Writing my own driver

I am not sure if this should be posted in Programming or Drivers but...

I have several emulators and I would like to be able to use the original controllers that came with the systems. I also want to build my own joystick for use with my MAME emulator. The USB ports seem to be the most practical interface for this.

I know I am going to have to make my own driver for these homemade controllers. I have some basic knowledge of C (I have written pong type games using ASCII characters, albeit 20 years after this would have been current technology.) So I am not completely new to programming, but I am hardly anexpert either. I can't imagine that it would be that difficult to write drivers; people write programs every day.

I have Borland C++ (version approximately a million years ago) and I am thinking of getting a new compiler. Does anyone suggest any books or online resources for programming drivers? I don't even know where to start.