VOGONS


First post, by Rekrul

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Does anyone know of a program that will work in Windows 98 and allow you to send key presses to programs when you roll the scroll wheel?

I'm currently playing Blood, which runs (almost) perfectly under W98 and the only thing I really miss is being able to bind the next/previous weapon keys to the mouse wheel.

The only program I could find to do this is called Mouse Wheel Control. However, only version 1.22 works with 98 and of course, every single shareware site on the net simply links back to the company web site for the download, and of course, they only have version 2.01 available, which doesn't work under 98. Actually, there's no version available, since the company site sends you to Download.com, which sends you back to the company web site.

I even emailed them to ask if I could download version 1.22 and they said no.

I've been unable to find it anywhere else. I know it's only a trial version, but I'd still like to try it anyway.

Does anyone have a copy of it? Or does anyone know of another program that will let you bind keys to the mouse wheel?

Auto Hotkey has options to remap the mouse functions, but naturally this only works on W2K and above, since apparently W9x is too old to do something as complicated as reading the mouse wheel...

Reply 1 of 15, by Davros

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does cutemouse (dos mouse driver) allow you to map keys to the wheel

it does have a wheel api and comes with sourcecode
why not look through your old games and hardware find something you wont miss and try and bribe one of the clever people here to add the functionality you need, if you cant add it yourself (and it doesnt support it)

http://cutemouse.sourceforge.net/

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Reply 2 of 15, by Rekrul

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Davros wrote:

does cutemouse (dos mouse driver) allow you to map keys to the wheel

According to the Cutemouse docs, it says that it doesn't work with PS/2 mice under W9x.

I find it strange that there are programs like Joy2Key and Total Game Control for mapping every single function of a joystick/gamepad, but there doesn't seem to be anything like that for the mouse. Mouse Wheel Control was all I could find.

Reply 4 of 15, by Rekrul

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Davros wrote:

use it under dos then

I don't have DOS drivers for my sound card. If it's a choice between being able to bind extra functions to the mouse wheel (which Cutemouse may or may not ever support) and having sound, I choose sound.

Apparently there are DOS drivers for this card (Formosa SC3000), but there's no place to download them. Every driver site I've found either goes into limbo when I try to download them, or they supposedly link to the official site which is now a vacant domain.

Reply 6 of 15, by Rekrul

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akula65 wrote:

Thank you! I searched all over using Google and never saw this page. Most of the sites tried to send me to www.edio21.com.

I'll give it a try. I still wish I could find a Windows program to remap the mouse wheel though.

Reply 7 of 15, by akula65

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I think it is unlikely that you would find a program that would be guaranteed to work with an arbitrary mouse, particularly with Win9x when a mouse could be a PS/2, USB or even a gameport device. Remapping functionality is generally at the driver or fairly low system-level, so you are more likely to find a solution in the drivers/tools/software that your mouse vendor provides. For a Logitech mouse for example, the solution is likely to be in SetPoint for a recent mouse and OS or in MouseWare + The MouseWare Advanced Settings Utility for older mice in Win9x. Logitech still provides MouseWare and the Advanced Settings Utility here:

ftp://ftp.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/mouse/

You might also keep an eye out for hacks to MouseWare or SetPoint that extend some functionality to devices not intended by Logitech (UberOptions for example)

Microsoft IntelliPoint is the corresponding program for Microsoft pointing devices, and Version 4.12 should still be available for Win9x. Whether the Intellipoint software provides the mapping capability you want depends on what mouse you are using.

Sometimes you can use one of the options above with a generic mouse, but it depends on the mouse and manufacturer.

Reply 8 of 15, by Rekrul

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akula65 wrote:

I think it is unlikely that you would find a program that would be guaranteed to work with an arbitrary mouse, particularly with Win9x when a mouse could be a PS/2, USB or even a gameport device.

I don't see why that should be a problem. Once the mouse & driver are installed and working properly, programs can't tell what type of mouse it is. Load a web browser and roll the scroll wheel and the page scrolls, regardless of whether the mouse is PS/2 or USB.

akula65 wrote:

Remapping functionality is generally at the driver or fairly low system-level, so you are more likely to find a solution in the drivers/tools/software that your mouse vendor provides.

I'd agree with you if it were doing true remapping, where the normal function of the wheel is intercepted, discarded and a new function is substituted in its place, however, I'm only looking to have the wheel generate fake key presses above and beyond its normal functions. The wheel doesn't do anything in a DOS window (normally), so I don't see why a program can't run in the background, watch for the mouse wheel the way any Windows program would, and then send key presses to the front-most program, the same way that Joy2Key does for joysticks.

akula65 wrote:
For a Logitech mouse for example, the solution is likely to be in SetPoint for a recent mouse and OS or in MouseWare + The Mouse […]
Show full quote

For a Logitech mouse for example, the solution is likely to be in SetPoint for a recent mouse and OS or in MouseWare + The MouseWare Advanced Settings Utility for older mice in Win9x. Logitech still provides MouseWare and the Advanced Settings Utility here:

ftp://ftp.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/mouse/

You might also keep an eye out for hacks to MouseWare or SetPoint that extend some functionality to devices not intended by Logitech (UberOptions for example)

Microsoft IntelliPoint is the corresponding program for Microsoft pointing devices, and Version 4.12 should still be available for Win9x. Whether the Intellipoint software provides the mapping capability you want depends on what mouse you are using.

Sometimes you can use one of the options above with a generic mouse, but it depends on the mouse and manufacturer.

My mouse is a standard 3-button mouse with wheel. It's using the default MS driver. The only special software provided by the company that actually made my mouse (A4Tech) is a program called iWheelworks, which lets you assign special Windows functions to the right and middle buttons. This same software works with every PS/2 mouse I've tried, although it doesn't work with USB mice. Also, I've hot-swapped my mouse with similar mice from Dell, MS, Compaq, etc and they all work perfectly using the same driver, which leads me to believe that my mouse is pretty common (the tech, not the actual model).

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check into them.

Reply 9 of 15, by code120

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You can use http://www.autohotkey.com/. I found a script to remap the mouse wheel and it works only when DosBox is the active window. It remaps the wheel to the up/down arrows, then with ctrl+F1 inside DosBox you can assign a key to the wheel directly by moving it when asked the new key to add.
If you don't need it inside DosBox, with Window Spy (context menu of the Autohotkey system tray icon) you can get the ahk_class of the window where you want the script to be active (and modify the script accordingly), or just write the title of the window (less specific).

#ifWinActive, ahk_class SDL_app

*WheelUp::
SendEvent {Up Down}
Sleep 200
SendEvent {Up Up}
Return

*WheelDown::
SendEvent {Down Down}
Sleep 200
SendEvent {Down Up}
Return

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Reply 10 of 15, by Rekrul

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code120 wrote:

You can use http://www.autohotkey.com/. I found a script to remap the mouse wheel and it works only when DosBox is the active window.

Thanks, but one small problem; It doesn't work under Win9x. You see, it takes the glorious miracle of XP to do something as incredibly complicated as reading the mouse wheel in AutoHotKey...

Reply 11 of 15, by code120

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On the site (here) I read that the side-pushing of the wheel doesn't work in older OS, but WheelUp/WheelDown maybe works, have you tried?

Edit: Sorry, win2k or later...

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Reply 12 of 15, by Rekrul

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akula65 wrote:

For a Logitech mouse for example, the solution is likely to be in SetPoint for a recent mouse and OS or in MouseWare + The MouseWare Advanced Settings Utility for older mice in Win9x. Logitech still provides MouseWare and the Advanced Settings Utility here:

Well, I installed Mouseware 7.80 and there were no options to change what the wheel does. I then ran the Mouseware Advanced program, but that also had no options to configure the wheel. I clicked OK in the hopes that it might present more options, but it just closed. Since it didn't do what I wanted, I uninstalled Mouseware and rebooted, only to discover that the mouse wheel no longer worked at all!

After removing the mouse in Device Manager and rebooting again, it re-installed the driver. The wheel still didn't scroll, but instead acted like the right button when rolled. I re-installed Mouseware, ran the Advanced program again, clicked the button to restore defaults, then uninstalled Mouseware again. After a reboot, the mouse was working again, but it was using a Logictech driver. Being the OCD type person I am, I wanted it to use the proper driver, so I removed the mouse and rebooted again. After digging out my mouse's original floppy, having the driver installation crash and another reboot, it seems to be back to normal.

By the way, I was wrong, my mouse WAS using a vendor-specific driver, however this same driver works with pretty much any three-button PS/2 mouse.

After that fiasco, I don't think I'll try the MS Intellipoint software.

It seems that the only program under Win9x that can bind keypresses to the mouse wheel is Mouse Wheel Control 4.22, which has completely vanished from the face of the earth.

Reply 15 of 15, by Rekrul

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Davros wrote:

are you sure there is a version 4.22
the homepage only has version 2.01

Oops, typo. I meant version 1.22. You can find plenty of sites that have it listed, like this one;

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancem … l-Control.shtml

But the Download link always leads back to the company site, and they won't provide older versions. None of the sites have a local copy. Incidentally, you can't even download 2.01. Their download link goes to Download.com, which links right back to the company site, sending you in circles.

Yushatak wrote:

Autohotkey DOES work under 9x, you just need to use the older version. The docs constantly mention the differences for those who are using it under 9x, even.

Yes, AutoHotKey itself works under 9x, however the functions to read the mouse only work under 2K/NT/XP or higher. Please see this page;

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/KeyList.htm

Right at the top it says "Mouse (mouse hotkeys require Windows NT/2000/XP or later)".