# Gamepad selection



## DavidMarec (May 29, 2010)

Hi all,

I m playing on my FreeBD-Box for years, using mouse and keyboard.

But, nowadays, is it possible to run a gamepad properly on FreeBSD ?

So, i need some  feedbacks, to buy a gamepad.
Not just to know  what are the best ones, but, which are the ones that will statisfy my needs.
Specifically, I would  like playing games such as FPS ( Assault cube, BZFlag) and  M.A.M.E stuffs.

Thanks for your help.


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## DavidMarec (Jun 5, 2010)

DavidMarec said:
			
		

> nowadays, is it possible to run a gamepad properly on FreeBSD ?



Finally, i bought this one:
Saitek, P480 model.


And,what are the ways to make an USB joystick work ?

I have only installed the xf86-input-joystick driver,and, BzFlag for example,  recognizes and lets me use the gamepad.

So what are the gamepad's known APIs under FreeBSD ? What about the "joy" kernel module ?


To resume, my gamepad is running with BZFlags  (due to one of the SDL APIs ?), but not with M.A.M.E.

The gamepad is initialized during the game selection menu, 


```
Joystick: Start initialization
Input: Adding Joy #1: 0x0004 (0)
Joystick: 0x0004 (0)
Joystick:   ...  4 axes, 12 buttons 1 hats
Joystick:   ...  Physical id 0 mapped to logical id 0
Joystick: End initialization
```

but once a game is launched, this input resource is removed:


```
Joystick: Start deinitialization
Joystick: End deinitialization
```

See the result.


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