If you have a vintage joystick that you used to use on your original C64 and would like to game with it on VICE or TheC64Mini, check this out! Not too long ago, I bought myself the D-SUB9 USB joystick adapter, from Retronic Design (based here, in Canada).
With this device, I can play my favorite C64 games on my PC (using VICE) or my TheC64Mini using my favorite joystick, the Wico TheBOSS.
I'm really glad it works so well. Some games I just can't play very well without using TheBOSS… keyboard keys and TheC64Joystick are just not good enough. The game, “Aliens The Video Game” is one of them. I just can't get by the first stage (the flying down to the planet surface) with using a keyboard on VICE; and I'm not much better with TheC64Joystick. So, again, it was a very satisfying moment for me this afternoon when I made it through that stage on the first try, with TheBOSS. In the words of George Costanza, “I'm back, BABY!”
I go into a bit further detail about it on my blog post here: https://www.my64.in.nf/doku.php?id=blog:2024-03-15
Oh man, my Wico bat is coming out of retirement!