Hi there. I'm fairly new to PC gaming, but this year I developed an insatiable craving for old, late 90s first person shooters that I missed out on back when they were new. Seeing GOG has Duke Nukem, Blood, Redneck Rampage and Shadow Warrior, I bought a wired Xbox 360 controller with the hopes of getting to play these games, as I'm primarily a console gamer, but as I research more on it, it seems you can't just pick up and play these old games even with an Xbox controller and compatible games.

My question is this: If I buy Duke Nukem, Blood, Redneck Rampage and Shadow Warrior, as they are listed here to be compatible with my Windows 7, are they automatically compatible and mapped for my Xbox 360 controller, or do I have to buy this xpadder program I keep seeing to make them work?

I haven't been able to find this answer through Google or any other method, and no, I'm not interested in mouse and keyboard gameplay (that's why I never got into PC gaming in the first place), I just want to know if GOG's versions of these games are automatically compatible with the Xbox controller, or if I have to get xpadder too.

Thank you!

I've gotten Duke Nukem to work but it will only see the thumbstick as a valid axis and it won't see the dpad on the controller. I have a Logitech F310 gamepad and it works wonderfully, you can switch between XBOX 360 mode and Logitech Dual Action mode.

I prefer to play with my Xbox 360 controllers too, wireless and wired, because they are really easy to use, they're practically the default controller on PC and supported by almost any modern game that uses a gamepad, and quite compatible with old games too. I'm also a veteran user of Xpadder. Also, the Xbox 360 is one of my favorite consoles (that is the reason of that "360" in my avatar... :P) and a console gamer too until almost just 3 years ago, when I switch to PC definitively, for good.

As for your question, the controller should be detected by older games running under Windows XP and above, if it is properly installed with its official drivers. Although, some older games can't detect the triggers and/or the right stick, and sometimes the buttons layout is different of how it should be. For that, if the game support the customization of the buttons, then that's easy to fix. But when the buttons can't be changed or are not detected, that's when Xpadder enters in the scene.

There are two ways of improving the control with Xpadder:

• Disabling completely the gamepad support in the game and creating a new profile in Xpadder to emulate the KB+M control (like in Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver, TES IV: Oblivion, and others...) to use the 100% of your controller.

• Creating a new profile with Xpadder to just add the missing actions to the undetected buttons without disabling the gamepad (if it was detected properly). A complement to the layout instead of a replace using the keyboard keys or mouse with those actions.

I remember there was a free version of Xpadder some years ago, -now probably a really old version-, with the basic functions to create a working profile. Although, the newer versions probably run better in the background and have advanced and better options to tweak the control. I never used the free version, so I can't really tell. But Google should help you find it to try it for yourself.

Controller setup first has to do with the game. Some games don't allow for controller support. That's when you have to use third-party programs like the aforementioned xpadder to make your 360 controller replicate kb/m functions.

I'm not sure but I don't think Duke Nuekm 3D supports controllers offically. If it does it probably wouldn't support the 360 controller since it predates the 360.

Excellent, now I'm getting somewhere.

So I guess my question now is do these four games I listed have decent compatibility for the Xbox 360 controller or options to change the controls? The Duke Nukem, as a poster above indicated, does not seem to do well with it, and I haven't tried the Atomic Edition of it yet.

I have Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition (a newer version of the Atomic Edition) and Shadow Warrior Classic Redux (both on Steam), and none of those have native controller support. I had to use Xpadder and create a profile to play them with the controller. After that, everything worked really well. Although the control in those games, even using the keyboard, is very sensitive, so I had to reduce that with Xpadder to improve the control using my gamepad.

Yeah, this is my number one complaint about these old games. Despite offering gamepad support originally, getting them to work in today's environment is often so frustrating you just want to quit.

Duke Nukem, ROTT, Redneck Rampage, as well as MANY, in fact MOST, shooters had built in native gamepad support. But for whatever reason won't recognize the hardware today even when it's a perfect match. What I mean by that, Stargunner (one of the free games here at gog) offers built in native support for the SNES controller (download the game and go into settings and see for yourself) and I happen to have a USB SNES Controller, have been playing Zelda classic with it.

Nope, won't do a damn thing on Stargunner.

Good luck to you.

IMO, your only real hope is to use a software to map controller keys to the keyboard and hope like hell said software will run nice with DOSBOX and whatever game(s) you're shooting for.

I played games from the early 90's on with gamepads and controllers and joysticks and it was always easy and now.... a pain in the ass.

My number one complaint about games here at gog. They get them to run, but they ain't exactly running like they did originally, because using Redneck Rampage as an example, me and my son spent probably hundreds of hours playing that, with a controller, that was as easy as plugging in and selecting it under settings. Good luck with that today with the same game and even the same damn gamepad/controller.

Heh, I missed this at first. +1 for you sir or madam. I'd give you +1000 if I could. Neither am I interested in such awkwardness and discomfort when study after study after study shows what humans catch on to easier and find much more comfortable.

DOS-era games (and some early Windows games) had very limited controller support due to various technical limitations; the most advanced controllers at the time were not universally supported, and even they had fewer buttons and axes than a modern controller. Your physical controller doesn't really matter since the limitations are inherent to the games themselves.

You can use the DOSBox Mapper (Ctrl+F1) to work around in-game controller limitations but don't expect the seamless experience you get with games that are built for modern controllers from the start. DOSBox is not an exact replica of a DOS-era machine. Games don't see your real controller, instead seeing whatever model has been set in the DOSBox configuration. The common models DOSBox supports should be sufficient for almost all games.

Exotic controllers didn't necessarily work that well under real DOS either; Stargunner's v1.1 patch dropped support for Sega and SNES controllers due to issues with the adapter. DOSBox's joystick support is mostly very compatible but for some games you might need to adjust the joystick model and timing in the DOSBox configuration file; a more appropriate model will ensure the biggest number of buttons and axes are available (assuming the game supports it) and the timing setting resolves various problems such as the controller not calibrating correctly in-game or moving by itself.

There isn't really much GOG (or the DOSBox team) can do about this since DOS controller support is subject to various technical limitations of the era.

Yeah, I at least have it running on a functional level in DOSBOX, but it's not a flawless experience I admit. Even my N64 controller when it was broken gave me a better response with the N64 port than this.

So basically, I just need to get xpadder, correct?

Yeah... There are similar programs, like the free but limited Joy2Key, or others more expensive programs. Instead, search for the free but unsupported version of Xpadder on Google. It shouldn't be hard to find, and probably it will help you anyway. If you like it, you can buy it later. In my experience, it was the best solution.

I did find the freeware version of xpadder, 5.3 I think, but it wouldn't open on Windows 7, and I'm personally not tech savvy enough to know how to get it to open from there.

Strange... You can try via Compatibility Mode (right click over the EXE —> "Properties" —> "Compatibility" —> set compatibility to an older Windows). Maybe that will work and start the program.

Got it and... got it! Much improved now!

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Now I just need to edit it some more to get it working really well. Thanks again!