Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Vieve

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2018
1
0
So I'm looking for Christmas present advice - have very little knowledge and would appreciate all help available.

My dad has a very old iMac (09/10 I think), it's update to highest level of iOS it can but I'm not sure what that is. When we used to have a PC he loved to play games like Call of Duty and Hidden and Dangerous but he only ever played with a Joystick. He'd love to get back into it, but finding a joystick for play station is proving impossible since they only work for flight simulator games.

Therefore I'm wondering if these games and if any joysticks work well on iMac and whether they'd be alright on his old iMac or not....?

PLEASE HELP! Any suggestions, advice, recommendations, words of wisdom - all appreciated.

Thank you.

*I cannot purchase a new iMac for him and he refuses to buy one as well.*
 

Juicy Box

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2014
7,579
8,919
I haven’t played with a joystick or game pad on my Mac on a very long time, but when I did, I used a USB utility that would program any USB joystick to be used with any game.

I can’t remember the name, but if I can find it I will post it here.
 

jerwin

Suspended
Jun 13, 2015
2,895
4,651
In my experience, joystick support is spotty on the mac platform at best. A couple of games support gamepads-- but often only a few specific models of gamepads.

For instance, you'd think Call of Duty IV would lend itself to a gamepad quite readily. But Nope. Apparently this was a feature of the windows version, not the mac.

Your Dad might be best off with a bootcamp installation, as windows has better support for joysticks.
[doublepost=1543510240][/doublepost]
I can’t remember the name, but if I can find it I will post it here.

Here's one. No experience with it.

https://joystickmapper.com
 

Juicy Box

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2014
7,579
8,919
I haven’t played with a joystick or game pad on my Mac on a very long time, but when I did, I used a USB utility that would program any USB joystick to be used with any game.

I can’t remember the name, but if I can find it I will post it here.
I did some quick research, I think the utility I was referring to is call USB Overdrive.
[doublepost=1543510700][/doublepost]
Here's one. No experience with it.

https://joystickmapper.com
I saw that during my search, I am pretty sure that wasn’t the one I used.

I think it was USB Overdrive, Maybe I will check when I get home and boot up an old Mac.

It has probably been 15 years since I have used it, but it was really simple and easy to use, plus it worked on every USB device that I tried.

If USB Overdrive is the one I am thinking about, I am sure that it is even better now. On their website, it says that it now works for Bluetooth devices too.

I think it is free. Might be worth looking into.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.