AO and AE (for PC) with gamepad?

[DotWin]

Hi!

I don't know whether this has been asked before, but I couldn't find anything about it.

I'm a longtime Oddworld fan and I own every game (and the art book).
After playing "Munch's Oddysee" and "Stranger's Wrath", I started to love playing on my TV screen.
Now I would like to play my two other favourite games, "Abe's Oddysee" and "Abe's Exoddus" on my TV screen again, as well.

The problem is, that I don't own the Playstation versions (or a Playstation for that matter), but only the PC versions.
My computer's graphics card does support TV output and the games work nicely on the TV.

Obviously, AO and AE seem to support gamepad controls.
To play it this way would be much more convenient!

Unfortunately, I don't own a PC gamepad, but only three XBOX gamepads.
I know, there are adapters to use XBOX controllers on a computer's USB port.

My question is:
Is it possible with the XBOX gamepad (incl. the appropriate adapter) to play AO and AE on a PC with "Windows 98" installed?
Or better: Is it possible, to configure the XBOX gamepad (maybe via the gamepad's drivers or configuration settings included with the USB adapter) to be playable with AO and AE?
Did anyone of you try this before and were successful playing AO and AO with the XBOX gamepad on a PC with "Windows 98"?

I would be really thankful, if anyone could give me some help with this question.
Many thanks in advance!

Greetings, DotWin!

[stingbee]

I may only be 12 but I know alot about computers but I didn't know xbox gamepads could go on pc but usually all the latest gadets for pc's are best run on xp I have xp myself but I think the xbox gamepad thing would work on 98 if you'r not sure visit a pc shop and ask someone there I hope that helped you

[DotWin]

Hi!

Thanks for your answer.

Well, I kept looking further and I found some information.

It seems, as if the XBOX controllers are just USB with different connectors (see here!).
Therefore it is obviously very easy to "create" a special USB cable to connect an XBOX game controller to a standard computer via USB.
Of course, there are already prepared adapter cables, which are even not very expensive (see here or here!).

Strangely, it seems as if the drivers for the adapter cable support only Windows 2000 or XP.

But I have found a website with some other drivers (XBCD - XBox Controller Driver) which actually do support Windows 98 as well.

I think, I will just give it a try.
If it doesn't work, my brother will be able to use the adapter cable with an XBOX game controller, because he has Windows XP.

I will let you know in a few days, whether it works fine.

Greetings, DotWin!

[Adder]

I guess it could work. I know that if the games say they support pads, they say right beneath it that it's not recommended.

I honestly don't know the answer, but if you can get an XBox pad working on PC, then the PC will recognise a game-pad (you need to calibrate it in control pannel.)

The only problem would be if the game uses a pre-set button arangement for the actions of Abe in-game. If you can't customise these, it might be extremely awkward to play.

I'd ask oddworld inhabitants (or Alf, or tech-support) if you can't find anything about it in the manual.
Failing that... I've no idea.

[Leto]

Hey there DotWin! I have a Playstation Controller to USB adapter, and I was playing AO on PC with it. You just need to reconfigure the buttons.

The XBOX USB thing should be the same... Was it JoyPad that made it?

[Voodoo Hand]

I'd ask oddworld inhabitants (or Alf, or tech-support) if you can't find anything about it in the manual.
Failing that... I've no idea.

Does anyone know if the tech-support inhabitants made the cut, and will move to Berkeley?
Or is support handled by the publisher?