Old fart can't figure this gaming stuff out, Help please

OK, here's my dilemma,

I'm running windows 7. I'm wanting to mess around with some of the car - motorcycle racing games. Before I knew what i was doing, I went ahead and purchased a Genesis Twin Wheel F1 game controller.

I just assumed that plugging in the controller and installing the drivers would have me up and running with the games. Well I'm an idiot...LOL That's not the way it works, I now see.

How do I get this game controller to work with the games, and or, what driving - racing games do I now have to get to be able to use the controller ??

I know absolutely nothing about this stuff guys and gals, so please play nice with an old fart....

Any help, advice will be appreciated !!

Ron

 

Well since the specs of it list Windows 98/ME/2000/XP I would assume you don't get Win 7 drivers on the disc.
I would uninstall the drivers and see if Windows picks it up for you. I had a quick look and don't see any driver software available for it for win 7.
I think you are going to get annoyed with it, if it's the same one I'm looking at then it's pretty old tech and with the advent of Vista/7/8 a lot of old hardware will no longer work properly or at all.

Hopefully I'm wrong, but from where I'm sitting it doesn't look great, also could not find a game compatibility list.
Sorry can't be of more help.

 

Thanks Nedlamar. That's pretty much what I was expecting to hear. I'm thinking I'm going to return it, and get some of my money back.

I knew I should have asked questions about it before making the purchase. Live and learn.

Does any one have suggestions on an inexpensive controler that would work fairly decent with the driving - racing games ?? I don't need the top of the line, just an upgrade from the keyboard would be nice.

 

Ok I semi retract my above post.

You posted you have a "Genesis" wheel, I just came across it on Newegg.com for $39.99
If it is the same one it's called the "Genius Twin Wheel F1"
And from the reviews it's pretty good for the price.

Is This.. it?

There are a couple of bad reviews too, but 20 reviews and average of 4/5 stars.

So maybe you are either missing something or it installed incorrectly whether by human or software error.

My advice now would be to uninstall it, run something like Ccleaner to clean your registry, remove all traces of it and start again.
Mentioned above also is 32bit vs 64bit link placed on desktop, I am assuming you have tried both?

 

Hey Nedlamar,

Yes it's the Genesis Twin Wheel F1 controller.

I checked all over the net about this controller, and did read through the feedback at Newegg, which is where I purchased it. Just as you've found, it does seem to have better than an average feedback rating.

A lot of the feedback on Newegg about this controller was posted a year or more ago. Which makes me wonder if there were any upgrades made to this controller, and or, the software for it. I didn't have any desktop icons added after loading the drivers / software for this. I've un-installed it a few times, and re-installed it using the drivers from the install disk that came with the controller, downloading the drivers from the manufacturers web site, and by letting windows install them. There's never been any icons added to my desktop. I haven't been given the opportunity to yea or nae the install of the desktop icons either. I didn't run CCleaner after deleting it though, as you recommended.

I've been running the 32bit version of it because of the feedback about some of the known issues in the 64bit mode. Here's where some of my lack of knowledge shows, My OS is 32bit, so I thought the 64bit wouldn't work with my PC anyways ??

Maybe this is happening because I've been trying to install this on my Windows 7 PC ??

I've been thinking about this, (now that I've found out it will cost me $15 to return it, for a refund of $29, which means that I would end up with a loss of $25 in total shipping costs for this thing), that I have enough spare PC parts to put together a Windows XP computer, and can try running it on that computer to see if I have better luck with it.

I wasn't aware that it wasn't compatible with my Windows 7 PC, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. Live and learn.....

What do you think ??

Thanks,

Ron

 

See I don't think it's Win7 since many of the review state they are running it on Win7 64bit.

Have you been able to configure it with it's own software?

Go Here...

Download This.. Win7 driver

And the Manual

Just want to make sure we are on the same page (no pun intended)

But before you run the driver, uninstall, unplug, clean program files of the remnants and then run Ccleaner a couple of time to make sure you got it all.

THEN install the driver.

Edit: Straight from the website "OS Support Windows7/Vista/XP"

 

From the manual.

 

Hey Nedlamar,

Thanks for your help with this !! I've already started building my XP system. I have to finish up with all the windows updates, then I will get back to the game controller. For now, I'm going to run the controller on the XP system, until I get the controller working, and figured out, then I will consider using it on my Windows 7 system, which is much faster than the XP system will ever be.

Yes, your instructions on installing and setting the controller up, is just what I've been trying, I think.....My memory is in bad shape at this time of my life...LOL, so there is a chance I was having a brain fart when I was working with it before. So tomorrow I will use your install directions and see if I can get it to work on the XP system, and I will let you know how it turns out.

Your assistance is appreciated !!

Ron

 

One other thought, it might be a long shot, but if you put the Wheel launcher link onto your desktop, Right click it
Properties
Compatibility tab
Run this program in compatibility with..
And try XP.

Maybe, maybe not, worth 1 minute of your life to find out thought.

Good luck

 

OK, It's working on the XP system.

The link to the manufacturers site is what I used again. Still didn't get any desktop Icons, but I can do without them.

Now I have to get the games to use it with. Do you know of any good driving / racing games that are good to play ?? I think they have to be PC, or Gameboy type games to work with this controller. Any car or motorcycle racing games is what i'm looking for.

Thanks for hanging in there with me to figure this out !!

Ron

I meant Playstation games, not Gameboy.

 

Well getting games compatible might be trickier, although I would think any game that is compatible with a wheel and pedals should work.
I've been playing Driver: san Fransisco, great game, also Dirt 2 and 3 are reported to work with it, Need for Speed's ("Most Wanted" being the best one IMO and should be cheap) although I enjoyed "Hot Pursuit" as well.
You probably want to go for older games, not too old but like a couple of years, just in case, then they are cheaper.

One question though, is your PC capable of playing newer games?

 

Thanks for the list of games to try out !! I'll give some of them a try and see how it goes.

As far as the PC being capable of playing any of the newer games, I honestly have no idea if it would be or not. I would have to check / verify that on any games I was wanting to buy i guess. I have no idea what the basic requirements would be, as I'm just getting into this.

Now my Windows 7 & 8 PC's are both built with newer components, and are running 3 or 4 core processors with 8 to 16gb of memory, and have decent video cards. But then I would need to get a better game console, I think ?? I'm still learning the Windows 8 PC, so I don't think I would want to try any games on it. Man that OS is quite different !!

So for just starting off, I would like to get into it on the cheap, so if I decide it's not really for me, then I haven't lost much.

Any suggestions of good online stores to buy the games from ??

 

Another question about the games, what's the deal with the registration codes ?? Is that something needed to be able to play the games, or is it something needed to be able to play online with , or against other players ??

 

Ok, well before you go buying all kinds of games.

Download and install this...

And post what your
CPU
GPU
RAM

As for where to buy games, I buy all mine from Steam... thousands of games, great prices, once bought it's yours forever. No physical disc, download. I was dubious at first but now I own 148 games through them :-D

 

Ok, I'm familiar with Speccy, and I also use the "SIW" system info for windows. Both good programs.

My XP machine has.....

Pentium 4 2.9MHz processor
4GB ram, Dual Channel
ATI Radeon HD2400XT Pro video card, specs here.....

http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_item...27602&rid=88&gclid=CNPt0sPN67UCFYpDMgod5lAAnQ


My Windows 7 machine has....

AMD Athlon IIx4 635 64bit 2.9MHz Processor
4GB Dual Channel ram
NVidia GeForce GT 230 Video Card, here...

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-230m/specifications


AHH CRAP !! I knew I should have waited to hear back from you. I purchased 6 games last night from Amazon. I got

Split second
Moto GP 3
Need for speed Most Wanted
Driver San Francisco
Moto GP 8
Death Rally

I got them all for $42. If memory serves me right, there all new games. I will check out "STEAM" as you've reccomended, for any future game purchases. All the games I ordered last night are XP compatible, and a couple are Windows 7 compatible too.

In my Windows 8 PC, I have an Acer 215H on ATI Radeon HD 3870 video card, that I can put in my Windows 7 PC if needed. It's specs are here....

http://www.gpureview.com/Radeon-HD-3870-card-547.html


Well what do you think after seeing this info on my PC's ?? Am I still doomed for problems trying to play any games on these PC's ??

Thanks,

Ron

 

I think you will be ok with those games, your XP machine might struggle a little with a couple of them, NFS Most Wanted should run ok on all and that's a great game.

Driver San Fran will be your big challenge, it's a fairly heavy-ish game to run so don't get too excited about that one, it might run poorly.

Only 1 way to find out :-D

 

Thanks for your help !!

If you don't mind, after the games show up, if I have any more questions, would you mind if I sent you a PM asking for more help, or would it be best if I just came back here and posted any other questions ??

 

You may do either, I will always help if I feel I can. I would however suggest, in keeping with MG's massive knowledge base, that unless it's something you don't want to ask in public, we keep the conversation here as information we give each other may benefit others with similar questions.

Edit: Oh and serial numbers and keys are almost always used for games, each copy of game sold comes with a unique key for registration, doesn't necessarily need internet connection. You may use this key as many times as you wish to install and uninstall.
Certain DRM (protection) may prohibit you from installing more than a certain number of times or on a certain number of PC's, but that's a small percentage.

 

Hey Nedlamar,

Don't know what happened, but I just got the notice about this last post ??

Anyways, thanks for the info !! It's good to know for sure.

Update...I changed controllers, as I kept having issues with the first one. I now have the Microsoft version of the X-Box controller, plus the Simraceway wheel. What a blast all of this is. I've been learning a lot messing with the different controllers, and playing the different games.

The last issue I think I will have, (for a while any ways), is my video card worked fine for all of the PC games, but my PC would lock up and shut down while running the Simraceway games. At first I blamed the new controller, but in a short time I realized the video card was the problem. So Wednesday I should get my new video card. It's an "HIS Radeon 7770 1gb card". Got it on Amazon for $100. It should work great for my needs, according to my research on the different cards anyways.

I'm selling my Windows 8 PC because I don't like that OS, and it isn't compatible with any of the games. I'm putting the new card into my Windows 7 Pro PC, and the old card into my Vista PC. I can play most of the games on the Vista PC, and the Simraceway games on the 7 pro PC. I think this will work out great.

You mentioned you have over 125 + or - games. I can see how easy it is to collect them...LOL. I have 8 now, and there will be many more to come.

Thanks for walking through all of this with me !!

Ron

 

Hi Folks!
I was reading this and I thought that I may just add a game that I really like but that I'm not sure if you can still buy it. It is called 4x4 evo2 Its a truck racing game heck of a lot of fun. Another title series that I may suggest would be the 18 wheels of steel series. Dont know if you would like big rig driving (to be honest I didnt either until I tried it rolleyes ) but they are a lot of fun too' pretty sure that that the euro truck title is on steam. Anyway just thought that I would mention them. Thanks

 

there's an old pc game series i can recommend if you can even find a good used copy of any of them called nascar racing.:drool