DOS ain't dead - DOS USB Drivers and JEMM386

DOS USB Drivers and JEMM386 (Announce)

posted by Wengier , 11.07.2009, 20:52

I'm interested about the USB Gamepad/Joystick driver. The most recent update of the driver (dated July 10, 2009) has successfully made my Logitech DualAction Gamepad work under pure DOS (quite impressive). The USB Gamepad driver (USBJSTIK) can also emulate joysticks at the hardware level in addition to the BIOS level (called I/O Virtualization in its documentation) in order to work with almost any DOS program interacting with joysticks. Its documentation also notes that in order to perform I/O Virtualization, a memory manager supporting I/O Virtualization must be installed, such as the MS-DOS EMM386 and 386MAX. Below is the quote from its documentation (USBINTRO.DOC):

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USBJSTIK is a Device/Interface Driver program for up to eight USB joysticks or gamepads. USBJSTIK emulates a "regular" joystick (attached to a game port) at the BIOS (software) level. Unfortunately, most DOS programs that use a joystick do not interact with the joysticks at the BIOS level (even though they should at least have that as an option). Rather, most DOS programs interact with the joysticks directly at the hardware level.

USBJSTIK can also emulate joysticks at the hardware level, rather than the BIOS (software) level, using a process called I/O Virtualization. Emulating a joystick at the hardware level allows you to use a USB joystick with almost any DOS program you can imagine. However, USBJSTIK cannot perform I/O Virtualization on its own. In order Virtualize I/O, you must have an appropriate memory manager installed via your CONFIG.SYS file. Appropriate memory managers include Microsoft's EMM386 version 4.46 or later, and 386MAX. As far as I know, other memory managers (such as QEMM or the EMM386 program that comes with FreeDOS) do not support I/O Virtualization, and cannot be used with USBJSTIK if you want to emulate joysticks at the hardware level.
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Regrettably, JEMM386 (both stable and current RC versions) does not seem to support I/O Virtualization, as can be easily tested with the THRUST program (using direct I/O port method) from the USB driver package. This forces me to switch back from JEMM386 to MS-DOS EMM386 for now. Hope JEMM386 will support I/O Virtualization too so that it will work with the USB driver.

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Complete thread:

New DOS USB Drivers (beta) - rr, 01.07.2009, 22:36 (Announce)
- New DOS USB Drivers (beta) - RayeR, 02.07.2009, 10:13
  - New DOS USB Drivers (beta) - RayeR, 02.07.2009, 10:47
    - New DOS USB Drivers (beta) - Rugxulo, 08.07.2009, 07:12
      - New DOS USB Drivers (beta) - RayeR, 08.07.2009, 14:57
- DOS USB Drivers and JEMM386 - Wengier, 11.07.2009, 20:52