FIFA 08 Generic Gamepad Right Analog Stick Fix

THE PROBLEM

• Fifa 08 officially supports only few ‘branded’ gamepads.
• For ‘generic’ gamepads the right analog stick doesn’t work.

THE SOLUTION

Let us first see how FIFA 08 identifies the gamepad.

1. FIFA 08 asks the registry the ‘name’ of the gamepad.
2. Registry returns the ‘name’ of the gamepad.
3. FIFA 08 locates the ‘name’ in the file devdata.dat (Located at ‘My Documents\FIFA 08\user’), and retrieves the corresponding settings. It then loads the retrieved settings + some other settings as specified in the registry. If it can’t find the name of the gamepad in devdata.dat, it loads a predefined setting for generic gamepads.

Example 1 : Logitech RumblePad 2 USB gamepad (Supported by FIFA 08)

• Fifa 08 asks the registry.
• Registry returns the name ‘Logitech RumblePad 2 USB’
• Fifa 08 searches ‘Logitech RumblePad 2 USB’ and loads the appropriate settings.
• The right analog stick works fine in this case.

Example 2: USB Dual Vibration Joystick gamepad (not supported by FIFA 08)

• Asks the registry
• Gets the name ‘USB Dual Vibration Joystick’
• Searches the devdata.dat and doesn’t find the name ‘USB Dual Vibration Joystick’.
• Loads generic settings.
• Right analog stick doesn’t work.

The generic settings does not support right analog stick. So what is the workaround?

As one can see, there may be two workarounds

1. Modify the generic settings in devdata.dat such that it makes the right analog stick functional.

This method works in some cases. In other cases the right analog stick works, but not as it is supposed to. For example directions are changed and other strange behaviors. Anyway you might want to give it a try. Click here. If it works for you, fine. Otherwise try the 2nd method.

2. Modify the registry

The best thing about generic gamepads are that they are clones of some branded gamepads. They employ the same circuits and interfaces as the branded ones. Most of the generic gamepads I have come across are clones of either Logitech RumblePad 2 USB or PS2 Gamepad.

This makes this workaround possible. When a generic (cloned) gamepad is connected to the computer, it has every capability to support FIFA 08(because it already has the same circuits as RumblePad2 has. Right?). Only thing is that FIFA 08 doesn’t identify it. So if we can make our cloned gamepad recognizable… its done. As we know FIFA 08 recognizes the gamepad by its name written in the registry. Let us change its name to its ORIGINAL name (from which it is cloned).

• Connect your gamepad, install the drivers
• Go to Control panel > Game Controllers and find the ‘current name’ of your gamepad.

• Open registry (run>regedit)
• Search for the name of your gamepad found above.
• Everywhere replace the name of your gamepad to Logitech RumblePad 2 USB

Keys which stores the gamepad name will be located in these places.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\VID_something

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\VID_something

• Verify if the name of your gamepad has changed to Logitech RumblePad 2 USB in control panel>game controllers.
• If it has changed, run the game.
• It should work. If it doesn’t your gamepad is not cloned from RumblePad 2 or PS2.
• In that case open the file devdata.dat in notepad and try the names listed there.

Thanks for reading.