You really shouldn't be doing that. Of course, I did give up on Windows ages ago, so maybe they made that safer somehow.

Disconnect all your USB devices. The game is possibly reading a USB device like a camera or something as a controller. This has happened to me in a few games.

UnashamedWeeb, thanks, I'll try that, supposing that for any reason it thinks that the gamepad is in use even after I've unplugged it, but I guess stranger things have happened. As for the keyboard, I didn't realize there was a tester for that too, but I'll try both.

OldFatGuy, well I've never had that problem, and I'm still not sure why if there was a problem with the controller, it would only happen for some games, but not all of them. But I could check the calibration.

Darvond, I don't see how it would be unsafe. If you're worried about malware, I keep Windows air-gapped.

paladin181, I've already disconnected the controllers, and I don't really have anything else in USB except the keyboard and mouse.

EDIT: UnashamedWeeb, those are both online? Forget it; my Windows is not allowed on the Internet! MS can't be trusted.

It might be also some other USB device, or even an integrated device, that is for some reason incorrectly recognized as an input device, either by Windows or the game. Or even just some driver.

In this discussion:

https://www.gog.com/forum/blood_omen_legacy_of_kain/veroks_gl_wrapper_patch/post20

for someone else it was the freaking USB webcam that was causing the issue. Not a gaming controller.

In my case that wasn't helpful because if it indeed was my webcam, I couldn't disconnect it as I was playing on a laptop that has an integrated webcam.

However, in my case, reinstalling Windows 10 fixed the issue for some reason (I reinstalled it in spring 2023 I think, so quite a long time after that discussion). Which leads me to believe it was some kind of USB driver issue, or some application or utility I had installed at some point somehow affected it. It needed a reinstallation anyway, it had had that same Windows installation since late 2018. Time to start from a clean table.

What is curious though that was the only game (GOG Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain + Verok's Patch, the vanilla GOG version did not have the issue!) where I had the issue, I played lots of other games on it without issues. And even that one problematic game got fixed by a Windows reinstallation.

I am not suggesting reinstallation will surely fix it also for you, but go figure.

If you can't use those tools, you'll have to find another program that will record your inputs. One suggestion you can try is Macro Creator - https://www.macrocreator.com/download/

When you've installed and open it, start a new macro. Then go to the record button's dropdown and disable everything but keystrokes and mouse moves. When you reproduce the issue, record your outputs. Then you'll be able to tell if it's joystick drift or if it's your keyboard.

Also +1 to the other commenters on unplugging all USBs. What happens if you unplug the keyboard when you reproduce the issue?

timppu, I don't have a webcam, or really anything in my USB ports, and I unplugged my controllers. And I'm not reinstalling windows; I'd sooner just not even bother playing the game than do that. But thanks anyway.

UnashamedWeeb, why can't I just use the normal calibration tool? Well like I said (and I'm not sure why nobody seems to be acknowledging this), my controllers are all unplugged already, and I still get the issue. At one point I did accidentally unplug the keyboard, but I don't know why that would affect it.

I'd still like an answer or even just a speculation, if anyone happens to have one, about why it could be a controller issue, while they're all unplugged, and considering that they work fine in other games, which to me suggests that it can't possibly be a problem with hardware, drivers, or anything hardware-related. Am I wrong about that?

You can. Have you tried using it yet? The only reason why I suggested the program is because I didn't anticipate so much pushback on these online tools that would only take 5 mins to use and get feedback from.

When you encounter the issue and unplug your controller, it's entirely possible that the signal from the controller gets stuck. This happened with my NSP controller before I realized the joystick sensor was flawed. There are also numerous other causes, but you need to figure out if this is a hardware or software issue first through process of elimination.

As Darvond and rtcvb32 have said, different games have different dead zones; these are differing sensitivities to the amount that a joystick must be moved or keyboard key must be pressed before it registers in-game. So it's erroneous to presume that all applications have the same tolerances of dead zones.

Lastly, when you launch Cthulhu Saves Christmas, you can go to the [Input] tab and remap all your controls to only joystick or only keyboard.

Actually, I tested it today and the Alt-Tab trick worked. I still don't understand why (what is that about, anyway?), but it works! Thanks.