I got Wing Commander 1 working on a Mac Mini running 10.6 with a USB 360 controller (ie: not the wireless one). It’s topped off with a ControllerMate config that makes WC1 playable from the couch with minimal keyboard need.

• First download 360ControllerInstall0.09.dmg to get a 360 driver loaded on your mac.
• Reboot.
• Install Boxer.
• Unzip WC1 to the DOS Games folder in your home directory.
• Rename your WC1 folder to WC1.boxer for easy launching with Boxer.
• Launch WC1 with Boxer to create a vanilla DOSBox Preferences.conf file. Just quit immediately.
• Right click and show package contents on WC.boxer.
• Edit the DOSBox Preferences.conf file and add this:

  joysticktype=2axis
  timed=false
  swap34=false
  buttonwrap=true
  

Now that’s pretty much the basics. You can play WC1 with a 360 pad and a keyboard. However, I wanted to play this on my TV with minimal keyboard involved (mini wireless Mac keyboard). So I bought a copy of ControllerMate that can turn joystick buttons into keyboard events. Skip this part if this is beyond what you want. However, I think it really turned out well and this is the majority of the reason I’m posting this.

ControllerMate has a great way of creating logic and filter events that can turn non-absolute buttons into on/off buttons. For example, the 360 controller has two shoulder triggers that can range from 0-255. These buttons in 360 games are typically used for weapons and it’s in a good place for WC1 weapons as well. So I had to add a range object to test for 40…255. It’s 40 to avoid accidental presses. It works out well.

So if you want to use my template, the file is right here which you can import in to ControllerMate. Then just click Enable. Here are the mappings I made.

Left Bumper = Backspace (full stop)
Right Bumper = Tab (afterburner)
Y = w (weapons select)
X = g (missile select)
B = = (speed up)
A = - (speed down)
Left shoulder trigger = Missile fire
Right shoulder trigger = Weapon fire
Back = d (damage HUD)
Start = n (nav map)
D-Pad up = l (target lock)
D-Pad left = a (auto pilot)
D-Pad right = 1 (com selection)
D-Pad down = c (com selection)

The hat in the settings configuration is the D-Pad. In the config, D-Pad down and then D-Pad left will cause your wingman to break and attack (c, 1). There are many unused buttons that can be used to suit your taste. Maybe (c,4) to dock with the Tiger’s Claw.

Something else to note is that in Boxer (and Dosbox probably), there are joystick mappings already mapped. So when you press Hat Up Dosbox will get the joystick button for fire. So you’ll lock and fire your weapon. Not a big deal but what you can do is hit ⌘+K to bring up the keyboard mapper and un-map all the joystick buttons. Then D-Pad up will just lock the current target.

Should be good to go at this point. There are keys for WC1 listed here.