Mac Gamepad???

Hey duders,

I've bought a few Humble Bundles over the past year and have some great games waiting to be played; like Bastion, Braid, Costume Quest, etc., but I have barely touched them because WASD and trackpad control is not how I enjoy playing games. I have a MacBook Pro and as I said before, no mouse other than the track pad. Does anybody have any recommendations for a controller I can EASILY use with my Mac? Thanks for any recs you may have!

-Logan

This works for me in Windows and Linux games, so if you have one try a wired 360 controller or a PS3 controller with the USB plug first. The 360 controller will probably just work with most games without any drivers. The PS3 controller should show up as a joypad, and you can either use MotionJoy to force it to emulate a 360 controller or bind your controls in game.

This driver will allow you to use an Xbox 360 controller with your mac, although it will require the wireless dongle to allow wireless controllers to be used.

While quite a few games will work natively using this driver, some may require remapping. The most popular K&M to gamepad remapper is Joystick Mapper, available for $4.99 on the Mac App Store.

EDIT: The Dualshock 3 also works, apparently. The directions to get it working are found here:

http://www.mactrast.com/2013/01/how-to-use-a-playstation-3-controller-with-your-mac/

What ChaosDent said. Plus helpful links: (I use wired 360)

• http://www.macgamepads.com/
• http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/21/ask-engadget-best-mac-gamepad/
• http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Xbox360Controller/OsxDriver (start with version 0.10!)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tEiiveuhRA&feature=BFa&list=HL1344469768 (the only how-to that worked for me)

I use the drivers mentioned by @mlarrabee and a wired 360 controller. Works well in Psychonauts at least.

Gamepad support on the mac is pretty much where pad support on windows was 10 years ago, some games support them, some don't, there isn't really a standard and if you do get it working many of the button prompts are going to be incorrect anyway, I know my copy of Assassins Creed 2 - a game that practically REQUIRES a gamepad for the interface - doesn't have any controller support in it at all.

If I'm honest when you take the crappy optimisation of OSX for games and add the need to muck about with 3rd party drivers etc you may be better off just installing bootcamp and using windows for games :(

My Logitech Dual Action controller works fine on the Mac. So try getting a Dual Action controller. So far no drivers required.

I had the same problem. fixed it by buying an xbox 360 controller, complete with attached gaming PC. works great. my mouse has 3 buttons now too like a god damned civilized mouse should.

just kidding, good luck with the mac gaming. It's coming along pretty quickly these days.

Thanks for the help, everyone! Bummed to learn there's no simple answer to this question. Not that familiar with drivers and all that stuff, but once I figure out what works I'll post it here so if any humans in the future need help they'll have yet another suggestion! Thanks again.

If you have a DualShock 3 you don't need any drivers, Macs with Snow Leopard upward have PS3's bluetooth signal in them from the start. All you've got to do is hook up a dormant controller to the computer with a USB cord, hold the PS button and then unplug it from the cord.

At least, that's how I do it to play SNES9x and PCSX.

For regular games I guess it is more of a crapshoot, since it comes down to the developers putting it in. I was a little bummed out when I realized Hotline Miami just doesn't work with controllers on Mac, period.