This discussion reminds me of a hack that I sae a while ago.
Somebody built a joystick with two mice..

Source: http://danyk.cz/joy_en.html

Gered wrote on 2020-11-15, 15:47:

EDIT: Just wanted to add -- the only people I ever knew back in the 90's that used actual joysticks were those who played stuff like flight sims. I don't remember anyone back then who enjoyed using a joystick for playing stuff like platformers, etc on their PCs.

That was me, too. Back then I tried to play that Mig-29 flight sim with that square IBM-style joystick. The company "CH" made a popular clone of it, if I recall correctly. It was a bit tricky to use, but it worked.
Years later, I think, I got that awesome Gravis gamepad on a flea market (?). As someone who used to play on a NES in his childhood, this item was really fascinating!
A game pad! With Super Nintendo coloured buttons! On DOS! Wow! 😁
However, I ended up playing mainly Commander Keen IV with it..
What I liked most about the Gravis pad, however, was that it respected left handed people.
Not many companies spent so much thought on a product. I think that was a cool move also..

I was looking for an alternative to the Gravis Gamepads and remembered I had two of the Playstation Classic controllers lying around, similar story to the OP! I went to use them on my Windows XP machine and neither of them work in any of the USB ports I've tried, front ports or back ports on the motherboard.

Any idea what could be going on? Weird that they would work in Win 98 for the OP but not XP for me... they also work fine on my Windows 10 PC.

Qjimbo wrote on 2020-11-22, 22:58:

I went to use them on my Windows XP machine and neither of them work in any of the USB ports I've tried, front ports or back ports on the motherboard.

Perhaps it would be worth trying them in a USB hub?

If you really want to be thorough, often it can be useful to resolve hardware problems by booting a live Linux distribution – especially since you can see the messages from the kernel as it tries to recognize the device.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-11-23, 01:50:

Qjimbo wrote on 2020-11-22, 22:58:

I went to use them on my Windows XP machine and neither of them work in any of the USB ports I've tried, front ports or back ports on the motherboard.

Perhaps it would be worth trying them in a USB hub?

If you really want to be thorough, often it can be useful to resolve hardware problems by booting a live Linux distribution – especially since you can see the messages from the kernel as it tries to recognize the device.

Cool thanks for the suggestion, I actually don’t have a powered usb hub around unfortunately, but I will try a Linux Distro thats a decent idea actually.

Good news! I remembered I had a spare USB 3 pci express card that takes 5V molex power, so I put that into the empty slot on the motherboard-and that worked with the controllers! Strange issue but at least I now know it is an issue with the USB ports on this motherboard.

Qjimbo wrote on 2020-11-25, 04:42:

Good news! I remembered I had a spare USB 3 pci express card that takes 5V molex power, so I put that into the empty slot on the motherboard-and that worked with the controllers! Strange issue but at least I now know it is an issue with the USB ports on this motherboard.

Interesting. I wonder - did you get to try a Linux distro as well? Or any other OS? I'm curious, because I've seen similar strange issues of a particular device not being recognized, which turned out to be a bug in the USB stack (in my case it was Windows Vista). In that case a PCIe-to-USB3.0 card also worked, because it uses its own drivers and not the Microsoft stack.

dr_st wrote on 2020-11-25, 07:09:

Interesting. I wonder - did you get to try a Linux distro as well? Or any other OS? I'm curious, because I've seen similar strange issues of a particular device not being recognized, which turned out to be a bug in the USB stack (in my case it was Windows Vista). In that case a PCIe-to-USB3.0 card also worked, because it uses its own drivers and not the Microsoft stack.

Just tried out Linux Mint with Super Tux Kart and it does the same thing, won’t detect the controller in one of the standard USB ports, but works in the USB3 card. Strange issue for sure.

OK, so this confirms the issue is different from mine, and must be HW-related. Thank you for testing! 😀

dr_st wrote on 2020-11-25, 18:03:

OK, so this confirms the issue is different from mine, and must be HW-related. Thank you for testing! 😀

No problem, you’re welcome! I was curious as well! But yeah, maybe a BIOS issue or just some kind of other quirk of the hardware. Not had any other USB device have the same issue yet though.

This is a great discovery! I believe the PlayStation Classic comes bundled with two of these controllers. With all of the custom firmware that's available for the PSClassic, being able to also use the controllers on a Win98 PC is another bonus!

Back in the day, my cousin had a Gravis Gamepad Pro, which is very similar to the PlayStation controller. We used to use it to play NHL 97 (DOS) . I recall that game having horrible control setup with no remapping allowed, where if you played with the keyboard or mouse the controls were severely limited. I later got two Microsoft Sidewinder pads (gameport) which we daisy chained to play 2-player NHL 98/99/2000 in Windows 98. These were good times... definitely would've been the same using the keyboard. I never had a game console (PC only) but I still enjoyed using gamepads on many games.

These days I primarily use Logitech F310 gamepads for Windows 98. There is a toggle switch on the back, where in "D" mode it disguises as a much older 'Logitech Dual Action' and there is a Win9x driver for that product. Both analog sticks work but the analog triggers unfortunately get mapped as digital buttons. When the gamepad is set to "X" mode it works in Windows XP using the Microsoft Xbox 360 controller driver.