This is one of my favorite games. I still occasionally play it on a Nintendo 64, but the N64 controller isn’t great and I can’t easily screen capture gameplay.

I own the game on Steam, but playing it with a mouse and keyboard feels very clumsy. Is the Xbox controller support for this game actually functional and decent feeling?

  • Flaimbot@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    got it on steam deck, so using a controller. it’s mostly like i remember playing it as a kid on n64. the only issue is that the camera keeps zooming out every now and then, but there’s a keybind to reset it when needed.

  • Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I can confirm that the game works with a Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro joystick and have played the game to 100% that way. Mind you, that was in 1999 on Windows 98.

    I’ve not tried it with an Xbox controller since, but my (now rather old) Sidewinder still works with the version of Rogue Squadron I got from GOG. Make of this what you will!

  • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Back on N64 there was this weird ass controller where most of the motion was done with your wrist. You strapped it to your forearm and your hand and then had buttons under your fingers. This game was the only thing I used it for and it was fucking amazing. I loved flying with that thing.

    Then after two weeks the piece of shit broke and I never bought another one.

  • skoberlink@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I know I’m a little off-topic but I’ve been trying on and off to get this game to work for years. Are you playing on Windows? I can’t get it to start up properly. Any tips?

    If I can get it working, I do have an xbox controller for my PC and would be happy to share my experience!

    • setsneedtofeed@lemmy.worldOPM
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      6 months ago

      I changed my PC pretty extensively since the last time I played, but on my old setup with pretty middle of the road hardware and Windows 10, it fired right up.

      I’ll try it again on the new setup and report back.

      • skoberlink@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Well not sure what was different this time but it fired right up after install.

        I didn’t test extensively but the controller support seemed to work reasonably well. I just played through Mos Eisley and nearly got gold even with a little delay on figuring out controls.

        There are definitely some tweaks to the control scheme I’ll want to make - it doesn’t follow modern conventions very well (e.g. the fire button isn’t any of the trigger/shoulder buttons). The only issue I noticed is if I accelerated, the camera didnt always keep up. I’m not sure what exactly is causing that. I’ll have to play with settings later to see if I can get it right.

        IMO, much better than keyboard though, for my preference anyway.

        Unrelated to the controller, it doesn’t want to use the right sound output and I can’t figure out how to control that. In my setup a fairly minor inconvenience. I might be able to figure that out when I get more time to mess with it.

        • setsneedtofeed@lemmy.worldOPM
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          6 months ago

          Good. And I will definitely go with the controller. My quick test flying around with mouse and keyboard was pretty terrible. I can get used to an unusual button layout I hope.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      If you check out the Steam Community for it, there are tutorials to getting it working.

      I’ve struggled with controller support and the “camera drifts into oblivion forever” bug, and eventually ran out of time to mess with it. Would love to get it working again someday.

  • CluelessLemmyng@lemmy.sdf.org
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    6 months ago

    I would imagine it’s entirely worth it. The N64 controller didn’t exactly make it easy to use all of the buttons with 2 hands. The Xbox controller has the same number of buttons + a extra thumbstick, but they’re all accessible.

    The only issue I can think of is you may have remap certain binds to the left bumper and left trigger.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      N64 games were designed with the controller in mind, most didn’t use the L bumper or the d-pad at all.