Hey GOG, recently after purchasing Earthworm Jim 1 + 2 I've tried getting 2 of my xbox controllers to work with it. They work on all other games but when I try my madcatz or my default xbox controller they control wild and erractically to where I can't even complete the joystick test to unlock callibration options in Earthworm Jim. He moves randomly and will only fire in diagonal directions, thus can't hit all test targets. My guess are the thumbpads are the culprit since they didn't exist at the time Jim was out. I can't figure out a way to access the callibration settings without passing the joystick test in the menu and I searched my drivers to see if there is a way to disable the thumbsticks. Any advice or fixes?

Had the same problem and fixed it, go into the EWJ1 folder and look for a file called EWJ1.conf. Open it in notepad and scroll down to the joystick section. Change timing to false and save. Open the game and your problem should be solved.
EDIT: In fact, finished reading the thread I found this solution in, and it looks like dosbox needs timing to be false to use an XBox 360 pad in any game. Perhaps this should be added as an option for installers of Dosboxed games (i.e. Will you use an Xbox 360 pad? If the answer is yes, the dosbox config file installed has timing=false in it).

I too had the same problem so I switch to my Saitek P2500. It looks like its the Analog. My P2500 was doing the samething as the Xbox 360 so i switch to the Digital and it works fine now.

I also had this problem but somehow manged to get past the calibration screen.
Now the controls work much better with that fix. Thanks.

Does this work for the sequel as well?