System info first:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @3.16GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM
XFX NVIDIA GTX260 Black Edition 896MB
Windows Vista Ultimate x64

Logitech G510s Keyboard
Microsoft Sidewinder OEM Mouse
Xbox 360 Controller (wired)

This game seems to have major problems with the input controls which makes it unplayable. Certainly unplayable in the way it is meant to be played anyway.

Firstly, it is worth mentioning that I have an Xbox 360 wired controller, but I also use vJoy, a virtual controller driver, that I use with my 360 controller via Univeral Joystick Remapper, as it helps with older DirectInput games. vJoy is the preferred controller device in my Windows Control Panel, the 360 controller is secondary.

So, on starting up the game (360 controller disconnected), I get into the first level and find that the Naboo starfighter is just floating stationary. That isn't right. Then the button for roll left (default E) actually causes the craft to move forwards. Again, this isn't right. The boost button (default W) can be pressed when stationary where it just causes the craft to shake but no move forwards. This confirm that the craft should be moving forwards at least slowly when no button is pressed as then the boost would have some effect.

Quit to desktop and check the GOG forums. I find a registry entry that needs to be set to 1 to enable controllers, so I set that and connect up my controller to play via vJoy. Still no difference. Keyboard buttons are still incorrect and the controller works but has the wrong button setup.

Quit to desktop, disable the vJoy device and use the game launcher to set up the 360 controller for use. Same issue, controller works but buttons are the incorrect ones, though now I get the little bit of drift from my 360 controller's thumbsticks that vJoy was taking care of by setting a deadzone.

Quit to desktop, remove controller. Try running the game in various compatibility modes and return to the keyboard input. Note that no joystick is now detected, as there is no 360 controller and no vJoy. Still no luck, but running it in Win98 compatibility results in a starfighter.exe process that will not terminate at all (so will need a reboot to resolve).

Also tried running on just the primary core of my CPU, still no difference.

I also noticed that the GOG installation has problems too. The game launcher doesn't get an icon set up even though the round GOG icon file is present. Hmm.

I'm going to try a re-install now, and if that doesn't fix it I'll have to contact GOG support. I know I'm not the only one with these issues though as a couple others have mentioned it here in the GOG forums. Does anyone have any idea on what is happening and any possible fixes?

Well, a reinstall made no difference at all. :(

EDIT: Support ticket now sent to GOG.

EDIT 2: Okay, so I found the demo online and installed that. It is mission 2 of the game and it played perfectly. However, on re-launching the demo and changing some settings, it then started ignoring the keyboard input. So, mixed news from this little test. Clearly the game can work as the demo did, but something in the game settings can cause it to break, so it might be something that GOG have set in the settings from their installer.

EDIT 3: Some progress. The demo had additional registry entries in the InputDevices keys. I've copied these over to the GOG full game. Still getting a hit and miss as to whether my keyboard was being picked up. But additionally, I changed the settings in the video renderering options for OpenGL to set a resolution of 1024x768. Now when I start up the game the controls work as they are meant to. Left mouse button fires, right mouse button is alternate fire, E and R roll and the craft moves constantly (it doesn't ever float stationary). Managed to play the first two levels now. So which one of these fixed it?

The files cannot be opened "because they contain errors". Can you reupload them? Or just post what's in them in text?

The error is because they are not images, to save them do a right click on the file link, select "save link as...", and save the file with .reg extension.

Thanks for taking a look and confirming my findings.

However, it isn't a full fix. I even managed to get the demo to start ignoring my keyboard after I changed a setting in the configuration from the launcher (resolution I think it was).

From what I've experienced tonight, it seems that editing some of the registry entries (the NumJoysticks from 0 to 1 or vice versa, or the resolution settings in the rendering reg keys) gets the game to launch and recognise my keyboard.

So, what has made my keys start working correctly? I can't be sure. Certainly the missing registry entries are a serious consideration here, but I think there is more to it. Especially as changing some of those registry key values doesn't seem to mirror the changes in the configuration menu from the launcher. So where does the game really store those settings?!

In any case, the game is short, so once you do get it using the controls correctly just play as much as you can. I just finished mission 10, so only 4 left now. I'll soon be done with the game. :)


In fact, having read through a troubleshooting document found in the game files, it mentions that using a controller should disable the keyboard, and that keyboard can be affected by any controller type devices connected. So I think my vJoy virtual device was also part of the cause (I've currently disabled it in the Windows device manager).

You can run the game directly from the europa.exe in the game files to avoid the launcher, as I've found that even just opening the configuration menu can stop the game recognising my keyboard until I start messing with the registry entries again.

I dont know if the problem is totally fixed or not, but i tested the game with the keyboard and an xbox 360 controller and for me now the game and controls seem to work correctly. When using the xbox controler, the keyboard is not disabled as you say, but this doesn't cause any problems.

Okay, I think this is now as fixed as it can be. Adding those registry entries makes the keyboard and mouse controls work properly. I imagine it fixes joysticks/controllers too.

The issue with it not always detecting my keyboard is a strange one. I thought it was something that tweaking the registry back and forth was fixing and that the configuration tool was breaking it, but now it looks like that was a red herring. Turns out it is just temperamental and sometimes doesn't pick the keyboard up. If it doesn't I have to kill it with Task Manager and try again.

I'm marking this as solved, but GOG should update their installer to include the missing entries. Tom_Bol gets the solution for providing the registry keys here for others to download.

Did you manually assign your 360 controller or did you use the 11 button gcm file that came with the game, with this registry fix?

EDIT: This game is still so broken I added the sw64.reg to my game files and still nothing. I can't believe that Rogue Squadron is older and works just fine with a 360 controller.

EDIT2: It would seem either re-installing the game or disconnecting and reconnecting my wireless controller receiver did the trick, nervermind

The game's manual even refers to issues with controllers connected. I actually played it with mouse and keyboard, but even with all other controller devices disconnected (and the virtual controller disabled) it was still hit or miss as to whether the game would pick up my keyboard, and when it didn't I'd have to kill the task and restart the game until it did pick it up. Luckily it was a short game that I finished in only a few sittings, so I'm done with it now.

Just be aware that for some users the game writes its settings to the VirtualStore registry entries, but reads from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\... entries instead. (The full registry paths are in one of the forum threads here on GOG if you need them). As such, changing the settings may require you to copy the registry entries over from one location to the other.

GOG support did get back to me, saying they've passed the information to the relevant staff to look into. I'd hope to see a new version of the installer with the registry entries issue fixed but we'll have to wait and see. The missing entries was causing the wrong controls issue, so it is still a major issue as users shouldn't be expected to fix registry entries.

This has now been fixed by GOG in installer version 2.0.0.4.
:)