PPJoy

Parallel Port joystick driver for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP v0.75
(C) Deon van der Westhuysen, 2002-2003

What is PPJoy?

PPJoy is Windows device driver for digital joysticks (e.g. old Atari, Spectravideo, etc.), NES, SNES, Playstation and Sega pads connected to the parallel port. PPJoy supports Windows 98, Me, 2000 and XP. Please see the Interfaces section for a list of supported interfaces.

The latest verion of PPJoy can be downloaded from the PPJoy homepage at at http://www.angelfire.com/retro/deonvdw/PPJoy.htm or http://www.geocities.com/deonvdw/PPJoy.htm.

Supported Operating Systems

PPJoy was primarily designed for Windows 2000 and XP but will also work on Windows 98 and Me with a few restrictions.

Windows 98 and Me restrictions:

PPJoy cannot properly share a Parallel Port with anything else. The PPJoy driver needs to be disabled (In Device Manager) when you need to use a port for something else.
PPJoy setup cannot automatically install the required device drivers.

Note: The Windows 98/Me support is not as well tested as Windows 2000/XP. It should be a lot better than the support in previous version but there may still be issues. Use it at your own risk.

Windows NT 4 or Windows 95 is not supported.

Upgrading from an older version

In general you can install a new version of PPJoy over an older version without uninstalling it first.

PPJoy v0.75 has undergone major internal changes. As part of the installation process your old joystick definitions will be deleted; you need to add the joysticks again after the install is finished. Also, for Windows 98/Me you need to add the Joystick Bus again (see Additional installation steps for Windows 98 and Me).

What's new

Playstation controller support
SNES/NES controller support
Sega Genesis support
Linux gamecon.c joystick interface
User-mode joystick mini-drivers (IOCTL).
Remapping of buttons and axes.

Planned features

The following are a list of thing that I hope to get around to (if time permits):

Optimised scan routines that scan many joysticks in parallel.
Support for R/C buddy box connections.

User manual

The user manual covers the following topics:

Supported joystick interfaces

The following joystick adapters are currently supported:

The following Playstation controller adapters are currently supported:

The following NES/SNES controller adapters are currently supported:

The following Sega Genesis controller adapters are currently supported:

This release of PPJoy also supports the following virtual joystick types:

IOCTL-based user-mode joystick driver

Licensing

The driver is free for personal use. I would appreciate a postcard or email from you if you are using the driver. My details are:

  Deon van der Westhuysen
  6 Keurboom Crescent
  Plattekloof
  7500
  Republic of South Africa

  email: deonv@vodacom.co.za

If you make money off this driver I expect to share in the profits. ;-)

Support and feedback

I am writing this driver in my free time. You are welcome to drop me an email if you are having problems but I cannot promise a speedy response or bugfix. I'd like to hear how the driver worked for you and any features you would like to see.