can't do, we may be able to offer more specific advice. There are many different controllers around, and keys can be remapped in several ways, so we should be able to find good solutions.

I hadn't considered the lack of a number pad, Colonization certainly uses one so thank you for pointing that out.

My disability allows me to hold a mouse (only just) and click the left button with my one good finger, anything else is a major chore.

In that case, Click-n-Type might be the on-screen keyboard of choice. Its layout is completely configurable, and it comes with a handful of pre-designed layouts, one of them containing a number pad. I just checked it with GOG's version of Colonization, and it worked. The number pad keys were recognized, as were all others.

Click-n-Type also allows users to configure their own keyboards (though that apparently requires an additional download of some third party software). But in theory, for games that use just a handful of keys, you could design your own specific keyboard layout for that game, with short distances between the necessary keys, and no unnecessary keys. Hmm. Would foot-controlled or speech-controlled input improve accessibility for you?

There are lots of different solutions available (though many are, unfortunately, rather expensive). You can check this page for a good overview of alternative input options for all kinds of disabilities: JAN Alternative Input Devices. JAN is a US government agency that (among other things) provides technological advice to keep disabled citizens in employment. The page was written by a physician and has lots of links to other overviews, companies, and individual products. It's a very good starting point to see what's available.

If the finger is the only workable option, the perhaps check some software that lets you input morse code with the mouse button, and translates that into simulated keypresses. I haven't checked or used such programs myself though, just read that they exist. Whether that's a better solution than an on-screen keyboard depends on how difficult it is to move the mouse.

Give me an hour or so to check Pharaoh (the other game you mentioned). I just bought it in the promo and I don't think it provides a windowed mode out of the box, I'll see if there's a way to make it work with an onscreen keyboard.

Okay, I tested Colonization and Pharaoh now (see attached screenshots).

Colonization is a DOS game, which means that it can run in a window. It works well with Click-n-Type, since this on-screen keyboard provides a number pad.

Pharaoh has (contrary to what I said before) a windowed mode as well, at least in the version that GOG is selling. However, you need to set your desktop into 16-color mode for that. Or, alternatively, you can use DxWnd to force it into a 16-bit window on a 32-bit desktop, but that requires a bit of fiddling with DxWnd's settings to make it work right. DxWnd is still somewhat experimental. What's more important though, Pharaoh does not recognize the keys sent from Click-n-Type. It _does_, however, recognize keys sent from the in-built onscreen keyboard of Windows 7.

It's probably best to have more than one onscreen keyboard available, this way you can switch between them depending on the game you want to play. There is no downside to having several onscreen keyboards installed, you can even have them active at the same time. They shouldn't interfere with each other.

Also, as seen for Pharaoh, some games require a bit of fiddling to find a well-working setup. There will also be games which cannot be forced into a windowed mode. So, the answer is: In principle it's possible to play GOG games with an onscreen keyboard, but not for every game in the catalogue. If in doubt, feel free to ask. :)

Erm ... if I talk about attached screenshots, it might be useful to actually, well, attach them ...:

Ah, the mouse cursor gets "trapped" in the DOSBox window?

Go to the folder where you installed Colonization. Open the file "dosboxCOL.conf" with Notepad (it's a simple text file, just has an unusual ending). In the file you'll see several blocks of dosbox settings. The first block is titled "[sdl]". At the end of this block, insert a new line with the following text (without the quotes): "autolock=false"

Then start the game. You should now be able to move the mouse freely between the Colonization windows and the on-screen keyboard. This is a false alarm. DxWnd does intercept the draw-to-screen commands from other programs. Usually programs have no reason to do this, but some trojans use this technique to spy out data. Your antivirus program doesn't know that DxWnd has a legitimate reason to intercept those commands, deems its behavior as suspicious, and removes what it sees as a potential threat. Actually DxWnd is pretty safe though - the source code is freely available, and any shenanigans would be noticed quickly.

Most antivirus programs allow you to define "exceptions" or "trusted programs". Perhaps you can do this for DxWnd. You may need to temporarily disable your antivirus so that you can extract the files and put them where you want them, then declare the exception, then re-enable the antivirus.